[Skullar]

I had a DX300 it was big ole POS, sent it back. You will like the SE200 better. What a lot of people dont realize is that DAP's with swappable amps have scaled down parts in them. They have to sacrifice part quality to cram all that stuff in a swappable card, smaller caps for example, it is not worth the sound quality loss IMO. Only cool thing about them is a dedicated line out card, but still, I would rather have the room for larger components. That is why the SE180 looks cool, but in reality is a really bad idea. Lots of sacrifices have to be made to keep those cards small enough.

I suppose you have a good point there. Good part is thought, that you can mod it without loosing warranty. And that makes a difference. I have sent my amp8 to get moded and it worked out well.
But yeh if size is limitation there is only so much you stuff in to that module.
Though seeing how se200 is not that big with 2 seperate circuits, must have some sacrifices too. The only way to find out really is wait to see what future modules or mods can achieve. To compare dx300 to se200

 

[SMOoth Operator]

reminds me of the synergy system for guitar amps. Really cool, though. I never thought something modular at this level would exist.

you make a good point. What corners were cut in sq to make those cartridges fit.

also, how many flavors of amp dacs does one really need? 2 solid choices between warm/punchy and clinical/transparent would seem like enough.

another thing I’ve been curious about is if any of these units have decent parametric eq, or are they all just graphic/ fixed band

No, the EQ on A&K devices are not descent! This is one area where A&K absolutely refuses to listen to its customer complaints. They give you a parametric EQ that is about 0.6db worth of adjustment range up or down. It really is a pathetic thing and nobody understands why A&K insists on such stupidity.

Basically, you are stuck with the voicing of your earphones on A&K, because there is no reasonable way to adjust the EQ.

 

[Tristy]

Any word on the embedded Tidal App fix, when in May it is coming?? @JasonNYC

Also curious about this @JasonNYC

 

[CharlyBrown]

No, the EQ on A&K devices are not descent! This is one area where A&K absolutely refuses to listen to its customer complaints. They give you a parametric EQ that is about 0.6db worth of adjustment range up or down. It really is a pathetic thing and nobody understands why A&K insists on such stupidity.

Basically, you are stuck with the voicing of your earphones on A&K, because there is no reasonable way to adjust the EQ.

It’s not beautiful, it’s not easy to handle but I think it is more effective than 0.6db. For more than just subtle adjustments it is ok’ish. For example, it allows me to add bass to my HD800s.

I wished for more, so I raised Sub-Bass & Bass to max and lowered the rest of the frequency spectrum by -1db. Now I have a much better result.

But I agree, they should definitely improve the EQ UI and effectiveness. (PLEASE make PEQ with individual values, NOT fixed band EQ!) I am happy that I don’t need any EQ for my two IEM pairs, which are my primary use-case for the DAP

 

[SMOoth Operator]

It’s not beautiful, it’s not easy to handle but I think it is more effective than 0.6db. For more than just subtle adjustments it is ok’ish. For example, it allows me to add bass to my HD800s.

I wished for more, so I raised Sub-Bass & Bass to max and lowered the rest of the frequency spectrum by -1db. Now I have a much better result.

But I agree, they should definitely improve the EQ UI and effectiveness. (PLEASE make PEQ with individual values, NOT fixed band EQ!) I am happy that I don’t need any EQ for my two IEM pairs, which are my primary use-case for the DAP

I cannot remember where I saw it, but someone confirmed officially that it is only +or- 0.6db. I believe it was quoted directly by A&K customer support in another thread.

 

[CharlyBrown]

I cannot remember where I saw it, but someone confirmed officially that it is only +or- 0.6db. I believe it was quoted directly by A&K customer support in another thread.

I can only speak for the SE200 as I don’t know any other A&K devices and here the impact is there and thus I am sure much more than 0.6db. But also true, the extend is more limited than other EQ implementations (namely for me the RME ADI DAC & Qudelix 5k, both are much better adjustable, not fixed band and with more impact, but the A&K EQ is all but nice, still useable though).

 

[JasonNYC]

Quick update on firmware for embedded Tidal app.

Still on target for this month, but I still do not have a concrete release date. I was told last night there would be more info at the end of the week.

The following 13 models will receive firmware updates to fix the embedded Tidal issue in May:

SP2000, SP1000, SP1000M, SE200, SE180, SE100, KANN ALPHA, SR25, SA700, KANN CUBE, SR15, ACTIVO CT15, ACTIVO CT10.

The AK Connect app for iOS and Android will also be updated to fix the embedded Tidal issue. The updated apps will be available in the Apple and Google app stores after the player updates.

 

[Timurchik]

I hope the A&K will fix everything. I bought SE200 about 4 months ago and very happy with it. Its like 2 players in one with 2 different sound signatures.. I listen music from SD card, but i would lie to try Tidal soon. May be i will like it, but i have something over 1tb of downloaded music.

 

[Tristy]

Talking about fixes, @JasonNYC are there any updates to when the embedded Tidal update is coming yet?

 

[NCUS]

I hope the A&K will fix everything. I bought SE200 about 4 months ago and very happy with it. Its like 2 players in one with 2 different sound signatures.. I listen music from SD card, but i would lie to try Tidal soon. May be i will like it, but i have something over 1tb of downloaded music.

