Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000

[subguy812]

A&K SP3000 and A&K Odyssey. Allowing the Odyssey time to burn in before writing in-depth comments, but so far an excellent experience.

 

[cheznous]

I am so impressed with this DAP… I filled a 1TB card from my collection and it’s fascinating how it organized everything into artists and albums, genre, etc. it takes only a few seconds after power up to (I’m guessing here…) scan for changes.

I did find it to be much easier to pop the card out, put it in the Sandisk USB dongle, and plug it into my laptop. When I plugged the SP itself in, I was getting slower copy speed (although still decent) and occasionally the device would disappear. This could easily be an issue with my laptop or with windows 10.

My amazement could be due to the fact that I never had a DAP and started with a $3,600 one

A question if I may. How full is your 1tb card percentage wise. I find as it gets nearer capacity the loading time slows down to around 2 mins.

 

[William1955]

Thank you my friend! What size did you get? Looks like they have medium and large in stock

I got the medium but it was originally for my 2K. The 3K fits (just) very snug.

 

[Progisus]

Hi @JasonNYC . Can you confirm that AK and roon are working on bit perfect for the ARC app, Any plans for ARC on the Kann Alpha?

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Apologies if this is obvious to everyone but I just discovered that if I drag down the settings bar and then “long press” an icon, it gives me additional options. Like if you long press DAR, you can switch between PCM and DSD

 

[JasonNYC]

Hi @JasonNYC . Can you confirm that AK and roon are working on bit perfect for the ARC app, Any plans for ARC on the Kann Alpha?

Roon Arc should be available next round of firmware updates for many of the players released in the last year+ including the KANN ALPHA.

I was told it is being worked on with Roon for bit perfect ARC. Will probably hear more after the new year.

 

[damascato]

Roon Arc should be available next round of firmware updates for many of the players released in the last year+ including the KANN ALPHA.

I was told it is being worked on with Roon for bit perfect ARC. Will probably hear more after the new year.

Have you had any other people concerned about the touch sensitivity of the screen.

My player sometimes activates by itself just because I have the silicon tip of my IEMs resting on it! I don't think that should happen (happned multiple times)

 

[boromcom]

Yesterday I tested the battery of SP3000

Streaming Tidal with DAR opened

1st hr 98% to 83% - no idea why 1st hr battery was depleted very quick
2nd hr 73%
3rd 62%
4th 52%
5th 40%

And stop I had to sleep.. I think I will continue but power on SP3000 normally use 1-2% of the battery

I assume that DAR and streaming might effect for the battery life. But might be wrong.

I will try again with flac file. No streaming and no DAR to see if I can get 10hrs like manual mentioned.

 

[boromcom]

Yesterday I tested the battery of SP3000

Streaming Tidal with DAR opened

1st hr 98% to 83% - no idea why 1st hr battery was depleted very quick
2nd hr 73%
3rd 62%
4th 52%
5th 40%

And stop I had to sleep.. I think I will continue but power on SP3000 normally use 1-2% of the battery

I assume that DAR and streaming might effect for the battery life. But might be wrong.

I will try again with flac file. No streaming and no DAR to see if I can get 10hrs like manual mentioned.

Update

6th 27%
7th 15% and showing low battery.

 

[Mentanalyste]

Have you had any other people concerned about the touch sensitivity of the screen.

My player sometimes activates by itself just because I have the silicon tip of my IEMs resting on it! I don't think that should happen (happned multiple times)

I have the same issu.

More generally, in mobility i.e. the SP3000 in the pocket is just impossible to use well. It's amazing for a so-called mobility product.

In fact, it is not usable at all in the pocket. To get it in and out of the pocket I am constraint to press on the screens, on the volume wheel or on the 3 pause, forward and backward keys.

In short, ideally we should propose a physical button to "lock" the screen and all the keys except the screen power key via the volume wheel.

Technically it is still possible but in "software". By adding in the control panel above the screen a "lock" function.

 

[boromcom]

Have you had any other people concerned about the touch sensitivity of the screen.

My player sometimes activates by itself just because I have the silicon tip of my IEMs resting on it! I don't think that should happen (happned multiple times)

I had the issue that my player too fit to the carry case which cause my player open itself and somehow play until run out of battery.

 

[damascato]

I have the same issu.

More generally, in mobility i.e. the SP3000 in the pocket is just impossible to use well. It's amazing for a so-called mobility product.

In fact, it is not usable at all in the pocket. To get it in and out of the pocket I am constraint to press on the screens, on the volume wheel or on the 3 pause, forward and backward keys.

In short, ideally we should propose a physical button to "lock" the screen and all the keys except the screen power key via the volume wheel.

Technically it is still possible but in "software". By adding in the control panel above the screen a "lock" function.

This used to be a problem in some cheap android phones up to maybe 2018. Stuff costing $500 tops.
And I'm sure that if they managed to fix the screen sensitivity, A&K can give it a go too, given what we paid for these devices.

@JasonNYC

 

[boromcom]

Update

SP3000 battery test

Offline - music on SD card
Wifi off
DAR off
flac 16.44
Track 'Til They Take My Heart Away - Claire Marlo > repeat one track
Volume 25

1st hr - 85%
2nd hr - 74%
3rd hr - 62%
4th hr - 52%
5th hr - 43%
6th hr - 34%
7th hr - 24%

Almost the same result compared to DAR on streaming via Tidal.

Result is about 7-8 hrs for playback. Not sure how come for 10 hrs.

 

[boromcom]

Deleted

 

[arftech]

This used to be a problem in some cheap android phones up to maybe 2018. Stuff costing $500 tops.
And I'm sure that if they managed to fix the screen sensitivity, A&K can give it a go too, given what we paid for these devices.

@JasonNYC

I don’t have an issue with screen sensitivity but I’m not saying others may not be experiencing this.