[subguy812]

in the case of TT2 it is absolute quality.

I am not saying the SP2K is the end all be all in sound quality. I do wish we could compare apples to apples. Price and portability considered. I may be wrong but the price is 2000 more and the TT2 isn't going to be carried in a pocket or a pouch

 

[iFi audio]

Saying this as a former user of iFi Micro iDSD as a portable device.

Bulky in a pocket alright, but gets the job done

With these powerful amps, the first thing you notice is the power. Power doesn't equate to quality

It doesn't, but some cans benefit from beefy power output.

 

[oloendithas]

Bulky in a pocket alright, but gets the job done

Oh, can't tell, how many time I had to explain to the airport securities that it's an audio device and it's not gonna blow
But yes, it's a great device and I'm still using it with my active speakers.

 

[subguy812]

The authority to drive always gives an

It doesn't, but some cans benefit from beefy power output.

Agreed...

 

[iFi audio]

Oh, can't remember, how many time I had to explain to the airport securities that it's an audio device and it not gonna blow
But yes, it's a great device and I'm still using it with my active speakers.

I used to say that it's my portable smartphone charger

 

[IgeNeLL]

I think without doubt we can agree that TT2 + MScaler sounds better than sp2000. Quite a bit. Anyone... untrained newbie... can hear it immediately. I am talking about a similar difference between H2GO and sp2000... just not as extreme.... I have done tests with non headfiers.... everyone pushes the sp2000 away after hearing H2go... I have no skin in this game and tbh I would be happy if sp2000 won as it is smaller.... but this is just not the case....I think you will only find these hardware zealots on headfi that feign reality.... and have confirmation bias... synergy also has something to do with it... important to consider... H2go would NOT have given a great experience with my susvara. I was bashing chord and held off on Hugo 2.... never heard it... ever.... but decided to test the package of H2go and was shocked.... shocked how Much better it was than other daps. Personally the chase has ended... I really don’t think we will get something better unti Hugo 3 with streamer. when on my hikes with H2GO + 4Z I am quite astonished I am walking around with this kind of SQ.

TT2 is a different level of power handling.

 

[dw13]

I'm still having problems with Tidal and Qobuz offline with my SR25 and 1TB Sandisk Extreme card.

The maximum content downloadable from Tidal is 414.69 gb. After that the download queue freezes. Still have over 539 gb available.

I have reformatted the card with the SR25 and tried Tidal 2.24.0 and 2.28.0 with the same results.

I gave up on Qobuz altogether as downloading froze at about 170 gb.

The nice customer service people at Tidal recommended formatting the sd card in exFAT and not FAT32 as A&K recommends. A&K SR25 formats the sd card in FAT32.

Seems to be working. I now have over 423gb of offline Tidal content with no problems. I think I'll re-subscribe to Qobuz and see if it works better with exFAT.

 

[dw13]

Latest Qobuz update.

I installled v5.9.0.2 on Thursday with about 70GB of 'imported' (to use Qobuz terminology) music on my SP2000. The stuttering seems to be fixed and I didn't experience any major performance issues although the app is always quite laggy. But it was generally useable. Emboldened by this, I started to import more of my favourited releases. Things were going ok until I got to about 175GB of downloads. Then I got my first freeze again during download. Followed by two more. Doesn't seem to make any difference how many tracks you try to download in one go. Performance has become a little slower in loading. It's still useable and I haven't as yet had any more stutterings, but this seems to be about the limit the app and/or device can cope with whilst maintaining response times that I can just about live with. The Offline Library takes about 1 minute, 5 seconds to load, rather annoyingly every time you click out and then back into it. Also for some reason, accessing the same imported release from the Offline Liibrary seems to be significantly slower than from My Qobuz - My Favourites. It takes about 15 seconds for a release to open when selected from the Offline Library list as opposed to no more than 2 seconds to open from My Favourites. I now have 184GB of imported music but I am assuming that if I import any more releases the situation will only get worse leading to the same complete meltdown experience I had with v5.8.0.1. I would actually like to listen to some music!
I was able to work out that the first version of Qobuz I ever loaded onto my SP2000 was v5.4.3 where this problem also existed more or less the same. It has existed in every version that I have loaded since then, although I have skipped a few versions so haven't tried every one.

