[JasonNYC]

Apple Music Classical is now available on Android devices. Are there any plans to include it in Open APP service for SR35?
@JasonNYC

I saw this morning that it was available and messaged the team to ask if/when it might be available on AK players. Will update when I hear back.

 

[SolarCetacean]

Tried out the SR35 in my local hifi store today. It's such a cute little device! The angular, tilted screen isn't distracting or awkward to use. The knob turns pretty easily, but at least there's a knob lock option that I presume disables volume changes from the knob. I didn't do much interacting with the built-in player or the UI, as the store has a Roon setup and the SR35 was used as a Roon endpoint, but the performance seemed ok to me. It's way faster than my work-issued laptop, which is my personal benchmark for slowness. Maybe if I loaded a few thousand songs it will chug, but I won't know until I do that. Anyways, I didn't find it as sluggish as I thought it would be based on people's comments.

I was driving my Aeon 2 Closed using the 4.4mm balanced jack with quad DAC enabled, normal amp gain, and the volume at 65 for a listening level that's just slightly higher than what I would listen to at home. And I don't listen loudly, with an RMS volume of roughly 70 dB SPL (vocal part of a song should be roughly normal speaking volume). I noticed that the DAP would get slightly warm to the touch after a few minutes when driving the A2C at that level - the Aeon is a very low impedance planar, so it requires quite a bit of current to properly drive. More current to the headphones means more heat dissipated in the device. This is probably not the ideal pairing, but it worked fine for the short demo.

I'll preface my sound impressions in saying that I'm generally not really into DACs or sources; I get how the DAC and amp will affect the sound in theory, but in my experience, those changes are generally minor or subtle. I respect the opposite, source-first philosophy, but my personal experience is that the sound differences between competent DACs are small. Overall sound impressions are that the SR35 has a warmer tilt. Bass and lower mids are slightly emphasized, creating a slightly richer sound than what I generally hear on my Aeon. I was able to compare the SR35 in the store against the Ferrum Audio Erco + Hypsos stack and the SR35 had a warmer/richer sound compared to the Erco while the Erco added more note weight and dynamic punch to the bassline while being tonally less warm.

The store will be hosting a Head-Fi meet next weekend, so I'll have more opportunities to demo the SR35 then. But I was pleasantly surprised by this first impression.

 

[RIGATIO]

Tried out the SR35 in my local hifi store today. It's such a cute little device! The angular, tilted screen isn't distracting or awkward to use. The knob turns pretty easily, but at least there's a knob lock option that I presume disables volume changes from the knob. I didn't do much interacting with the built-in player or the UI, as the store has a Roon setup and the SR35 was used as a Roon endpoint, but the performance seemed ok to me. It's way faster than my work-issued laptop, which is my personal benchmark for slowness. Maybe if I loaded a few thousand songs it will chug, but I won't know until I do that. Anyways, I didn't find it as sluggish as I thought it would be based on people's comments.

I was driving my Aeon 2 Closed using the 4.4mm balanced jack with quad DAC enabled, normal amp gain, and the volume at 65 for a listening level that's just slightly higher than what I would listen to at home. And I don't listen loudly, with an RMS volume of roughly 70 dB SPL (vocal part of a song should be roughly normal speaking volume). I noticed that the DAP would get slightly warm to the touch after a few minutes when driving the A2C at that level - the Aeon is a very low impedance planar, so it requires quite a bit of current to properly drive. More current to the headphones means more heat dissipated in the device. This is probably not the ideal pairing, but it worked fine for the short demo.

I'll preface my sound impressions in saying that I'm generally not really into DACs or sources; I get how the DAC and amp will affect the sound in theory, but in my experience, those changes are generally minor or subtle. I respect the opposite, source-first philosophy, but my personal experience is that the sound differences between competent DACs are small. Overall sound impressions are that the SR35 has a warmer tilt. Bass and lower mids are slightly emphasized, creating a slightly richer sound than what I generally hear on my Aeon. I was able to compare the SR35 in the store against the Ferrum Audio Erco + Hypsos stack and the SR35 had a warmer/richer sound compared to the Erco while the Erco added more note weight and dynamic punch to the bassline while being tonally less warm.

The store will be hosting a Head-Fi meet next weekend, so I'll have more opportunities to demo the SR35 then. But I was pleasantly surprised by this first impression.

