[RIGATIO]

I just want the SR35 to sound good, however if it does sound like the SP3000, that would be pretty amazing. The entire dac section is different between the two, but the amp section and the TERATON ALPHA, may be the same. As I stated in my previous post, the archetecture, op amps and components on the SR35 is supposed to be the same as the SP3000 according to A & K's website. In other words, everything past the DAC and FILTER section may be the same on the SR35 vs. the SP3000. The build of course on the SP3000 is completely different, in terms of it using 409L stainless steel,

If you think that modern quality hi fi and mid fi dacs have some sort of audible difference, then you must have some very good ears that I wished I possessed. In my honest opinion, modern day mid fi and hi fi dacs are nearly indistinguishable when run on the same amps. Some may have bettern SiNAD and lower distortion, but these are all inaudible if run on a clean amp. Amps are generally what add warm and flavor to your audio devices, such as tube amps. I believe the amp section is the most important thing now to consider when looking at a DAP with a quality DAC. Given that the SR35 has a quality DAC and the AMP section may be the same as the SP3000, it may sound nearly the same.

This is the case in desktop equipment but not in daps. I can ensure you that AK did everything to make their flagship to sound way better than their entry level dap. The sr35 can share some sound characteristics with the sp3k but these 2 players are on a completely different level sound wise.
My advise- stop dreaming and start saving or just buy a great set of iems that will equallise these differences to some acceptable degree.

 

[Inju]

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it may help some people out in deciding on purchasing the SR35. I have no real expectations this is going to sound like the SP3000, but if it gets close that would be a nice surprise. I have a desktop setup with my desktop pc, which I think is pretty amazing and can't see using the SP3000 as really being a portable device for me and thus went with the SR35. When I read that everything past the DAC section is the same or similar to the SP3000 I was pretty shocked. If there is someone in the Los Angeles area that has an SP3000 and want to compare it to the SR35 for a second portable device and want to meet up to make sure all settings and files for testing are the same, shoot me a PM.

I received my SR35 on Friday and have used it now for about 20 plus hours. It sounds simply amazing and puts a smile on my face so is a keeper for me. In terms of power output being enough to power my HD6xx, it's does on LOW GAIN at about 105 out of 150 clicks, so about 2/3 of the way for low gain. The high gain does something unexpected, it gives more bass/mid bass. I don't really know how the gain staging is working for the SR35, but I'm guessing they may also be changing the current output on the higher gain, because the HD6xx sounds fuller and warmer, making me think that there is something that is pushing more current to the drivers of the HD6xx. If I get really motivated, I might hook it up to my oscilliscope and multimeter.

Knob Quality

I agree with one of the original posters that the knob, though beautifully cut, does wobble and there is play before it actually changes the volume. It's not bad, but it's not like a smooth analog dial, since it definetly has indents and I'm pretty sure it's digital, which is fine by me.

UI Speed

In terms of the speed of the UI, it's also fine for me. Is it not as good as my IPAD M1 Pro or my Samsung Fold 3, but it's more then adequate for the internal music player especially given the sound and power this little DAP outputs. I currently have about 700 songs on an external SD card in FLAC 44.1, 16 bit ripped by using dBpoweramp, verifying audio rip with accurate rip.

Applications:

However, for the apps it's almost slow enough to be annoying. It's just fast enough for me, but if you're sensitive to a slower interface for Amazon Music or Youtube, then steer clear. I don't have a paid Tidal subscription, but heard that Tidal does have a free subscription, with lower quality music tracks. I created an account, and so far every piece of music I click on says the following, "Playback error, Users subscripton not valid for this sound quality." I went into settings, choose LOW for the Wifi streaming quality and it still gives me the same error, so can't really test anything for Tidal. If someone knows how to fix this, let me know. Tidal free works on the SR35, I didn't see that there is a new download for it, under the Services Download section. If you download the update for the Tidal and install it, then the free Tidal works. Great for random, lower quality music listening.

V-Link (AKA Youtube)

Signing in to my Youtube account on the player caused it to never be able to open Youtube and I had to reset the entire device. Astell and Kern, you should FIX THIS. However, if you don't sign in, it works fine, usuable but slow. Also, I don't know if there is a way to uninstall Astell and Kern's, Youtube app, called V-Link in case you want to do a clean install. Also I don't think I can delete Tidal, which I only have a free subscription for. For some ridiculous reason, when you first start V-Link it gives you a warning that if you try to watch a Youtube video in a format that is higher then 720p, you can permanently damage the DAP. How does this even make sense, where if you accidentally chose 1080p format to watch Youtube it would brick your SR35? Also, there is no way for me to know if V-Link or Tidal is running in the background, because I can't figure out how to force stop the apps to ensure it's not running in the background. Really Astell & Kern?

Amazon Music

For those people that have Amazon Music unlimited, I have great news. It does give you the option of saving all downloaded files onto the MICRO SD card. So if you have Amazon Music unlimited, you can fill up your MICRO SD card with all of your favorite songs so you can play them without having an internet connection. To me, this is perfect and exactly what I wanted! In other words, for $7.50 a month if you purchase the yearly subscription, I can get unlimited lossless music files downloaded where ever there is a WIFI connect, and fill up my 1TB Micro SD Card! Of course, you can only keep playing those files when you're subscribed, but for the price it's amazing! Now while you're downloading a lot of songs onto the MICRO SD card, the audio on Amazon Music cuts out. I believe this may be because there is insufficient RAM, but I'm not sure. Also, though Dolby Atmos tracks play fine, the 360 music DOES NOT. Every 360 degree music I tested would cause it to massively glitch. I had believed this may be due to the signal strength of the DAP, but even standing right next to the router, it would stutter. I rarely if ever listen to 360 music and Amazon does allow you to not choose that type of music, so it's not an issue for me. Luckily, the Amazon Music App has three little dots next to it, that you can choose to force close the app so you know it's not running in the background. These three little dots, are not available on the Tidal or V-Link aka Youtube apps.

