[high-fidelity]

   I actually contacted Vinnie to have the mod done, then all of sudden, as I was about to ship Ak240, I saw Anak's Ak380 wedding reception picture. My mind was suspended, disorientated and confused like lost children in a forest. 

 
Oh,okay then.
 
 
@mathi8vadhanan
 
RWAK mode is 500$.Not RWAK+.
 
And he can save 500$ dolars if he got it. =D

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

   
Oh,okay then.
 
 
@mathi8vadhanan
 
RWAK mode is 500$.Not RWAK+.
 
And he can save 500$ dolars if he got it. =D

Ohh.. But only RWAK+ has the true line-out mod, like AK380 (LO - PINS).
But you (and warrior) are right. For folks already with AK240, going the RWA mod route may be cheaper. 

 

[bflat]

  RWAK 240+ is 3.3K. For $200 more you get a newer device with factory warranty. What am I missing here?

Yes for brand new purchase. But the math for existing owners is like this:
 
Sell AK240 for $1500 and then buy AK380 for $3500 and net loss is $2000
Keep AK240 and buy RWAK+ and net loss is $800 if LO is not needed, the net loss is even less at $500
 
Therefore the difference is $1200-$1500 depending on what level RWAK you get.
 
For those like me going the RWAK route,  the email I got back from Vinnie says he is currently out doing trade shows and won't be back until 6/2 and he may be backed up a bit so I would definitely advise you wait until he gives you an ETA on the mod before sending your AK240 to him.

 

[Currawong]

It has a whole bunch of home-system integration and other features. If you just want a DAP to use on the train, it's not a product for you.
 
What would be good is if the thread stuck to discussion of the product and not of its price. Nobody wants to read dozens of pages of complaints that it is too expensive, especially those people who are interested in buying one. 

 

[warrior1975]

Has everything been finalized as far as features? Id love to be able to stream Tidal. That's definitely not a possibility, correct?

 

[piksnz]

  It has a whole bunch of home-system integration and other features. If you just want a DAP to use on the train, it's not a product for you.
 
What would be good is if the thread stuck to discussion of the product and not of its price. Nobody wants to read dozens of pages of complaints that it is too expensive, especially those people who are interested in buying one. 

Thanks @Currawong . I am looking forward to more impressions, preorder timing, etc. Whenever I come to this thread, I see people ranting about price. Maybe have a AK380 Rant Thread to discuss whether to upgrade from AK240 or not or complain about the price. Or need an impressions thread.

 

[danpong]

Hopefully more review will come out of the show in California.

 

[harmonix]

Digital and natural? Is that possible?

Natural is the highest praise one can give digital gear and currently IMHO there are no portable digital gear out there deserving this descriptor - Hugo included. And just before people jump - I own one.

In fact very few digital gear warrant this label... And I have listened to a lot of digital gear for the last 20 years. Perhaps only in the last 18 months have I heard gear that does this and none of those are anywhere near portable ...
Just my $0.02

 

[mysony1]

AK products are great, the only comment is need additional power for some of the CIEM such JH, FITEAR....etc.

So will able to produce the actual sounds quality from those CIEM. Therefore if someone going to get a AK without additional ampping. Need to consider carefully on the earphone or CIEM to match with this player.

 

[Mimouille]

Natural is the highest praise one can give digital gear and currently IMHO there are no portable digital gear out there deserving this descriptor - Hugo included. And just before people jump - I own one.

In fact very few digital gear warrant this label... And I have listened to a lot of digital gear for the last 20 years. Perhaps only in the last 18 months have I heard gear that does this and none of those are anywhere near portable ...
Just my $0.02

It 's not because one person says it that it's true. And I find the Hugo quite natural sounding, and the Tera as well... That's just me.

Anyway's, concerning the AK380, the 10 first feedbacks will be utterly positive. Then people will start realizing they can get almost the same sound for twice less. And we will see a few 380 on the FS thread.

Like Currawong said, I think it will only be really "worth it" if you want to have the entire ecosystem.

