[audionewbi]

I just passed the 80 hour mark of burnin, the bass has opened quiet a lot! The extension is even deeper now. Makes me wonder if there is a Nichon capacitor inside? If there is, this means this device can be modded!

 

[madFloyd]

So playing devil's advocate, what would be the motivation to purchase this? It's not really a mobile device; surely it's not as good as a dedicated desktop device. It's got limited inputs and outputs. It's more expensive than the Fiio M17 but seemingly doesn't surpass it in any way...?

 

[audionewbi]

So playing devil's advocate, what would be the motivation to purchase this? It's not really a mobile device; surely it's not as good as a dedicated desktop device. It's got limited inputs and outputs. It's more expensive than the Fiio M17 but seemingly doesn't surpass it in any way...?

• It is a great home/office rig. If you drive to work, it is not that hard to take it in.
• Great digital source for your home HiFi setup, much cheaper than most the streaming enables audio sources out there.
• Very competent desktop DAC (currently testing its RCA feeding my KSE1500).
• On paper M17 seems more competent, it will come down to the tonality one prefers.
• Competent stand-alone amp which has potential to be better than its onboard sound offers (this is something M17 doesn't do).
  • I will test it later again feeding its amp input from RCA out of HUGO/Pro 6.

As a consumer, this creates competition, which results in a better products for end-users.

 

[madFloyd]

I appreciate the reply, thanks.

 

[OuYang]

ACRO is for home audio so it is not DAP, it is similar Naim Uniti Atom HE or CHORD 2go + Hugo 2, but Naim doesn't have battery and CHORD is more portable.

As a SR15 user I am very disappointed about never coming Roon Ready function, but now I am considering CA1000 for more home audio functions and interfaces.

 

[audionewbi]

ACRO is for home audio so it is not DAP, it is similar Naim Uniti Atom HE or CHORD 2go + Hugo 2, but Naim doesn't have battery and CHORD is more portable.

As a SR15 user I am very disappointed about never coming Roon Ready function, but now I am considering CA1000 for more home audio functions and interfaces.

I do see the benefits of Roon for CA1000, make sure to burn in the unit, the sounds become more balance past 50-hour mark.

 

[audionewbi]

I've been playing around with all the input jack at the front of CA1K. Sadly, myself included, we assume the new trend is oath to be the best and right now the new trend is pentaconn everything.
I went looking for Dita Fidelity which was gifted to me on my first trip to Singapore by my good friend Kenneth, from Dita Audio. I like that headphone for both sentimental reason as well as how picky it is to the source.

I first plugged it into the 4.4mm port and was greeted with slightly bright, dynamic and hyper detailed sound. It was too intense for me, as it is for most sources when it comes to this IEM.
I thought why not try the other port. I switched to 3.5mm plug and everything sounded more balance, wider and less intense, I dare say musical.
This is a lot to my liking!

Switched to 2.5mm, similar result to 4.4mm.

1/4inch jack sounded identical to 3.5mm plug.

You know what, 3.5mm is more than just find for on the go audio!

 

[Nostoi]

I've been playing around with all the input jack at the front of CA1K. Sadly, myself included, we assume the new trend is oath to be the best and right now the new trend is pentaconn everything.
I went looking for Dita Fidelity which was gifted to me on my first trip to Singapore by my good friend Kenneth, from Dita Audio. I like that headphone for both sentimental reason as well as how picky it is to the source.

I first plugged it into the 4.4mm port and was greeted with slightly bright, dynamic and hyper detailed sound. It was too intense for me, as it is for most sources when it comes to this IEM.
I thought why not try the other port. I switched to 3.5mm plug and everything sounded more balance, wider and less intense, I dare say musical.
This is a lot to my liking!

Switched to 2.5mm, similar result to 4.4mm.

1/4inch jack sounded identical to 3.5mm plug.

You know what, 3.5mm is more than just find for on the go audio!

I guess because SE is lower output than balanced, which likely affects timbre and technical performance.

 

[Nogoodnamesleft]

It is "condition no load". I am guessing it's not going to get that high at 32Ohms. That number is most likely only be achievable at 300Ohms and 32Ohms would quite a bit lower.

But if CA1000 can do 15Vrms at 32Ohms, that would be 7.03W.

I believe it as it adequately powers my susvara

 

[audionewbi]

After some more hours of burin, the sound settle down for the better, and I actually can now see myself owning this long term for certain of my IEM and all my headphones.
The noise floor is sadly still too high for super sensitive IEM, but the likes of M9, IER-Z1R or VR1 have no issues.

The treble is not as pronounced as I first heard it.

