[LifeEnthusiast]

I received my SR35 yesterday and I have to say that the CPU appears unchanged from the SR25 and SR25 II (rk3326) so don't expect overall performance improvements. The new UI is nice, though. Wifi appears to be OK but I haven't thoroughly tested yet, no drop-outs so far. Seems more like an SR25 MKIII than a new model. Being "Roon-Ready" is the selling point for me as it's the smallest device in that category. I don't really understand the missing Roon ARC compatibility though as Jason said it runs Android 11 which should be just fine.

One glitch that I have noticed is that Amazon Music 360 audio tracks consistently skip/click every second or so, but Atmos works fine... maybe this can be fixed.

Thanks rlw6534! Looking forward to hearing more in-depth impressions once you give this puppy more listening time!

 

[vovkinson]

in terms of sound quality - SR35 sounds pretty good for its price. Comparing to my SP2000 (In culinary terms) SR35 tastes like topping while SP2000 has a full flavor of delicious pie. I don't have SP3000 which, according to some reviewers opinion, supposed to have "same signature sound ". Well...maybe, who knows)) All-in-all SR35 is a good player for walking and short time listening (if you can deal with some shortcomings I described in my previous post).

 

[alwass89]

I picked up this player yesterday from B&H in NYC, and today I was finally able to get it set up. So far, I am really enjoying this player. To me, the size and weight is perfect for a portable, everyday carry DAP.

The UI seems pretty good to me so far. I have 16,700+ songs on a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB card that I formatted in the DAP as FAT32, and scrolling is pretty smooth, but cover art takes some time to load. All my cover art is embedded in the files and is 600x600. Otherwise, I have no complaints. I also had some .m3u playlists which were automatically were loaded into the playlists tab in the music player. I also have some DSD .dff files that play perfect. The player even reads the tags and shows the cover art for those files. Other DAPs like the Hiby R6 III and Sony A306 do not read the tags or show cover art for the DSD files, so this is great.

I have been listening with the Sennheiser IE600, Quad DAC mode, Balanced 4.4, and High Gain and the sound is great. Need more listening time for a more detailed description. Please note that this is my first A&K DAP so I can't compare to any of their other DAPs. To me the sound is better than the Mid-Tier DAPs like the FiiO M11s or Hiby R6 III, better soundstage, better instrument separation, dynamics ect...

 

[InvisibleInk]

I picked up this player yesterday from B&H in NYC, and today I was finally able to get it set up. So far, I am really enjoying this player. To me, the size and weight is perfect for a portable, everyday carry DAP.

The UI seems pretty good to me so far. I have 16,700+ songs on a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB card that I formatted in the DAP as FAT32, and scrolling is pretty smooth, but cover art takes some time to load. All my cover art is embedded in the files and is 600x600. Otherwise, I have no complaints. I also had some .m3u playlists which were automatically were loaded into the playlists tab in the music player. I also have some DSD .dff files that play perfect. The player even reads the tags and shows the cover art for those files. Other DAPs like the Hiby R6 III and Sony A306 do not read the tags or show cover art for the DSD files, so this is great.

I have been listening with the Sennheiser IE600, Quad DAC mode, Balanced 4.4, and High Gain and the sound is great. Need more listening time for a more detailed description. Please note that this is my first A&K DAP so I can't compare to any of their other DAPs. To me the sound is better than the Mid-Tier DAPs like the FiiO M11s or Hiby R6 III, better soundstage, better instrument separation, dynamics ect...

Enjoy your honeymoon, brother. I hope your love affair lasts for the duration. Cheers!

 

[ma151]

I picked up this player yesterday from B&H in NYC, and today I was finally able to get it set up. So far, I am really enjoying this player. To me, the size and weight is perfect for a portable, everyday carry DAP.

The UI seems pretty good to me so far. I have 16,700+ songs on a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB card that I formatted in the DAP as FAT32, and scrolling is pretty smooth, but cover art takes some time to load. All my cover art is embedded in the files and is 600x600. Otherwise, I have no complaints. I also had some .m3u playlists which were automatically were loaded into the playlists tab in the music player. I also have some DSD .dff files that play perfect. The player even reads the tags and shows the cover art for those files. Other DAPs like the Hiby R6 III and Sony A306 do not read the tags or show cover art for the DSD files, so this is great.

I have been listening with the Sennheiser IE600, Quad DAC mode, Balanced 4.4, and High Gain and the sound is great. Need more listening time for a more detailed description. Please note that this is my first A&K DAP so I can't compare to any of their other DAPs. To me the sound is better than the Mid-Tier DAPs like the FiiO M11s or Hiby R6 III, better soundstage, better instrument separation, dynamics ect...

