Astell&Kern, or Astell and Kern, AK PA 10 portable headphone amplifier impressions, comments, or general discussion

[ferzoli]

I use my FiiO M11 Plus ESS (2*ES9068AS DAC) with my PA-10 and it's a really good combo. The FiiO has good native sound with its DAC and the THX AAA-78 amp but the A&K really puts the muscle, current and soundstage in there.

I have the same devices with the same experience. Smooth enjoyable music.

Now waiting for a Cayin Ru-7 dongle to try in this chain.

 

[artkillen]

I have the same devices with the same experience. Smooth enjoyable music.

Now waiting for a Cayin Ru-7 dongle to try in this chain.

RU7 is a great match for this amp

 

[Kordonrules]

If you have doubts whether the Astell&Kern PA10, which has been on the market for 6 months and even on the A&K website is difficult to find and there is little data, because it is an amplifier for DAP/Dongle 4.4m. It is a balanced class-A portable amplifier and is it for you and what I think this is the best review by a Japanese friend Sandalaudio (kind regards), so read this link. Yes, I also recommend a balanced 4.4mm-to-4.4mm connection.
Enjoy reading.

https://sandalaudio-blogspot-com.tr...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp

One of the best articles I’ve ever read!

 

[jonny30bass]

If you have doubts whether the Astell&Kern PA10, which has been on the market for 6 months and even on the A&K website is difficult to find and there is little data, because it is an amplifier for DAP/Dongle 4.4m. It is a balanced class-A portable amplifier and is it for you and what I think this is the best review by a Japanese friend Sandalaudio (kind regards), so read this link. Yes, I also recommend a balanced 4.4mm-to-4.4mm connection.
Enjoy reading.

https://sandalaudio-blogspot-com.tr...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp

That was an insanely good read. Only thing I found different from my own experience with this amp is the behavior of the current switch. It makes my bright headphones sound brighter when it's set to high versus low. Whereas, the reviewer felt the high setting had the opposite effect. Makes me wonder if it even affects sound quality at all and if it's just placebo lol.

 

[MrNailhead]

Tragedy struck last night - I was using my PA10 with my M11 Plus Ltd and my Sony MDR-1AM2 - the volume wheel all of a sudden just jammed - I could not turn it up or down and didn't want to apply brute force to it, obviously - the music was still playing, but the wheel felt like I jammed a wedge into it - I was gently wiggling it back and forth when I felt/heard a quick crunching sensation then the wheel went totally loose - it barely was able to get the click to turn it off. I let it sit for a little bit and weirdly, when I went back to it, the volume knob felt, and seemed to be acting, just fine - clicked and turned on but I don't trust it now - I don't want it to accidentally kick off to full volume if something is broken in the pot/controller.
The recent sale of Astell & Kern complicates things as I do not want to send this thing in to China to be repaired only to find out the company no longer exists. What would you guys do in this situation? I was already looking at upgrading (that cayin c9ii looks awesome) - so I think the two courses of action are try to get it repaired, then sell it or sell it as is, see if someone wants it for parts? Not sure really.

 

[Mungam]

I'd contact their support to see if they can repair it in the US. Here in Germany we have a repair station, so I imagine there will be one in the US.

 

[BS5711]

That was an insanely good read. Only thing I found different from my own experience with this amp is the behavior of the current switch. It makes my bright headphones sound brighter when it's set to high versus low. Whereas, the reviewer felt the high setting had the opposite effect. Makes me wonder if it even affects sound quality at all and if it's just placebo lol.

Without knowing what the current switch actually does it is hard to predict what it is likely to do to the sound.

Based on their advertising blurb I infer that it simply makes a little more current available so in my understanding that should only make any difference at all when the current is actually needed which is when driving a low impedance and low sensitivity headphone. My subjective experience is that is true with it making no difference to my HD600 but seeming to give a subtle lift in the bass with my 13 ohm DCA Noire.

However, if it does something different more akin to true current amplification (versus voltage amplification) the results are likely to be less predictable. That seems unlikely and I would think that would be a significant advertising and marketing point for the PA10 which it doesn’t seem to be.

For me personally it doesn’t do anything noteworthy to any IEM or headphones and any difference I “hear” is well within the realm of being the result of expectation rather than a genuine difference in sound. As such I leave it off and forget about it.