WIRED DAC

In terms of using it as a DAC, there are pros and cons. It works fine as a DAC for both my Android phone and Ipad. How to enable it as a DAC was not intuitive for me at first. When you plug the device in, it automatically senses it and will give you the OPTION of using it as a DAC, but you really don't know it's connected or not until you pull down from the top of the screen and it gives you that additional option. It does not automatically go to DAC mode, you either have to go to the settings or pull down from the menu bar to enable DAC mode. Once in DAC mode, you can't access anything else, such as adjusting your EQ, change from dual to quad dac mode, or choose your gain settings. You actually have to press the disconnect button to access anything else on your DAP then reconnect. It's an annoyance, but livable for me because I rarely change those settings.

Also, the pull down menu on the SR35 with a case on is finnicky, because the case makes it more difficult to swip down from the top of the screen. FYI, the blue Miter case on Amazon is beautiful on the device and is really great and much less expensive then the official AK case.

Additionally, which is very annoying, even if you have your bluetooth headset/speaker paired with the SR35, once in wired DAC or Bluetooth DAC mode, you can not use your bluetooth headsets or bluetooth speakers. I was hoping I could use this like a FIIO BTA30 Pro, as an LDAC transmitter for your other devices, like your Apple devices that doesn't have LDAC that's directly wired to the SR35. However please note, you can connect to other Bluetooth devices if using it as a Room endpoint or using AK Connect. I suspect this is because it's using the WiFi connection to stream music to the SR35, freeing up the Bluetooth to stream to your Bluetooth headset or speakers.

Bluetooth DAC

You can use this as a bluetooth DAC, which is cool, similar to a Qudelix (amazing device!) or a Fiio BTR7. It does automatically switch to Bluetooth DAC when connecting to it, unlike in wired DAC mods. You need to hold the bluetooth button from the pull down menu and tick the Bluetooth Sink Mode toggle. It will disconnect all of your current bluetooth devices. You will then need to go into your phone and select the SR35, where it should automatically see it as a bluetooth receiving device. If you're using an Android phone, like my Samsung Fold 3, don't forget to press the socket icon then toggle on LDAC and enable in your developers menu.

There is no MIC on the SR35, so when I use voice input to search for songs on Amazon Music, this does not work. You should however disable Alexa on the Amazon Music App anyway, given that it changes which song are available to you at higher frequency and bit rates. This is weird to me. How hard is it to include a little mic so you can voice search for music given the teeny keyboard on the SR35? I tried a work around by connecting by bluetooth to a Senheisser Momentum 2, which has a mic built in, to see if I can use voice input to search for tracks on Amazon. It didn't work. Additionally when using your phone in bluetooth DAC mode, it does not allow you to use the SR35 for calls. So if a call comes in, just make sure you're next to your handset since no audio will be passed through.

Surprisingly, when using it in wired DAC mode, the call does go through the DAC, and your phones mic is used for your voice. This is great if for some reason you need more volume for incoming calls or listenting to music in WIRED DAC mode and a call comes through.

AK Connect

Regarding AK Connect, it works amazing with the Apple Ipad as a control panel to stream music from the SR35 to your WIFI connected music system. I'm currently using AK Connect to play music from the player to my Sony HT5000 sound bar, which then shows the information and album art on my 77 inch Sony A80J Oled. There is nearly no lag between choosing a song on the Ipad from it playing from the SR35 to the soundbad, it's actually very quick! This makes the SR35 a great streaming device! You could also use it to connect to any of your powered speakers in your home and use the Ipad to act as a transport and also choose playlists.

What's annoying, there is no AK Connect app for Android 13 devices. When I searched for it in the Google Play store, it said AK Connect was not compatible with Android 13 and is grayed out. Astel & Kern, please fix this if your reading this post!

Heat of Device

If you leave it at dual dac low power gain mode, it stays pretty cool. If you use it in quad dac mode and high power gain, it gets warm. It gets hot, when you are using it in this mode and the device is plugged in. With a case on, it's not such a big deal. Strange scenario, but if you have it lying on your chest with a blanket over it, it can get very hot. After poker night last night, when I got home pretty late I fell asleep with it in bed, plugged in, while streaming music from my phone to the device and the heat actually woke me up. My honest opinion is it's perfectly safe, but it can get hot.

Friends Reaction to The DAP.

So I took the SR35 to my weekly poker night with friends. Of the six people there I had three people try out the SR35 and HD6xx. Two of my close friends are professional musicians, and the other close friend is in the entainment industry who likes really fancy video and audio recording equipment. My entertainment industry friend, for reference has already put a down payment on a ARRI Alexa 35 4K Super 35 about a year ago and still waiting to receive it.

Entertainment Industry Friend.

His reaction to the DAP was, "what does it do that my Iphone can't with the unlimited Apple Music plan". HAHAHA! He wasn't that impressed when I talked about wifi streaming, the number of DAC chips, etc. He then heard it. His reaction was instant, he started smiling and said, wow this sounds really good! He said the sound was very clear, but he then remarked, is it the headphones or the DAP? My phone, nor his, had a headphone plug for us to compare the two.

