The LG V30+ isn’t your ordinary smartphone. These are the products that have made the cut. This means I need a simple, compact setup I can take with me anywhere. I do a lot of my work for clients in their offices instead of mine.
Here’s a link where you can sign up for free: Portable If you’re not familiar with Massdrop, I recommend you sign up immediately! ? It’s a great site that doesn’t always provide the best value (check pricing elsewhere before you buy anything), but can bring you some unique products. They’re not flagship level quality and don’t ever supplant the NightHawks for listening time, but they provide a great closed headphone option for me when I need to shut out some external noise. I hope to review these soon because they’re a testament to the value of a community coming together to help developers make a great headphone. These are a surprise edition to the list because I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Fostex T50RP headphones that these were born from. I’ll share multiple links below so if the original wood version comes up at a good price, go for it!! Here’s my review. I have the original liquid wood version, but the NightHawk Carbon is meant to be a very similar headphone. They’re a very polarising headphone because they’re not traditionally tuned, but they are still my favourite all time headphone. Still my go to headphone every single day and very much my reference for what a headphone should represent – comfort and lifelike sound with good emotion and rhythm. These are the ones that have stood the test of time and remain consistently in my listening rotation… AudioQuest NightHawk I have turned over a lot of headphones over the years. The BeoLab 3 are only available from B&O directly. I use these driven by the iDSD Micro acting as DAC and pre-amp. The BeoLab 3s are another product I’ve never formally reviewed, but they are a fantastic active speaker that regularly drops jaws with its sound compared to its size. I love active speakers because they remove the need for separate amplification and all of the cabling that comes with it. The original iDSD is no longer available, but the Black Label version that replaced it is apparently even better. I use it mostly as a pre-amp with my Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 3 active speakers because the iDSD provides a handy bass boost and 3D feature that really enhances the BeoLab 3 sound for gaming and the like. I use it as a quick-access DAC and amp / pre-amp when I don’t necessarily need the best-of-the-best sound, but the iDSD can absolutely hold its own. The iDSD is a super-versatile, semi-portable device that I’ve never formally reviewed.
The Gen5 USB upgrade is really worthwhile too if you happen to pick up a second hand unit. Head straight to for more info and make sure you get the Multibit version, it’s totally worth it. I use this DAC connected directly to my main headphone listening setup.
The Gumby is an outstanding DAC and worth it’s weight (which is significant) in gold. I use two DACs for two different purposes: Schiit Gungnir Multibit (Gumby) I use the Diamond cable to connect to the Schiit Gumby DAC (see below) for the utmost quality in my headphone audio. I’ll be the first to admit that this is stretching the boundaries of reasonably priced cabling, but it’s such a gorgeous cable!! (I have the 0.75m version, but recommend 1.5m if you can stretch the budget). I use the Coffee cable to connect my laptop to my iFi Micro iDSD which is used to drive my active speakers. I use a laptop for my work, but it has no real bearing on sound quality, so I’ll move straight to the next link in the sound chain… USB Cables AudioQuest CoffeeĪ truly brilliant USB cable – not cheap, but worth every cent. I’ll include links to Amazon for each product so you can grab one for yourself and help support this blog in the process. This list includes the products I choose to keep and use on a daily basis in either my portable setup or my desktop setup. As an avid lover of music and audio, I am constantly trying out new gear and turning over old gear.