Astell&Kern AK380

[Mimouille]

Reposted from another thread:
 
Hello guys,
 
My wife and kid are on vacation so I spent the afternoon at my favorite shop, and tested a few DAPs.
 

 
I focus on Lotoo Paw Gold and AK380 vs my own AK240SS. The 901s I did not try at all, the Lotoo briefly but not with my music. The ZX2 and AK JR briefly with my own music.
 
I had 20 files of redbook or highres, and listened with my Spiral Ear SE5 Ultimate.
 
My verdict is that the AK380 and AK240SS are very close in signature. I am quite amazed they have different DACs. The AK380 is sometimes the same, sometimes slightly better : more natural, wider stage. Otherwise, in terms of resolution and clarity they are more or less the same. You need to focus to hear the difference most of the time, while on some tracks the 380 is clearly better (though not by much). For my budget, it is not worth the upgrade unless I wait for the price to really go down, but then the second price of the AK240SS will go down too...I will see how much it is in Korea. Most likely I will wait for the SS version, it if happens. Overall the 380 is a great sounding DAP, overpriced for me, but not really more than the SS that I bought...
 
The Lotoo PG is a totally different animal, it has a slightly warmer, less crips tonality. I found it often more engaging than the AK240SS, but on certain tracks I do miss the crispness of the AK240SS. If I wanted to have two complementary DAPs, or just one great DAP, the Lotoo is a wonderful pacakge. Having the SS it makes less sense. I still love how it feels in your hand.
 
I was quite impressed by the AK JR, which perfoms not so far from the 240 with my iems, and it is very small and sexy. Sounds better than the first edition AK100 and AK120 from memory.
 
I could not properly test the Lotoo 5000, but the form factor is amazing. Very small and well built.
 
The ZX2 I tested only briefly as I do not like the design, but it is much better and more balanced than the ZX1. It seems to perform around the 240 level, from this brief listen.

 

[Rico613]

^ nice review . .  Thanks  
 

 

 

[H20Fidelity]

If that's your AK240SS (I assume it is) on the bottom right - I think it's the sexiest looking of all the players there. 

 

[jwbrent]

  If that's your AK240SS (I assume it is) on the bottom right - I think it's the sexiest looking of all the players there. 

I agree!  

 

 

[Mimouille]

Thanks, this is by no means a review, I spent two or three hours with these. And yes the SS is still the sexiest IMO, but the 380 is quite nice, so I would love a SS version.

Second sexiest to me was clearly the Jr. Sweet player.

 

[raypin]

mmm.......I am also attracted to the AK Jr. (hate the name, love the design and form factor) but the deal breaker is the lack of optical output.

 

[Mimouille]

mmm.......I am also attracted to the AK Jr. (hate the name, love the design and form factor) but the deal breaker is the lack of optical output.

I think the point is to just use it alone on the go.

 

[raypin]

mmm......yes but the competitors in the same price league  have digital output (e.g. Fiio X3 = coax out and line out). For mainstream consumers, it does not matter, I know. But for people like us, it is just unacceptable (considering digital/line out are device multipliers in terms of function and performance).

 

[mysony1]

Today tested with table amp and speaker set using ak380 as source, is a big steps forward compare to previous few AK model.

Amaze with the sound quality been able to produce with such a small player.

Separation and details as good as a CD player.

With the direction of AK heading towards seems not just for earphone/headphone but as well as a good source for home audio set.

Is really a great pcs.

 

[bmichels]

....With the direction of AK heading towards seems not just for earphone/headphone but as well as a good source for home audio set.

Is really a great pcs.

 
So the AK380 may be a better "source" that the AK500n ? 

 

[jlbrach]

when you get to the level of the 240 and then the 380 the differences are going to be negligible and subjective...i have no doubt that if you let enough people do blind tests of both that you would have as many people swearing the 240 was better as you would the 380....that does not mean that there arent improvements in the 380 or that it isnt a terrific product....when I went from the 100 to the 120 i found the sound improved but the major selling point for me was the capacity increase ...when i went from the 120 to the 240 i found the SQ was improved but the entire UI was dramatically improved as well and the player itself was far more elegant.......
 
If the 380 had included a real line out,an amp powerful enough that they didnt need to make available an 1800 dollar amp and a substantial increase in capacity I would have entertained it.As is the UI is the same,the capacity is the same and the amp is the same and still no true line out....that means the 380 has to have SQ improved enough to make me want to pony up an additional 2K after selling my 240 to upgrade...NO SALE!

 

[bflat]

   
for your info, both astellnkern and fiio are targeting totally different markets.  can't be compared based on price alone. 

I don't know about that. The overall DAP market is pretty tiny so to state that the DAP market is further segmented by price doesn't make sense to me. Or put another way, by your statement, FIIO's CEO, is basically saying "let AK have their customers, we only want the folks interested in the sub $400 DAP segment."
 
If I were FIIO's CEO, I would say "let's go kill AK and expose them for charging ridiculous amounts of money for basically the same components! Hell, let's just rebrand ourselves with a random sounding German name like Schultz Werner Koch Audio"
 
Lastly, if there is a low end DAP market, it is getting killed by smartphones. Ask Nikon and Canon how their point and shoot camera business is doing.

 

[jwbrent]

  Lastly, if there is a low end DAP market, it is getting killed by smartphones. Ask Nikon and Canon how their point and shoot camera business is doing.

 
agreed.

 

[shigzeo]

  when you get to the level of the 240 and then the 380 the differences are going to be negligible and subjective...i have no doubt that if you let enough people do blind tests of both that you would have as many people swearing the 240 was better as you would the 380....that does not mean that there arent improvements in the 380 or that it isnt a terrific product....when I went from the 100 to the 120 i found the sound improved but the major selling point for me was the capacity increase ...when i went from the 120 to the 240 i found the SQ was improved but the entire UI was dramatically improved as well and the player itself was far more elegant.......
 
If the 380 had included a real line out,an amp powerful enough that they didnt need to make available an 1800 dollar amp and a substantial increase in capacity I would have entertained it.As is the UI is the same,the capacity is the same and the amp is the same and still no true line out....that means the 380 has to have SQ improved enough to make me want to pony up an additional 2K after selling my 240 to upgrade...NO SALE!

To be honest, once you get to the X3ii, the differences up from there are minimal. I very much doubt that volume matched and given a choice of five daps with the same music cued to the same second, anyone would reliably tell one player from the next unless the DAC chips in one were skewed for warmth and another for accuracy. We passed the limits of practical improvement long ago.
 
But the differences in build quality, in design, in labour, in UI quality, in screen, in touch, in in-built memory, etc., are massive from the low and middle end on up.

 

[Mimouille]

To be honest, once you get to the X3ii, the differences up from there are minimal. I very much doubt that volume matched and given a choice of five daps with the same music cued to the same second, anyone would reliably tell one player from the next unless the DAC chips in one were skewed for warmth and another for accuracy. We passed the limits of practical improvement long ago.

But the differences in build quality, in design, in labour, in UI quality, in screen, in touch, in in-built memory, etc., are massive from the low and middle end on up.

I agree with this. On the 380 vs. 240 the most obvious is the screen size. Also, the screen tone is very different, more in the yellows for the 240. The ability to use the ecosystem is the second thing. It is useless for me, because I care little about the CD player and do not use external amps for iems. But it might matter to others. I would still say the small difference in SQ is there, less obvious than with a Hugo for instance.

To be totally honest, I am not sure which of these DAPs I could differentiate in a blind test.