[LouisArmstrong]

I see from their website the words "now AK380 is the start"... which means...

 

[piksnz]

Are they a Japanese company and that's a translation? It reads like a really bad one.

I'm a professional J to E translator. Someone tell them I'll competently translate their page for a single AK380.

They are Korean company

 

[danpong]

  I see from their website the words "now AK380 is the start"... which means...

Which means they will have more accessories that will make the system whole.  Very clever opening the way for new stuff.  Well now we need to wait another month before it really hit the market and get the real review.

 

[zachawry]

That makes sense. Like the Japanese, they spend tons of resources perfecting a product, then hand the translation over to someone in-house who claims to be an expert in English because they spent a week in New York once.

 

[bmichels]

Maybe you guys should summarise all the questions you hope answered. I'll see what I can try to ask. There's a closed presentation tomorrow of which Currawong & I are invited to (thanks to Sasaki-san) before the Fujiya Spring Festival doors open. If the presentation doesn't cover the questions you have, we can ask after in Q&A or private session with AK.


When your reply, please quote my post here. I'll use it for tracking. I've been busy with work and haven't had time to read through all the past posts before this morning.

My Main question will be: when will they integrate QOBUZ or TIDAL streaming. on Munich's show, their staff admited honestly that those développements are on hold !?

Suggestion: have 2 versions: 256 Gb and 512 Gb.

PLUS FYI

One thing I noticed: the internal amp is WEAK ! Maximum on the AK380 = "Blue" on my HUGO

Thanks

 

[kawaivpc1]

My Main question will be: when will they integrate QOBUZ or TIDAL streaming. on Munich's show, their staff admited honestly that those développements are on hold !?

Suggestion: have 2 versions: 256 Gb and 512 Gb.

PLUS FYI

One thing I noticed: the internal amp is WEAK ! Maximum on the AK380 = "Blue" on my HUGO

Thanks

Yes, I bet they don't listen to 32bit 382kHz DXD albums. One DXD album is about 10GB.
It means we can put only 30 DXD / DSD128 albums into this machine.
Who pays 3500 dollars to play just 30 albums?
They need a 512GB version ASAP.
 
or we have to wait till Sandisk release a 2TB microSD card. It will take seven to ten more years and 2TB microSD card's price will rival the price of AK380.

 

[ak240newbie]

AK380 is not the maximum what they can do, I want AK380SS

 

[piksnz]

Yes, I bet they don't listen to 32bit 382kHz DXD albums. One DXD album is about 10GB.
It means we can put only 30 DXD / DSD128 albums into this machine.
Who pays 3500 dollars to just play 30 albums?
They need a 512GB version ASAP.

or we have to wait till Sandisk release a 2TB microSD card. It will take seven to ten more years and 2TB microSD card's price will rival the price of AK380.

you can hardly count DXD as the mainstream music. There are hardly any albums in the DXD format unless I am unaware of.

 

[kawaivpc1]

you can hardly count DXD as the mainstream music. There are hardly any albums in the DXD format unless I am unaware of.

No, you're wrong.
 
Check these guys:
 
http://nativedsd.com
 
http://2l.no
 
They have hundreds of fantastic classical DXD and DSD 256 albums. Some labels are choosing to record albums at this quality. Each one of these DXD / DSD 256 ablum is about 10GB.
 
Even 24bit 192kHz FLAC album is 2 to 3 GB. We can barely put 60-70 albums we choose to put 24bit 192kHz only.
Apparently, not enough albums for 3,500 dollars.
 
In 160GB iPod ($200), we could put over 1000 mp3 albums.

 

[rumina]

one thing i don't understand, when stainles steel is better than duraluminium why not use this body for their new flagship product.... i own a ak240 and like the sound signature very much even if my hugo sounds better. it's kind of sad seeing marketing / marging desicions beeing so prominent for iriver/ak. but it looks sexy and with all the add ons it will be joyful to play with, the biggest no go for me: only 256gb, hope since years for a dap who carries all my music and with under 700gb its no massive.

