[chef8489]

It is assumed that a Kann, or an Ak380, have better dacs compared to a cheap dongle. This is a desktop solution against planned obsolescence.

It's not planned obsolescence.
The issue is Tidal. All the other streaming apps work fine. It's tidal that doesn't want to support older or and older hardware.

 

[Avian]

Call it what you want. I wanted to summarize the situation

 

[chef8489]

Call it what you want. I wanted to summarize the situation

Well your summarization is wrong. Problem was not created by AK nor the standards tidal accepts. That's all on tidal.

Yes your solution is a workaround tidal bs. Better solution is to ditch tidal and use qobuz or a different streaming solution.

 

[Avian]

Honestly, i'm not interested if the problem was created by A&K or Tidal. The Bubble solution goes beyond these issues and people will discover a comfort never experienced before.

 

[rlw6534]

It's not planned obsolescence.
The issue is Tidal. All the other streaming apps work fine. It's tidal that doesn't want to support older or and older hardware.

But doesn't Tidal still work on non A&K DAPs? The actual hardware and OS limitations are not very clear, especially for third party access. Maybe it has something to do with the customized Android?

 

[chef8489]

But doesn't Tidal still work on non A&K DAPs? The actual hardware and OS limitations are not very clear, especially for third party access. Maybe it has something to do with the customized Android?

There were other daps that were affected as well not just AK.

 

[blotmouse]

But doesn't Tidal still work on non A&K DAPs? The actual hardware and OS limitations are not very clear, especially for third party access. Maybe it has something to do with the customized Android?

Pretty sure it has to do with the embedded API they give their partners to develop with. The certificate to authenticate was either revoked, denied, or just expired with no plan to update it.

 

[rlw6534]

There were other daps that were affected as well not just AK.

I'm curious which ones. I own several DAPS (too many) and they all still work. Maybe I got lucky.

 

[jwbrent]

It’s been more than 3 weeks and still not reply to my various mails to various email addresses at Astell & Kern. This lack of any customer service is very troublesome. This company charges thousands of dollars for their products and abandons you when you need some help.

I really like the design and sound of AK’s daps, but the customer service has been an issue since the beginning of the AK brand. I’ve owned five AK daps (AK100, AK120, AK240, AK240SS, and currently the SA700), and I’ve had problems with all of them and have had difficulties getting customer support. Time for me to move on from AK …

 

[rlw6534]

I really like the design and sound of AK’s daps, but the customer service has been an issue since the beginning of the AK brand. I’ve owned five AK daps (AK100, AK120, AK240, AK240SS, and currently the SA700), and I’ve had problems with all of them and have had difficulties getting customer support. Time for me to move on from AK …

Well, people pay premium prices for they perceive as premium products, which seems to be A&K's niche. I have certainly fallen for that. As long as they keep introducing new DAPs and people keep buying them without regard to updates and support... Planned obsolescence or not, I guess that's the current business model.

 

[jwbrent]

Well, people pay premium prices for they perceive as premium products, which seems to be A&Ks niche. I have certainly fallen for that. As long as they keep introducing new DAPs and people keep buying them without regard to updates and support... Planned obsolescence or not, I guess that's the current business model.

Premium product without premium service does not make for a happy experience. In time, people move on …

 

[Signal2Noise]

Misleading & uninformative thread title should be revised to provide actual context.

”Tidal app not supporting older A&K models” or something to that effect.

 

[earmonger]

It is assumed that a Kann, or an Ak380, have better dacs compared to a cheap dongle. This is a desktop solution against planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence was and is a disgusting policy. HP decided not to update my Windows printer driver after I had bought a couple of $70 cartridges; luckily it still works with my Mac. Any company that pulls this planned obsolesence attack on me is boycotted forever after. Bye, HP.

And probably soon Tidal too--search MQA here on Head-Fi!

 

[originalsnuffy]

In defense of AK, there was a time when Tidal was pretty much the only HiFi streaming service and they got to call the shots. So you could basically only play ball their way with an embedded app with many limitations. Since then the world became more competitive and lots of APKs can be loaded. Which is why I suggest only looking at units with open Android implementations. I think the concern about some units using Android 7 may be overdone. Android 7 gets the job done.

 

[rlw6534]

In defense of AK, there was a time when Tidal was pretty much the only HiFi streaming service and they got to call the shots. So you could basically only play ball their way with an embedded app with many limitations. Since then the world became more competitive and lots of APKs can be loaded. Which is why I suggest only looking at units with open Android implementations. I think the concern about some units using Android 7 may be overdone. Android 7 gets the job done.

Honestly I don't see the value of the embedded tidal app at this point. The apk version is much more feature rich. I'd rather the developers spend time fixing other bugs, upgrading the OS and adding real features, such as Roon Ready support to more players... The fact the the SP1000M doesn't yet have this feature is infuriating (at least to me).