@JasonNYC What is the best way to formally log this as an issue with Astell & Kern? I plan to raise it with Qobuz as well but it would be good if someone could take ownership of the problem so the reason for this can be determined and hopefully find a solution. If there is no immediate solution, an honest appraisal of the limitations of Qobuz on Astell & Kern devices should be established and admitted to.

Many thanks

Steve

The nice customer service people at Tidal recommended formatting the sd card in exFAT and not FAT32 as A&K recommends. A&K SR25 formats the sd card in FAT32--not sure about SP2000.

Seems to be working. I now have over 423gb of offline Tidal content with no problems. I think I'll re-subscribe to Qobuz and see if it works better with exFAT.

 

[MatW]

Please report back on your qobuz findings!

 

[dw13]

Please report back on your qobuz findings!

Qobuz still does not work after downloading offline content. Version 5.9.0.2 crashes and will not re-start.

 

[Steeve]

Qobuz still does not work after downloading offline content. Version 5.9.0.2 crashes and will not re-start.

I raised this with Qobuz whenever I first mentioned it here and yet to hear anything. I have now downloaded 313GB of releases. I find I can use it reasonably ok as long as I don't click on 'Offline Library' but instead access my downloaded favourites, even when offline, through My Qobuz-> My Favourites. You do get a network error message and no cover art when playing, but at least you can play releases ok without too much delay and the app doesn't crash. Clicking on 'Offline Library' involves an initial wait of at least 6 minutes for anything to happen, then a further 15 seconds to open any release. If you navigate away from the Offline Library and then go back to it, nothing is remembered and the process appears to start from scratch again. Do this too many times and the app will crash. I've no idea why accessing effectively the same library in my case through 'My Favourites' is so different compared to 'Offline Library'. As an aside I've also noticed the sort order is slightly different between the two options. Within 'My Favorites' artists are case-sensitive with all artists starting with a lower case character coming at the end after all those starting with an upper case character. This means 'slowthai' appears as the last item. Also any 'special characters' such as European characters with accents etc. are sorted after 'z'. Within the 'Offfine Library' it is how I would expect it to be and not case-sensitive.

 

[dw13]

I raised this with Qobuz whenever I first mentioned it here and yet to hear anything. I have now downloaded 313GB of releases. I find I can use it reasonably ok as long as I don't click on 'Offline Library' but instead access my downloaded favourites, even when offline, through My Qobuz-> My Favourites. You do get a network error message and no cover art when playing, but at least you can play releases ok without too much delay and the app doesn't crash. Clicking on 'Offline Library' involves an initial wait of at least 6 minutes for anything to happen, then a further 15 seconds to open any release. If you navigate away from the Offline Library and then go back to it, nothing is remembered and the process appears to start from scratch again. Do this too many times and the app will crash. I've no idea why accessing effectively the same library in my case through 'My Favourites' is so different compared to 'Offline Library'. As an aside I've also noticed the sort order is slightly different between the two options. Within 'My Favorites' artists are case-sensitive with all artists starting with a lower case character coming at the end after all those starting with an upper case character. This means 'slowthai' appears as the last item. Also any 'special characters' such as European characters with accents etc. are sorted after 'z'. Within the 'Offfine Library' it is how I would expect it to be and not case-sensitive.

Thanks. I've given up and cancelled Qobuz again. Sticking with Tidal for now--their customer service is very responsive and helpful--thank you Danielle.

 

[MatW]

The nice customer service people at Tidal recommended formatting the sd card in exFAT and not FAT32 as A&K recommends. A&K SR25 formats the sd card in FAT32.

Seems to be working. I now have over 423gb of offline Tidal content with no problems. I think I'll re-subscribe to Qobuz and see if it works better with exFAT.

What if you use the internal storage?

 

[dw13]

What if you use the internal storage?

I don't know. I have not tried internal storage, but I imagine it would work fine. However, you would be limited to about 53gb of content.

 

[DaYooper]

I don't know. I have not tried internal storage, but I imagine it would work fine. However, you would be limited to about 53gb of content.

From a 512GB internal storage?