[swannie007]

I think the Jr's days are numbered and there will be no further support for it. Seems A&K gave up on the Jr about a year ago despite protests from many for upgrades and continued support.
The writing was on the wall a year ago and ....bingo...the AK70 gets announced!! These shameless turds will never see another penny of my money for the way they treated the Jr owners.
If they were the last producers on earth of DAPs I would rather listen to an old Walkman than support them!!! Can you tell I'm pissed? Yes, and we should all be let alone support them with further purchases. Many of these companies have no conscience and are shameless in their business tactics and I refuse to support that no matter how good their products may be. I know that many support and praise A&K and are entitled to their opinions and support, as am I. Once bitten, twice shy. My 2c worth. Cheers.

 

[gr8soundz]

That is the exact same reason I will not buy the AK70 or any other AK product.
 
Never makes sense to see a company willingly create brand dis-loyalty by not supporting one of their most popular products.
 
Guess with all the rising prices they don't need any users who spent less than $500.
 

 

[clee290]

I'm disappointed with my AK Jr purchase as well. Mainly due to the lack of support from A&K as opposed to disappointment with the player itself. There are quite a few issues with the player, but most aren't huge issues for me. The laggy UI is probably problem that bugged me the most, but since switching exclusively to folder browsing, my experience with the player has improved. The Jr still sounds great and I still enjoy using it, but I don't see myself giving more money to A&K. Despite the Jr being their "budget" player, I was hoping for some better support. 
 
Anyways, happy Saturday, fellas.

 

[gr8soundz]

Thankfully, I've always also used folder browsing. The nav buttons, great sound, and slim profile while still being able to drive most headphones makes up for most of the other quirks. Would have been perfect if AK bothered fixing the bugs and stabilized the DAC feature.
 
I was tempted to order an AK70 after the recent apt-x HD update but can't bring myself to do it after waiting for Jr. updates that never came.
 
For now, I have my Jr. stacked similar to yours:
 

 

[nephilim32]

^ yup. Always use 'folder browsing.' I thought that was already a given with this player. Going through the 'artists' heading is not nearly as good and lags way more. The JR definitely has it's flaws UI wise but the player itself is damn good and I'm still very happy with it. I use 64gig ext cards and nothing greater, which leads to decent functionality with the player itself.
I'm thinking of grabbing those new B&W P'9 headphones to pair with the JR. I know with the JR's Vrms at 1.95 will drive those P'9's no problem cause it does wonders for the Sony z7's. I'm keeping this player. I've bought 4 64gig memory cards so far filled with music to have with this player. Lol I'm pretty committed
and it's just heavenly with the Z7's. I know I've said that a lot on this thread, but I really hope a lot of you guys on here will give the Z7's a try with this thing. Love to hear all of your opinions if you do.

 

[gr8soundz]

True, the Z7 is a great pairing with the Jr.
 

 

[Tayyab Pirzada]

Tbh Astell n Kern has horrible customer service but their AK70 is literally every thing I needed in a DAP so I'm happy with my upgrade from AK Jr.

But if youre interested in other good DAPs with good customer service it may be worth it to look into Fiio X7 or the new Cayin i5 which are both slim profile players that are lightyears better than AK Jr in terms of features. Of course they arent as portable as AK JR (or AK70 for that matter) though.

 

[gr8soundz]

The AK70 definitely replaces the Jr. as the best (ounce for ounce) feature packed dap. If it also had a true line out then I probably wouldn't be able to resist getting it despite A&K.
 
I don't stream much so wifi not needed but the balanced out and the new apt-x HD would be nice to have. Also not a big fan of the CS4398; prefer Wolfson chips including the one in Jr.  Both are no doubt well implemented but reviews show the AK70's sound improvements are minimal and evolutionary (yet possibly more fatiguing due to the chip change).
 
However, if the AK70's dac feature works as expected, then I might upgrade to it when prices drop.
 
Other than that, I'm not really in the market for another player. Still have my iBasso R10 along with the Jr. and another, older android dap with a WM8741 on the way so one of them would need to go before buying my next player.
 

 

[Tayyab Pirzada]

  The AK70 definitely replaces the Jr. as the best (ounce for ounce) feature packed dap. If it also had a true line out then I probably wouldn't be able to resist getting it despite A&K.
 
I don't stream much so wifi not needed but the balanced out and the new apt-x HD would be nice to have. Also not a big fan of the CS4398; prefer Wolfson chips including the one in Jr.  Both are no doubt well implemented but reviews show the AK70's sound improvements are minimal and evolutionary (yet possibly more fatiguing due to the chip change).
 
However, if the AK70's dac feature works as expected, then I might upgrade to it when prices drop.
 
Other than that, I'm not really in the market for another player. Still have my iBasso R10 along with the Jr. and another, older android dap with a WM8741 on the way so one of them would need to go before buying my next player.
 

it has true line-out. and the DAC works perfectly.

 

[gr8soundz]

  it has true line-out. and the DAC works perfectly.

 
I only see the 3.5mm SE and 2.5mm balanced outputs. If it just has a setting to max out the 3.5mm volume then it's no different from the Jr. there.
 

 

[Tayyab Pirzada]

   
I only see the 3.5mm SE and 2.5mm balanced outputs. If it just has a setting to max out the 3.5mm volume then it's no different from the Jr. there.
 

it has a setting to max out 3.5 mm volume

 

[clee290]

it has a setting to max out 3.5 mm volume

This isn't a true line out then. This is just the software maxing out the volume. A true line out requires a second 3.5mm headphone jack (or some sort of dock adapter like older iPods and Sansa players) to bypass the player's amplifier.

 

[apaar123]

Does it have aptx?

 

[raz66]

I am a new user and greeting everyone I bought a Astell and kern ak j I connected with USB 2.0 (USB 3.0 ports also have on my system) the reader to use it as dac in system devices is properly detected as speaker iriver usb dac if I select speaker test not hear the sound it is I who am wrong or my system does not accept jr as dac?

 

[Sergio Iovino]

What operative system do you have???.
I have the same issue with my pc with windows 10 with usb 2.0 and 3.0. With windows 7 work with usb 2.0, I never try the 3.0 on windows 7.
In any case the AK jr soud good but the interface and the usb dac feature also has problems. I'm very disappointed about that and I will never buy an Astell and Kern product. 470 Euros for this??? (used on amazon), no thank you.