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What music is best for life in a tiny box?

The US Navy is sending me to Japan. My family is going to stay here in the States. That means I get to live on the ship! Imagine a tiny stateroom; that will be home for the next 2 years.

So..obviously my vinyl collection will stay home. I am thinking of going completely medialess digital.

What do you recommend for:
DAC (are there any that can read from an external hard-drive?)
Headphone Amp?
Headphones?

Portable media player (when i get away from the ship. Must read FLAC, no Apple! :) )

Since my system will be so small, I think I can afford somewhat better gear. I am thinking in the $2k range.

Your thoughts?
affejunge

Showing 2 responses by jdoris

jdoris
972 posts
 
Storage these days is compact and cheap: since you can afford some decent hardware, I should think you'd want to use media in lossless format like FLAC, not MP3. For the goods on the computer-based front end: computeraudiophile.com (though it is somewhat MAC-centric).

Thank you for your service.

John
jdoris
972 posts
 
Just a few further thoughts, partly with an eye to minimizing clutter is a small space:

I take it you'll be taking a laptop aboard? Then make that your transport, with as much memory (8MB?) as is feasible (a dedicated machine is better, but in your circumstances, multitasking makes best sense). If you have the machine, so far you've spent nothing, except perhaps for the memory, if you're short.

For file storage, an eternal Raid like this one (I use the non raid version) 1TB for 260 bucks at the Zon:

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Quadra-2-Disk-Drive-301352U/dp/B001KFH6HY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314461863&sr=8-1

Might be a "portable" unit out there, but saving the original packaging cheaper ;)

Now, an outboard DAC, headphone amp. I don't have experience here, but maybe a one box solution like the Music Hall 25.3 (successor to the well reviewed 25.2), which the estimable Walter of Underwood HiFi handles: 600 MSRP. http://www.musichallaudio.com/detail.php?p=68

Now you've got DAC/Amp/Storage for less than 900, and server as well, if you've got the laptop. Leaves 1100 or so, which I bet buys some nice headphones. Might even be something left over for a decent wire from laptop to DAC (stock wire from drive to laptop fine), or an iPod type device if you need that too. If you need to buy a laptop, you've got some wiggle room.

The Music Hall isn't tiny (w8.5 x d13.5 x h3.75 in.
10 lbs. pkg), but still a low clutter set up for a small space, and I bet something along these lines gives nice sound.

Best of Luck, and let us know what you do!

John
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