Did you manage to test some DSD files that are not splitted by tracks, but have a .cue file ? If so, does the internal player organize them well ?

 

[RIGATIO]

I would really love to see AK creating a dap like sp1000m again. Its still my favorite AK dap. They managed to squeeze a flagship sound quality into a device of the size of the sr35 and it was beautiful in and out. I personally consider a gold version of this dap as the most beautiful dap ever made.

 

[Kobe4ever]

I would really love to see AK creating a dap like sp1000m again. Its still my favorite AK dap. They managed to squeeze a flagship sound quality into a device of the size of the sr35 and it was beautiful in and out. I personally consider a gold version of this dap as the most beautiful dap ever made.

As owner of the SP1000M too, I can only totally agree with you.

 

[rlw6534]

As owner of the SP1000M too, I can only totally agree with you.

The problem with the SP1000M is the Android Version (6). Samsung eventually upgraded the Exynos 7420 to at least Android 8 but A&K never bothered, not even on the SP2000.

 

[123peter]

You forgot the Astell & Kern SP1000 model (without the letter M) this one is rarely sold on the secondary market.
Returning to the subject of the AK SR35, which everyone approaches with caution, after the SR15, SR25 and after a while the SR25mk2
- which are new and unsold are still on the shelves.
The new DAP SR35 has the advantage that it is more refined and NEW UI/UX - Crimson - but Astell & Kern SR35 II - will surely appear soon

 

[rlw6534]

You forgot the Astell & Kern SP1000 model (without the letter M) this one is rarely sold on the secondary market.
Returning to the subject of the AK SR35, which everyone approaches with caution, after the SR15, SR25 and after a while the SR25mk2
- which are new and unsold are still on the shelves.
The new DAP SR35 has the advantage that it is more refined and NEW UI/UX - Crimson - but Astell & Kern SR35 II - will surely appear soon

As much as I love this hobby, the upgrade cycle is simply unhealthy for my finances. I suppose it's the nature of the game but I can't
justify a flagship player every year or two, especially when the audio hardware is excellent and it's the software/firmware that's the problem. My SP1000M will be the last of the high-end for me (with unsupported apps after less than 3 years of ownership). At least the SR35 didn't cost $2399...

 

[vovkinson]

investing in electronics is not profitable - never was. AK charges their customers with new 4 digit price tag because they can and people keep paying them no matter what.

 

[vilders]

For some reason, no one has yet rated the sound in comparison with the SR25mk2. And also the difference between switching mode 2 DAC and 4 in SR35. This seems to be the main difference, but no one even mentions it...

 

[ikoster]

For some reason, no one has yet rated the sound in comparison with the SR25mk2. And also the difference between switching mode 2 DAC and 4 in SR35. This seems to be the main difference, but no one even mentions it...

If SR35 sounds the same as SR25mkii I am totally fine with the SR35.

I have the SR25mkii but the SR35 is not yet available here they said: "second half of june (eu local shop)" but that was 2 weeks ago haven't rechecked with them since then... I will be getting one for sure.

 

[someyoungguy]

For some reason, no one has yet rated the sound in comparison with the SR25mk2. And also the difference between switching mode 2 DAC and 4 in SR35. This seems to be the main difference, but no one even mentions it...

I've had the SR35 for a few days and just been getting used to the sound. In all honesty I hadn't even tried switching from 4 to 2 DACs yet.

But after playing around with it now, there's a very definite difference between the two - it's not like switching DAC filters which can be a subtle, hard to hear change. The 4 DAC mode has more detail and sense of texture to the instruments and vocals, sounding more lifelike. Dropping to 2 DACs loses some of the sense of realism. It's still good, but just not on the same level.

I think it'll be 4 DAC all the way for me; I might use 2 in a pinch to save battery on occasion, but with the improvement in sound quality there doesn't seem to be much reason to purposely go down to 2 unless you really need the extra battery life, or perhaps if someone subjectively liked the 2 DAC mode more.

In all it's a good device. The UI isn't as snappy as the custom interface on Plenues, but works just fine. Battery life is impressive. I hadn't realized just how small it was - I had the SR15 some years ago, so knew the SR25/35 models were larger, but it's actually still a bit smaller than my Plenue M2. Soundstage is good, there's a good sense of detail and reach into the bass depths.

Overall I can't really fault the sound. It feels a lot like the good old days where a DAP could easily fit in your hand or pocket and would just sound good and get out of the way

 

[TheRH]

That is a shame that it is slow.