Music Producer Friend.

My professional music producer friend's reaction was a lot more toned down. He said it sounded amazing, but he would never use it for mixing. He thought that there was a slight V curve and though there was instrument separation it was very hard to determine positioning of the musicians on a stage compared to speakers (I had it on Dual Dac Mode with High Gain). He did say he would definitely love to listen to it for enjoyment and said he was impressed by the audio quality. He uses an RME audio interface setup with a bunch of Genelec speakers in his studio for reference.

Muscian Friend

My Musician Friend, who is a professional singer and song writer, had physical issues with the DAP. When I told her to choose her favorite piece to listen to, the Amazon Music app froze on her. It may be because I was connected to the SR35 using my phones Mobile Hotspot, but it would not play the song she choose. Once I connected it by bluetooth to my phone by LDAC, and had her choose a song from my Amazon App to the SR35, she had a similar reaction to my first friend that listened to it. She just started smiling and said it was the best she had ever heard that music piece sound on headphones. She wanted a link and told me to text her where to buy it.

My Opinions on the Settings

In my opinion, the dual dac and quad dac mode is not a gimmick. Dual dac makes vocals seem closer to you, while the quad dac mode pushes the vocals out a bit. It's noticable and audible. I was surpised by this, because I thought the quad dac mode would be a gimmick, but it does change the sound.

The high gain vs the low gain also changes the sound. The high gain give you more bass and mid bass then the low gain setting. I had believed it would just raise the volume, but keep everthing linear. It doesn't, it actually does change the sound for me on the HD6xx.

I do have several IEM's including the Zero Reds, but didn't really do any subjective hearing tests with it yet. If you want my opinion on how the Zero Reds sound on this, let me know.

 

[rlw6534]

I have the same issue with Amazon Music 360 tracks. Severe glitches and Amazon stops responding to input...

 

[Inju]

One more thing. USB cables and hubs with the SR35. If you want to use the SR35 with your IPAD and a hub to charge both the Ipad and the SR35, there's two things you need to keep in mind. One, the PLUG and second the HUB. The Hub must have a power input, and this input must have enough power that does more then the Ipad and the SR35 combined. Additionally, the PLUG, which many people mess up, has to have more output then the Ipad and SR35. In other words, the cheap USB plugs including the STOCK APPLE plug won't work. I'm currently using a GaN plug that outputs 65 watts through through the USB C out. If your plug or your hub can't give enough power to both devices, it causes the Ipad to keep connecting and disconnecting with the SR35. For Android devices, it's the same thing, but if your plug doesn't have enough power it will charge the phone, but it appears the SR35 will run off the battery, so it will work but won't charge the SR35.

Lastly the USB cable. Make sure the USB cable you use is the one that comes with the SR35 or you KNOW that the USB cable you have is higher data quality cable. Of my four USB cables, only two worked for some reason. Good luck everyone!

 

[anandgiridhar]

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it may help some people out in deciding on purchasing the SR35. I have no real expectations this is going to sound like the SP3000, but if it gets close that would be a nice surprise. I have a desktop setup with my desktop pc, which I think is pretty amazing and can't see using the SP3000 as really being a portable device for me and thus went with the SR35. When I read that everything past the DAC section is the same or similar to the SP3000 I was pretty shocked. If there is someone in the Los Angeles area that has an SP3000 and want to compare it to the SR35 for a second portable device and want to meet up to make sure all settings and files for testing are the same, shoot me a PM.

I received my SR35 on Friday and have used it now for about 20 plus hours. It sounds simply amazing and puts a smile on my face so is a keeper for me. In terms of power output being enough to power my HD6xx, it's does on LOW GAIN at about 105 out of 150 clicks, so about 2/3 of the way for low gain. The high gain does something unexpected, it gives more bass/mid bass. I don't really know how the gain staging is working for the SR35, but I'm guessing they may also be changing the current output on the higher gain, because the HD6xx sounds fuller and warmer, making me think that there is something that is pushing more current to the drivers of the HD6xx. If I get really motivated, I might hook it up to my oscilliscope and multimeter.

Knob Quality

I agree with one of the original posters that the knob, though beautifully cut, does wobble and there is play before it actually changes the volume. It's not bad, but it's not like a smooth analog dial, since it definetly has indents and I'm pretty sure it's digital, which is fine by me.

UI Speed

In terms of the speed of the UI, it's also fine for me. Is it not as good as my IPAD M1 Pro or my Samsung Fold 3, but it's more then adequate for the internal music player especially given the sound and power this little DAP outputs. I currently have about 700 songs on an external SD card in FLAC 44.1, 16 bit ripped by using dBpoweramp, verifying audio rip with accurate rip.

Applications:

However, for the apps it's almost slow enough to be annoying. It's just fast enough for me, but if you're sensitive to a slower interface for Amazon Music or Youtube, then steer clear. I don't have a paid Tidal subscription, but heard that Tidal does have a free subscription, with lower quality music tracks. I created an account, and so far every piece of music I click on says the following, "Playback error, Users subscripton not valid for this sound quality." I went into settings, choose LOW for the Wifi streaming quality and it still gives me the same error, so can't really test anything for Tidal. If someone knows how to fix this, let me know.

