[zikarus]

Why not

Would you guys rather get a Sony WM1A for 899 bucks used or a new Astell Kern SE100 for 1799 $? The SE100 is in the green MChat design. Dont really mind and is limited edition, is a unique design though
Is the additional 1000 bucks worth it or are we talking about diminishing returns here?
Edit or A&K SR15 for 759 bucks used?
Thank you in advance!

Why don't you compare and hear for yourself? Walk to Hifi im Hinterhof in x-Berg z. B.. Imo the better functionality with all the streaming services is worth additional bucks.

And have a look at eBay.UK. You can find the SE100 a tad cheaper there, if you use a service like forward2me.

 

[drmedkane]

Thank you very much, I'll try that out.

 

[Peter P.]

Would you guys rather get a Sony WM1A for 899 bucks used or a new Astell Kern SE100 for 1799 $? The SE100 is in the green MChat design. Dont really mind and is limited edition, is a unique design though
Is the additional 1000 bucks worth it or are we talking about diminishing returns here?
Edit or A&K SR15 for 759 bucks used?
Thank you in advance!

If you have the extra 1000 bucks i would say to go for it. You wont be disappointed. I just use tidal with it and im very happy.

 

[KuroKitsu]

Would you guys rather get a Sony WM1A for 899 bucks used or a new Astell Kern SE100 for 1799 $? The SE100 is in the green MChat design. Dont really mind and is limited edition, is a unique design though
Is the additional 1000 bucks worth it or are we talking about diminishing returns here?
Edit or A&K SR15 for 759 bucks used?
Thank you in advance!

Personally a couple things stood out for me with the SE100:

Subjective features:
1. Quick Charge ~2 hours for 10/11 hours vs 7 hours/26 hours. Much easier to find time to top up if you're running low vs having to charge less
2.Desktop grade Sabers DAC. Im fanatic for the sound of Sabers

3. 4.4 Balanced vs 2.5 Balanced, if you use those, depends on whether you're willing to add an adapter or reterminate cables.

Objective features
2.USB 3.0 transfer speeds vs USB 2.0 using a C vs proprietary connector.

3. Tidal, Spotify etc if you use those. Because it runs on Android

4. Supports Progressive JPEGs and ID3 2.4 tags

Whether its diminishing returns or not is something up to your preference after you test it out.

 

[zikarus]

Am I the only one having a problem with Qobuz 514 playing bought HiRes albums in 16-44 despite having set the resolution to 24-192 in the settings for WiFi as well as mobile use? On my mobile everything with the 514 app works as it should so I guess this must be A&K and/or SE100 specific?

 

[Iluin]

@JasonNYC

Hello Jason how are you? I have a question and it seems like I can not find the answer anywhere.

I am trying to use the futura with my car but whatever I try I cannot seems to listen to music from the futura through the car's speakers. I tried Bluetooth and direct connection to no avail.

Am I missing something?

Thank you!

 

[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC

Hello Jason how are you? I have a question and it seems like I can not find the answer anywhere.

I am trying to use the futura with my car but whatever I try I cannot seems to listen to music from the futura through the car's speakers. I tried Bluetooth and direct connection to no avail.

Am I missing something?

Thank you!

We recommend for best sound results to connect via Line Out if your car has an aux jack. Connect via the 3.5mm headphone out to the aux jack on the car. Swipe from the top to access the quick settings icons and select Line out. One selected, hit the volume wheel and you will see a box show on screen that says "Line Out". click on that and select ok to apply Line Out. This is a safety feature in case you hit Line Out so you don't damage your hearing if you have headphones on.

 

[aklwarrior]

Thank you for the additional info. This is very helpful. I will try and get an answer in the next day or two for everyone.

Hello everyone! I own the SE100 and am loving it so far. I am just wondered if anyone here knows if Astell&Kern is or would consider adding LDAC support to the SE100?

@JasonNYC Have you got any update re these topics? Cheers!

 

[Iluin]

We recommend for best sound results to connect via Line Out if your car has an aux jack. Connect via the 3.5mm headphone out to the aux jack on the car. Swipe from the top to access the quick settings icons and select Line out. One selected, hit the volume wheel and you will see a box show on screen that says "Line Out". click on that and select ok to apply Line Out. This is a safety feature in case you hit Line Out so you don't damage your hearing if you have headphones on.

Thank you Jason I appreciate your help. I don't think I have an aux jack in my car. Is there any other recommendations for connection?

 

[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC Have you got any update re these topics? Cheers!

@aklwarrior sorry, I had been discussing the 1st issue on PM and forgot to update the public thread.

Our software team ran 20 units on both 1.16 and 1.17 firmware for over 6 hours the other day using both FLAC and ALAC files and were unable to replicate the gapless playback issues. Since there is more than one person having issues, I asked our team director to please continue to test. They suspect it could be an issue with the files themselves and recommended deleting them and reloading them. We have also been testing here in the US offices and have not been able to reproduce. They will continue to test over the next two weeks with a variety of files to try to replicate the issue.

