The New iRiver AK100: A High-End DAP - Page 15

Good point. I don't understand ibasso either, they took all these effort trying to make a world class DAP, then they will leave it like it is...Typical chinese hifi company style: selling people semi-manufactured products...(I am chinese btw)... I heard 901 is facing the same problem right now, that's why they push the releasing data back again and again. Hopefully they come up something that better than 801. Actually 801 IMO is already bug free. I have absolutely no issues with it, but some people still consider it as a prototype.

Edited by tupac0306 - 10/17/12 at 5:16am

 

That's some dedication I tell ya!

I had the dx100 for 5 months, until I sold it 10 days ago.....
So I could be sarcastic...
Edited by turokrocks - 10/17/12 at 5:54am

Oh haha, well at least someone's enjoying it (where ever they may be).

is that his generalization or yours? actually I think balanced portable (if its from beginning of the signal chain to end) is one of the better things. in this world (hell even my pockets) full of RF and wifi chirps, a portable rig that effectively deletes them is a bonus I can tell you. these things I used to have to put up with in the city or on the bus are a thing of the past due to good common mode error rejection. now if this is just from the amp onwards you may not benefit, because the interference will invert phase along with the signal in the phase splitter (balanced conversion)

these things can to some degree be dealt with with good PCB design, input RF filters etc, but everyone has to get it right and some things, like a mobile losing connection or switching towers, switching wifi to 3G/4G/2G will cause a chirp that can easily have sidebands down in the audio range. this is a common mode error, single ended systems often struggle with this, well designed balanced gear was invented to avoid it.

that and imaging problems? hmm i'm struggling to think of how this might be a result of balanced signal. headphone transducers, being a 2 terminal floating device; dont know one from the other, crossovers can have slightly different frequency response, but otherwise...
Edited by qusp - 10/17/12 at 7:22am

If Hifiman doesn't get it right right out the door then yes. There'd be no point in me selling and buying another sub-par product. But we'll have to see. So far ibassos product is the top contender right now with the least compromises for it's UI even though there are still some bugs right now. But once the Hifiman releases then we'll see.

Let's be honest tupac. The 801 UI is clunky and slow. I had the 601 and it was ****ty. Even in comparison to the DX100 UI. It took a lot of patience to even use the device (rockbox helped but it was too buggy and battery life too compromised). I want snappy and fast results. Even though the DX100 does have some bugs still it is a lot better than the current generation of Hifiman products in that regard. Plus the fact that you needed to buy a game amp to even find the 801 useable with sensitive IEMs is s joke. At $800.00+ high output impedance is not acceptable, same goes for the iRiver player.....

Edited by lee730 - 10/17/12 at 7:48am

The only problem I experience with 801 so far is I have to press down too many times when I browse a large playlist. Other than that, I don't see anything from DX100 better. 801 never freezes. 801 starts up quicker, play songs without skipping first few seconds, I can switch songs and turn off the device without look at the screen. It doesn't produce the pop sound as loud as dx100 when I switch on (I have to take out my IEMs when I switch on dx100). I have to manually switch off the screen of dx100 (sometimes I forgot), otherwise it will pop! again when I want to change songs. I don't use any other features at all for these DAPs.

 

But soundwise, dx100 > 801.

But isn't the UI slow on it in comparison? Isn't it similar to the Hifiman 601? I mean the UI was slow.... I got angry using it. I think you are mentioning what I mean by slow in your first sentence. Having to constantly press buttons and when doing so the UI is slow to do it not snappy. I absolutely hated that..... It drove me nuts lol. I'm impatient and want speed. One reason I was happy when I sold it :P. Studio V UI was much faster to use in comparison although buggy but still better IMO due to being faster. Same with the DX100. Accessing my music is a breeze. Takes a few seconds and if I want to select something from a playlist much faster still. It takes less than a minute to fully load about 2,500 songs all FLAC and fully tagged. I have my unit rooted also so it's smoother than with the Stock settings. Noticeably more responsive. Just the 3 main quirks remain for me and I'd be very happy after that.

Edited by lee730 - 10/17/12 at 8:21am

Hmm...probably. Never tried any 60x series before. I actually never got annoyed by 801. It isn't super fast for sure, but I can accept the speed.:). Yeah Studio V's firmware is much faster. 801 doesn't reload songs like studio v every time it starts though.

 

See for me the speed is a big factor. If it is slow that means clunky to me. Which means I want to slam it against the wall lol. I don't mind the boot up times of my Studio or the DX100. It's a one time process and its all good after that. The Studio takes like 45 secs to load a 64 GB card filled to capacity with flac. The DX100 about the same but with 2,500 songs. I think my Studio V has about 2,300 songs on it mostly flac, maybe 4 or 5 mp3s ;). Especially since I originally came from the Sansa e280 and Fuze, speed & ease of use is a requirement for me. Once you get use to it you can't go back :). At least I can't lol.

Edited by lee730 - 10/17/12 at 8:49am

Another link found from headfonia.com FB. 

http://en.akihabaranews.com/119725/dap-pmp/iriver-japan-outs-the-astell-kern-ak100-a-new-high-end-hi-fi-dap

I am wondering if the price is 54,800 Yen! :O ( which is about 692 USD , I suppose ) 

This is old news, we need somebody from Japan to tell us more about this DAP's SQ.

Not gonna happen before the headphone festival at the end this month, where they will showcase it.

Maybe they'll get a clue and fix the ridiculous output impedance. Otherwise I'd say stay clear!