New blog post on the world of portable hi res audio

To each his own.  I don't want to stop anyone from enjoying a portable system in preference to a more conventional system.  However, in the recent past I have experimented with different buds, high end phones, headphone amps, for I never will see any of them as replacing a real system.  No matter how much you spend, or how sophisticated the equipment gets, it is still mono in each ear.  For me, it will be a convenience option only

Part III of my blog series on The Alternative Universe of Portable High-End Audio is now live:

https://stevefolberg.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/entering-the-parallel-audiophile-universe-part-iii/

Enjoy!

Part II of my blog series on the world of portable and headphone hi-fi it now live.

See 

https://stevefolberg.wordpress.com/2016/07/09/entering-the-parallel-audiophile-universe-part-ii/
 
and enjoy!

Every site has its place in the audio world. Audiogon is deep in traditional audiophile knowledge and values. I started the heavy lifting in audio 30+ yrs ago with tube amplifiers, turntables, speakers the size of small refrigerators, and so on. The search for ultimate quality in sound reproduction lives on in Audiogon, as well as other places. But Head-Fi.org is a matter entirely.

My appreciation for desktop audio, computer sound, and headphone listening has grown steadily for 5+ years, and after discovering and joining Head-Fi.org recently, I've learned an incredibly amount in a  short time. That community is everything Rebbi says--a deep & diverse knowledge resource, as well as a very flexible platform for buying and selling equipment germane to these pursuits.

My love of music, live and recorded, has been a constant since childhood. And now these file-based platforms, along with superior headphone designs, make this an exciting time to play with audio.

@mapman  Sounds cool and I'm not familiar with that product. I'll take a look.

@cjk5933 Thanks for the kind words and glad you found the post useful. Your question is an excellent one and I'm still wrapping my brain around it, coming as I do from the high-end home system world to the portable audio world.
I'll say this: I find the portable/headphone experience to be quite different than the home audio experience, so it's not a matter of home "vs." portable, but rather, whether you find a portable experience musically satisfying and emotionally moving. I find that I listen differently via my Etymotic ER-4P IEM's and iBasso DX80 DAP than I do on my home rig. It's a more intimate experience in some ways. I'm planning on writing about this on my blog, but I don't yet have the vocabulary to do it! Give me some time and I'll have more to say.  ;-)

rebbi,
Very timely thread.

I've been reading threads over on Head-Fi. It seems the sound quality of portable systems has gotten very good.

 

I'd be very interested in your comparison between a high end main system vs a high quality portable system. Most of the discussions on Head-fi are comparisons among head phone systems only.

My main system is all digital -- expensive and extensive. I'm fussy about SQ but if a portable system could approach the SQ of my main, the compactness and convenience might make me rethink the whole concept of a main system.

Getting good sound out of a computer system is expensive and frustrating.

Balanced Power Technologies BP1 Conditioner
Toshiba Lap top running Jriver
Crossover ethernet cable to Sonore Rendu
Warpspeed Optical Attenuator
Wired4Sound DAC 2
First Watt J1
Decapo 3A MM Speakers

I bought an Audioengine Bluetooth receiver and when I could get it to connect it sounded good in a nice size but the Bluetooth connection was problematic. I tried it with multiple devices but it just didn't work at all well. It must have been a defective Bluetooth receiver.

I returned it and decided to try the Peachtree Audio deepblue2. The Bluetooth works perfectly and the sound is much better than the Audioengine, admittedly in a larger device and costing $100 more.

Rebbi  take a look at the Audioengine B1 Bluetooth receiver for an easy way to stream audio to your system from any Bluetooth enabled device.   

I use plex.  You can build a lossless flac music library and stream it from a web browser for free.  From anywhere with an Internet connection.    Plex app for mobile devices is $5.    Works great.   Premium plex subscription recognizes your music files (think Shazam) and tags them automatically.