Regarding LDAC, it is a feature that has been widely requested. AK has supported the Qualcomm apt X HD codec since it launched almost 5 years ago. Of course, Sony being Sony, needed to launch their own competing codec, LDAC a few years ago. We are following it and may or may not support it in the future. Currently, there still are more products that support apt X HD than LDAC, although LDAC is quickly catching up. No concrete info on if/when we may support it, but it is definitely on the radar.

 

[aklwarrior]

@aklwarrior sorry, I had been discussing the 1st issue on PM and forgot to update the public thread.

Our software team ran 20 units on both 1.16 and 1.17 firmware for over 6 hours the other day using both FLAC and ALAC files and were unable to replicate the gapless playback issues. Since there is more than one person having issues, I asked our team director to please continue to test. They suspect it could be an issue with the files themselves and recommended deleting them and reloading them. We have also been testing here in the US offices and have not been able to reproduce. They will continue to test over the next two weeks with a variety of files to try to replicate the issue.

Regarding LDAC, it is a feature that has been widely requested. AK has supported the Qualcomm apt X HD codec since it launched almost 5 years ago. Of course, Sony being Sony, needed to launch their own competing codec, LDAC a few years ago. We are following it and may or may not support it in the future. Currently, there still are more products that support apt X HD than LDAC, although LDAC is quickly catching up. No concrete info on if/when we may support it, but it is definitely on the radar.

Thank you for the updates!
I will try to delete and reload the albums and retest the gapless issue over the weekend. I will share the results.
The LDAC would be nice to have, I personally have the Sony XM2 and XM3 so could benefit from the LDAC for sure.
Cheers!

 

[JasonNYC]

Thank you Jason I appreciate your help. I don't think I have an aux jack in my car. Is there any other recommendations for connection?

You can try Bluetooth but it is not really a reliable or good option. Most car head units only support standard Bluetooth which is only really capable of streaming lossy, less than CD-quality sound. CD-quality can play back with some possible buffering, anything hi-res is not worth it. There really is no standard Bluetooth implementations in cars and it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer so it is unfortunately hard to recommend at this time.

 

[Iluin]

You can try Bluetooth but it is not really a reliable or good option. Most car head units only support standard Bluetooth which is only really capable of streaming lossy, less than CD-quality sound. CD-quality can play back with some possible buffering, anything hi-res is not worth it. There really is no standard Bluetooth implementations in cars and it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer so it is unfortunately hard to recommend at this time.

Thank you Jason!

 

[ipaddy]

Here's a peculiar issue:

For a lark, I pulled out my old AK JR from a few years ago last night, just so that I could appreciate the major difference between the sound quality from it to the SE100, and I was having a serious issue differentiating between the two. I was listening to the exact same music, some mp3/AAC, some lossless from CD's, and switching between one to the other, I was just not hearing a difference.

Now that was strange, because in the past I had been able to hear a slight difference in sound quality between the AK 70 Mark 1 and 2 (which I still own). So certainly at some point I was able to sense differences in quality. I tried the comparison with SE535 earphones, Master & Dynamic MH40, and the Focal Clear. Same thing. Couldn't make out a difference. Now, while this makes me much less reluctant to use the AK JR in the future for very mobile situations, it makes me very unhappy since I was absolutely SURE I would hear the significant difference. One could argue that maybe the inherent quality of the recording was limited, and so that's why, but I did try a bunch of different songs, including lossless from CD, which should have been high enough quality for differences to show.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this? I'll try it again, of course, although I wasn't drunk or anything last night. I am feeling this deep, dark absolute need to demonstrate to myself the superiority of the SE100. Weird. Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Audiophonicalistic]

Here's a peculiar issue:

For a lark, I pulled out my old AK JR from a few years ago last night, just so that I could appreciate the major difference between the sound quality from it to the SE100, and I was having a serious issue differentiating between the two. I was listening to the exact same music, some mp3/AAC, some lossless from CD's, and switching between one to the other, I was just not hearing a difference.

Now that was strange, because in the past I had been able to hear a slight difference in sound quality between the AK 70 Mark 1 and 2 (which I still own). So certainly at some point I was able to sense differences in quality. I tried the comparison with SE535 earphones, Master & Dynamic MH40, and the Focal Clear. Same thing. Couldn't make out a difference. Now, while this makes me much less reluctant to use the AK JR in the future for very mobile situations, it makes me very unhappy since I was absolutely SURE I would hear the significant difference. One could argue that maybe the inherent quality of the recording was limited, and so that's why, but I did try a bunch of different songs, including lossless from CD, which should have been high enough quality for differences to show.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this? I'll try it again, of course, although I wasn't drunk or anything last night. I am feeling this deep, dark absolute need to demonstrate to myself the superiority of the SE100. Weird. Any thoughts/suggestions?

It's harder to do side by side comparisons vs listening for a whole album on one and then the other. That's the best way that I've seen. For example my phone sounds good but listening to music just sounds way better on se100. Side by side I probably couldn't tell the difference.

I used to own ak jr and loved it with shure 535. But upgraded to wm1a which detail alone was miles ahead and very easy to distinguish. I have then upgraded to se100. Wm1a to se100 was much harder to tell.