V-Link (AKA Youtube)

Signing in to my Youtube account on the player caused it to never be able to open Youtube and I had to reset the entire device. Astell and Kern, you should FIX THIS. However, if you don't sign in, it works fine, usuable but slow. Also, I don't know if there is a way to uninstall Astell and Kern's, Youtube app, called V-Link in case you want to do a clean install. Also I don't think I can delete Tidal, which I only have a free subscription for. For some ridiculous reason, when you first start V-Link it gives you a warning that if you try to watch a Youtube video in a format that is higher then 720p, you can permanently damage the DAP. How does this even make sense, where if you accidentally chose 1080p format to watch Youtube it would brick your SR35? Also, there is no way for me to know if V-Link or Tidal is running in the background, because I can't figure out how to force stop the apps to ensure it's not running in the background. Really Astell & Kern?

Amazon Music

For those people that have Amazon Music unlimited, I have great news. It does give you the option of saving all downloaded files onto the MICRO SD card. So if you have Amazon Music unlimited, you can fill up your MICRO SD card with all of your favorite songs so you can play them without having an internet connection. To me, this is perfect and exactly what I wanted! In other words, for $7.50 a month if you purchase the yearly subscription, I can get unlimited lossless music files downloaded where ever there is a WIFI connect, and fill up my 1TB Micro SD Card! Of course, you can only keep playing those files when you're subscribed, but for the price it's amazing! Now while you're downloading a lot of songs onto the MICRO SD card, the audio on Amazon Music cuts out. I believe this may be because there is insufficient RAM, but I'm not sure. Also, though Dolby Atmos tracks play fine, the 360 music DOES NOT. Every 360 degree music I tested would cause it to massively glitch. I had believed this may be due to the signal strength of the DAP, but even standing right next to the router, it would stutter. I rarely if ever listen to 360 music and Amazon does allow you to not choose that type of music, so it's not an issue for me. Luckily, the Amazon Music App has three little dots next to it, that you can choose to force close the app so you know it's not running in the background. These three little dots, are not available on the Tidal or V-Link aka Youtube apps.

WIRED DAC

In terms of using it as a DAC, there are pros and cons. It works fine as a DAC for both my Android phone and Ipad. How to enable it as a DAC was not intuitive for me at first. When you plug the device in, it automatically senses it and will give you the OPTION of using it as a DAC, but you really don't know it's connected or not until you pull down from the top of the screen and it gives you that additional option. It does not automatically go to DAC mode, you either have to go to the settings or pull down from the menu bar to enable DAC mode. Once in DAC mode, you can't access anything else, such as adjusting your EQ, change from dual to quad dac mode, or choose your gain settings. You actually have to press the disconnect button to access anything else on your DAP then reconnect. It's an annoyance, but livable for me because I rarely change those settings.

Also, the pull down menu on the SR35 with a case on is finnicky, because the case makes it more difficult to swip down from the top of the screen. FYI, the blue Miter case on Amazon is beautiful on the device and is really great and much less expensive then the official AK case.

Additionally, which is very annoying, even if you have your bluetooth headset/speaker paired with the SR35, once in wired DAC or Bluetooth DAC mode, you can not use your bluetooth headsets or bluetooth speakers. I was hoping I could use this like a FIIO BTA30 Pro, as an LDAC transmitter for your other devices, like your Apple devices that doesn't have LDAC that's directly wired to the SR35.

Bluetooth DAC

You can use this as a bluetooth DAC, which is cool, similar to a Qudelix (amazing device!) or a Fiio BTR7. You need to hold the bluetooth button from the pull down menu and tick the Bluetooth Sink Mode toggle. It will disconnect all of your current bluetooth devices. You will then need to go into your phone and select the SR35, where it should automatically see it as a bluetooth receiving device. If you're using an Android phone, like my Samsung Fold 3, don't forget to press the socket icon then toggle on LDAC and enable in your developers menu.

There is no MIC on the SR35, so when I use voice input to search for songs on Amazon Music, this does not work. You should however disable Alexa on the Amazon Music App anyway, given that it changes which song are available to you at higher frequency and bit rates. This is weird to me. How hard is it to include a little mic so you can voice search for music given the teeny keyboard on the SR35? I tried a work around by connecting by bluetooth to a Senheisser Momentum 2, which has a mic built in, to see if I can use voice input to search for tracks on Amazon. It didn't work. Additionally when using your phone in bluetooth DAC mode, it does not allow you to use the SR35 for calls. So if a call comes in, just make sure you're next to your handset since no audio will be passed through.

Surprisingly, when using it in wired DAC mode, the call does go through the DAC, and your phones mic is used for your voice. This is great if for some reason you need more volume for incoming calls or listenting to music in WIRED DAC mode and a call comes through.

AK Connect

Regarding AK Connect, it works amazing with the Apple Ipad as a control panel to stream music from the SR35 to your WIFI connected music system. I'm currently using AK Connect to play music from the player to my Sony HT5000 sound bar, which then shows the information and album art on my 77 inch Sony A80J Oled. There is nearly no lag between choosing a song on the Ipad from it playing from the SR35 to the soundbad, it's actually very quick! This makes the SR35 a great streaming device! You could also use it to connect to any of your powered speakers in your home and use the Ipad to act as a transport and also choose playlists.

What's annoying, there is no AK Connect app for Android 13 devices. When I searched for it in the Google Play store, it said AK Connect was not compatible with Android 13 and is grayed out. Astel & Kern, please fix this if your reading this post!

