[nfandi]

Of course not. Would you really say it otherwise?

Please don't misunderstand, it's not personal, after all, none of us would say anything.

The SP4000 is certainly in the pipeline. And why not? And it will certainly come next year. Will anyone accept a bet?

Not me, no. You think it will have the R2R DAC from the SE300?

 

[denis1976]

Of course not. Would you really say it otherwise?

Please don't misunderstand, it's not personal, after all, none of us would say anything.

The SP4000 is certainly in the pipeline. And why not? And it will certainly come next year. Will anyone accept a bet?

Do you have a SP3000?

 

[phiemon]

Not me, no. You think it will have the R2R DAC from the SE300?

Don't know, but I don't think... surely AKM again.

Do you have a SP3000?

I had it, yep, but now I have the N30.

 

[denis1976]

Don't know, but I don't think... surely AKM again.


I had it, yep, but now I have the N30.

If you have the best player of the universe why speculate about sp4000? the wheel has already been invented mate....

 

[Cheslav]

 

[Tanalasta]

Of course not. Would you really say it otherwise?

Please don't misunderstand, it's not personal, after all, none of us would say anything.

The SP4000 is certainly in the pipeline. And why not? And it will certainly come next year. Will anyone accept a bet?

I would anticipate 2025 to be honest.

Uncertain re: AKM and what the implementation or pipeline will be in that time. A&K Ultima are not known to be R2R or FPGA DAC and another sound chip may entirely change their house signature that has been relatively consistent in the AK flagship series.

Who knows, maybe they'll implement switching (e.g. Cayin) given their growing expertise with tubes. And strengthen their amp section given increasingly power hungry IEM's.

Time will tell. We're certainly not spoilt for choice though.

 

[tonyusa]

Got the black 3000 about 2-3 months ago. Now want to get the gold one. Any shop in the US you guys recommend that I can get some a good deal.

 

[IgeNeLL]

Of course not. Would you really say it otherwise?

Please don't misunderstand, it's not personal, after all, none of us would say anything.

The SP4000 is certainly in the pipeline. And why not? And it will certainly come next year. Will anyone accept a bet?

No, I think the life cycle should be 3 years. SP3000 and SP2000 still are too good at the moment.

 

[phiemon]

No, I think the life cycle should be 3 years. SP3000 and SP2000 still are too good at the moment.

Three years in this field is way too much, if you ask me.

The SP3000 is heavily criticized because the AMP section is too weak. Yes, I know, some people don't think so. I was a huge fan of the SP3000 myself - until I noticed the noticeable (!) difference myself...

 

[nfandi]

Three years in this field is way too much, if you ask me.

The SP3000 is heavily criticized because the AMP section is too weak. Yes, I know, some people don't think so. I was a huge fan of the SP3000 myself - until I noticed the noticeable (!) difference myself...

Can you please advise where I can find this heavy criticism? I don’t mean if you read that somebody didn’t like it, I mean the ‘heavy criticism’. And please also advise what “noticeable difference” you are referring to and against what are you noticing this, as yet undescribed difference. Thanks in advance.

 

[Kobe4ever]

Ok personal tastes, but I think that to write negative judgements on a DAP like the SP3000 is absurd. Even the story of weak amplification is inexplicable to me

 

[phiemon]

Can you please advise where I can find this heavy criticism? I don’t mean if you read that somebody didn’t like it, I mean the ‘heavy criticism’. And please also advise what “noticeable difference” you are referring to and against what are you noticing this, as yet undescribed difference. Thanks in advance.

I really don't feel like having another discussion on this topic. So I'll just point out the following and say no more. You can see for yourself by searching for the keywords "SP3000" and/or "SP3K" + "weak" / "weakest" in the Watercooler.

Quite simply: it is an "objective fact" or whatever you want to call it that the SP3000 has "the weakest AMP" among the current TOTL DAPs. And as we have already said hundreds of times: we are not talking about "quantity" here, but about "quality" of power.

But overall: generally, less power = less definition, poorer (smaller/flatter/lower) soundstage, less dynamics. All this is already clearly perceptible with the N30 within different gain levels.

Again: all this is a fact, whether you (subjectively) like it or not and independent of your (subjective) perception. Or rather: the differences you perceive can of course be small or large depending on their own perception and expectation.

Ok personal tastes, but I think that to write negative judgements on a DAP like the SP3000 is absurd. Even the story of weak amplification is inexplicable to me

Exactly, that's the next question: it's your own taste whether more power = better. In fact, I usually run the N30 at "mid" and not higher gain.

I would like to note: I had the opportunity to freely compare other TOTL DAPs besides the SP3000 and decide whether to keep them or not. I was really a big fan of the SP3000 and it was my intention to keep it for many years. Again, I could just give the other DAPs away and keep the SP3000. In the end, I was disappointed myself at how big the difference was. On the other hand, I would also like to say that the SP3000 has the better tuning of all after the N30.

