[TaylorDawe]

Really enjoy all the helpful advice I have received in this thread. Two observations and two questions. I could not transfer music of a file I downloaded. AFT messaged me that it cannot transfer a file larger than 4GB. Than I still couldn't transfer and after hours of trying lots of fixes I noticed a tiny, really tiny circle in the upper left of the notifications bar. Under a magnifier (really) I caught this symbol:"!", taped it and I was out of storage on internal memory. Sheesh, they could've made it larger for Monty & me.
Now the questions: can I easily transfer music from internal to my sd card, or can I use an external card drive? And, any danger, and should I start a media scan. Seems scary! Thanks to all who are always patient. A truly helpful thread!

Hello, Laurence. I too have a question: are you using an apple computer or a windows PC? I was surprised to discover (from this thread) how difficult file operations appear to be with the 380 connected to an apple computer. So the answer from my experience (I use windows) is that any of what you mention is very easy. On a windows PC I can copy any file from any location to any other with ease - from internal to micro SD. From micro SD to internal. From PC to internal to micro SD in the player to micro SD in the computer and to any other device connected to the PC or anywhere on the network. It really is that easy and, tbh, I was totally surprised that anyone would have problems achieving so simple an operation with the 380 connected to ANY computer. So, as I say, it appears to be down to what computer you are using (in my experience with windows and from reading this thread, anyway - I have no personal experience of any computer except Windows). A member who uses an apple computer would be more qualified to comment on using that machine with the 380.
 
Hope that helps.

 

[Uncle Monty]

I'm sure it's the Android File Transfer app itself that's the problem - it works most of the time but I found that it really struggled when switching between 'Internal Storage' and 'SD card', which is why I believe it deleted my SD card at the same time as the Internal Memory. Just make sure you back up your Internal Memory before you try deleting it. 
 
Another issue with the AFT / Mac combo is the sheer time it takes to copy then transfer the files - although the time would be shortened using a newer, more powerful Mac and a USB3 EHD - the Mac I use for my music is quite old now and my EHD uses Firewire and it took nearly 8hrs to copy circa 230Gb of Ripped FLAC files from my EHD back on to my 380 using AFT. It's also very slow - about 4hrs - copying the same to Mac HD. There must be a better way to use Android devices with Macs...
 
Re The Ripper, I think it's a real curiosity and I'd love to know AK's thinking behind it and the tech they used and why. I don't regret betting one and I'll continue to use it - it looks quite cool and it frees up my laptop - however it's SQ benefits....are there any? 

 

[Ruben123]

I'm sure it's the Android File Transfer app itself that's the problem - it works most of the time but I found that it really struggled when switching between 'Internal Storage' and 'SD card', which is why I believe it deleted my SD card at the same time as the Internal Memory. Just make sure you back up your Internal Memory before you try deleting it. 

Another issue with the AFT / Mac combo is the sheer time it takes to copy then transfer the files - although the time would be shortened using a newer, more powerful Mac and a USB3 EHD - the Mac I use for my music is quite old now and my EHD uses Firewire and it took nearly 8hrs to copy circa 230Gb of Ripped FLAC files from my EHD back on to my 380 using AFT. It's also very slow - about 4hrs - copying the same to Mac HD. There must be a better way to use Android devices with Macs...

Re The Ripper, I think it's a real curiosity and I'd love to know AK's thinking behind it and the tech they used and why. I don't regret betting one and I'll continue to use it - it looks quite cool and it frees up my laptop - however it's SQ benefits....are there any? 

As said a CD rip is a CD rip so it should sound the same unless AK alter the sound, but I don't think so. The use of the ripper is also beyond my imagination, since most PC's could do it. Perhaps they made the files bigger to let you think the sq is better too...

 

[Uncle Monty]

Perhaps!

 

[TaylorDawe]

Perhaps they made the files bigger to let you think the sq is better too...

With that kind of thinking we should all be ripping to WAV then
 
Just joking.