 

[ddlo]

just got mine today. I can get enjoyable volume at "high" mode with vol. at 75-80 (i.e. ~50%) with some of the easier to drive overheads (e.g. utopia, stellia, liric, D9200). the combinations sound quite ok but dynamic seems short of m17's performance. the tiled screen is really a smart design! i wonder how come fiio and ibasso didnt think about this in the first place! the industrial design and even the volume wheel rotates much more satisfyingly than my m17. the tasteless gaming RGB design of m17 falls way short of the tasteful design of AK.

battery life is excellent. it dropped just 15% after 2 hours play time (that's "high" amp mode and 75-80 vol.) i saw m17's battery dropping rather much quicker than CA1000. the interface response is ok but noticeably slower than m17. it comes with a download tab on the services menu allowing i directly download most popular streaming apps without resorting to copying APK from sdcards. this is a big improvement over the old sp1000m i got! i've briefly running fir m4 with it in "low" mode and couldn't hear any hiss. I'll try with the more sensitive CA solaris and EA zesus later on to test. btw, CA1000 runs much cooler than m17 - it's just slightly warm while m17 (also the m15 i got) feels like a hand warmer.

in my area, both are priced about the same. frankly speaking, i won't buy m17 if the ca1000 came out first. it might lag behind the m17 in driving power but the design, outlook and battery life all outplay m17. and the level of power available is already able to drive most (my) overheads satisfyingly. i'm more than happy to have the ca1000 as a quasi-portable setup that i could use around my apartment

 

[Nostoi]

just got mine today. I can get enjoyable volume at "high" mode with vol. at 75-80 (i.e. ~50%) with some of the easier to drive overheads (e.g. utopia, stellia, liric, D9200). the combinations sound quite ok but dynamic seems short of m17's performance. the tiled screen is really a smart design! i wonder how come fiio and ibasso didnt think about this in the first place! the industrial design and even the volume wheel rotates much more satisfyingly than my m17. the tasteless gaming RGB design of m17 falls way short of the tasteful design of AK.

battery life is excellent. it dropped just 15% after 2 hours play time (that's "high" amp mode and 75-80 vol.) i saw m17's battery dropping rather much quicker than CA1000. the interface response is ok but noticeably slower than m17. it comes with a download tab on the services menu allowing i directly download most popular streaming apps without resorting to copying APK from sdcards. this is a big improvement over the old sp1000m i got! i've briefly running fir m4 with it in "low" mode and couldn't hear any hiss. I'll try with the more sensitive CA solaris and EA zesus later on to test. btw, CA1000 runs much cooler than m17 - it's just slightly warm while m17 (also the m15 i got) feels like a hand warmer.

in my area, both are priced about the same. frankly speaking, i won't buy m17 if the ca1000 came out first. it might lag behind the m17 in driving power but the design, outlook and battery life all outplay m17. and the level of power available is already able to drive most (my) overheads satisfyingly. i'm more than happy to have the ca1000 as a quasi-portable setup that i could use around my apartment

But seems like the M17 sounds better overall?

Impressive headphone collection, BTW.

 

[subguy812]

just got mine today. I can get enjoyable volume at "high" mode with vol. at 75-80 (i.e. ~50%) with some of the easier to drive overheads (e.g. utopia, stellia, liric, D9200). the combinations sound quite ok but dynamic seems short of m17's performance. the tiled screen is really a smart design! i wonder how come fiio and ibasso didnt think about this in the first place! the industrial design and even the volume wheel rotates much more satisfyingly than my m17. the tasteless gaming RGB design of m17 falls way short of the tasteful design of AK.

battery life is excellent. it dropped just 15% after 2 hours play time (that's "high" amp mode and 75-80 vol.) i saw m17's battery dropping rather much quicker than CA1000. the interface response is ok but noticeably slower than m17. it comes with a download tab on the services menu allowing i directly download most popular streaming apps without resorting to copying APK from sdcards. this is a big improvement over the old sp1000m i got! i've briefly running fir m4 with it in "low" mode and couldn't hear any hiss. I'll try with the more sensitive CA solaris and EA zesus later on to test. btw, CA1000 runs much cooler than m17 - it's just slightly warm while m17 (also the m15 i got) feels like a hand warmer.

in my area, both are priced about the same. frankly speaking, i won't buy m17 if the ca1000 came out first. it might lag behind the m17 in driving power but the design, outlook and battery life all outplay m17. and the level of power available is already able to drive most (my) overheads satisfyingly. i'm more than happy to have the ca1000 as a quasi-portable setup that i could use around my apartment

Curious to hear more thoughts after some burn-in.

 

[ddlo]

But seems like the M17 sounds better overall?

I'm not a critical listener so dont find very big difference between different sources all along if there's adequate clean power to drive the headphones/iems. my subjective impression so far (likely not very reliable) is the ak sounds less dynamic (be warned i didnt level match the two setups) and has less mid-bass. or i could call it a smooth presentation which sometimes has great synergy with more energetic headphones/iems. but that's not really vast difference and i wont notice if not a/b comparing them in a short span of time.

Impressive headphone collection, BTW.

i just started to buy more head-fi stuff since late 2019 after the covid outbreak. the (eliminated) travelling and dining expenses more or less cover the expenditure on audio gear i think i got too impulsive in buying this kind of stuff and likely will stop purchasing new equipment for a while . . .

 

[vonBaron]

@ddlo did you tested M17 only in battery mode?