[rudi0504]

Here is what I have found for you Mr Rudi,

Iriver korea is selling a special bundle package called "Astell and Kern AK120 super package" priced at 2 290 000 Won (roughly for 2030 USD). The package includes:

• AK120
• IE800
• Optical in cable(55 USD)
• 3.5 mm out 1m(25 USD which is a bargain, seems like a true high quality mini to mini)

They used to sell one another bundle which also had a number of MQS albums and another bundle which contained only the AK120 and IE800. But they seem to no longer have that listed.

The package seem to be only for the south Korean market.

Hope that helps. 

Thank you Audionewbi for your help

 

[coachhouse]

I am feeling the urge to Purchase the 120 ! I have the ALO V2 , Voruge duo and the ALO National will any of these amps inhance the 120 signifiicantly over the original A&K ?

 

[audionewbi]

Quote:

I am feeling the urge to Purchase the 120 ! I have the ALO V2 , Voruge duo and the ALO National will any of these amps inhance the 120 signifiicantly over the original A&K ?

Considering you have all those amps perhaps AK100 will be a better and cheaper option for you. While to my ears dual DAC makes an improvement (which on occasion can be quiet significant ) considering the future firmware update planned for AK100 (which will enable its USB DAC feature) I feel having owned the AK100 and paired it with AMP you should easily match the level of sound AK120 offers in its stock format easily.
 
There have been many account on how AK100 and vorzuge duo pair. I personally tired  vorzuge amp not the duo with AK100 and enjoyed the sound a lot however sadly carrying an amp was not something I had in my hence why I ended up selling the AK100 and purchasing the AK120 instead.
 
To me the entire point of AK120 and all the other portable DAP is that we do not need to add an amp in the chain in order to have a competent sounding gear, this will conflict with the portability aspect and that defeats the purpose of all the portable DAP.
 
summary: Based on my experience in stock level AK120 does not need amping where as AK100( black edition) do require it. Considering your amp selection I advice that you first test out the AK100.

 

[dallan]

Amps have very little to do with volume level....if that is your premise.
 
My issue is a worry about having to double amp instead of using a line out like the HM801.

 

[audionewbi]

Quote:

Amps have very little to do with volume level....if that is your premise.

It is part of one premise for the cases of my ER4S and some of those high impedance headphone, however there are other premises in my argument such as needing an amp to correct the damping factor of your source (in this case the AK100) and in cases where the amp is designed to add color to the sound (like the treble and bass feature we have on amps)
 
Amplification purpose are more than their dB level from the line out and I agree with that for sure, however the gain button do serve for that purpose. 
 
 

My issue is a worry about having to double amp instead of using a line out like the HM801.

Double amping is beyond the scope of this thread. But essentially if the signal is clean (low THD) and it is within the limit of the amp input tolerance than double amping will not be a problem. 
 
People prefer true lineout as it tend to be directyl from the amp DAC chip without any opamp/EFT interfering with the signal. This is essentially a concern that the signal might be distorted and colored due to those hardware intefering. However AK100 is shown to be clean signal and since it is under 2.0 vrm clipping and distoration of such nature will not occur unless your amp input requires vrm less than what Ak100 offers at its maximum level (which is 1.55 vrm)
 
In my view we are always double amping regardless if it is from a true lineout or a headphone out. If the lineout signal is badly distorted for whatever reason the amp will show that(if it is design correctly).

 

[nanashisan]

Interested to know how well the AK120 pairs with the TG334.

 

[dallan]

Quote:

It is part of one premise for the cases of my ER4S and some of those high impedance headphone, however there are other premises in my argument such as needing an amp to correct the damping factor of your source (in this case the AK100) and in cases where the amp is designed to add color to the sound (like the treble and bass feature we have on amps)
 
Amplification purpose are more than their dB level from the line out and I agree with that for sure, however the gain button do serve for that purpose. 
 
 
Double amping is beyond the scope of this thread. But essentially if the signal is clean (low THD) and it is within the limit of the amp input tolerance than double amping will not be a problem. 
 
People prefer true lineout as it tend to be directyl from the amp without any opamp/EFT interfering with the signal. This is essentially a concern that the signal might be distorted and colored due to those hardware intefering. However AK100 is shown to be clean signal and since it is under 2.0 vrm clipping and distoration of such nature will not occur unless your amp input requires vrm less than what Ak100 offers at its maximum level (which is 1.55 vrm)
 
In my view we are always double amping regardless if it is from a true lineout or a headphone out. If the lineout signal is badly distorted for whatever reason the amp will show that(if it is design correctly).

