Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000

[Kiats]

heads up: new FW is out and Apple Music is now v 4.1.0

 

[yaps66]

heads up: new FW is out and Apple Music is now v 4.1.0

Appreciate the heads-up!

 

[CharlyBrown]

Strange. With the "old" firmware it was 4.2.0 beta.

I just installed the new FW 1.20CM and it still offers me 4.2.0 (beta) from the Downloads section. As I side loaded my apps yesterday and went straight to the latest Apple Music version 4.2.0 (GA), I didn't change anything here, of course.

 

[Dionysus]

Installed new firmware, two quick observations. The interface seems a bit more responsive played one track everything seems fine smooth and again more responsive and speedier.

One thing I always noticed was how long after shutting down the player, the LED on the volume crown would remain on for a long period after shutting down, this update seems to have fix it, as the LED are off almost immediately after the system is turned off.
I’ll report back when I spend more time playing with the interface some more over this coming weekend.

 

[NeuroDocAudio]

Agreed! The interface is somewhat snappier, the device powers on and off in a more reasonable time, and I have noticed that there is less lag when on gapless playback when moving from one track to the next.

 

[phiemon]

1. Update
I received an answer from A&K Germany:

"
Thank you for your love and interest in our products.
We will forward the problem report you gave us about SP3000 to our quality team and software team.
We will do our best to fix the problem.
Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you very much. / Many Thanks
Yours sincerely / Best regards

Daniel Noh
"

Now I'm definitely going to stay tuned and I'll update that respectively!

2. Update
I received an answer from A&K Germany:

English:
"1. the cause of intermittent freezing is probably caused by SOM SMT defect. We recommend you to send us your SP3000 to find out the cause of your specific exactly.

2. To completely eliminate popping noise during the muting process, AK DAP converts the signal line to high impedance (instead of ground).At this time, organic switching noise may occur depending on the adapter type.
When muting is enabled (no music is played during charging), AK products implement audio muting in the high impedance state to remove popping noise. It is estimated that noise will be generated during this process depending on the adapter type.

3. Although there are differences depending on the specifications of the PC, the power supply of a normal PC is about 50 mA.
Since the power consumption of the SP3000 is higher than the power supplied by the PC, charging may not be possible while the DAC is playing.
In addition, since the power supply varies depending on the cable specification, detailed information of the cable is required for concrete confirmation."

German:
1. Die Ursache für das zeitweilige Einfrieren wird vermutlich durch einen SOM SMT Defekt verursacht. Wir empfehlen Ihnen, uns Ihr SP3000 einzusenden, um die Ursache Ihrer spezifischen genau zu ermitteln.

2. Um Knallgeräusche während des Stummschaltungsvorgangs vollständig zu eliminieren, wird bei AK DAP die Signalleitung zu einer hohen Impedenz umgewandelt (anstelle von Masse).Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kann es je nach Adaptertyp zu organischen Schaltgeräuschen kommen.
Wenn die Stummschaltung aktiviert ist (während des Ladevorgangs keine Musik abgespielt wird), implementieren AK-Produkte die Audio-Stummschaltung im Hochimpedanzzustand, um Knallgeräusche zu entfernen. Es wird geschätzt, dass bei diesem Prozess je nach Adaptertyp Rauschen entsteht.

3. Obwohl es je nach den Spezifikationen des PCs Unterschiede gibt, liegt die Stromversorgung eines normalen PCs bei etwa 50 mA.
Da der Stromverbrauch des SP3000 höher ist als die vom PC gelieferte Leistung, ist das Laden möglicherweise nicht möglich, während der DAC spielt.
Da außerdem die Stromversorgung je nach Kabelspezifikation unterschiedlich ist, sind für eine konkrete Bestätigung detaillierte Informationen zum Kabel erforderlich."

To the 1st point, I answered that the problem is not an isolated case, and that it certainly does not have to do with a defective unit, since quite a few of us here have the same problem. I asked if this could not be a firmware problem.

 

[hAbIrAbI]

To the 1st point, I answered that the problem is not an isolated case, and that it certainly does not have to do with a defective unit, since quite a few of us here have the same problem. I asked if this could not be a firmware problem.

I'm not sure I follow this logic. There can be a device error that happens in more than one device. Could be a faulty batch of parts or any other number of issues. Also "quite a few" is an interesting statement since I don't think anybody really has a clue how much of a percentage is affected. Even if only 0.1 percent of devices are affected it would seem like a lot on a forum because whenever people do have issues they will mention it on a forum while a lot of people that don't have issues don't even bother posting on a forum. I feel this is more likely confirmation bias rather than an absolute truth.

 

[phiemon]

I'm not sure I follow this logic. There can be a device error that happens in more than one device. Could be a faulty batch of parts or any other number of issues. Also "quite a few" is an interesting statement since I don't think anybody really has a clue how much of a percentage is affected. Even if only 0.1 percent of devices are affected it would seem like a lot on a forum because whenever people do have issues they will mention it on a forum while a lot of people that don't have issues don't even bother posting on a forum. I feel this is more likely confirmation bias rather than an absolute truth.

By "quite a few" was meant to the members here on the forum as I reported to A&K in my email. Some have replaced the device several times and they continued to have the same problem, that too over the course of several months. @CharlyBrown also has the same problem not only with his old SP3000 SS but also with his new SP3000 CU (and SE300?). So how many batch would be affected by a hardware defect?

If you search here on the forum you will find this proof.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Installed new firmware, two quick observations. The interface seems a bit more responsive played one track everything seems fine smooth and again more responsive and speedier.