If you use mainly full size headphones, i would go with something more powerful, like the Fiio m15s, Kann Max or the Ibasso dx320. You can also go with a portable dac/amps like the IFI Gryphon or Dethonray Pegasus Gold. You will get more dynamic and punchy sound.

 

[Gustavo1976]

Tried out the SR35 in my local hifi store today. It's such a cute little device! The angular, tilted screen isn't distracting or awkward to use. The knob turns pretty easily, but at least there's a knob lock option that I presume disables volume changes from the knob. I didn't do much interacting with the built-in player or the UI, as the store has a Roon setup and the SR35 was used as a Roon endpoint, but the performance seemed ok to me. It's way faster than my work-issued laptop, which is my personal benchmark for slowness. Maybe if I loaded a few thousand songs it will chug, but I won't know until I do that. Anyways, I didn't find it as sluggish as I thought it would be based on people's comments.

I was driving my Aeon 2 Closed using the 4.4mm balanced jack with quad DAC enabled, normal amp gain, and the volume at 65 for a listening level that's just slightly higher than what I would listen to at home. And I don't listen loudly, with an RMS volume of roughly 70 dB SPL (vocal part of a song should be roughly normal speaking volume). I noticed that the DAP would get slightly warm to the touch after a few minutes when driving the A2C at that level - the Aeon is a very low impedance planar, so it requires quite a bit of current to properly drive. More current to the headphones means more heat dissipated in the device. This is probably not the ideal pairing, but it worked fine for the short demo.

I'll preface my sound impressions in saying that I'm generally not really into DACs or sources; I get how the DAC and amp will affect the sound in theory, but in my experience, those changes are generally minor or subtle. I respect the opposite, source-first philosophy, but my personal experience is that the sound differences between competent DACs are small. Overall sound impressions are that the SR35 has a warmer tilt. Bass and lower mids are slightly emphasized, creating a slightly richer sound than what I generally hear on my Aeon. I was able to compare the SR35 in the store against the Ferrum Audio Erco + Hypsos stack and the SR35 had a warmer/richer sound compared to the Erco while the Erco added more note weight and dynamic punch to the bassline while being tonally less warm.

The store will be hosting a Head-Fi meet next weekend, so I'll have more opportunities to demo the SR35 then. But I was pleasantly surprised by this first impression.

Do ypu check Maxx ?

 

[rlw6534]

I saw this morning that it was available and messaged the team to ask if/when it might be available on AK players. Will update when I hear back.

Please just do away with the whitelist. It's more trouble and work for both you/A&K and your customers than it's worth. You can always maintain a list of "supported apps".

Patiently waiting for Roon ARC and Apple Classical which are likely to work just fine, only they can't be installed without a firmware update.

 

[SolarCetacean]

Do ypu check Maxx ?

I did not. The store only had the SR35 for demo. I was talking to the owner and while he liked the higher-end A&K players (probably the SP3000), he wasn't sure if the local market would have enough demand for him to carry those. The SR35 is cheap enough to have some local demand (I think he sold one recently) while being high end enough to fit with the rest of the store's product lineup.

Part of why I demoed it was to try out the DAP form factor. Other than an old iPod Touch I had in middle school, I've never used a DAP, especially not an audiophile-targeted one. So I wanted to see how it felt in the hand and how it felt with the cable attached. One of the reasons I'm even considering DAPs is because I grew to hate dongle dangle on smartphones.

 

[Gustavo1976]

A few things about A&K Daps.

1. They all sound great.

2. The lack of google play or APK installed factory is a million years behind the times. It's pretty cumbersome to get streaming apps on any AK DAP.

3. The OS on the entry level models I had makes them almost unusable regarding UI experience and speed. They are so slow. SO SO SO SLOW. The sr25, kann alpha and kann alpha max. Just dreadful.

4. Edit to add that build quality is second to none. They are works of art. Truly.

5. The upper tier models are pretty fast.

It's amazing that the little Hiby R6 iii I just got is fast as an iphone....say....12...and it's $499.

The American support phone number is pretty clunky. They do always get back to you but it seems like it's maybe 2-3 guys.

Hi. Im between Sr35 and Max. Is it so slow and what about sound quality on both models? Thanks.

