[alphanumerix1]

Interesting thanks for posting your thoughts.

 

[Giraku]

@Giraku not sure about the filters, I haven't actually played with a retail version yet. The pre production unit that I used had all of the filters working correctly. I am at CES with our team. Let me ask them for more info and get back to you.

@JasonNYC Have you had a chance to discuss with your team regarding the filter issue? I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide me some info.

 

[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC Have you had a chance to discuss with your team regarding the filter issue? I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide me some info.

@Giraku sorry for the delay. It looks like all my responses from CES never posted, then got hit with a nasty bout of the flu and have been out of commission for a week.

To answer your question, I was told the filters are pretty subtle. As with the case of EQ and our players, all of our filtering is passive and will produce a change in sound, but not overly drastic. We do not like to digitally manipulate the original sound since our goal is to try to produce the most natural sound possible, like it was originally recorded in the studio.

I spent some time with the L1000 at CES and agree, there is not much noticeable change. However, on the unit that had about 200 hours of burn-in vs the one that had a lot less, there was noticeable difference in sound when switching filters.

 

[10volt]

L1000 is a well built small amplifier that doesn't require much space to set up. I love the soft clicking feel of its epic sized volume knob.

.

The volume control is probably digital, so do you know how many steps the volume control are? Does it allow finetuning of volume?

My signal path is:
MacBook Pro (2016) -> Roon 1.4 -> L1000
It is nice to have a variety of connection options for headphones and IEMs. I'm using the following connections:
HE1kv2 -> XLR balanced
TH900 -> standard stereo unbalanced
Tribute 7 -> 3.5mm unbalanced
JH Layla 2 -> 2.5mm balanced
Andromeda -> 3.5mm unbalanced

.

Any hiss with the HE1kv2 headphone?

 

[Giraku]

@Giraku sorry for the delay. It looks like all my responses from CES never posted, then got hit with a nasty bout of the flu and have been out of commission for a week.

To answer your question, I was told the filters are pretty subtle. As with the case of EQ and our players, all of our filtering is passive and will produce a change in sound, but not overly drastic. We do not like to digitally manipulate the original sound since our goal is to try to produce the most natural sound possible, like it was originally recorded in the studio.

I spent some time with the L1000 at CES and agree, there is not much noticeable change. However, on the unit that had about 200 hours of burn-in vs the one that had a lot less, there was noticeable difference in sound when switching filters.

Thank you, @JasonNYC, for your input. My L1000 is still a bit under 100 hours, and there is almost no difference among 3 different filter settings yet.
I will revisit this after completing the burning in process for more than 200 hours.

One disappointing thing is that there is no "High Gain" mode so that it can drive hard-to-drive cans. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had to turn the volume up to 95% for Beyerdynamic T1.2. For HE1kv2, I set the volume to 80 to 85%. In both cases, L1000 drove these cans with authority. However, depending on the recordings, especially classical music in DSD, even 100% volume may not be enough.
I thought the red filter (high gain) was supposed to be a simple gain boost. But it seems like not the case.

Is there any plan adding a true high gain mode in the future firmware update?

 

[Giraku]

The volume control is probably digital, so do you know how many steps the volume control are? Does it allow finetuning of volume?

I don't know how many steps it has. But yes, it allows very fine tuning of the volume. Maybe too fine because sometimes I have to turn the knob quite a lot. But it always feels good.
@JasonNYC, could you tell us how many steps there are in the volume control?

Any hiss with the HE1kv2 headphone?

No hiss with my HE1kv2. CampFire Andromeda is the only one produces audible hiss. But the amount/volume of the hiss is small enough so that there is no distraction from listening music.

 

[Giraku]

At a meeting equivalent to CanJam in Japan, Astell & Kern announced a desktop speaker system called ACRO S1000.
Obviously, S1000 is designed to be paired with L1000.

Here is a link to the Japanese audio site (turn on the translation feature on):
https://www.phileweb.com/news/d-av/201802/10/43278.html

 

[Giraku]

Here are some pictures of S1000 that I found on the web.

 

[Sound Eq]

i really look forward to more impressions please

 

[Giraku]

Powered speakers designed for ACRO L1000 is now available for pre-order:
https://us.astellnkern.com/products...123719145&mc_cid=117ddf544b&mc_eid=7670e920ec

Edit: S1000 speaker system is not powered. It is designed to be driven by L1000 amplifier.

 

[JasonNYC]

Powered speakers designed for ACRO L1000 is now available for pre-order:
https://us.astellnkern.com/products...123719145&mc_cid=117ddf544b&mc_eid=7670e920ec

The S1000 speakers are part of our new ACRO desktop line. They are designed to complement the L1000 Desktop Amp. The S1000 speakers are NOT powered. They need to be connected to an amplifier such as the L1000.

 

[Giraku]

The S1000 speakers are part of our new ACRO desktop line. They are designed to complement the L1000 Desktop Amp. The S1000 speakers are NOT powered. They need to be connected to an amplifier such as the L1000.

Thank you, Jason, for the correction.
Now I understand that S1000 is designed to be driven by L1000.
Tempting...

 

[Ultrainferno]

For today's picture Sunday article we have a first look at the Astell & Kern ACRO L1000 desktop DAC/AMP unit. It's so incredibly beautiful.
https://www.headfonia.com/picture-sunday-astell-kern-acro-l1000/

 

[Woyaudadong]

Thank you, Jason, for the correction.
Now I understand that S1000 is designed to be driven by L1000.
Tempting...

I tried JBL control 1 x which paired up quite good but the volume knob had to turn to the second last dot. For 2.5 and 3.5, it gave life to my heir 10, FAD Lab 1,velvet and sem 9 which I found hard to drive with AK 240ss or even sp1000ss.For fourte, u18,k10u,qdc Gemini s, AKT8ie, L1000 played no better than sp1000. For big cans such as k812, T1 and HD800, Hdva 600 was much more preferred.

 

[cheznous]

So I understand the idea of using this with a pc or a mac. But if you use with say an SP1000 are you not just using it as an external headphone amplifier and not using
the ACRO DAC as no optical in only USB.