My Portable Audio Rig

I favor simplicity. LG made serious sound quality phones until they quit the phone business. I purchased an open box LG V40 phone With Bluetooth aptx hd sound. Feeds a Sennheiser Momentum 4 BT wireless over ear phone. I listen mainly to Amazon Ultra HD music as my source.

I mostly just walk for exercise so it works well for me. Just two devices and no wires. That may be more of an issue if you hit the gym and weights but I've done it. Many will criticize this rig for sound quality but for me and my old ears. the sound is fantastic.

@llg98ljk Yeah, wireless earbuds would definitely help simplify matters. I wish Audioquest made a Dragonfly with Bluetooth. And Cardas uses cables for their earbuds because their cables sound really good. I look like a freak with all these things when I visit the rec center. Everyone else has wireless Apple earbuds in their ears. It’s a bit eccentric but I care that much about what I’m listening to. Only an audiophile would go through all this for an hour and twenty minute workout.

My guess is that the headphone jack pin connection to the Dragonfly on your earbuds is bent. This can cause what you are experiencing, especially if the sound is intermittent or improves when you rotate the pin. Happened to my travel headphones- they were connected to my dragonfly when one of my cats became startled and took off, after getting wrapped in the headphone cord. The cat bent the  headphone jack pin, and I have struggled with it since!

Sounds like quite the Rube Goldberg device.

I think I would recommend a DAP. I have a A&K SP3000. Very high quality output. But not for you… it may look like an iPhone but 3x thickness… but it feels like it is made out of lead… great for the table next to your chair.

But there are DAPs for all types of purposes. Many with very high fidelity… which I assume is what you are going for. Then maybe the right noise cancelling earbuds.

FYI. I have spent at least two decades traveling with portable head amps, cd players, high end ear buds, battery powered DACs… you name it. I have been carting around shoulder bags full of wires and Velcroed electronics with extra batteries since back in the 70’s.

This may be tangential or not. At the end of all these decades of hauling high resolution technology with me all over the world. I slowly realized that noisy environments would reduce resolution of what you could hear. It would reduce the treble, greatly increase the noise floor and give you a pretty lousy sound, unless all the racket stopped for a few minutes. In the end, I realized that for noisy environments the best thing is equipment with noise reduction and that has been equalized to sound good in that environment. So, for travel, I use Bose QuietComfort wireless headphones and my iPhone. The sound is punchy and really fun to listen to… the noise cancellation is outstanding. Having a “high end sound” in noisy environments is not that enjoyable… a different equalization works.

So, I would look at this as an opportunity to explore stuff made for your environment. Honestly, I walk and ride my bike for 3 hours a day with AirPod pros. They just get better and better. You might check out Bose wireless earbuds… I have not.

I have 2 DAPs that are smaller than a phone, run Bluetooth and play lossless and better.

Just do what you gotta do.

Hey All!
I appreciate the input. I’ll just say, I do not want over the ear headphones on while I’m working out. A DAP would be great but the good ones are expensive and I like the convenience of using Qobuz, though I often listen to the same recordings over and over. Anyhow, a work in progress to say the least.