Big Rig X Serpent

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Having cleared off the speeding ticket in April, I was saving up for something pretty massive (hint...strawberry). Then the taxes came for me to file and robbed me of another pile of decent cash. To be upright honest, I wasn't very happy and when I wasn't happy, I needed to ventilate the angst. Somehow music and photoshop seems to work when I take my off days to Starbucks and Delifrance to further enhance my creative talents. There at these cold ventilated venues, I could select the appropriate music to feed them into my ears which will sort of have some sort of reaction to massage my brain. While I lie in ambush observing how people react to the environment around them, a BBC wildlife channel plays inside my head while my fingers input more signals to the mouse and keypad to weave magic.

To a certain extent, when I immerse myself so deeply into the music, a vacuum is form and it is in this hallucinatic trance that I can hear and feel vividly each clatter of the cymbals, each reverberation of the bass. The real world seems to vanish into the silence as I began to hear flaws in the music. Not quite an audiophile yet but this exceptional experience put me on a quest to improve the quality that feeds into my ears.

Now sound by itself is an exquisite form subjective to anyone who hears it and then there are those who dedicate their lives to perfecting it. It is indeed an expensive hobby but I was looking more of a portable form which got me reading up on portable music rigs consisting of the music player, a portable amp and the headphones. Expanding further from the original 3, there are so many other fine details that will come into play with respect to the final vibrations that feeds into my ear canals. Materials, cables, sources and also price are all worth considerations for seeking perfection subjected to the threshold of audiable and monetary limits.

Narrowed down my choice to just one single headphone amp to drive the impedences of any In Ear Monitors (IEMs), Headamp Electronics Pico pre-amp/dac. Though this nifty amp is small, it packs quite a punch and is regarded as one of the best ones around for a whooping USD$499. A lot of great reviews thronged the internet so I shall leave that for you to google.

My criteria of selection which were met were the fact that this is a very well made (in the USA) amp which is small enuff to chug it with my 1st gen Ipod Touch. Subtle and clad in all black was both stealthy and discreet which goes inline with my taste. This amp also has a built in DAC which meant that I could get decent raw sound straight from my Mac via usb to the amp untouched, unedited, unfiltered, uncompressed and into my IEMs which are great for movies and working at home. The last and deciding factor was that Yen was appreciating against the Dollar which makes this purchase all the more worthwhile. The only issue like everyone else was the long wait time (like 3 months) but my ETA was much less. It will soon be dropped at my doorstep before I fly back to SG which was the original plan since I needed the music for travel.

Next were the line out docks (LODs) which happens to be an array of technical indepth materials which ranges greatly in price. These wired gadgets basically feed the source file from the music player into the amp which feeds them to the IEMs. ALO audio and Qables are supposedly the current industry giants with respect to these tiny wired interconnectors (ICs). Apparently the material like copper, silver and gold, cryo-treated, etc seems to play a part in the sound but I was a total noob in these vast technical field with no where to test the ICs, I opted to go for a made in Japan generic LOD that didn't cost me an arm or leg till I get to test the high grade ones in SG.

Still holding on to my Technics headphones until I could find another set of decent cans/IEMs. And that pretty much sums up my portable music rig...

The one other item I was eyeing was the Razer Mamba wireless mouse what will somewhat retire the current Razer Deathadder that had served me well for almost 4 ~ 5 years. I will still keep the current mouse as a spare but wireless was something that I had been eyeing for a while and Razer mices are quite a huge draw for me. Sleek black with blue glowing LEDs...never seem to grow outta them besides the smart plain white Iphone 4, PSP or S15.

Yep these 2 items will keep my geeky spirit healthy for a while...and hopefully I can do a pic pre-view soon.

see you in Aug