 

[hkppl]

one thing i don't understand, when stainles steel is better than duraluminium why not use this body for their new flagship product.... i own a ak240 and like the sound signature very much even if my hugo sounds better. it's kind of sad seeing marketing / marging desicions beeing so prominent for iriver/ak. but it looks sexy and with all the add ons it will be joyful to play with, the biggest no go for me: only 256gb, hope since years for a dap who carries all my music and with under 700gb its no massive.

i guess it is because they will release ak380ss some time later that cost more than ak380

 

[Cagin]

one thing i don't understand, when stainles steel is better than duraluminium why not use this body for their new flagship product.... i own a ak240 and like the sound signature very much even if my hugo sounds better. it's kind of sad seeing marketing / marging desicions beeing so prominent for iriver/ak. but it looks sexy and with all the add ons it will be joyful to play with, the biggest no go for me: only 256gb, hope since years for a dap who carries all my music and with under 700gb its no massive.

You are totally making sense rumina. Duralumin was hailed as the next best thing, whoa aircraft grade material, lighter than steel yo...
Mython's narrative is one coherent answer, see post#311.

Spoiler

And they know there are a couple of thousand people who will throw their money at any new flagship AK DAP, regardless of price, regardless of specs. It's like a never-ending cash-cow for them.




Many will think I'm joking about this, but I'm not: I predict the AK380 won't sound substantially better than the PAW 5000.

A&K are so busy price-gouging, that they're forgetting that the sub-$1000 audiophile DAP market is rapidly improving. Gone are the days (not so long ago) when SQ differences were larger between mid-market and high-end DAPs.


[rule]

Actually. I was idly thinking about something else yesterday...
E
If a company had, say, a few hundred DAPs manufactured, but sales were slowing and the company had a new, unannounced, model nearing completion and release (which would inevitably slow sales of the older model even further), what could they do to stimulate sales of the older model, a few hundred units of which they were struggling to shift, just a couple of months before the new model was due out?

Well, it 'suddenly occurred' to me that one simple idea could be to simply repackage those few hundred DAPs in a shiny new casing, to appeal to bling-seekers. Stainless steel could be one material option.


Then, once those units had been shifted, the new model could be announced.

It would leave a few hundred customers feeling aggrieved, but hey - they're only faceless individuals with yet more money to throw at their audiophile obsessions when the newer model is released, just around the corner...


Anyway, this was all just day-dreaming in my mind, yesterday. I'm sure no real-life company would be so cynical as to do something like that.

It's the same reason why Sandisk doesn't feel the need to rush out higher capacity cards. In the realm of "power users", they have green lights for milking. That quote from the Iriver ceo about ak380 is foretelling.

Spoiler

Henry Park, CEO of iriver, parent company of Astell&Kern, said “The AK380 is a true flagship product for Astell&Kern. We wanted to give users a portable hi-res player that supports the highest quality sound, while providing users options to customize and expand the player to meet their individual needs. With the AK380, we expand our lineup to add a new demographic of high-end audiophile power users.”
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/astellkern-announces-new-flagship-portable-hi-res-audio-player-the-ak380/

 

[Mython]

Pleas ask the following:
#1 "How much are the USB cradle and the amp card?"
#2 "Does the amp card improve sound quality?"
#3 "Does the amp card have an extra battery inside? If not, does it drain AK380's internal battery faster?"
#4 "When can we see them on Amazon?"
#5 "How long is AK380's battery life?"

 
I'm not going to ask Q#2 for really obvious reasons. ....

 
 
I appreciate that it might be an uncomfortable question for them to answer, but it's a totally legitimate question that they should answer, if they're profiting from it as an expensive optional addition to an already insanely-overpriced DAP.

 

[Cagin]

I appreciate that it might be an uncomfortable question for them to answer, but it's a totally legitimate question that they should answer, if they're profiting from it as an expensive optional addition to an already insanely-overpriced DAP.

we could rephrase the question to make it valid. I.e. Since that amp module can only fit the AK380, in which aspects does it benefit the source?

 

[danpong]

   
I'm going to be honest and think those are pointless questions. They're not going to kill their potential AK380 sales by giving the audience an opportunity to wait (of whom there is no guarantee those customer would buy if/when these "tailored" models get released) when the AK380 itself hasn't even been released/sold yet. Remember tomorrow is just an announcement.

AnakChan,
 
I would like to add the question.  How is AK380 handle the ground noise comparing to AK240 and AK240SS?  Especially Balance port problem we see in many models.