Something not too many people have, but you really like. Not like a flashlight or a knife/multitool. My most unique (although still popular) are probably my loop quiet ear plugs. They come in handy in a lot of cases and word really well.
My pocket DAC/Amplifier Combo, works over Bluetooth and wired, built in mic. Allows me to both have great audio quality for music over wired and use my favorite IEMs wirelessly when sound quality isn’t my first concern (biking, working in my lab, chores, etc). I used to just use my wired DAC for listening to my phone, but having the flexibility of choice makes life so nice.
I just wish they had used a better battery, I have had to send it in multiple times for battery swelling.
Qudilex 5K? Just wondering if I should expect problems, love mine…
No, the Ifi GoBlu. Great sound quality, great aesthetic, convenient size, garbage battery quality. I have had to send it in 3 times for swelling. Each time, I have buckled down more on making sure I was more careful with charging; using a smart charging or low power USBC AC adapter, then using only low voltage adapters, finally demanding they send me an AC adapter designed for it since they didn’t include one.
Such a significant thing to cheap out on with a $200 piece of tech, especially when LiPo batteries are already so cheap. They also refused to send spare batteries as well this last time, which I am more than capable of replacing myself, to save ~3 weeks of time. I have decided that if it happens again, I will just find a comparable size/voltage battery and solder it in myself to spare myself the hassle.
Thanks, it really does have a great aesthetic! Sounds tedious, might be a flaw in their charging circuitry, so yeah I’d go for self repair. Good luck.
How do you store your music? Why do you need a stand-alone DAC?
I use Tidal for listening to music on my phone most of the time, whether wired or wireless. That, plus USB Audio Player Pro for wired listening, gives a pretty good sound quality over my DAC. At home and in my work office I have dedicated DACs and tube amps for driving my cans (Schitt Modi + Littleblack Mk.2 in my office, Schitt Mobius + Feliks Echo 2 at home).
I use the dedicated DAC on mobile for a few reasons:
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My phone doesn’t have a headphone jack and I have been dissapointed by most USBC-to-3.5mm dongles’ build quality, so using a higher quality DAC gets around that.
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I also generally prefer a balanced 4.4mm jack over an unbalanced 3.5mm, both for a more solid physical connection and to reduce crosstalk, and my DAC has both 3.5/4.4mm ports.
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For wireless. I use IEMs that have a wired connection and the bluetooth adapters/replacement cables are pretty low quality in my experience (low battery capacity, poor sound quality, poor build quality, finnicky connectors, etc.) and a combo bluetooth/wired dac is avoids most of these issues. It also means I can keep the DAC and my phone in different places on my person (great for having my phone on a stand while biking and keeping the DAC in my pocket, or leaving my phone charging while I listen to music in my lab).
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A bandaid? Slightly bigger than normal size and in the thicker material.
The random EEC knife cut, children (yours or otherwise), even semi fixed a shoe (makeshift tape).
I carry mine in a wallet so even if I’m without EDC I have it.
I carried BAND-AID® Brand TOUGH STRIPS® (had to go look it up to get all the bullshit right) in my wallet for years. I highly recommend these specifically because they work incredibly well in situations most bandages don’t. I used to slap them all over while working in a wood shop for a variety of reasons. They stay on all day even doing crazy shit. They’ll cover just about anything pretty well including harder spots like fingertips.
I don’t carry them anymore because I have a deathly tape allergy and they will kill me now. I get so many little nicks and cuts to this day that I wish I could slap those fuckers on.
Try BAND-AID® Brand Hydro Seal. Generic works as well, but you waste one unwrapping sometimes. I get cuts and dings everywhere, changed my life.
I drilled a little hole in one of my guitar picks and added it to my keychain. It comes in handy for all sorts of things!
I’m intrigued, what kinds of things?
Well, it comes in handy as a mini pry tool, a mini scraper, and on occasion it can even work as an improvised screw driver! You can also use it to play the guitar in a pinch lol
A cheap little tape measure. It’s surprising how often it gets used.
