What audio equipment should I take to Kirkuk, Iraq

Did you consider some in ear headphones such as the Etymotic 4Ps? The advantages are: extremely small, lightweight, portable and very high quality sound. Disadvantages are: cost ($270), difficult fit for some people (you must pull the ear lobe up and back and then push the earphones way in), blocks out ambient sounds (blocking out the ambient sound could also be considered an advantage).

I love to listen to my Etymotics on planes or in cars because the ambient sound is greatly diminished so you can really get into the music without distractions and without turning up the volume very high.

In a quiet room I like to use my Senn 600s, but in a noisy environment the Senns are not as desirable as the Etymotics.

Unless you push the Etymotics deep into the ear canal, you will not get good bass or treble. The sound will be tinny. But installed properly I like the Etymotics as much as the Senns.

I, too, like analog sound so I record vinyl onto Maxell or TDK cassettes using a Nakamichi deck, and I listen through a Walkman when traveling. The new Walkmans play for hours and hours on one AA rechargable battery. To me the sound is MUCH less fatiguing than CDs.

Best of luck.

sorry about the wise crack,there is a possiblity that i may be going to saudi arabia very soon my own self,if you dont mind sharing a little info what are you gonna do there?

I work a lot overseas and use my headphones (Beyerdynamic 770) plugged into 2 small Heathkit AA18 mono amps. The amps are fed with a compact disc player SSanyo). I use a 100 watt 110-220v transformer to power the amps and alkaline rechargeable batteries for the CD player. I also pack a battery charger. Works great and is fairly compact. I suppose that a battery operated headphone amp might work, but I think that the 600 headphones that you are talking about need more power.

iPod playing WAV files or a decent portable CDP (Panasonic make pretty good players), Grado Headphone amp (runs off two batteries) and your trusty 600's. Good luck overseas, Jeff

Good luck. While I most emphatically disagree with our presence there, I do have personal familiarity with the Mid East in general and lots of 3rd world countries.

first, copy all of your Cds. Leave the originals at home. this will protect you from theft and loss.

second, the ipod is a good idea but it might cause problems at customs, assuming there are any controls in place, at all.

You will find in the bazaars, lots of folks willing to get and/or copy just about anything you have or might need.

three, bring lots of high quality batteries.

four, bring lots of packs of blank Cds. these are very useful and are good for bartering with. also, this will allow you to burn a copy of someone else's Cds while you buy them a drink in the local hotel.

i would suggest a really good laptop that has DVD copy ability and make sure it has a pair of really good built-in speakers. this will make you very popular.

finally, on another note, get yourself in close with some of the British Medical teams. they have a bi-zillion years more experience with mid-eastern parasites, worms, malaria, etc. than our folks could ever hope to have. A bunch of these guys saved my life in Africa.