I looked into the Focal Bathy’s noise cancelling headphones with a DAC chip. They retail for $700.00 which isn’t unreasonable but I found out that the drivers cost Focal around $20.00. That’s also when I was told about how high the mark up is on headphones. Seeing if my source is right, I’m too obstinate to purchase the Bathy’s regardless of the overall sonic benefits. Right now I have Cardas earbuds and the Cayin RU7 DAC to iPhone for my gym workouts and I have to accept the fact that measuring my portable audio with my reference audio is simply an incomparable comparison.
HiFi on the Go - Dream or Reality?
I'm an audiophile who travels a fair bit. I've been looking to build a portable audio system that allows me to enjoy some of the SQ I have at home. I've no illusion that something that fits in my carry on will give me the full Lampi/dTZ/Kharma experience I have at home but I'm trying to get part of the way there.
A few years back, I purchased an Astell&Kern DAP and would borrow a pair of Focal Utopia from my main system when traveling. I was happy with the sound but the Utopia proved to be too big to carry around. Trying to avoid lossy Bluetooth and tiny earbud DACs, I purchased Audio 64 U18t IEMs. Out of the box, they sound bright to my ears. I've been playing them on a loop in case there is such a thing as burn in for IEMs and crossing my fingers.
I listen mainly to country music, female vocals and progressive rock
I'm keen to get opinions on whether the search for hifi on the go is a fool's errand or if there is a path I haven't found yet.
Many thanks