Article: An Audiophile On Vacation

[The Computer Audiophile]

View full article

[JoeWhip]

Enjoy the vacay and stay safe. Me, I am going nowhere!

[Marco Klobas]

I wish you, your wife and daughter a pleasant and relaxing vacation.

 

Nice to have your favorite music accessible.

 

Remember to listen to the waves, wind, leaves rustling, birds and other local sounds in 3D and hi-res like only a real/live experience can offer. 🙂

[RickyV]

Kauai looks awesome a real paradise 🌴. Stay safe and happy holidays with your family. 

[Confused]

I was wondering what happened to Sheryl Crow.

 

Is she going with you?

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, Confused said:

I was wondering what happened to Sheryl Crow.

 

Is she going with you?

Ha!

[DuckToller]

Joyeux Noel,

et la plus belle fete de fin d'année.

Que la force soit avec vous!!

Enjoy!

[ednaz]

Be open to sudden ideas for New Years. Sometimes you stumble into a life experience. My family was vacationing in Cambodia during the holidays of 1999, and when we checked into our hotel in Siem Riep, saw a poster in the lobby for a New Year's Eve party at the hotel that would end at 1am, followed by a wakeup call at 430am and a walk through one of the larger temple ruins areas, with each person having their own lantern. The party was amazing, great food and a surprisingly good cover band, with thousands of candle driven hot air balloons released at midnight. But the temple walk... they had little lamps along the path (with a suggestion to stay inside the lamps because the snakes would stay outside the lit area). An hour and a half of walking through ruins in the dark, with several Cambodian folk groups scattered through the area completely out of sight providing background music. Those carvings take on a totally different feel by lamplight with fading intoxication from the party. Walk ended up in a huge temple courtyard with the most elaborate high end breakfast we've ever had in our lives...blini and caviar anyone?... followed by watching the sun rise over the temples (with champagne), an hour performance by the local folk dance group (just back from a world tour) and a guided walk back led by three archaeologists who'd been working on restoring the temples since Pol Pot was deposed. (The event raised money for their restoration work. They said they raised three years worth of funds that evening.)

 

All this instead of our plan to have a nice dinner and go to bed early on New Year's Eve. Our son was 7 at the time and still whispers when he talks about it. So maybe poke around for something other than the iPhone video experience... who knows?

[LarryMagoo]

You must take the Helicopter tour of the island...You simply must...it was a little pricy back when my late wife and I did it the late 80's...but so beautiful it will be embedded in your brain forever!   

[charlesphoto]

We did that cataraman tour a couple of years ago. Amazing. I usually go on vacation in silence, or nothing more than some cheesy reggae on the rental car radio while driving to the beach. Makes one system sound that much better on return.

 

 

[beetlemania]

Oh, how fun! We planned a trip with our adult daughter to Maui and Molokai, April 2020 and . . . welp.

 

Be sure to try snorkeling. Kauai was my first real snorkeling and I immediately fell in love with it. 

[ecwl]

Very cool setup. I used to travel with iPhone (headphone jack) + RHA MA750 but audiophilia eventually got me to add Chord Mojo and then upgrade to Shure SE535Ltd. Eventually with more upgrades, I now sometimes travel with Chord Hugo 2 and Mr Speakers/Dan Clark Audio Aeon Flow Closed (v1) for flights and hotel room use. But if I'm out and about, I still use the wireless Jabra Elite Active 65t because sometimes good enough is good enough. The only constant is iPhone as I have to carry it anyway. Although I have to admit, sometimes I just use my iPad instead.

 

[AudioDoctor]

I hope you and your family have a great time on a well deserved vacation. I will do my best to ensure MN is still here when you get back.

 

Have fun.

[seeteeyou]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-m-scaler-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.885042/page-210#post-14601847

Quote

Actually Hugo M scaler plus Hugo 2 only on planes. I pack a TT2 in my suitcase, and use that with the M scaler in hotel rooms (like now)...

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/watts-up.800264/page-167#post-16461141

Quote

TT2 is quite a bit warmer (in a good way) in tonal balance than Hugo 2; so when I travel, I take a TT2 with me for hotel use, as the SQ difference is worth the hassle. But it's no where near not a big enough difference to use a TT2 on aircraft (unlike the M scaler for example). So Hugo 2 is still the perfect match for portable/transportable use, which of course is it's raison d'etre!

 

That might be somewhat "hardcore" if you will, though our lives certainly got much easier thanks to this gift called PGGB from @Zaphod Beeblebrox

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hiby-rs6-next-generation-hi-res-android-music-player.958878/page-85#post-16659926

Quote

RS6 supports 2xDXD, which is crazy! I did not try 32bit DXD, and all files were 24 bit, but if you really have a favourite album and you want to hear what it is capable of, try upsampling it and feeding it to your RS6, you never know what you might hear!

It is fair to say this is the first time I've heard 2xDXD on a portable setup, colour me impressed!