 

[InvisibleInk]

One of the reasons I'm even considering DAPs is because I grew to hate dongle dangle on smartphones.

https://hifigo.com/products/ddhifi-tc44a-hifi-audio-adapter-converter-with-4-4mm-plug

 

[558698]

Hi. Im between Sr35 and Max. Is it so slow and what about sound quality on both models? Thanks.

I cant comment on the sound quality between those two, because I've only heard a Kann Max and even that was ages ago now.
But for speed, it kind of depends on what you want from it.
It's nowhere near as snappy as a modern mid- to high-end smartphone, especially when using 3rd party apps (Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, etc.).
But if you use it as a device to play music on and not a whole lot more? I'd say they're generally fine.
Especially if you mostly play files you have stored locally on your device, it's actually pretty good. The native UI performance is really quite decent, it's mostly that it struggles with 3rd party apps.

Also if you primarily want a device for streaming, I'd say the SR35 is an easy pick over the Max, because the SR35 runs a much newer Android version.
Though if you want to drive more demanding headphones, you're probably not gonna have enough power output in the SR35. (Fine for IEMs and easy to drive headphones though!)

 

[Gustavo1976]

I cant comment on the sound quality between those two, because I've only heard a Kann Max and even that was ages ago now.
But for speed, it kind of depends on what you want from it.
It's nowhere near as snappy as a modern mid- to high-end smartphone, especially when using 3rd party apps (Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, etc.).
But if you use it as a device to play music on and not a whole lot more? I'd say they're generally fine.
Especially if you mostly play files you have stored locally on your device, it's actually pretty good. The native UI performance is really quite decent, it's mostly that it struggles with 3rd party apps.

Also if you primarily want a device for streaming, I'd say the SR35 is an easy pick over the Max, because the SR35 runs a much newer Android version.
Though if you want to drive more demanding headphones, you're probably not gonna have enough power output in the SR35. (Fine for IEMs and easy to drive headphones though!)

Thanks. Im really on iems World. I use strwaming apps like Spotify, Tidal. But, is it so bad the wireless connection? Thanks.

 

[558698]

Thanks. Im really on iems World. I use strwaming apps like Spotify, Tidal. But, is it so bad the wireless connection? Thanks.

My player is the SE180, and while they've presumably implemented a better WiFi solution with the SR35 I can tell you that the WiFi on my SE180 is inexcusably bad.
As in, I can sit 3 meters away from the router, in the same room, and still not be able to stream a HiRes track on Qobuz. (CD quality and lower is way less demanding though, so that is often fine.)

Though yeah, I can't actually comment on the SR35 itself in that regard. Haven't even had one in my hand yet.
Probably best to make sure that if you buy one, you buy it somewhere where you can send it back if it turns out to not fit your use-case.

As for the Kann Max, it likely has unreliable-at-best WiFi much like my SE180.

 

[Gustavo1976]

My player is the SE180, and while they've presumably implemented a better WiFi solution with the SR35 I can tell you that the WiFi on my SE180 is inexcusably bad.
As in, I can sit 3 meters away from the router, in the same room, and still not be able to stream a HiRes track on Qobuz. (CD quality and lower is way less demanding though, so that is often fine.)

Though yeah, I can't actually comment on the SR35 itself in that regard. Haven't even had one in my hand yet.
Probably best to make sure that if you buy one, you buy it somewhere where you can send it back if it turns out to not fit your use-case.

As for the Kann Max, it likely has unreliable-at-best WiFi much like my SE180.

I have Shanling M7 and was looking for a different sound profile. I was decided for Ak but I read user opinions and then ... UI and wifi problems. Other users say that they havent those problems...

 

[vikinguy]

Hi. Im between Sr35 and Max. Is it so slow and what about sound quality on both models? Thanks.

I haven’t heard either.

I owned the 25 and OG Kann max.


Id say they both sounded fantastic. Pretty similar, the Kann just has an amazing amount of power. I actually listened to Susvara on the Kann alpha for about 20 mins on high gain and it was pretty damned great.

 

[pippen99]

I have a SR25 Mk1 for a long time. I have never had a wifi issue. I use it to stream Tidal when I mow my lawn and have never had a drop out. I plan to step up to the SR35 for its Roon readiness

 

[Gustavo1976]

I have a SR25 Mk1 for a long time. I have never had a wifi issue. I use it to stream Tidal when I mow my lawn and have never had a drop out. I plan to step up to the SR35 for its Roon readin

But near router or a bit far?