 

[Uncle Monty]

Really enjoy all the helpful advice I have received in this thread. Two observations and two questions. I could not transfer music of a file I downloaded. AFT messaged me that it cannot transfer a file larger than 4GB. Than I still couldn't transfer and after hours of trying lots of fixes I noticed a tiny, really tiny circle in the upper left of the notifications bar. Under a magnifier (really) I caught this symbol:"!", taped it and I was out of storage on internal memory. Sheesh, they could've made it larger for Monty & me.
Now the questions: can I easily transfer music from internal to my sd card, or can I use an external card drive? And, any danger, and should I start a media scan. Seems scary! Thanks to all who are always patient. A truly helpful thread!

When using the Ripper, you get a very large message on the 380 telling you when the memory is full but obviously you only get a tiny "!" when using AFT - I have to agree that I also find it really difficult to read some of the tiny symbols across the top of the device and I've got near-perfect eyesight. I was advised on here to do a media scan once I'd got everything transferred to the SD card and, in the layman's terms that I understand, I think it just lets the player have a good think and work out where everything is. I think the advice was initially to see if I could re-find the files lost off my SD card but they were gone for good. Anyway, the media scan didn't seem to harm the device - can anyone advise - is a media scan something you should do every time you move files around the 380?

 

[Uncle Monty]

 

 
Just read Monty´s writings about his famous cd paranoia software. Then you´ll see that despite all the claims, perfect data extraction from a CD isn´t that easy. And no one who knows Monty would claim his views to be esoteric. He´s really a science guy.

Never said it was easy. My post is quoting your statement that AK "outclasses" any laptop. That is a fairly broad statement to make and I don't think it is factually accurate. Just want to be clear on opinions versus fact for other folks that have an interest in this topic. It is entirely possible to get bit perfect rips, however the amount of time and expense to do so it up to each individual to decide. Furthermore, detecting errors is easy, fixing is the hard part and in some cases impossible (e.g. physical damage). We are also talking errors here which produce a very obvious audio effect of scrambled playback and/or random pops. I personally do not believe a digital-to-digital, lossless, bit perfect transfer can produce a better or worse subjective sound outside of error artifacts.

Interestingly (or not) the Ripper has rejected a few of my CDs that my Mac / iTunes ripped perfectly. At least one of these CDs was a bit scuffed, so maybe error correction is an issue for the Ripper. On a couple of CDs it has not liked the first track for whatever reason but skipping cancelling the first track and moving to the 2nd has worked. I see the Ripper is no longer available so presumably commercially it hasn't worked and I can see why - the 380 takes drag and drop ALAC from iTunes using AFT no problem and you could always buy a quality Windows laptop to use with your 380 (along with lots of other uses of course) for the price of a Ripper.

 

[haiku]

 
Interestingly (or not) the Ripper has rejected a few of my CDs that my Mac / iTunes ripped perfectly. At least one of these CDs was a bit scuffed, so maybe error correction is an issue for the Ripper. On a couple of CDs it has not liked the first track for whatever reason but skipping cancelling the first track and moving to the 2nd has worked. I see the Ripper is no longer available so presumably commercially it hasn't worked and I can see why - the 380 takes drag and drop ALAC from iTunes using AFT no problem and you could always buy a quality Windows laptop to use with your 380 (along with lots of other uses of course) for the price of a Ripper.

My experience is completely different. I´ve had 2 CDs with scratches, and neither iTunes nor the Ripper could rip them completely, but the Ripper almost finished the process. iTunes barely finished half the CDs.
Hearing differences in SQ is always subjective. You can find people on head-fi, who hear no difference between their iPhone and an AK380. Go figure!  

 

[TaylorDawe]

 
My experience is completely different. I´ve had 2 CDs with scratches, and neither iTunes nor the Ripper could rip them completely, but the Ripper almost finished the process. iTunes barely finished half the CDs.
Hearing differences in SQ is always subjective. You can find people on head-fi, who hear no difference between their iPhone and an AK380. Go figure!  