 

[AnakChan]

AK products are great, the only comment is need additional power for some of the CIEM such JH, FITEAR....etc.

So will able to produce the actual sounds quality from those CIEM. Therefore if someone going to get a AK without additional ampping. Need to consider carefully on the earphone or CIEM to match with this player.

FitEar isn't demanding. JH (at least Layla's), I was listening around the 90-102 vol setting on the AK380 whilst my MH335DW-SR was around the 80.

 

[mysony1]

Tested ak240 with additional amp mass kobo 395 together and work well with Mh335dw.

 

[AlterSack]

Well - I listened to the 380 in Munich
 
 

 
as well as to the AK100 Jr, 
 

 
the Hifiman 901S,
 

 
 
the new X5
 

 
and the Questyle QPr1 Prototype. 
 
 

 
(Sorry for the Picture quality - I only had my cell phone with me)
 
I do not have a 240 but an old modded AK100 (first edition - modded to 0 Ohm) so I cannot do A to B with the 380.
 
I listened to the 380 with Laylas and Angies because JHA shared the booth with AK. Honestly speaking I cannot judge the 380 as I just couldn't get a good seal with the Layla or the Angie. 
I did like what I heard but I also must say that I was really impresed by the sound quality of the 901S (and the Questyle). Hifiman to me is an example for a company generating products for audiophiles and also keeping their "older" customers (Meaning customers who have been with them for a while and using older products) highly valued.  Why?
As far as I have been told the 901S has been designed in such a way that You can use your existing amp cards from the older model in the 901S. Also they plan to offer the 901 customers a possibility to get their 901 "reshelled" to the new design. I think this is good customes service and worth mentioning! Also the 901S will accept 1 SD Card and uses 2 ESS 9018 DAC chips. The battery life may be too short - they say it can play up to 9 hours. It could drive the new HE1000 to very satisfying levels and with authority. This combination was very tempting.
 
The 901S together with its dock will cost less than or around 2000 Euro. (and I think it looks much better - than the old 901 though not good yet) 
 
The Questyle QP1 will be available on the market in some weeks - They will improve the scroll wheel and the somewhat fiddly volume button before. The UI and the handling is very much ipod like but it was receptive and fast.
This player will also be very competitive, I believe. It sounded fantastic, and was even able to drive a HD800 though I believe it will still sound better with an amp. Afaik the price will be around 600 Euro for the kower end model and 900 Euro for the QP1R. They claim to use a pure class A circuitry and use a patented "Current Mode Amplification". Impedance will be 0,19 Ohm and it plays DSD up to DSD128. it will have a 3.5 '' combined optical and line out and a 3.5'' headphone output. It will have only 16 GB Storage on board but accept 2 MicroSD cards (up to 128 GB). The battery is a 3.300 mAh, 3.7 V LiPo unit.   
It will be produced by Foxconn so we can expect a quality build.
 
The X5 II now also employs the new design of the X3 II and X1 - so they all look very similar now.
I believe there was no change regarding the interior qualities of the player.
 
A player that surprised me soundwise was the AK Junior - I must say this DAP sounded very very good for its price position inside AK - I was not able to hear differences between the AK100 II and the Junior- but of course in difficult listening  conditions.
 
And for those who are interested in completely new stuff - there was a new Player Prototype from a company named Consonnance (The Opera Audio) - the  Suzanne.  It supports up to 32 bit -384 kHz, plays basically all file types and especially DSD natively (they said so). Unfortunately it only offers one TF Card (that's what they write) up to 128 GB. It sounded very good - but there were no tracks that I knew well enough to compare and I had no card with me.
 
 

 
 
This player is pretty huge - felt more like a brick in my hands and also weighs more than 300 gr. Definitely not for the pocket - but I think this is a promising start, maybe there will be more interesting players from this company

 

[musicday]

Thanks for photos, does the 901S has OLED screen? How fast is the start up,wondering how it compares to Paw SQ,size,weight.

 

[Troisanneaux]

Thank you AlterSack!