Putting Curtains in the Man-Cave

If you can't hit it with a hammer and easily replace it, leave it at home ... There is an old story about two guys sitting at a bar.  One wearing a Rolex, and one wearing a cheap Timex.  The guy with the Timex, after a couple of beers, asked the Rolex guy "I bet my watch can do something yours can't" "That cheap Timex?  It cost what, $25?" The Timex guy took off the watch and placed it on the bar with a nod, pulled out a hammer and smashed the watch. "I can go and get another one easily." Touché.  And so it goes for portable audio ... ===== While there has been a resurgence in consumer electronics around portable audio - that has reached and created genuine high end products for it, the acid test for such devices is while you are traveling. I have some simple principles that I use when selecting what to take: Fiio X5 ... the heart of my road warrior kit It has to be light, have long battery life, portable, inexpensive enough...

This is a quick note to talk about how truly spectacular I am finding the Cardas EM5813 "earspeakers" are when I am on the road. One of the things that struck me is that I keep reaching for them, despite that they are breaking a few "audiophile rules" in that they are not tonally as accurate as the Etymotic IEM's I had also packed for the trip.  There is something that is big, spacious, warm and lifelike with the way they handle the music they are given by my trusty PMP. It is clear that the headphones capture the life and emotion of the performance, dynamics and transients are just about perfect.  Tonality?  It's on the warm/dark side of the spectrum, but unapologetically so - the subtractive loss is not large, and the benefits are so amazing, that these have become my "go to" headphone when I am not actually on a airplane (the Etymotic, while less captivating, win due to their superior sound isolation). For acoustic instrument based music th...