New iRiver AK70
Apr 23, 2017 at 11:19 PM Post #1,081 of 1,293
It had been charging I then took it off when it was around 88% loaded few hundred songs on to it and played for about 20-30 mins. The sound wasn't impressive and it then just shut off mid song and never turned back on. I' tried numerous times to hard reset and place on charge etc but it won't wake up. I have sent it back to the shop. Just bad luck I think. The guys at the shop will sort it out. It happens.

 
Bummer. Hope you get a healthy replacement then~
 
Apr 24, 2017 at 1:47 AM Post #1,082 of 1,293
  Pretty much all the portables, with the exception of the Audeze Sine (which is hard for most things without the Cipher cable) - for reference I just tried the HD25-1, DT1350, Oppo Pm3. All played quite loud and controlled - music varied from Kleiber's Beethoven 6th, to Joao Gilberto bossa nova to Popol Vuh soundtracks to LCD Soundsystem to Burial.  Things like the HD650 Beyer DT880 and AKG 7xx take more volume and control than the AK70 is comfortable with - They'll play loud but not well. I use my DAPs primarily with iems and only drag out the portables when its cold...
 
regards,
 
Giles


Thanks, very helpful! I always intended the AK70 to be for IEMs only, but I have started getting some pressure-related issues in my left ear since getting my customs and my audiologist advised to reduce the number of hours I use IEMs. So now I am looking at headphones to make sure I can at least enjoy my music when my ear needs the rest. Just not sure which ones yet. PM-3 is high on the list, so that is good and the Meze 99 Classics will be fine too, but it gets more difficult when considering less portable options.
 
Apr 24, 2017 at 1:50 AM Post #1,083 of 1,293
It had been charging I then took it off when it was around 88% loaded few hundred songs on to it and played for about 20-30 mins. The sound wasn't impressive and it then just shut off mid song and never turned back on. I' tried numerous times to hard reset and place on charge etc but it won't wake up. I have sent it back to the shop. Just bad luck I think. The guys at the shop will sort it out. It happens.


It might have been that you loaded too many songs at once. When I got my AK70 the dealer advised not to load too many songs in one go because it can get a bit temperamental about it.
 
May 3, 2017 at 8:32 PM Post #1,084 of 1,293
Hi,

I received my AK70 this morning and spent several hours testing it and comparing the sound against my mobile phone (Mi Note Pro). I started with 16bit/44khz files first but couldn't hear any difference; then I thought that I should test with 24bit/192khz files. I was very disapointed because even with those very high quality files I couldn't hear any difference between AK70 and the mobile phone. I run the test with all types of music (jazz, pop, electronic...). The other surprise is that the volume on the AK70 is not significantly higher than the one on the mobile phone, although AK70 has an internal amp dedicated to music and my headphone has an impedance of 48 Ohms which is not high. The other bad surprise is that the battery does not last for a long time (max 4 hours). The positive point of the AK70 is the build quality and the size (small enough to be put in the pocket). The navigation is quick but not always easy. It would have been good to have a home button for example. Sometimes you go so deep in the navigation that it is painful to go back to the home screen.

The last doubt I have is on the headphones (Sony 1A). Maybe they are not good enough to demonstrate a clear difference between AK70 and my mobile phone. I will receive RHA T20 and B&W C5 2 series tomorrow and I will test with them. In the meantime, my conclusion for today is that AK70 is not worth the investment (600€ to get the same result as my mobile phone). I am not the type of person who will be a victim of a placebo effect

I will keep you posted
 
May 3, 2017 at 9:34 PM Post #1,085 of 1,293
Hi,

I received my AK70 this morning and spent several hours testing it and comparing the sound against my mobile phone (Mi Note Pro). I started with 16bit/44khz files first but couldn't hear any difference; then I thought that I should test with 24bit/192khz files. I was very disapointed because even with those very high quality files I couldn't hear any difference between AK70 and the mobile phone. I run the test with all types of music (jazz, pop, electronic...). The other surprise is that the volume on the AK70 is not significantly higher than the one on the mobile phone, although AK70 has an internal amp dedicated to music and my headphone has an impedance of 48 Ohms which is not high. The other bad surprise is that the battery does not last for a long time (max 4 hours). The positive point of the AK70 is the build quality and the size (small enough to be put in the pocket). The navigation is quick but not always easy. It would have been good to have a home button for example. Sometimes you go so deep in the navigation that it is painful to go back to the home screen.

The last doubt I have is on the headphones (Sony 1A). Maybe they are not good enough to demonstrate a clear difference between AK70 and my mobile phone. I will receive RHA T20 and B&W C5 2 series tomorrow and I will test with them. In the meantime, my conclusion for today is that AK70 is not worth the investment (600€ to get the same result as my mobile phone). I am not the type of person who will be a victim of a placebo effect

I will keep you posted

There is a home button. If you read the manual page 3/4 talk about where it is on the device. You may have missed it because it is a software rather than hardware button ie no physical component.
 