Heat of Device

If you leave it at dual dac low power gain mode, it stays pretty cool. If you use it in quad dac mode and high power gain, it gets warm. It gets hot, when you are using it in this mode and the device is plugged in. With a case on, it's not such a big deal. Strange scenario, but if you have it lying on your chest with a blanket over it, it can get very hot. After poker night last night, when I got home pretty late I fell asleep with it in bed, plugged in, while streaming music from my phone to the device and the heat actually woke me up. My honest opinion is it's perfectly safe, but it can get hot.

Friends Reaction to The DAP.

So I took the SR35 to my weekly poker night with friends. Of the six people there I had three people try out the SR35 and HD6xx. Two of my close friends are professional musicians, and the other close friend is in the entainment industry who likes really fancy video and audio recording equipment. My entertainment industry friend, for reference has already put a down payment on a ARRI Alexa 35 4K Super 35 about a year ago and still waiting to receive it.

Entertainment Industry Friend.

His reaction to the DAP was, "what does it do that my Iphone can't with the unlimited Apple Music plan". HAHAHA! He wasn't that impressed when I talked about wifi streaming, the number of DAC chips, etc. He then heard it. His reaction was instant, he started smiling and said, wow this sounds really good! He said the sound was very clear, but he then remarked, is it the headphones or the DAP? My phone, nor his, had a headphone plug for us to compare the two.

Music Producer Friend.

My professional music producer friend's reaction was a lot more toned down. He said it sounded amazing, but he would never use it for mixing. He thought that there was a slight V curve and though there was instrument separation it was very hard to determine positioning of the musicians on a stage compared to speakers (I had it on Dual Dac Mode with High Gain). He did say he would definitely love to listen to it for enjoyment and said he was impressed by the audio quality. He uses an RME audio interface setup with a bunch of Genelec speakers in his studio for reference.

Muscian Friend

My Musician Friend, who is a professional singer and song writer, had physical issues with the DAP. When I told her to choose her favorite piece to listen to, the Amazon Music app froze on her. It may be because I was connected to the SR35 using my phones Mobile Hotspot, but it would not play the song she choose. Once I connected it by bluetooth to my phone by LDAC, and had her choose a song from my Amazon App to the SR35, she had a similar reaction to my first friend that listened to it. She just started smiling and said it was the best she had ever heard that music piece sound on headphones. She wanted a link and told me to text her where to buy it.

My Opinions on the Settings

In my opinion, the dual dac and quad dac mode is not a gimmick. Dual dac makes vocals seem closer to you, while the quad dac mode pushes the vocals out a bit. It's noticable and audible. I was surpised by this, because I thought the quad dac mode would be a gimmick, but it does change the sound.

The high gain vs the low gain also changes the sound. The high gain give you more bass and mid bass then the low gain setting. I had believed it would just raise the volume, but keep everthing linear. It doesn't, it actually does change the sound for me on the HD6xx.

I do have several IEM's including the Zero Reds, but didn't really do any subjective hearing tests with it yet. If you want my opinion on how the Zero Reds sound on this, let me know.

Wow! What a detailed actual user experience review on so many aspects. Am sure this will be very very useful for so many people looking at specific aspects of this DAP. Many thanks and respect for your time and effort.

 

[zikarus]

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it may help some people out in deciding on purchasing the SR35. I have no real expectations this is going to sound like the SP3000, but if it gets close that would be a nice surprise. I have a desktop setup with my desktop pc, which I think is pretty amazing and can't see using the SP3000 as really being a portable device for me and thus went with the SR35. When I read that everything past the DAC section is the same or similar to the SP3000 I was pretty shocked. If there is someone in the Los Angeles area that has an SP3000 and want to compare it to the SR35 for a second portable device and want to meet up to make sure all settings and files for testing are the same, shoot me a PM.

I received my SR35 on Friday and have used it now for about 20 plus hours. It sounds simply amazing and puts a smile on my face so is a keeper for me. In terms of power output being enough to power my HD6xx, it's does on LOW GAIN at about 105 out of 150 clicks, so about 2/3 of the way for low gain. The high gain does something unexpected, it gives more bass/mid bass. I don't really know how the gain staging is working for the SR35, but I'm guessing they may also be changing the current output on the higher gain, because the HD6xx sounds fuller and warmer, making me think that there is something that is pushing more current to the drivers of the HD6xx. If I get really motivated, I might hook it up to my oscilliscope and multimeter.

Knob Quality

I agree with one of the original posters that the knob, though beautifully cut, does wobble and there is play before it actually changes the volume. It's not bad, but it's not like a smooth analog dial, since it definetly has indents and I'm pretty sure it's digital, which is fine by me.

UI Speed

In terms of the speed of the UI, it's also fine for me. Is it not as good as my IPAD M1 Pro or my Samsung Fold 3, but it's more then adequate for the internal music player especially given the sound and power this little DAP outputs. I currently have about 700 songs on an external SD card in FLAC 44.1, 16 bit ripped by using dBpoweramp, verifying audio rip with accurate rip.

Applications:

However, for the apps it's almost slow enough to be annoying. It's just fast enough for me, but if you're sensitive to a slower interface for Amazon Music or Youtube, then steer clear. I don't have a paid Tidal subscription, but heard that Tidal does have a free subscription, with lower quality music tracks. I created an account, and so far every piece of music I click on says the following, "Playback error, Users subscripton not valid for this sound quality." I went into settings, choose LOW for the Wifi streaming quality and it still gives me the same error, so can't really test anything for Tidal. If someone knows how to fix this, let me know.