Yes, my experience also differs. My ripper makes an excellent job of error correction and ripping of quite damaged CDs. It shows red lines in the progress bar where error correction was applied but the resulting music file has always played fine. The same can't be said of software rippers I've tried (in the past). Quite frankly wouldn't be without the ripper. As for SQ, as you say, subjective. I hear no difference, never mind improvement, between my standard 380 and the copper version - many on here do. Sound Quality (like so much in life) is subjective.

 

[laurencewayne]

Thanks Taylor and Monty for responding. AFT-especially with Mac- is certainly "clunky". Monty and I have mentioned the inconsistency of it with album art. Humorously, and also helpful, was a post awhile back suggesting when transferring music drag verrry slowly. That actually helped. A rip is a rip and they should be identical. I was told the ripper was a convenience and eliminates the copy and drag issue. And of course one great use of our 380 is downloading hi def music which in some (most) cases gives a superior listening experience. All depends on the original mastering.
I guess no way to easily transfer some files from my full internal memory to a card. And Monty & me need comfort that initializing a medial scan won't destroy our world!

 

[TaylorDawe]

I guess no way to easily transfer some files from my full internal memory to a card. And Monty & me need comfort that initializing a medial scan won't destroy our world!

I really am surprised (I almost said shocked) that in 2017 such basic operations as file copy/move/delete (or any other file operation) is anything except childishly simple. Honestly, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it on this forum. I expect that my (very) limited experience of computer-types (I've only ever used Windows computers) has made me somewhat blase. Because, for me, file operations from ANY device to ANY location are childishly simple. Oh well, I learn something new everyday I guess. I often copy music from internal memory to a micro SD card because that's how I keep backups of my music (and I keep A LOT of backups). I'm also extremely surprised that a company would release a product (AK380) with an OS that seems barely compatible with one of the most popular computers in the world.

 

[Uncle Monty]

I did use media scan and everything worked out okay - I'm wondering if it's something you should always do after moving files around the 380's memory i.e. from 'Ripping' or 'Downloads' to 'Music' or after moving files from 'Internal Memory' to 'SD card' - anyone know?
 
Also, I'm wondering if the best way to use AFT is to move smaller amounts of files more regularly, rather than transferring 230Gb all in one go ?  The thing about using a Mac #TaylorDawe with the AK380 and AFT is that you first have to copy the files from the player to the Mac (or an EHD)  before you can move then to a different memory on the DAP and I think this additional complication (added to BIG file transfers all-in-one-go) might allow errors to creep in. 
 
The best solution might be for a new version of AFT that allowed the user to move files within the app rather than having to copy them them somewhere else first before re-importing them back in to the app. There's no doubt it is way more complicated than it should be for Mac users.

 

[Malevolent]

   
honestly, I can't hear the difference....   Am I the only one ? 

 
Neither can I. I just use whichever file type is available.
 
Although, I very much prefer FLAC files, since they display album art correctly.

 

[TaylorDawe]

The thing about using a Mac #TaylorDawe with the AK380 and AFT is that you first have to copy the files from the player to the Mac (or an EHD)  before you can move then to a different memory on the DAP and I think this additional complication (added to BIG file transfers all-in-one-go) might allow errors to creep in.

Possible, Monty. However, I often copy files to the PC and then back to the 380 and never notice any errors being introduced. I'll do this to, for instance, edit the mp3 tags in a file (I sometimes add lyrics. Sad, I know) although I never do this with WAV files as, although the mp3 tags are correctly displayed in WAV files when ripped with the ripper, my mp3 editing software can't see tags in WAV and if I try to save the file back to the player I lose the the album art and so on in WAV files.

 

[Samuel777]

Commander one pro : http://mac.eltima.com/file-manager.html?utm_source=c1mas&utm_medium=software&utm_campaign=c1mas 
I'm using this one on my Mac Pro (copy, delete, move, rename ...)