[My Little Phony]

Being new to this Expressway to Bankruptcy I have the Astell & Kern AK70 Mkii DAP (playing 16Bit & 24Bit FLAC) with Senheisser IE80S IEM's with Forza Audio UPOCC copper/silver (Hybrid Series) cable, 2.5mm TRRS Balanced connection, and to my ears it sounds incredible.

DAP:
To my ears the sound of the AK70 MKII is incredible too.

Cable(s):
I always used the 3.5 mm output of my players simply because that were the only output type the hardware offered. As i received the AK70 i wondered if its worth to give the tiny 2.5mm balanced output a try because i have already been happy with the sound coming out of the 3.5mm output.

I now have tested the balanced output with some quick available "cheap" china (from "Amazonas") cables in the price range of $40 (IEM) and $80 (headphone). The term "cheap" does not refer to the sound-quality of the cables. But they had a very stiff plastic braiding heavily prone to microphonics.

I have to agree with the fellow members already using the Ak70s balanced output that this is the true way to fully enjoy and get the best out of the AK70 device.

Now im hot for getting an awesome custom 2.5mm TRRS to 2x 3.5mm balanced cable. There are not many (like 0 in Germany) aftermarket cables available with that specs you can buy with a quick delivery.

Most cables length is between 1,2m, 1,5m or 2m length. Too long for my taste. 1m will fit my use perfectly.

I have a nicely equipped small workshop so i could directly start making my own cable but... i had to order the connectors overseas and now i wait and wait and wait. I already got ViaBlue EPC-4 Cable, shrinking tubes, etc... its only the connectors. I orderd a good handfull so i dont get into temptation to just build one cable. Building custom things is fun.

Headphone:
Denon AH-D5200 + AK70 MKII + balanced cable =

 

[bala]

Looking forward your impressions with your DIY balanced cable.

 

[osiris1]

is the new SR15 considered a better player? i understand the SR15 uses different DACs and has a bigger battery. any thoughts?

I figured I didn't really need to play native DSD, though a bigger batt would be nice. got a good deal on a demo unit and here I am... got to get some balanced cables. it's a step up from a FiiO X5ii that I had been using.

 

[LondonGecko]

I figured I didn't really need to play native DSD, though a bigger batt would be nice. got a good deal on a demo unit and here I am... got to get some balanced cables. it's a step up from a FiiO X5ii that I had been using.

AK70 Mkii comes alive with balanced cables - do this before upgrading the DAP (IMO).

 

[My Little Phony]

Taken from one of head-fi balanced cable-reviews:

Probably, you won't be surprised to know, that difference is here, and it's clearly noticeable. This silver-plated cable makes lows deeper and more punchy, actually, with this cable, 99's became one of the most "deep-bassed" headphones I've tested. Of course, lows here can't be compared with good speakers and/or subwoofers, but they are pretty close to the physical limit of headphones.

Dont underestimate the power of cables.

 

[LondonGecko]

Taken from one of head-fi balanced cable-reviews:

Probably, you won't be surprised to know, that difference is here, and it's clearly noticeable. This silver-plated cable makes lows deeper and more punchy, actually, with this cable, 99's became one of the most "deep-bassed" headphones I've tested. Of course, lows here can't be compared with good speakers and/or subwoofers, but they are pretty close to the physical limit of headphones.

Dont underestimate the power of cables.

Couldn't agree more... love my Atlas Zeno IEM cable - couln't beleive the difference it made.

 

[bala]

I am trying out the AK 70 Mkii and notice that it gets "hot" pretty quickly, yes there's a heat wave here in Germany at the moment but still this thing gets pretty toasty. Is that hormal?

 

[MaxD]

I have had my AK70II for a while and its hot in the UK too just now. It gets hot but it hasn't caused an issue yet.

 

[bala]

Thanks @MaxD Never had a DAP before that behaved this way, was a little surprised Looks like I have get the case now just to handle the heat! Anyway, the sound has been very good on the single ended output - waiting to get my balanced cable

 

[Imusicman]

Single end is good. Balanced is even better IMHO

 

[My Little Phony]

Output: Balanced is the way to go for the AK70 MKII even if its just for the additional driving power for your headphones. Of course the 3.5mm output is providing a good sound quality too.

Heat: The device is getting handwarm. In the moment its very hot in Germany and it did not feel uncomfortable in my hands while using it.

Case: I like the haptics and optics of the AK70 so much that i would never cover it in any type of dress or case. Keep in mind that i only use the dap at home and after many years of using portable devices at home i recognized that i have been handling them carefully enough to decide against covers/cases for home use.

 

[LondonGecko]

The AK70 MkII does get warm... and seems to get warmer playing larger files (e.g. AIFF rather than FLAC). Mine lives in a case, so don't really notice it much.

Having read up on the new SR15 and SE100, I notice reviewers saying that the UI is much faster and vastly improved. I hadn't really noticed it being slow (certainly better than the AK Jr I had which was really slow). However, I purchased a new Sandisk Ultra micro SD card with the "A1 app performance" (supposed to be better for Android apps) in Amazon Prime day (200GB for £38) and I'm surprised to say that it is much faster at reading than the older Sandisk Ultra 128GB I was using.

 

[melons]

Find my Ak70 Mkii is a little slow on start up and rendering album art when scrolling through the music library but it is loaded with a 400gb Sandisk Micro SD card with about 340gb of flac, not annoyingly slow but I can see the advantage of a dap with a more powerful processor

 

[bala]

Hey Guys, could some one show me how they do line-out from this device? I saw that the manual says that the 3.5mm & 2.5mm ports should be used but do I need to shell out now for the pEE11 adaptor!

 

[TheoS53]

A bit late to the party, but here's the Samma3a #review of the AK70 MKII