What audio equipment should I take to Kirkuk, Iraq


Guys,

I may be sent on assignment to Kirkuk, Iraq. What audio equipment should I take with me - no wise cracks please, I have enough worries about this already. For obvious reasons, it has to be portable, play CDs, and of high enough quality to sate my analog/vinyl loving ears. I have the Sennheiser 600 headphones and an ASL OTL headphone but I am not sure whether the amp will work there. I also have a Radio Shack 3400 which has quit working so are there suggestions for a portable CD player with which I can use my Sennheisers.

Thanks
erider
Thanks for the all the great advice. I am leaning towards getting an Ipod but can anyone tell me how I can transfer my CDs onto the Ipod QUICKLY. I really do not have the time to do this at 1:1 speed. The other alternative is a rugged notebook. The added advantage of a notebook is that I can use it for other purposes (watching movies, internet, etc etc) than merely listening to CDs. Is there a recommended software I can use to quickly transfer about 100-200 CDs onto the harddrive of the notebook.

Thanks again.
The 40G storage package will allow almost 600 CD's, and a headphone amp would be an advantage.

If not and YOU HAVE THE TIME; Buy a reconditioned HK CD burner off e-bay direct from HK and transfer all of your music to CDR's. Leave the originals at home. (about $140)
a killer burn deck at the price. Plan B, rip them on your computer. (1:1) is much better but if time is of the essence-----

If not, choose wisely and leave the discontinued CD's at home.

Good luck and may God watch over you while away.

loon
The AKG 271S is an excellent easy-to-drive headphone that won't really require an external amp to sound good like the 600's. The AKG's have a mini jack and will plug right into a laptop, cd player, or iPod. Good luck!
Good luck. While I most emphatically disagree with our presence there, I do have personal familiarity with the Mid East in general and lots of 3rd world countries.

first, copy all of your Cds. Leave the originals at home. this will protect you from theft and loss.

second, the ipod is a good idea but it might cause problems at customs, assuming there are any controls in place, at all.

You will find in the bazaars, lots of folks willing to get and/or copy just about anything you have or might need.

three, bring lots of high quality batteries.

four, bring lots of packs of blank Cds. these are very useful and are good for bartering with. also, this will allow you to burn a copy of someone else's Cds while you buy them a drink in the local hotel.

i would suggest a really good laptop that has DVD copy ability and make sure it has a pair of really good built-in speakers. this will make you very popular.

finally, on another note, get yourself in close with some of the British Medical teams. they have a bi-zillion years more experience with mid-eastern parasites, worms, malaria, etc. than our folks could ever hope to have. A bunch of these guys saved my life in Africa.
iPod playing WAV files or a decent portable CDP (Panasonic make pretty good players), Grado Headphone amp (runs off two batteries) and your trusty 600's. Good luck overseas, Jeff
I work a lot overseas and use my headphones (Beyerdynamic 770) plugged into 2 small Heathkit AA18 mono amps. The amps are fed with a compact disc player SSanyo). I use a 100 watt 110-220v transformer to power the amps and alkaline rechargeable batteries for the CD player. I also pack a battery charger. Works great and is fairly compact. I suppose that a battery operated headphone amp might work, but I think that the 600 headphones that you are talking about need more power.
sorry about the wise crack,there is a possiblity that i may be going to saudi arabia very soon my own self,if you dont mind sharing a little info what are you gonna do there?
Did you consider some in ear headphones such as the Etymotic 4Ps? The advantages are: extremely small, lightweight, portable and very high quality sound. Disadvantages are: cost ($270), difficult fit for some people (you must pull the ear lobe up and back and then push the earphones way in), blocks out ambient sounds (blocking out the ambient sound could also be considered an advantage).

I love to listen to my Etymotics on planes or in cars because the ambient sound is greatly diminished so you can really get into the music without distractions and without turning up the volume very high.

In a quiet room I like to use my Senn 600s, but in a noisy environment the Senns are not as desirable as the Etymotics.

Unless you push the Etymotics deep into the ear canal, you will not get good bass or treble. The sound will be tinny. But installed properly I like the Etymotics as much as the Senns.

I, too, like analog sound so I record vinyl onto Maxell or TDK cassettes using a Nakamichi deck, and I listen through a Walkman when traveling. The new Walkmans play for hours and hours on one AA rechargable battery. To me the sound is MUCH less fatiguing than CDs.

Best of luck.
Hi:
Good Luck!
According to the table
here Iraq uses nominal 50hz, 240/415v so take that into consideration.

Another site http://www.toroid.com/custom_transformers/technical_bulletin_2.htm

Cheers
I remain,
Noise cancellation headphones, bulletproof isolation box, meditation/relaxation music.
APPLE ipod 40GB
That gives you the opportunity to take with you MANY different types and very long time playing music which you might need there?
All the best to you and may this terrible thing end soon!
I am not familiar with the IPOD. How does one transfer CDs onto an IPOD ? Does it take long ? If it does than an IPOD may not work for me - don't have the time. I will look at the Headroom site though.

Any other suggestions ?

Thanks,
I would suggest you check out the Headroom website. They used to recommend portable players, if they don't have it on the site you can call them. If you don't know the voltage of where you are staying I would recommend a battery powered amp such as the Headroom amps. Just make sure you bring LOTS of batteries! Good luck on that assignment.