I’ve got a keyring one. So handy.
Little credit card multitool in my wallet, not sure of that counts as a multitool
Band aids, also in the wallet
Not sure if it quite meets the standards of the question, but I keep calfskin driving gloves in my car and I love them. They’re good for when the steering wheel is too hot or too cold, they keep my hands from getting sweaty on long car trips, and they make me feel like an old-timey race car driver.
Pair of Light My Fire nylon sporks, in my belt pack. They come in handy.
Not quite EDC: handheld luggage scale. Surprising how often I want to weigh something while out and about.
Gaffer tape folded up into a square
I used to carry that, for when I used to actually do that job lol
Does a tick remover count? It gets used almost daily with my dog.
Plus one for ear plugs. I have a little case with rubber ear plugs that I always keep on me due to sensitive hearing. Freaking game changer at concerts or scouting events
A small pair of vernier calipers. I don’t use them a lot, but sometimes they come in very handy.
I laminated my vax card and put it in my wallet for the very short window of time when some businesses asked to see it, and now I just use it as a toothpick.
Everytime I eat certain meats I end up with food stuck in my teeth.
This has happened enough times that I wished I carried toothpicks. So now I carry a slim brass tube filled with wood toothpicks.
My Knipex Mini Pliers. Literally open large (and strong)enough to handle every nut or bolt I encounter at my day-job, but they way about nothing and take up almost no space in the tool-bag I keep on my belt at all times.
I’ve been carrying them for like 4 years and I can only think of one time that I needed them and even that time I was tightening a philips headed screw because I didn’t have a driver.
Sounds like you don’t deal with nuts & bolts much? I also carry a pair of “needle-nose” vice-grips, a Kobalt 13-in-1 Double Drive screw-driver, 2 sets of impact nut-drivers, this thing, and a quarter-inch ratcheting box-wrench. Don’t go more than a few days without using all of it, several times over.
Well I do at work but I have my toolbag with me and sometimes when doing trail-side repairs on my bike but again, I have a dedicated tool kit for that. In my everyday life I almost never have to deal with fasteners and in the rare occasion when I do, the tool I need is either a flathead or philips number two. I’m quite DIY minded person but I can’t quite even think of what I’d need pliers for when I’m out and about running errands.
Because of what I EDC (literally, just what I listed before, plus keys, phone, wallet, paper and pen), the toolbag at my work, and its contents, stays in my employee locker for weeks at a time. I did forget to mention a 4.5, maybe 5 inch folding pocket-knife, whict I use for … let’s say kiosks/“atm”/point-of-sale/arcade/digital signage repair … more than you, or even I when I threw it in the bag on a whim, might expect.
Other than a pump, I’m not sure where my EDC falls short for biking, although I do also have a torque-wrench, metric impact socket-set, a couple large Crescent Wrenches, plus the normal oem-kit I keep in my SUV (unrelated, but plus my family’s roller-skates, swim-suits, sweaters, climbing gear, cargo-straps and towing stuff). That car is also the over-flow for stuff I don’t usually use in the garage or have too many of though. I actually despise all but the beefiest Crescent wrenches.
I work as a contractor so even the best EDC kit isn’t sufficient to do most of the jobs I need to do. Also since I have a fully kitted work truck with me where ever I go I’m rarely too far from my tools. I’ve tried all kinds of EDC setups but in my personal experience the items I need by far the most are a blade and a pen so that’s what I have with me at all times nowdays. I honestly should just EDC my Leatherman Wave because then I would get pliers and a screwdriver too but I’m already invested into a nice pocket knife.
I actually despise all but the beefiest Crescent wrenches.
You need the pliers wrench
That’s the pliers I mentioned in my original comment…
A fresnel lens
What a the main (and other) use. Fire or magnifying?
Mainly magnifying but it has a little ruler and can start a fire/fuse some plastics in a pinch too.