Was it a Freudian slip when you used the word lie? Tidal and MQA seem like a pack of lies given that the encoding isn't lossless. MQA allegedly removes information and backfills it in later with something else, which clearly isn't high resolution in my mind.

Apple Music may move to 24/192 true lossless as soon as this week. Spotify will have lossless sometime later this year. Qobuz already has true high-rez as does Amazon Music. I assume you bought a A&K to listen to high quality. Personally, I wouldn't invest too much time building a library in Tidal when there are alternatives and will be many more with music more faithful to the original.

 

[cj3209]

Was it a Freudian slip when you used the word lie? Tidal and MQA seem like a pack of lies given that the encoding isn't lossless. MQA allegedly removes information and backfills it in later with something else, which clearly isn't high resolution in my mind.

Apple Music may move to 24/192 true lossless as soon as this week. Spotify will have lossless sometime later this year. Qobuz already has true high-rez as does Amazon Music. I assume you bought a A&K to listen to high quality. Personally, I wouldn't invest too much time building a library in Tidal when there are alternatives and will be many more with music more faithful to the original.

I'm no Tidal fan (I hate the fact that I still see so many RAP music artists when I don't touch that stuff) but MQA unfolded on ROON sounds equivalent to Qobuz's hi-res files, IMHO. But if Spotify goes hi-res, I'll probably cancel Tidal and replace with Spotify so I'll have both Qobuz and Spotify for my music.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Hi @JasonNYC you mentioned the Apple servers used. I live in Germany but set the SE200 to English language. Got me thinking if this might have influence on which servers that are used by the Apple Music app?

After your post I gave it a try and changed the SE200 to German. I also tried to install the latest AM version 3.5.0.. well it doesn’t work so I had to remove AM and re-install 3.4.5, now with German language. I also changed the mesh wifi in my house to have a better reception with the SE200 - so essentially I made 2 changes. I know, not good in order to drill down to the real problem…

Long story short, Apple Music now runs nearly glitch-free! I heavily tried and tested in the last 3 days for many hours (streaming, pre-downloaded songs, loving songs, adding to playlists etc etc.) and had only 2 crashes, night and day difference to the past!

I don’t know if it is only one change or both that did the trick but I am now a happy customer

Thanks again for your help!

Just for the record… I have to revert that, unfortunately

It works sometimes relatively flawless for me, still crashes on a regular basis on other occasions. I am now done with testing, I don’t know what the reason for the crashes is. All I know is, I haven’t had any problems on many other devices other than the SE200 (including Android phone & Hiby R8 Android DAP).

With the latest announcement of Apple I already cancelled my Tidal plan, will do the same with Spotify and move along with Apple Music exclusively.

With all the Apple Music problems on my A&K player and A&K only supporting very old versions of Apple Music anyway I will part with my A&K now.

 

[rlw6534]

Just for the record… I have to revert that, unfortunately

It works sometimes relatively flawless for me, still crashes on a regular basis on other occasions. I am now done with testing, I don’t know what the reason for the crashes is. All I know is, I haven’t had any problems on many other devices than the SE200 (including Android phone & Hiby R8 Android DAP).

With the latest announcement of Apple I already cancelled my Tidal plan, will do the same with Spotify and move along with Apple Music exclusively.

With all the Apple Music problems on my A&K player and A&K only supporting very old versions of Apple Music anyway I will part with my A&K now.

I'm no fan of A&K software support (at the moment) but it really seems premature to assume Apple Music won't work on A&K devices when the app hasn't even been updated for the lossless/high resolution features. I expect we will go through the normal confusion (is it lossless; does it bypass SRC, etc?) but we really don't know yet.

 

[CharlyBrown]

I'm no fan of A&K software support (at the moment) but it really seems premature to assume Apple Music won't work on A&K devices when the app hasn't even been updated for the lossless/high resolution features. I expect we will go through the normal confusion (is it lossless; does it bypass SRC, etc?) but we really don't know yet.

There is always hope and I do hope that A&K will improve.

I have tried and tested and „worked“ on this problems for months now, including several factory resets, redownloads etc. that for Apple Music unfortunately takes a lot of time. I am now too frustrated to move on, honestly. And I don’t have the impression from A&K software support to believe that they will offer nice Apple Music support within reasonable time (see the embedded Tidal problem…).

Also I recently just used my iPhone and a tiny external dac/amp and man, is everything working beautifully smooth. And the little guy is unbelievably powerful and smooth sounding. I will stay there.

 

[rlw6534]

There is always hope and I do hope that A&K will improve.

I have tried and tested and „worked“ on this problems for months now, including several factory resets, redownloads etc. that for Apple Music unfortunately takes a lot of time. I am now too frustrated to move on, honestly. And I don’t have the impression from A&K software support to believe that they will offer nice Apple Music support within reasonable time (see the embedded Tidal problem…).

Also I recently just used my iPhone and a tiny external dac/amp and man, is everything working beautifully smooth. And the little guy is unbelievably powerful and smooth sounding. I will stay there.

You using the 5K? I have a Dragonfly but it's too much of a power drain on my iPhone (battery life). In fact, that's one of the reasons I got into DAPs, trying to separate my phone from my music listening.