Astell & Kern Junior (AK Jr.) Impressions Thread
Jul 7, 2015 at 3:37 AM Post #661 of 3,321
ak just launched an "iconic red" version in Hong Kong. if you ask me, they're just riding the ironman craze in this city. Pricing is HK$3,980, whilst the regular version has been reduced in price from HK$4,280 to HK$3,780. that was fast
 

 

 
EDIT: Here's a picture in better light with the matching box
 
for more here's an album on the distributor's facebook
 

 
Jul 7, 2015 at 7:34 PM Post #664 of 3,321
I love mine. Had since it came out. I use as my travel/hiking dap. Excellent sounds. Just fantastic. Sometimes I catch myself just staring at it...
 
Jul 7, 2015 at 8:03 PM Post #665 of 3,321
Had mine for a while now and love the sound. The UI is another matter all together! Very buggy and slow. Hopefully, A&K will come out with a fix for this soon. Other than that, a beautiful looking player with great sound.
 
Jul 7, 2015 at 8:31 PM Post #666 of 3,321
  Had mine for a while now and love the sound. The UI is another matter all together! Very buggy and slow. Hopefully, A&K will come out with a fix for this soon. Other than that, a beautiful looking player with great sound.

 
What bugs are you experiencing? There is a lag but it's not bad at all and it's consistent. All it takes is some getting used to. Scrolling through a long list will be a pain if the UI is faster than how it is. A full gesture-enabled UI with accelerometer is required to make the UI smoother and better overall. I can only imagine how much AK will bump the price to justify a small feature difference.
 
Jul 7, 2015 at 8:48 PM Post #668 of 3,321
Thanks! I can't wait to get it. I like the size of the which is one of the main reasons for buying it.

 
Yeah same here. Although it's still expensive than the flagships of the likes of iBasso and Fiio. The form factor is it's main selling point. It's like a beefed-up nano. Bluetooth is a nice feature as well. That and the internal 64GB storage imo makes up for the price difference.
 
Jul 7, 2015 at 9:48 PM Post #669 of 3,321
   
What bugs are you experiencing? There is a lag but it's not bad at all and it's consistent. All it takes is some getting used to. Scrolling through a long list will be a pain if the UI is faster than how it is. A full gesture-enabled UI with accelerometer is required to make the UI smoother and better overall. I can only imagine how much AK will bump the price to justify a small feature difference.

Besides the slow response to inputs, it sometime just locks up and I have to wait a minute or two for it to resume functions. On occasion it will lock up and not respond to inputs and then after a minute or two just turn itself off. I have found that if I use the buttons on the side, most of the time, this will lock it up also. The pause button works ok but the other two just don't play nice with the UI.
I am hopeful that A&K will resolve these buggy UI issues with a firmware update as it's a great player. As I was typing this, my Jr just turned itself off at the end of a track!! Ok, now it has turned itself back on and resumed playing the next track!! Go figure, must know I am talking about it!! Cheers.
 
Jul 7, 2015 at 10:36 PM Post #670 of 3,321
  Besides the slow response to inputs, it sometime just locks up and I have to wait a minute or two for it to resume functions. On occasion it will lock up and not respond to inputs and then after a minute or two just turn itself off. I have found that if I use the buttons on the side, most of the time, this will lock it up also. The pause button works ok but the other two just don't play nice with the UI.
I am hopeful that A&K will resolve these buggy UI issues with a firmware update as it's a great player. As I was typing this, my Jr just turned itself off at the end of a track!! Ok, now it has turned itself back on and resumed playing the next track!! Go figure, must know I am talking about it!! Cheers.

 
I don't encounter the same issue although it happened to me twice where the screen won't turn back on but the music is still playing and the buttons still functioning. I'm trying to repeat the steps I did but I could not replicate it. Are you on version 1.02 of the FW?
 
Jul 8, 2015 at 1:15 AM Post #672 of 3,321
Looks like the case is available from the iRiver shop. USD$50 plus $23 for shipping to Canada. Guess I'll be buying my case from Analogue Seduction for ~USD$51 total :p
 
Oh, and to answer howdy's question, I've had my Jr since it was available and still love it.
 

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