A brief forward from the staff of Audiophile island:
It seems as though some of you are concerned about sand and other particulates. I assure you that our island contains no contaminants of any sort! We would like to assure you that your equipment will be taken care of and will arrive by way of teleportation! The conditions of your trip are simply there to initiate a healthy WHAT IF scenario through the magic of Hypthetsis and imagination
Kind regards, The imaginary staff of Audiophile island.
!!Disclaimer!! this is a what-if and just a fancy way to get you to share what your favourite go to set ups are and if there was a scenario where you would be forced to live with it all. Not endgame per say, but based on what you currently own try and build a system that you would be happy with for like a year. Also forgive any logical loops and poor wording
pretty easy choice… it would be the setup i use on a daily basis.
Lampizator Amber 3 + GS-X MK2 + Abyss Diana v2 and ZMF Verite Closed
(although I could easily switch the gsx for my bhc and the diana for my hd6xx and be very happy)
I don’t know why you would take a speaker system with you on vaction but here we go
SVS ULTRA Bookshelves + Infinty Sub 12 + parasound zamp v3 + gs-x mk2 (for preamp) + lampi amber 3
(and as a second set i would throw the decware tiny radials in )
well pretty much because this is the sytem i use everyday… I don’t really have a huge collection anymore, once you get to the price tier im in you tend to downsize and optimize part by part.
realistically though if i was going on vacation I’d just bring my Questyle QPM and Tia Trios and call it done
That’s fair. I am more just trying to ask what you guys would use given a certain set of restrictions. i didnt want to just make a thread that was cookie cutter quality lol.
We realize this is an odd request for an all expenses paid retreat. One of the planned seminars will be centered around Speaker listening and a show and tell session between all members. There may be Mutants on the loose. A byproduct of Doctor Moreau like experiments performed on the Dank side of the island. They respond negatively to talk of audio equipment and will shrink away if they catch a glimps of any non-Beats product.
In all reality there is no world in which this fantasy could ever work. Like who would go to an island to talk day in and out about audio gear non stop? But I just saw Rocky Picture Horror Show for the first time last night and its made a bit of an impression on me lol. Plus having also just beaten Prey, I felt like making a Sci Fi narrative instead of just making a “If you could only have one blah blah blah” post haha. Its all for fun and I appreciate you taking some time to humor the topic
One question… Do I have to venture outside, or can I just stay holed up inside when not either getting something to eat, or attending the daily seminar?
In that case… I’m going to bend the rules a little bit.
For the first set-
Headphone set up:
Two headphones are…
Meze 99 Noir. Portable, closed back, incredibly easy to drive, and a great listen. I enjoy them quite a bit.
The second is a rather difficult choice… But even with candidates like Dekoni Blue and SR80e, I’m gonna have to go with my well loved pair of 4XX. Still an absolutely wonderful set of headphones in my opinion.
The amp and DAC is gonna be the XDuoo TA-10. Yes, I am going TA-10 over XD-05. I like my tubes, sue me.
For the stereo set up, we are going with:
For the speakers, we have iLoud Micros (little awesome tanks that aren’t worried about making their presence known) and Jamo C93ii (the only other pair that I really own, and really don’t have much if anything to complain about).
Now, for the amp, I have 1 speaker amp, so that’s going to the Emotiva BassX A-100.
For the DAC? Well, here comes… the ifi Zen DAC. Yes, the $130 one.
As for a sub… I don’t own one… yet.
I have yet to hear any Meze stuff yet. I hear good things though! Oh and the 4xx are one of my favorites. I modded mine a bit with a comfort strap for the HE400i and Id say they are probably my most comfortable set right now. Made a post about it HERE in case you wanna see what I did.
As for the speaker stuff. I have hand me down speakers (I think they are PSU100 but thats after tearing them apart and doing some google fu) and a Denon amp. Mind you I did just get a AudiotracksAT-500 Stereo amp and its a beast. Gonna have to check out those iLoud Micros too.
I would bring my Mangrid Tea and Fiio BTR5 since I am not that into big headphones atm. And the Mangrid is the best IEM I own atm
Things would get more interesting with speakers since I could bring along my lovely blue pair of KEF LS50 Metas, an Iotavx SA3 amp, a soncoz sdg1 dac and SVS SB1000 sub. Although I am not sure how good speakers would sound on an open island? Or does everybody get a special room for themselves, like in fancy audio shows?
FiiO FH3, Hifiman HE400i, BTR5 and Liquid Spark.
I don’t have that much stuff so the choices are rather easy tbh. Only things I would miss from time to time are the KSC75 and my Blon bl-03’s.
Yeah so it would be a hotel situation. kinda like a developed island with a bunch of Guest houses. Its as if the owner of the island has some how read your mind and given you the perfect accommodations. Each suite would have a room designed specifically to show off what you enjoy most out of what you bring. So yes sorta like an audio show haha
Oh wow I completely forgot sony has headphones other than the noise canceling BT ones lol. They look super comfortable! also that DX300 is pretty sweet. Good choices good sir!
I’m in an apartment so running cabling through the walls was never an option, hence my adoption of Sonos
I’m currently planning on taking advantage of the 90 stack and adding a nice pair of monitors to the PC to replace the BlasterX Katana I currently have connected to it, but since I haven’t pulled the trigger, no go…
Those are all really solid choices to have though! I like the idea of keeping it nice and neat. The BTR5 seems like a great combo for siting relaxing and on the go music!
Coincidentally Ive been considering a wireless solution like a sound bar or SONOS. Running wires all across the floor can get annoying. How do you find the perfomance of the SONOS in stereo?
= 