 

[Polky74]

I wanted to clarify better what I wrote above, otherwise I could be misunderstood ... I do not think at all that the FiiO M15 is a poor DAP, but like all DAPs it has its limits. The major limit concerns the amplification and for three main reasons that the use of the Astell & Kern AK PA10 makes disappear in an instant. The first is that, obviously FiiO could not propose at that price a DAP that had the amplification at the same level as the electronics (they already did a miracle), we are talking about a pair of AKM AK4499EQ, perhaps the best DAC chip of all time. Even today some companies (Luxury & Precision) look for these particular chips, but they have to "settle" for the little brother (AK4497EQ) to insert it in their current 4k dollar / euro DAPs (E7). The second concerns the high impedance of the internal amplification of the M15 which prevents its use with particularly sensitive IEMs. But the third main reason and certainly the most important of the three concerns the tuning of the dap. This has often been criticized by many reviewers for the lightness of the mids, the sound is very ethereal due to the extreme search for details and a general balance. According to many reviewers there was not much difference between the performance of the M15 if compared to that of the M11 PRO and they were surprised by this. Honestly I also thought that this was due to the tuning and the choice of timbre that FiiO had made for the M15, but it is not exactly like that. The real limit of the M15 and the thing for which it cannot distance itself from the M11 PRO concerns the amplifier that does not allow it to express itself as it deserves. With the use of the Astell&Kern AK PA10 everything becomes different ... the lightness of the mids and notes in general disappears, the sound acquires body, weight, density. The sound comes from everywhere, the soundstage becomes huge, the air between the instruments increases in an unexpected and truly hard to believe way. Everything becomes colorful, dense, alive, BIG and incredibly engaging. The presence of the lineout only in unbalanced (3.5mm) does not allow the connection in balanced, but as Chord and many other companies have taught us, balanced is not synonymous with "sounding good". This small limit is repaid by the two batteries present in the M15 (7490 mah) and in the PA10 (4000 mah) that thank us and allow us hours and hours of simply incredible listening. Are you worried about the low power in unbalanced? Don't even think about it, the PA10 in unbalanced leaves the proprietary balanced amplification of the M15 behind by miles. Now the M15 is finally free to let you listen to how it really sounds thanks to its splendid AK4499EQ ... without the cap resulting from its amplification. A new M15 is born... the real one, I call it M15-PA10.

P.S. If you have an M15 try it with an AK PA10, it costs as much as a good medium/high cable for iem, but it will transform your M15 like you can't imagine.

I have found the best way (for me) to use the AK PA10... if you like, you can read above what it does, when connected to a FiiO M15 a really underestimated DAP due to an amplification not at the level of the rest of its electronics.

 

[orys]

Hi there!
Has anyone tried the PA10 with SP1000?
I'm thinkin going this root than searching for the dedicated SP1000 amp.
I want to run my Rhapsodio Bomber V1 and Zombie needing a lot of power with an amp.
How does it sound on the PA10. what are the differences with the dedicated amp.
How do you connect the PA10 with the SP1000? Hopefully through the balnced out 2.5mm to 4.4mm balanced in with an adapter or will the type C port on SP1000 output music like the old Ipods did?

 

[Gilles De Rais]

Hi there!
Has anyone tried the PA10 with SP1000?
I'm thinkin going this root than searching for the dedicated SP1000 amp.
I want to run my Rhapsodio Bomber V1 and Zombie needing a lot of power with an amp.
How does it sound on the PA10. what are the differences with the dedicated amp.
How do you connect the PA10 with the SP1000? Hopefully through the balnced out 2.5mm to 4.4mm balanced in with an adapter or will the type C port on SP1000 output music like the old Ipods did?

Connecting the PA10 to an older Astell and Kern - use a 2.5mm to 4.4mm if you want balanced. this is how I connect my SP2000 and SA700 - middle cable in the attached pic - generally can order from any cable maker. The other cables are 4.4mm to4.4mm and 3.5mm to 3.5mm. you cannot connect via USB.

 

[orys]

Yes 2.5mm to 4.4mm was my thought although that is not line out and goes through the amp section. Does it matter. What volume do you keep the SP2000 at when outputting from the headphones out?

 

[Gilles De Rais]

Yes 2.5mm to 4.4mm was my thought although that is not line out and goes through the amp section. Does it matter. What volume do you keep the SP2000 at when outputting from the headphones out?

Not sure how you came to that conclusion. The line out function under settings provides for a range of unbalanced and balanced voltage settings. These will be fixed outputs when you activate the line-out function - the volume bar changes to the voltage output and the volume button is disabled. Volume has no impact. Just tried with both players and that is the case.

 

[orys]

Not sure how you came to that conclusion. The line out function under settings provides for a range of unbalanced and balanced voltage settings. These will be fixed outputs when you activate the line-out function - the volume bar changes to the voltage output and the volume button is disabled. Volume has no impact. Just tried with both players and that is the case.

Ah cool!
So the 2.5mm balanced output becomes line out.

 

[jonny30bass]

Has anybody else experienced issues with the volume knob overtime? I noticed that there is some resistance at lower levels now, and there is also some channel imbalance at lower levels.

 

[BobSmith8901]

Has anybody else experienced issues with the volume knob overtime? I noticed that there is some resistance at lower levels now, and there is also some channel imbalance at lower levels.

Mine has had channel imbalance at very low volume since day one. Pretty common for analog volume pots but I'm not excusing it. As the unit warms up it's less of an issue. You have to get very low volume (the left fades out) but it is noticeable and an annoyance.

I thought of an exchange but figured there was a fair chance another unit would have the same issue. If I'm listening at very low volume on a DAP I just adjust the balance to favor the left a bit and use line out with volume adjustment. I haven't had the resistance issue, at least yet anyway.