V-Link (AKA Youtube)

Signing in to my Youtube account on the player caused it to never be able to open Youtube and I had to reset the entire device. Astell and Kern, you should FIX THIS. However, if you don't sign in, it works fine, usuable but slow. Also, I don't know if there is a way to uninstall Astell and Kern's, Youtube app, called V-Link in case you want to do a clean install. Also I don't think I can delete Tidal, which I only have a free subscription for. For some ridiculous reason, when you first start V-Link it gives you a warning that if you try to watch a Youtube video in a format that is higher then 720p, you can permanently damage the DAP. How does this even make sense, where if you accidentally chose 1080p format to watch Youtube it would brick your SR35? Also, there is no way for me to know if V-Link or Tidal is running in the background, because I can't figure out how to force stop the apps to ensure it's not running in the background. Really Astell & Kern?

Amazon Music

For those people that have Amazon Music unlimited, I have great news. It does give you the option of saving all downloaded files onto the MICRO SD card. So if you have Amazon Music unlimited, you can fill up your MICRO SD card with all of your favorite songs so you can play them without having an internet connection. To me, this is perfect and exactly what I wanted! In other words, for $7.50 a month if you purchase the yearly subscription, I can get unlimited lossless music files downloaded where ever there is a WIFI connect, and fill up my 1TB Micro SD Card! Of course, you can only keep playing those files when you're subscribed, but for the price it's amazing! Now while you're downloading a lot of songs onto the MICRO SD card, the audio on Amazon Music cuts out. I believe this may be because there is insufficient RAM, but I'm not sure. Also, though Dolby Atmos tracks play fine, the 360 music DOES NOT. Every 360 degree music I tested would cause it to massively glitch. I had believed this may be due to the signal strength of the DAP, but even standing right next to the router, it would stutter. I rarely if ever listen to 360 music and Amazon does allow you to not choose that type of music, so it's not an issue for me. Luckily, the Amazon Music App has three little dots next to it, that you can choose to force close the app so you know it's not running in the background. These three little dots, are not available on the Tidal or V-Link aka Youtube apps.

WIRED DAC

In terms of using it as a DAC, there are pros and cons. It works fine as a DAC for both my Android phone and Ipad. How to enable it as a DAC was not intuitive for me at first. When you plug the device in, it automatically senses it and will give you the OPTION of using it as a DAC, but you really don't know it's connected or not until you pull down from the top of the screen and it gives you that additional option. It does not automatically go to DAC mode, you either have to go to the settings or pull down from the menu bar to enable DAC mode. Once in DAC mode, you can't access anything else, such as adjusting your EQ, change from dual to quad dac mode, or choose your gain settings. You actually have to press the disconnect button to access anything else on your DAP then reconnect. It's an annoyance, but livable for me because I rarely change those settings.

Also, the pull down menu on the SR35 with a case on is finnicky, because the case makes it more difficult to swip down from the top of the screen. FYI, the blue Miter case on Amazon is beautiful on the device and is really great and much less expensive then the official AK case.

Additionally, which is very annoying, even if you have your bluetooth headset/speaker paired with the SR35, once in wired DAC or Bluetooth DAC mode, you can not use your bluetooth headsets or bluetooth speakers. I was hoping I could use this like a FIIO BTA30 Pro, as an LDAC transmitter for your other devices, like your Apple devices that doesn't have LDAC that's directly wired to the SR35.

Bluetooth DAC

You can use this as a bluetooth DAC, which is cool, similar to a Qudelix (amazing device!) or a Fiio BTR7. You need to hold the bluetooth button from the pull down menu and tick the Bluetooth Sink Mode toggle. It will disconnect all of your current bluetooth devices. You will then need to go into your phone and select the SR35, where it should automatically see it as a bluetooth receiving device. If you're using an Android phone, like my Samsung Fold 3, don't forget to press the socket icon then toggle on LDAC and enable in your developers menu.

There is no MIC on the SR35, so when I use voice input to search for songs on Amazon Music, this does not work. You should however disable Alexa on the Amazon Music App anyway, given that it changes which song are available to you at higher frequency and bit rates. This is weird to me. How hard is it to include a little mic so you can voice search for music given the teeny keyboard on the SR35? I tried a work around by connecting by bluetooth to a Senheisser Momentum 2, which has a mic built in, to see if I can use voice input to search for tracks on Amazon. It didn't work. Additionally when using your phone in bluetooth DAC mode, it does not allow you to use the SR35 for calls. So if a call comes in, just make sure you're next to your handset since no audio will be passed through.

Surprisingly, when using it in wired DAC mode, the call does go through the DAC, and your phones mic is used for your voice. This is great if for some reason you need more volume for incoming calls or listenting to music in WIRED DAC mode and a call comes through.

AK Connect

Regarding AK Connect, it works amazing with the Apple Ipad as a control panel to stream music from the SR35 to your WIFI connected music system. I'm currently using AK Connect to play music from the player to my Sony HT5000 sound bar, which then shows the information and album art on my 77 inch Sony A80J Oled. There is nearly no lag between choosing a song on the Ipad from it playing from the SR35 to the soundbad, it's actually very quick! This makes the SR35 a great streaming device! You could also use it to connect to any of your powered speakers in your home and use the Ipad to act as a transport and also choose playlists.

What's annoying, there is no AK Connect app for Android 13 devices. When I searched for it in the Google Play store, it said AK Connect was not compatible with Android 13 and is grayed out. Astel & Kern, please fix this if your reading this post!