 
Thank you for your response.  I guess we agree on the first that it is not a volume thing, for me it is for the needs of the headphone in question impedance match, so as to give a fuller sound through driving it correctly.
 
As far as the double amping, your comments are useful, i am on the fence with this dap and have been following closely for a while.  Others have pointed out earlier that it is not a problem but i guess i am stuck in the past a bit with one idea of an amp with the ipods was to bypass the amp(HP out) and get a better signal from the line out of the dock.  So maybe i have to move away from that belief, esp if the distortion out of the headphone out is extremely low.

 

[audionewbi]

I honestly do not have any proper qualification in regarding of the benefit of lineout and things of such nature. The information I get is from the article I read online and from my cousin who is an electrical engineer. Truth be told he is a theoretical guy and him and I disagree on few things like the impact of signal and sound in analogy out cable. But from what I have read and been told from him what matters is to ensure to have a less than 1% distortion for the case of large setup and generally a 0.01% for portable unit is enough. 
 
When I asked him about double amping he was not quiet sure so when I explain to him he told me it is it bit unclear since even the lineout signal of 2.0 vrm is also getting amplified again when we are amping them. Just because it is labeled as true lineout we should not assume that it is going to be much cleaner than the headphone section. 

I actually asked him to check my hm-601 and he told me yes the lineout sounds different but that is because there maybe no opamp in between the DAC chip. Just because it sounds different it does not necessiarly means it will measure better. So based on that I am assuming what is important is the THD% and if that is proven to be below 0.01% we should really not worry about double amping a lot and inf act should ensure that the signal been feed to the portable amp.

 

[coachhouse]

Quote:

Considering you have all those amps perhaps AK100 will be a better and cheaper option for you. While to my ears dual DAC makes an improvement (which on occasion can be quiet significant ) considering the future firmware update planned for AK100 (which will enable its USB DAC feature) I feel having owned the AK100 and paired it with AMP you should easily match the level of sound AK120 offers in its stock format easily.
 
There have been many account on how AK100 and vorzuge duo pair. I personally tired  vorzuge amp not the duo with AK100 and enjoyed the sound a lot however sadly carrying an amp was not something I had in my hence why I ended up selling the AK100 and purchasing the AK120 instead.
 
To me the entire point of AK120 and all the other portable DAP is that we do not need to add an amp in the chain in order to have a competent sounding gear, this will conflict with the portability aspect and that defeats the purpose of all the portable DAP.
 
summary: Based on my experience in stock level AK120 does not need amping where as AK100( black edition) do require it. Considering your amp selection I advice that you first test out the AK100.

 Thanks for the response ! I had a gut feeling this might be the case and appreciate your advice.

 

[audionewbi]

I am having a very positive experienced with F111, CK100PRO, EX-1000 and ES10 using the 1.21 firmware. I am really enjoying the USB DAC feature. 
 
I in particular enjoy what the PRO equalizer setting does to the F111. 
 
After doing a number of complete battery drain test I can conform that I get 13 hours playing mixture of files. I hope within a months time I get to test out how the battery life is using four different setting:

• AK120 battery life using lossy files only
• AK120 battery life using 16/44.1 flac files
• AK120 battery life using 24/192 files
• AK120 battery life using DSD files.

 
But right now I can conform at worst 12+ batter life minimum. 

 

[musicday]

I think compared with Clip+, DX100, Tera Player, Hifiman xxx series and all other DAPs AK120 does really good at 13+ hours battery life thinking about what it can do.

 

[kkcc]

Quote:

I think compared with Clip+, DX100, Tera Player, Hifiman xxx series and all other DAPs AK120 does really good at 13+ hours battery life thinking about what it can do.

 
I can report I'm getting at least 12 hours on a single charge (actually should be closer to 14 but just want to put it conservatively) and I mostly listen to a 50/50 mix of 24 bit and 16 bit files at about 40 volume with EQ off.

 

[audionewbi]

Added a spec table I found from iriver japan.

 

[JmoonAK]

Edit: link removed

 

[audionewbi]

Edited upon request.