 

[Tanalasta]

I really don't feel like having another discussion on this topic. So I'll just point out the following and say no more. You can see for yourself by searching for the keywords "SP3000" and/or "SP3K" + "weak" / "weakest" in the Watercooler.

Quite simply: it is an "objective fact" or whatever you want to call it that the SP3000 has "the weakest AMP" among the current TOTL DAPs. And as we have already said hundreds of times: we are not talking about "quantity" here, but about "quality" of power.

But overall: generally, less power = less definition, poorer (smaller/flatter/lower) soundstage, less dynamics. All this is already clearly perceptible with the N30 within different gain levels.

Again: all this is a fact, whether you (subjectively) like it or not and independent of your (subjective) perception. Or rather: the differences you perceive can of course be small or large depending on their own perception and expectation.

I’ve heard the SP3K.

Compared to modern DAPs (even the ibasso 320) also agree the amp is the weakest part of the sp3000 chain. It’s not “bad”. Just the weakest link in what is very much an all round excellent DAP. Less of an issue if you’re driving the majority of IEM but at summit fi level and headphones it is noticeable. Easily mitigated with an external amp (eg. Cayun c9, mass kobo 475)

I’m not alone in this assessment and I doubt a reviewer will write “the amp is terrible”. It’s not. It’s just not S or A tier for summit fi. In context, it is still better than the r6pro2 I’m listening to at present (driving Utopia OG) which is a whole different segment.

The DAC implementation is excellent and an improvement over the SP2000. And if you enjoy the AK flagship house sound you would find it hard to do better.

I would expect next generation to improve on it and would be interested to hear the 3000T when it arrives.

 

[nfandi]

I really don't feel like having another discussion on this topic. So I'll just point out the following and say no more. You can see for yourself by searching for the keywords "SP3000" and/or "SP3K" + "weak" / "weakest" in the Watercooler.

Quite simply: it is an "objective fact" or whatever you want to call it that the SP3000 has "the weakest AMP" among the current TOTL DAPs. And as we have already said hundreds of times: we are not talking about "quantity" here, but about "quality" of power.

But overall: generally, less power = less definition, poorer (smaller/flatter/lower) soundstage, less dynamics. All this is already clearly perceptible with the N30 within different gain levels.

Again: all this is a fact, whether you (subjectively) like it or not and independent of your (subjective) perception. Or rather: the differences you perceive can of course be small or large depending on their own perception and expectation.


Exactly, that's the next question: it's your own taste whether more power = better. In fact, I usually run the N30 at "mid" and not higher gain.

I would like to note: I had the opportunity to freely compare other TOTL DAPs besides the SP3000 and decide whether to keep them or not. I was really a big fan of the SP3000 and it was my intention to keep it for many years. Again, I could just give the other DAPs away and keep the SP3000. In the end, I was disappointed myself at how big the difference was. On the other hand, I would also like to say that the SP3000 has the better tuning of all after the N30.

If you don’t like having another discussion the topic why did you raise it again? I am relatively new here and don’t know anything about what you are talking about so please take your condescending attitude towards inferior people like me and stuff it. I asked for more information and you answer as though I should know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any other perception other than I like my SP3000. And what differences am I supposed to perceive when I have the SP3000 and nothing but the SP3000?

 

[CharlyBrown]

Here we go again….

I love the Watercooler discussions and respect the people there. But some of them tend to stretch things a bit. I even read several posts that some IEMs scale and scale and scale when used with extreme desktop amps, delivering 17watts and more. And sorry, that’s utter nonsense.

Sure, you can go that route if it makes you happy but probably you will never be because when the 22watt amp is available, the IEM will scale even further.

Seriously, in the end It’s physics behind driving IEMs, not angel dust, and I tend to rely on professionals than to shell out crazy money because a „non-pro“ says something. The professionals I’m referring to are e.g. the people from headphones.com, for example. They tested the SP3000 and the clear statement is it will drive all IEMs properly and also headphones that are not hard to drive. They even host a headphone calculator for everybody to check. All my IEMs and headphones have enough headroom with the SP3k, YMMV.

But It’s still true, other DAPs have higher powered amps (not all, at least one TOTL has less - the Sony Z2, even the non-Euro version…) but maybe they come with drawbacks, e.g. waterfall hissing with sensitive IEMs, getting hot in the hands etc. and that’s also something I love about the SP3K. It never gets hot and it is the proven industry gold standard for It’s black background. No hissing ever.

Other than that, some people might prefer some slight sound characteristics changes between different DAPs, but that’s another thing.

Btw. I’m currently contemplating adding an external amp to my SP3k, the ibasso PB5. But not because I expect any improvement from It’s power (it has nearly twice the power of the N30) but because I’m interested in the sound characteristics of the tubes.