Heat of Device

If you leave it at dual dac low power gain mode, it stays pretty cool. If you use it in quad dac mode and high power gain, it gets warm. It gets hot, when you are using it in this mode and the device is plugged in. With a case on, it's not such a big deal. Strange scenario, but if you have it lying on your chest with a blanket over it, it can get very hot. After poker night last night, when I got home pretty late I fell asleep with it in bed, plugged in, while streaming music from my phone to the device and the heat actually woke me up. My honest opinion is it's perfectly safe, but it can get hot.

Friends Reaction to The DAP.

So I took the SR35 to my weekly poker night with friends. Of the six people there I had three people try out the SR35 and HD6xx. Two of my close friends are professional musicians, and the other close friend is in the entainment industry who likes really fancy video and audio recording equipment. My entertainment industry friend, for reference has already put a down payment on a ARRI Alexa 35 4K Super 35 about a year ago and still waiting to receive it.

Entertainment Industry Friend.

His reaction to the DAP was, "what does it do that my Iphone can't with the unlimited Apple Music plan". HAHAHA! He wasn't that impressed when I talked about wifi streaming, the number of DAC chips, etc. He then heard it. His reaction was instant, he started smiling and said, wow this sounds really good! He said the sound was very clear, but he then remarked, is it the headphones or the DAP? My phone, nor his, had a headphone plug for us to compare the two.

Music Producer Friend.

My professional music producer friend's reaction was a lot more toned down. He said it sounded amazing, but he would never use it for mixing. He thought that there was a slight V curve and though there was instrument separation it was very hard to determine positioning of the musicians on a stage compared to speakers (I had it on Dual Dac Mode with High Gain). He did say he would definitely love to listen to it for enjoyment and said he was impressed by the audio quality. He uses an RME audio interface setup with a bunch of Genelec speakers in his studio for reference.

Muscian Friend

My Musician Friend, who is a professional singer and song writer, had physical issues with the DAP. When I told her to choose her favorite piece to listen to, the Amazon Music app froze on her. It may be because I was connected to the SR35 using my phones Mobile Hotspot, but it would not play the song she choose. Once I connected it by bluetooth to my phone by LDAC, and had her choose a song from my Amazon App to the SR35, she had a similar reaction to my first friend that listened to it. She just started smiling and said it was the best she had ever heard that music piece sound on headphones. She wanted a link and told me to text her where to buy it.

My Opinions on the Settings

In my opinion, the dual dac and quad dac mode is not a gimmick. Dual dac makes vocals seem closer to you, while the quad dac mode pushes the vocals out a bit. It's noticable and audible. I was surpised by this, because I thought the quad dac mode would be a gimmick, but it does change the sound.

The high gain vs the low gain also changes the sound. The high gain give you more bass and mid bass then the low gain setting. I had believed it would just raise the volume, but keep everthing linear. It doesn't, it actually does change the sound for me on the HD6xx.

I do have several IEM's including the Zero Reds, but didn't really do any subjective hearing tests with it yet. If you want my opinion on how the Zero Reds sound on this, let me know.

Thank you for your informative impressions. May save me some bucks as I was eyeing the SR35 to use for streaming from a NAS via Roon Arc and from the Qobuz app ONLY.

I already feared that the SR35 UI/SOC might not be able to fulfill these tasks adequately and your impressions confirm this suspicion...

 

[Inju]

I'm curious about Roon. I believe the lifetime subscription is about $900 dollars. Do Qobuz and Roon have free trials? If so I might try it to test for you.

 

[zikarus]

I'm curious about Roon. I believe the lifetime subscription is about $900 dollars. Do Qobuz and Roon have free trials? If so I might try it to test for you.

Thank you for the test offer but not needed...

I guess Roon still offers test accounts (and a subscription model with monthly payments) but be warned that you will also need more hardware to properly use Roon. Don't get me wrong it is a fantastic software! But it does only(?) make true sense if you own a larger music library yourself. Otherwise the subscription of a streaming service like Qobuz seems more reasonable to me as it offers almost the same functionality (well maybe 70%?) plus access to all kind of music in highest quality.

The advantage of Roon is the integration of your own library with that of one of the streaming services under one hood with world wide access to both libraries as long as you have a internet connection.

And a mobile device capable to deal with the demands hardware wise. As far as DAPs are concerned this translates to at least a Snapdragon 665 SOC. My DX320 eg handles Roon Arc without ease. Even better is a high-end mobile phone no older than ~2 years....

 

[Inju]

Thank you for the test offer but not needed...

I guess Roon still offers test accounts (and a subscription model with monthly payments) but be warned that you will also need more hardware to properly use Roon. Don't get me wrong it is a fantastic software! But it does only(?) make true sense if you own a larger music library yourself. Otherwise the subscription of a streaming service like Qobuz seems more reasonable to me as it offers almost the same functionality (well maybe 70%?) plus access to all kind of music in highest quality.

The advantage of Roon is the integration of your own library with that of one of the streaming services under one hood with world wide access to both libraries as long as you have a internet connection.

And a mobile device capable to deal with the demands hardware wise. As far as DAPs are concerned this translates to at least a Snapdragon 665 SOC. My DX320 eg handles Roon Arc without ease. Even better is a high-end mobile phone no older than ~2 years....

