Sorry lee i thought your talking about the glove a1 with ak120-S..lol

zniper2984 said:

Sorry lee i thought your talking about the glove a1 with ak120-S..lol

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lol no. I'm not sure if that would be an upgrade really.... At least from the review I read on the a1 it is comparable to the AK240 in sound quality at a fraction of the cost. Going from other comparisons the Hifiman 901 with its best card is noticeably better than the AK240 in terms of sound quality alone. Going off of the opinion of a friend whom I trust, he finds the S-mod to be a considerable upgrade over the 901 with its best card. So .

Now i understand.lol
I thought you already have one.Thanks for clarifying that..

hi. I"m thinking about getting  AK120 with the S mod. and the GLOVE A1...anythough?....Got my AK120ii stolen during a trip to Vietnam about a month ago.

tienv1125 said:

hi. I"m thinking about getting  AK120 with the S mod. and the GLOVE A1...anythough?....Got my AK120ii stolen during a trip to Vietnam about a month ago.

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Will the S-mod benefit your SQ in any way? The AK device becomes just a transport if I'm not mistaken. The A1 sounds great though. I got mine about 8 hours ago and I'm very happy with what I'm hearing. Can't go wrong with it. Unless you plan on using the AK120 as a stand alone device from time to time, it might make sense to save a bit and get the AK100

I have one on order did you order yours from the U.S. ?
I know one person in Australia has theirs but that came direct from RMAF.

I'm in Singapore, so via Jaben who have some kind of distribution setup with Michael Goodman. Pre-ordered on the 26th of Oct. Was told to expect a month long wait but got a call on Thursday (30th) saying they were here.

Oh great. I think the North American shipment is due in next week so hopefully by the second week of November I should have mine!

Would love some of you're impressions.

I'm terrible with reviews/impressions......but since there aren't too many posts with impressions around I'll give it a go. 
 
I'll start with a brief introduction to my gear. I recently gave up full sized headphones since I didn't have the time or the money to justify owning competent portable and desktop setups. I tried working with the CLAS -dB + SR71B with my LCD2 and Hifiman HE4. I found the the stack too troublesome for portable use (with IEMs) and always felt I wasn't putting my headphones to their best possible use at home.
 
I switched over to CIEMs, namely the Custom Art Music Two and re-tuned Miracle (also through Custom Art). I was using these with my AK100 and ALO International and was reasonably happy until  I auditioned the Calyx M and the AK240. I was left quite envious of both players, with their refined UI and superior sound quality. The AK240 at it's current price was always out of reach and I wasn't quite sure if the Calyx M (and the Sony ZX-1) would have sufficient power to use with the HE-560 which I plan on buying as an upgrade/replacement for my HE4.
 
Enter the Glove Audio A1! This little thing seemed like just what I needed. From the outset I knew that Michael Goodman was associated with the project, but was baffled by why the Centrance name wasn't in the picture. Perhaps this is an independent project, but knowing that the man behind quite few well talked off products was involved in it's development was comforting, this, combined with Jaben's one for one replacement policy made buying a relatively untested and little reviewed product a lot easier. 
 
Not much by way of packaging, simple black paper box, with an uncomplicated set of instructions, the power specifications and some other general information printed all over. A second well padded cardboard box houses the device itself, a wall adapter and cable to charge it with, a set of 3M feet, two pairs of screws (one a spare), the tool to screw/unscrew the two retention brackets for use with either the AK100/120.
 
The device itself is solidly built, a bit industrial but very functional. Power switch and charging port on the top, two volume buttons on the left and the 3 outputs at the bottom. It has nice matte black finish all over which I like. The one I auditioned had the part that houses the optical jack coloured in silver, I prefer the all back unibody look a lot more. There are two LEDs up top that let you know when the device is powered on and also when its charging. They glow blue and are awfully bright, I used my A1 to search for phone in a pitch black room last night! In Singapore where we rely quite heavily on a often packed public transport system, this LED might annoy a couple of fellow commuters if it catches them right in the eye.
 
I've only used the A1 for a few hours and traditionally my ears can seldom tell the subtle differences between various DAPs and even less with changes in cables that are used. But for the record the only gear I've used thus far as follows,
 

1. UM Miracle, re-tuned and housed in silicone. 
2. Norne Audio's Skog - "Litz OCC silver coated cu in a 8-wire (equiv. 4x26awg)" terminated in the Kobiconn connector
3. AK100

 
First off and quite obviously, its very clear that the A1 is a step up from the stock AK 100 and 120. There's more power to start with and I find myself listening at lower volumes and yet being able to hear those little extra nuances in recordings that are often elusive unless the volume is turned way up on my AK100.
 
The improvement in dynamic range (if that's the correct term) was very evident. I often question the quality of my recordings all of which are in the FLAC format with varying bit/sample rates, my short time with the A1 is leading me to believe that my DAP might have indeed been a limiting factor. The very same recordings have more emotion to them and feel a bit more like a live performance than before. 
 
On Muddy Waters' "Big Leg Woman" (24bit/192kHz) the guitars sounded brilliant and vocals sounded nice and full. The most evident change from the stock AK100 with my ALO International was the separation of instruments and a better "sense of the stage" if that makes sense.
 
The A1 brought out a more visceral feel on The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" (24bit/176.4kHz), which is quite essential to such a song. 
 
I listened to numerous Led Zeppelin records through the night. The A1 and Miracles sounded great. John Bonham's triplets had loads of energy and Robert Plant's rather insane vocal range was very well delivered. 
 
Since the A1 takes over the volume control, its worth a mention. I've always liked a visual inditcation of the sound level/setting which you can't expect on this device. However, the increments in volume are not drastic with each click and its quite easy to find a sweet spot while listening to your music. The buttons are solid and do not move about in their sockets.
 
Unfortunately, I can't do a comparison with any flagship DAPs, for I've spent less than 10 minutes each with the AK240, ZX-1 and the Calyx M. Aditionally, all three were auditioned with the SE846 which is not an IEM that I own. 
 
So while its a bit heavy, has a very bright LED that's always on when in use and turns your AK device in to a rather expensive transport, the A1 still manages to offer great vaule for existing AK100/120 owners. In fact, if you were to buy a second-hand AK100/120 and strap it to one of these, you would save you in the region of 1300-1500 USD over a new AK240, a device that some people say only barley edges the A1 out in terms of preformance. 
 
There's not much more I can write given my limited time with  the A1. It's a brilliant little device that's far more than an after thought or a gimmick, it really does deliver. 

"Sorry for your wallet." ....about to order that A1 right now

Rambleonred thank you for your thoughts. The echo the three other people I know who own or have listened to this'll
A question hopefully you can answer. I read somewhere that the unit down samples all high resolution files to 24/96, is this true or does it play DSD and 24/192 as they are on the player?
Thanks so much for taking time to write your thoughts. I can't wait to get mine! I think it's going to make my beloved Etymotic ER4S's sing!
Oh, and for bright LED's I find a little dab of a black marker tones it down a bit!

I'll try the marker, thanks for the tip!

I believe you're correct about the down sampling. I remember reading somewhere that this is due to toslink bandwidth limitations.

I'm sure you'll love your A1. Look forward to seeing your impressions in the coming weeks.

Thanks for that, it does not matter to me that it down samples as is often the case it's not the technical that matters as much as its execution!

So I should strap a $600 DAC/AMP to my $1,500 DAP? Why is this any better than a best in class analog amp?

Mine should be in the mailbox on Monday, it's going to be a looooong weekend! Now, what shall be the first peice of music played? I could go for one of my audiophile standards but instead I think the sublime Mezzo Soprano Frederica Von Stade will be first!