What traveling audiophiles often do is to bring along DAC (like Benchmark DAC1 or DAC1 USB) and connect it to laptop. Benchmark has volume control and headphone amp. It operates 115V or 230V, 50/60Hz. Small class D amp (like Rowland 102 I use) can be added to drive speakers. This amp has switching power supply (SMPS) and works on any line voltage 85-265V without changing anything. As for the speakers - suggestion of new, very small Maggies is interesting.
Audio and the "jet set" - please help
Hi all,
It's looking like my life will be global for the foreseeable future, with 2-3 year stints in countries all over the world (including the U.S.). This poses some challenges for my audio obsession. Constantly changing voltage requirements and shifting room sizes mean that long-term planning is difficult. Are there others in this situation? How do you cope?
I've tried a few things. Shifting away from speakers to great headphones is what I'm doing now, especially because space is very limited, but in the end, I'm a speaker guy. I've also tried to focus on components with switchable voltage, but in the end this is just really limiting. I've thought about relying on step-down transformers, but this scares me a little (should it?).
Anyway, I'd love to hear from any of you in similar positions who have found ways to make it work.
Thanks!
It's looking like my life will be global for the foreseeable future, with 2-3 year stints in countries all over the world (including the U.S.). This poses some challenges for my audio obsession. Constantly changing voltage requirements and shifting room sizes mean that long-term planning is difficult. Are there others in this situation? How do you cope?
I've tried a few things. Shifting away from speakers to great headphones is what I'm doing now, especially because space is very limited, but in the end, I'm a speaker guy. I've also tried to focus on components with switchable voltage, but in the end this is just really limiting. I've thought about relying on step-down transformers, but this scares me a little (should it?).
Anyway, I'd love to hear from any of you in similar positions who have found ways to make it work.
Thanks!