[argentinafa]

sold my Kann, going to get an open box unit SA700 for about USD $720 equivalent here. Couldn't resist the price and the unit is almost new condition. Was looking at the official sa700 case from AK, man that's expensive. For those the use it, does the metal back of the case help with heat? I'm told this unit gets quite warm.

I’m using the green case together with the black variant of the SA 700. There was an initial promo during launch period last Nov 2019 for pre orders whereby you could get the case for foc.

I’ve did a test with regards to the heat dissipation. It’s only hot if you turn on the led lights for the vol knob. I got a shock too at how hot it was after 1hr of playback while it was inside my sling bag on the go. Thereafter when I turned off the led light for the vol knob, prob solved.

And I must say US$720 is a steal since it’s almost like brand new! I got it for SGD$1999.

Go get it. I considered pretty long between SE100, SP1000, & SA700 before getting the latter.

 

[Martin J]

I’m using the green case together with the black variant of the SA 700. There was an initial promo during launch period last Nov 2019 for pre orders whereby you could get the case for foc.

I’ve did a test with regards to the heat dissipation. It’s only hot if you turn on the led lights for the vol knob. I got a shock too at how hot it was after 1hr of playback while it was inside my sling bag on the go. Thereafter when I turned off the led light for the vol knob, prob solved.

And I must say US$720 is a steal since it’s almost like brand new! I got it for SGD$1999.

Go get it. I considered pretty long between SE100, SP1000, & SA700 before getting the latter.

The green does look really really good ! I might end up getting it

 

[argentinafa]

The green does look really really good ! I might end up getting it

Green and black leather case is the nicest on the black SA700. Black leather case the metal plate is matte black in color. So kind of blend in better than green leather case.

All the different colors - black, green & red are made of different leather materials so that’s what it is cool about.

I really love my SA700 sound signature.

 

[Martin J]

Green and black leather case is the nicest on the black SA700. Black leather case the metal plate is matte black in color. So kind of blend in better than green leather case.

All the different colors - black, green & red are made of different leather materials so that’s what it is cool about.

I really love my SA700 sound signature.

local store apparently ran out of green......settled with the red case. I must say this is still great. Has a different texture from the green case.

Now running the TH610’s on the SA700 over balanced.....loving it so far

 

[Martin J]

which tidal and Spotify version did you guys install from apkpure. There is an xapk file for newer versions


**update
I have an observation. I installed Spotify and Tidal on my SA700. Played master quality tracks on the downloaded Tidal, but I'm getting a red light (16Bit) on my SA700 which means tidal is playing on Hifi and not on MQA.
When I played the same track on the built in Tidal, I get MQA unfold, the SA700 lights were Green (24 bit /MQA)...was only really able to check this because while MASTERS is checked on the UI of Tidal, the lights on sa700 tells me otherwise that it is not playing MQA...

Can anyone from AK confirm this?

 

[Tsukuyomi]

How does the SA700 compare to the SR15? Should i hit the upgrade or not worth it?

 

[JasonNYC]

which tidal and Spotify version did you guys install from apkpure. There is an xapk file for newer versions


**update
I have an observation. I installed Spotify and Tidal on my SA700. Played master quality tracks on the downloaded Tidal, but I'm getting a red light (16Bit) on my SA700 which means tidal is playing on Hifi and not on MQA.
When I played the same track on the built in Tidal, I get MQA unfold, the SA700 lights were Green (24 bit /MQA)...was only really able to check this because while MASTERS is checked on the UI of Tidal, the lights on sa700 tells me otherwise that it is not playing MQA...

Can anyone from AK confirm this?

I had commented on this a few pages back when someone else asked. It is a bug in the firmware that only shows red LED when playing back from apps installed via OpenApp even if you are playing back 24-bit content. It will be fixed in a future firmware update to display the correct color when playing tracks through apps installed through OpenApp.

 

[szore]

I’m very curious as to how this sounds. Anyone listen yet?

I heard it at Canjam, it sounded fantastic...

 

[szore]

How does the SA700 compare to the SR15? Should i hit the upgrade or not worth it?

It's definitely a worthwhile upgrade...

 

[szore]

Yes, out of the recent AK dap's I have owned the SP1000M, SE100 and SR15 (all at the same time, all burnt in for good measure). My personal favorite is the SE100.

Why SE100? The mids, out of the three it has the most pronounced mids, and to my ears the most balanced sound of the three dap's.

The SP1000M and SR15 both have a minor V shape to their sound, at least to me.

I should note that the SP1000M does have more detailed treble and bass than the SE100, BUT, as for the mids, I'm personally convinced the mids on the SE100 are slightly superior to the SP1000M.

I have only come across a couple others that share this outlook on these dap's.

I don't have a favorite dap at the moment as I have been doing the majority of my listening through speakers, Hivi M3AMKII + NAD M51, which sounds great.

I owned the 1000m blue, and the se100 twice. (My current dap). I agree with the above. When I upgraded to the 1000m I was a little disappointed. I ended up coming back to the se100.

 

[szore]

I did not check the firmware. But great, if they fixed it!

Still, sound quality was nowhere near where I would expect it to be for a 1300$ player.

I had with me the Kann and also AR-M2 to compare.Both were to my ears far superior in terms of sound quality.

I was impressed by the sound quality...

 

[Hanesu]

Has anyone tried Apple Music with this DAP? Does it work properly, especially downloading music? I remember when I tried it with Fiio X5ii and Cayin M5ii about 2 years ago, it was terrible because downloads were sooo slow and very often stopped, creating playlists was super buggy etc. I am still not sure to this day whether this was because it was the Android versionof Apple Music or it had to do with bad Hardware for streaming.

 

[Licht]

I had commented on this a few pages back when someone else asked. It is a bug in the firmware that only shows red LED when playing back from apps installed via OpenApp even if you are playing back 24-bit content. It will be fixed in a future firmware update to display the correct color when playing tracks through apps installed through OpenApp.

My Amazon music HD always show blue LED.

And standard player when CD ripped music played continuously for couple of days, it turns blue (from red) and it recovers when you stop and play it again.

 

[PaKiwiAl]

So I am new around here and wanted to start looking for my first DAP and have decided to look seriously at the A&K line discussed in this thread.
I have streaming and have tried Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify, so not sure if there are limitations or if they all unpack MQA equally. I have found out that all unpacking of MQA is not equal. I am going to use it as a mobile device and leaning towards the SE100. I am going to have to see if there is a place that I can demo these though living in the backwoods, I might have to wait for travel to the larger cities in PA.
Does anybody have feedback on the MQA unfolding in regards to the SE100, SA700, SP1000 and Kann Cube.
Thanks

 

[cleg]

Astell&Kern SA700 — detailed text review by Porta.Fi​

English: https://porta.fi/astellkern-sa700-player-review-unexpected-but-good/
Russian: https://porta.fi/ru/obzor-pleera-astellkern-sa700-vnezapno-no-horosho/