One thing I always noticed was how long after shutting down the player, the LED on the volume crown would remain on for a long period after shutting down, this update seems to have fix it, as the LED are off almost immediately after the system is turned off.
I’ll report back when I spend more time playing with the interface some more over this coming weekend.

That's one thing that made me wonder all the time. Why does the light stay on for so long? Maybe the SP3K did some checks when shutting down (like file system check?). We will never know. I never tried to start it again when the light still lit. Have you ever tried that?

By "quite a few" was meant to the members here on the forum as I reported to A&K in my email. Some have replaced the device several times and they continued to have the same problem, that too over the course of several months. @CharlyBrown also has the same problem not only with his old SP3000 SS but also with his new SP3000 CU (and SE300?). So how many batch would be affected by a hardware defect?

If you search here on the forum you will find this proof.

Not sure about which phenomenon referring to in this chat

If it is the ground loop hissing/humming, yes I had this with both SE300 and SP3K on certain chargers, not on others (I tried different fast chargers and computer. I blame the charger for the time being).

As for the reboot problem. I had this with my first unit, bought back in December. It rebooted all the time when connected to power and doing something while charging like streaming music.

My SP3000cu did this exactly once during initial setup. A reboot occurred while it was: Reading the SD-Card for the first time, Downloading hundreds of gigabytes of Apple Music Playlists and fast charging.

It hasn't happened ever since the initial setup, I just tried again today with the same charger. I left it charging and played music from Apple Music and even left it like that on 100% for quite some time (1h or more). No reboot.

 

[phiemon]

That's one thing that made me wonder all the time. Why does the light stay on for so long? Maybe the SP3K did some checks when shutting down (like file system check?). We will never know. I never tried to start it again when the light still lit. Have you ever tried that?


Not sure about which phenomenon referring to in this chat

If it is the ground loop hissing/humming, yes I had this with both SE300 and SP3K on certain chargers, not on others (I tried different fast chargers and computer. I blame the charger for the time being).

As for the reboot problem. I had this with my first unit, bought back in December. It rebooted all the time when connected to power and doing something while charging like streaming music.

My SP3000cu did this exactly once during initial setup. A reboot occurred while it was: Reading the SD-Card for the first time, Downloading hundreds of gigabytes of Apple Music Playlists and fast charging.

It hasn't happened ever since the initial setup, I just tried again today with the same charger. I left it charging and played music from Apple Music and even left it like that on 100% for quite some time (1h or more). No reboot.

Yes, I meant the reboot problem.

1h is too little. I had the problem from about 2-3 hours (at 100% connected to the PC).

 

[hAbIrAbI]

Maybe I'm completely out of the loop and I definitely haven't counted but it always seemed like there was a handful of people that had this issue. That is hardly a lot. I've had my SP3000 since it was released and followed the discussion here on and off. I don't remember this issue constantly popping up or "a lot" of people being affected.

Again this isn't saying that the issue shouldn't be resolved but rather that I don't think that you conclusion regarding a hardware vs software problem is sound IMHO.

 

[phiemon]

Maybe I'm completely out of the loop and I definitely haven't counted but it always seemed like there was a handful of people that had this issue. That is hardly a lot. I've had my SP3000 since it was released and followed the discussion hereon and off. I don't remember this issue constantly popping up or "a lot" of people being affected.

See if you have this reboot problem too: SP3000, charge 100% and connected to PC or power supply for 2-3 hours, still with power connection (the SP3000 must be still at 100%) play around with the SP3000 and see if you have a freeze/reboot. Very important: use the stock cable.

By the way: I also had similar "power" problems with the CA1000T.

 

[hAbIrAbI]

I don't do that often but sometimes at work when I need to charge it I will let it run while charging and don't take it off the wall until I'm off work.

Can't say I've noticed such reboots. But I don't use the stock cable except to put music on the microSD card. It's too short for my day to day dealings with the DAP.

 

[CharlyBrown]

See if you have this reboot problem too: SP3000, charge 100% and connected to PC or power supply for 2-3 hours, still with power connection (the SP3000 must be still at 100%) play around with the SP3000 and see if you have a freeze/reboot. Very important: use the stock cable.

By the way: I also had similar "power" problems with the CA1000T.

Regarding „stock cable“ from A&K. I guess they have a huge box with several cables and mix them into the SP3K boxes randomly.

Why? This is my 3rd SP3K. Nr.1 and Nr.2 had usb-c to usb-c cables. The latest and greatest came with a usb-a to usb-c cable and the usb-c part doesn’t even fit well with the green stock case on the player. I don’t know, maybe they thought people interested in the copper version probably still use computers from the 90s?

 

[phiemon]

I don't do that often but sometimes at work when I need to charge it I will let it run while charging and don't take it off the wall until I'm off work.

Can't say I've noticed such reboots. But I don't use the stock cable except to put music on the microSD card. It's too short for my day to day dealings with the DAP.

What to say... test what I said, then we'll talk more if my unit is defective or not. And yes, the stock cable is important, because with other cables I do not have the problem, but with these cables the SP3000 does not really charge enough at the same time when in use. It stays at 100% for a long time and at some point it becomes 99% etc.

Regarding „stock cable“ from A&K. I guess they have a huge box with several cables and mix them into the SP3K boxes randomly.

Why? This is my 3rd SP3K. Nr.1 and Nr.2 had usb-c to usb-c cables. The latest and greatest came with a usb-a to usb-c cable and the usb-c part doesn’t even fit well with the green stock case on the player. I don’t know, maybe they thought people interested in the copper version probably still use computers from the 90s?

Yes, I noticed that about the case too...