May 4, 2017 at 11:13 AM Post #1,087 of 1,293
Hi,

I received my AK70 this morning and spent several hours testing it and comparing the sound against my mobile phone (Mi Note Pro). I started with 16bit/44khz files first but couldn't hear any difference; then I thought that I should test with 24bit/192khz files. I was very disapointed because even with those very high quality files I couldn't hear any difference between AK70 and the mobile phone. I run the test with all types of music (jazz, pop, electronic...). The other surprise is that the volume on the AK70 is not significantly higher than the one on the mobile phone, although AK70 has an internal amp dedicated to music and my headphone has an impedance of 48 Ohms which is not high. The other bad surprise is that the battery does not last for a long time (max 4 hours). The positive point of the AK70 is the build quality and the size (small enough to be put in the pocket). The navigation is quick but not always easy. It would have been good to have a home button for example. Sometimes you go so deep in the navigation that it is painful to go back to the home screen.

The last doubt I have is on the headphones (Sony 1A). Maybe they are not good enough to demonstrate a clear difference between AK70 and my mobile phone. I will receive RHA T20 and B&W C5 2 series tomorrow and I will test with them. In the meantime, my conclusion for today is that AK70 is not worth the investment (600€ to get the same result as my mobile phone). I am not the type of person who will be a victim of a placebo effect

I will keep you posted


^ There is a home button - it's on the front of the player / LCD screen and it's touch sensitive.
 
May 5, 2017 at 1:29 PM Post #1,089 of 1,293
Soundwise I also prefer AK Jr over AK70. I was completely disappointed with UI of AK Jr and lack of DAC function by AK Jr on my iMac and... I bought AK70. UI of AK70 is a huge improvement in comparison to AK Jr and AK70 is nearly perfect for me ("nearly" because WLAN range of AK70 ist not good and for this price it could be much more better from my point of view). AK70 works perfectly as DAC on my iMac and iPhone (what AK Jr does not do). Yesterday I did a direct comparison of sound quality of AK70 vs. AK Jr. I heard several soundtracks on the both players with HD800S. It was a little bit regrettable for me but for my taste the sound of AK Jr was for all tracks better (like "Soundtrap" wrote "more enjoyable and "punchier"") than the sound of AK70. I can not understand it from the technical point of view (thought that sound specs of AK70 should be better than AK Jr) but it is what I hear and feel.

@sdheadfi Can you tell me how you used the AK70 as a DAC for your iPhone? I am interesting in doing the same with my iPhone 7 but was not sure if it was possible.
 
May 6, 2017 at 1:28 PM Post #1,090 of 1,293
Thinking about replacing my iPod Touch with the AK70. I have a Mojo, so it will be paired with that. I have a few questions. Is the AK70 stable? What is the best way to connect it to the Mojo? What full sized headphone under $500 do you recommend for the AK70 and Mojo? Thanks.
 
May 6, 2017 at 3:29 PM Post #1,091 of 1,293
Hello,
Did anyone try to read APE files with the AK70? mine is not able to read them!!
 
May 6, 2017 at 7:46 PM Post #1,092 of 1,293
I just tried to pair my AK70 to my phone (Samsung S6) so I could stream to it from Google Music, but I only have the option of pairing the two for call audio. With every other bluetooth connection I can pair for media audio and/or call audio, and both are selected by default, but that's not the case with the AK70. What am I doing wrong?

Sorry if this has been covered previously, I can't figure out how to search just this thread with the new forums update.
 
May 6, 2017 at 7:50 PM Post #1,093 of 1,293
Thinking about replacing my iPod Touch with the AK70. I have a Mojo, so it will be paired with that. I have a few questions. Is the AK70 stable? What is the best way to connect it to the Mojo? What full sized headphone under $500 do you recommend for the AK70 and Mojo? Thanks.
Yes, the AK70 firmware is stable if that's what you're asking. Mine has never crashed. The only way to connect the AK70 to the Mojo is via USB, and it works great.

Regarding the headphones for under $500 question, that is a whole different ball of wax. I really like the way my ZMF Vibro Mk2s sound out of it, but it really depends on your usage, preferred sound signature, taste in music, and about a million other things rather than it just being a single best choice.
 
May 8, 2017 at 1:00 PM Post #1,094 of 1,293
Thinking about replacing my iPod Touch with the AK70. I have a Mojo, so it will be paired with that. I have a few questions. Is the AK70 stable? What is the best way to connect it to the Mojo? What full sized headphone under $500 do you recommend for the AK70 and Mojo? Thanks.
I use Shure SRH1540 with the standard ear phone jack, but also usually with PRO EQ turned on.
 
May 9, 2017 at 2:26 PM Post #1,095 of 1,293
There was some discussion whether 256gb cards work properly on the AK70 a while back and I can confirm the Samsung Evo 256 does work perfectly and all 5000+ songs I added show up. The card is close to full, with over 200gb of hi res music on it.
 

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