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hiby-rs6-next-generation-hi-res-android-music-player.958878/page-85#post-16660761

Quote

In short, I have nothing but praise for RS6. I will upsample my favourite albums to the maximum resolution RS6 accepts as I hear its benefit. It might also have to do with the program I used. PGGB does extreme filtering using a Matlab upsampling algorithm. The files that I used were upsampling with 256 million taps.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hiby-rs6-next-generation-hi-res-android-music-player.958878/page-85#post-16661266

Quote

For me, RS6 is the best product I bought this year, and this year I bought P6, LP6 Gold. The best pairing for me so far has been with Faudio Major paired with Simphonio CS10.

 

I'm also rocking HiBy RS6 (so far that's the only R2R-based DAP out there with NOS mode and it's exactly we need for PGGB) with JVC HA-FW10000 myself, and it's just incredible to enjoy hundreds of millions of taps anywhere I want.

 

There's no need to stack something on top of yet another DAC/amp unless I really choose to do so, while I could actually use RS6 as an external DAC for another machine with a much larger SSD. Its USB-C port also supports coaxial S/PDIF output and it already came with a cable for that particular purpose. HiBy also managed to add dedicated line-output ports for both single-ended and balanced connections, there will be no double amping whatsoever if I were connecting RS6 to another headphone amp that's even more powerful. And then it's also quite convenient to control HiBy Music remotely with any iOS / Android devices

 

https://blog.son-video.com/en/2017/12/two-way-bluetooth-and-hiby-link-control-technology/

 

Plenty of room for music library since we could add up to 1TB of storage via micro SDXC cards, and then it's also silky smooth to navigate through all that files

 

https://twister6.com/2021/12/08/hiby-rs6/5/

Quote

Also, RS6 is one of the fastest DAPs I have tested to date, even putting to shame my aging Galaxy S9 which has a faster processor and optimized to run Android 10.

 

BTW, let's just ignore that even MQA turned out to sound quite decent on RS6 since none of us here would even give a damn at all.

[[email protected]]

Envy you.  We just cancelled a 15 day vacation in Maui due to Canadian Travel Advisory.  Lost 50% of deposit :(

 

we had an amazing experience in an open door helicopter tour of Na Pili coast a few years ago.  Just pick a clear day if you want this tour.

[Archimago]

1 hour ago, [email protected] said:

Envy you.  We just cancelled a 15 day vacation in Maui due to Canadian Travel Advisory.  Lost 50% of deposit :(

 

we had an amazing experience in an open door helicopter tour of Na Pili coast a few years ago.  Just pick a clear day if you want this tour.

 

Sad to hear @[email protected]. Barring a positive COVID test or Air Canada refusing to fly, I'm still off to Honolulu next week. I've had enough of these dark days and "atmospheric rivers" out here in the West Coast. I agree the helicopter tour is spectacular in Kauai.

 

Have a great time @The Computer Audiophile on the beautiful island.

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Who's taking care of the chickens (and the cat) ? Perhaps some lucky guy is house sitting and enjoying your home audio system :)

Enjoy !

[The Computer Audiophile]

7 minutes ago, hopkins said:

Who's taking care of the chickens (and the cat) ? Perhaps some lucky guy is house sitting and enjoying your home audio system :)

Enjoy !

Ah yes, the important stuff. We have a house sitter living there while we’re gone and taking care of the three dogs, one cat, and five chickens. 
 

🙂

[joelha]

I'm a little disappointed in Chris' choices.

 

I had suggested that he take the Wilson's with him and he gave me the lame excuse that they would be a tight fit in overhead storage.

 

You either care about the music or you don't.

 

Have a fantastic trip with your family, Chris.

 

You deserve it.

 

Joel

[The Computer Audiophile]

44 minutes ago, joelha said:

I'm a little disappointed in Chris' choices.

 

I had suggested that he take the Wilson's with him and he gave me the lame excuse that they would be a tight fit in overhead storage.

 

You either care about the music or you don't.

 

Have a fantastic trip with your family, Chris.

 

You deserve it.

 

Joel

Ha!

[AudioDoctor]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Ah yes, the important stuff. We have a house sitter living there while we’re gone and taking care of the three dogs, one cat, and five chickens. 
 

🙂

 

Geez, I thought I was opening a Zoo when we adopted a single cat to go along with our one dog.

[mitchco]

12 hours ago, beetlemania said:

Be sure to try snorkeling. Kauai was my first real snorkeling and I immediately fell in love with it. 

Agree with beetlemania, the snorkelling in Kauai is "out of this world!" and will be forever emblazoned in your mind. Have fun and stay safe!

[JR_Audio]

Great to read. Enjoy your vacation and for most, enjoy your time with family. All the best from my side.

[R1200CL]

Quote

iPhone > Qobuz & VOX > USB adapter > DragonFly

The way I always do in my car. (Using the CCK)

Absolutely the best and easiest way to get very good SQ. 

[Richard D. George]

I agree with the helicopter tour.  We did Blue Hawaii.

 

also, Eddie Vedder has a full album of music playing the ukulele. Quite interesting.  The name of the instrument is not pronounced the way everyone says it.