Roon's $829 lifetime subscription doesn't seem expensive to me given how it pulls all of your data and organizes it for you automatically for life, I spend more on plugins for my DAW. I'm currently watching YouTube videos on Roon and it seems pretty cool! I don't have a huge library anymore on my desktop, I used to, where it became overwhelming, but since streaming is so much easier and faster I've switched to it. I buy Samsung top of the line phones every two years (Currently have a Samsung Fold 3) and have an Ipad M1. My desktop is a AM5 7700x, 32 gigs of ram with an RTX 4080 that I built myself. I don't like to waste money of course, but will spend on items that make me smile and engage me and am fortunate to have a job that lets me spend on such things.

I do love my Amazon Music unlimited account and it does seem like it does a lot of what Roon does. It gives me suggestions, playlists, gives me information about the artist with the X-ray feature, connects with Alexa and my Echo devices, which I have in every room, integrates all my songs on my SD card to be able to be used with Amazon etc. The thing holding me back from Roon is it doesn't integrate with Amazon Music. If Roon worked with Amazon It would be an instant purchase. I'll try it out for a few days and see. I'm also curious about Amazon using Dolby Atmos. I'm wondering if Dolby kinda does what the Chord DAC/amps does with delayed cross talk, to make the sound appear as it's coming from speakers for imaging. I'm going to discuss this with my best friend who is a music producer. I was thinking about it last night. The mixing and mastering done on speakers wouldn't translate as well when you mix and master on speakers vs mixing and mastering using headphones and introducing a delayed crosstalk effect for imaging to match what speakers do. Ideally you should have two tracks, one for use with speakers and another track for headphones. I'm trying to think if there is a VST plugin that could simulate this where you can make adjustments. Sorry just rambling now.

 

[zikarus]

Sure lifetime is great - got it myself. But again: don't forget that you will also need an extra device for the Roon Core to take full advantage of the Roon cosmos... But I will stop now as this is the AK SR35 thread

 

[Inju]

Sure lifetime is great - got it myself. But again: don't forget that you will also need an extra device for the Roon Core to take full advantage of the Roon cosmos... But I will stop now as this is the AK SR35 thread

Well shi*........Roon is pretty bad as*! I may just cancel my Amazon Unlimited and go with Qobuz.

 

[Inju]

A few edits I made above. Tidal Free subscription does work, you just need to go to services, download and update Tidal for the free service to work. Now onto Roon.

Roon

The SR35 does work as a Roon Endpoint. You can actually use the bluetooth and change settings on the device while you are using Roon to transmit music to the device. This is very different then using the SR35 as a USB or bluetooth DAC, which locks all of the functions out and requires you to disconnect before changing settings. The SR35 does have limited transport control, such as play/pause, skip to next track and repeat. Other then that there is no other control. Roon does work seemlessly through it as an endpoint and does allow you to control the SR35 on your phone or ipad using Roon Remote. Using Roon Remote, you can use it like a Fiio BTA30 Pro and transmit any music on your Roon core device (mine is my desktop pc) and transmit to your LDAC bluetooth speakers and headsets if your computer does not have LDAC. This is great!

Qobuz

Qobuz is an amazing app on the SR35. It does run a bit slow on startup, but is completely usuable and speeds up as the album art and "Magazine" items load in. Once everything loads in, it's fast enough. It DOES allow you to save your imported music for offline listening to your SD card and also lets you move the music from your internal memory to the SD card! That's fantastic! Sound quality is great and lets you download and stream at the same bitrate and frequency as the original track, I don't know if it does this automatically though or if you need to toggle the quality everytime you want to switch it. You can of course use your bluetooth headset and stream music to your bluetooth device. On a downside, I don't see a way for you to play your music you uploaded to the SR35 to be played in Qobuz. Amazon Music on the SR35 does do this.

 

[rlw6534]

@JasonNYC

Any updates on Roon ARC, Apple Classical and the issues with Amazon 360 audio?

The whitelist remains a bummer...

 

[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC

Any updates on Roon ARC, Apple Classical and the issues with Amazon 360 audio?

The whitelist remains a bummer...

No updates on Roon Arc, but I have been stressing weekly that it is important to add ASAP.

Apple Classical is currently not available in Korea and is not going to be rolled out there until around August, so they have not really been able to test it. The initial versions of Apple Music when first released for Android were extremely buggy and took a while to come to AK players because of it, so they are hesitant to roll it out without the ability to officially test. I have offered to test here in the US, still waiting for more info. Also stressed this is a highly anticipated app release and should be figured out ASAP.

I also shared the recommendations about just opening up the whitelist to all apps with the stipulation that apps would be installed at the owners own risk and any OS issues casued due to problem apps would not be covered under warranty. The suggestion was passed along for internal discussion. Personally, I agree with this approach myself.

 

[rlw6534]

No updates on Roon Arc, but I have been stressing weekly that it is important to add ASAP.

Apple Classical is currently not available in Korea and is not going to be rolled out there until around August, so they have not really been able to test it. The initial versions of Apple Music when first released for Android were extremely buggy and took a while to come to AK players because of it, so they are hesitant to roll it out without the ability to officially test. I have offered to test here in the US, still waiting for more info. Also stressed this is a highly anticipated app release and should be figured out ASAP.

I also shared the recommendations about just opening up the whitelist to all apps with the stipulation that apps would be installed at the owners own risk and any OS issues would due to problem apps would not be covered under warranty. The suggestion was passed along for internal discussion. Personally, I agree with this approach myself.

Thank you for the fast response! As I have said the whitelist is more trouble than it's worth and sometimes even whitelisted apps have issues, like Amazon Music in particular which crashes with genre searches and only sometimes plays in high resolution. I put the blame on Amazon in this case...