[nicodem]

Roon support?

 

[JasonNYC]

Roon support?

Still working on it with Roon. Coming soon. When I have a better timeline, I will share.

 

[JasonNYC]

HEllo mates, is there a way to make Tidal as default screen on the SR15? as i only use Tidal as source...

No. Since the primary function of the player is music playback from memory, that is the default and cannot be changed.

 

[nokiamade]

I now have the SR15 and can agree with you. The same goes for Hiby R6 (which claims no SRC is taking place with tidal apk). Sounds slightly off compared to UAPP apk which I trust is bypassing android. However, that's not a direct indication that SRC is really happening. There are other factors that could cause the sound to be 'slightly' off. it's very slight and I don't think I'd pass a blind test - and I'm not above admitting it's placebo effect.



It's good to have this noted. And with that, I hooked up chord mojo via usb out of the SR15 and noted the sample rate of 44.1 (red indication light) was retained using the stock tidal streaming only player that comes with SR15. Unfortunately, when I tried this with the Tidal APK, 88.2khz (yellow light) was showing on the mojo for 44.1 material. Now, that's better than 48 or any variant of 48 (ie 96,192) as it preserves all original samples and interpolates just as many (IOW samples are not getting mangled since it's a 2x exact conversion). For some reason SR15 is performing one round of upsampling, simply doubling the 44.1 frames to 88.2. Fine by me, but I'm a bit puzzled as to why this would be - perhaps it's some requirement for software MQA unfolding and A&K was following spec when certifying this for MQA.... who knows. If enough people are really curious, I'm sure @JasonNYC can find out for us.

I thought that maybe my eyes were deficient and saw yellow (88) when the mojo was really displaying orange (48). But I tested 48 material I own and it surely turned a darker shade into orange with true 48. So, yeah, over USB to mojo via tidal APK, 44.1 material is doubled to 88.2 - there you have it. Just my observation.

Thanks for such thorough review. I’ve also noticed some degradation of SQ in open service Tidal vs stock app. Could you please try to install some pre-MQA version, released in 2018? Will it make any difference in sampling rates?

 

[329161]

UAPP apk doesn't seem to be supported.

 

[velocita]

Hello,

I am looking for some thoughts, opinions and advice. I have ways had an interest in enjoying music at the highest Quality possible but budget Constraints have left me behind.

Recently I've decided I would like a digital audio player and narrowed my search down to 3 options.

1. The cowon plrenue D2. Which seemed to be well regarded for its sound quality. (I've since decided against it for the common UI issues and lag) I can handle minor quirks but think in spite of the great sound quality this would feel disappointing.

2. The Astell & Kern SR15, apparently this DAP sounds amazing. I've heard people complain about the display resolution but with a quad core chip I imagine the user experience would be quite slick and the ability to stream spotify would be great. I know everyone here is probably partial to tidal instead but for Hi quality music I'd rather buy physical and convert it, or use my own vinyl rips. I also favor the unusual aesthetic.

3. Hiby R6 pro, this device also look great and I've heard good things about the audio from the original R6. However there seems to be a bit of a walled garden around the R6 with only 1 or 2 reputable sites talking about it in press release and reviews. I like a good spread of opinions to make an informed judgement. Also I just want a good music player. I dont need full fat android on a DAP I have a galaxy note 9 that would outperform it on everything apart from Audio quality. So wouldn't A small DAC with the note 9 be better than this given I'd rather not have androids distractions on my player.

I cant try these players anywhere prior to purchase so looking for some help making a good choice. I am also quite fond of the idea of the overpriced AK CD ripper mk 2. I think I this Would be a great Way to start building up a good archive of my CDs to FLAC.

Lastly IEM's I've not got a huge budget but from all the reviews I've studied I have shortlisted the Shure 425 as a good starting point? Thoughts.

This is my first post here, and i have very limited knowledge of audiophile hifi Equipment. I'm looking for great sound, reproduced from my vinyl and CD collection and the ability to stream spotify.

This is my first post on here although I have read many of the posts as a non member, i appreciate everyone's in put as this is what has brought me here. Sorry if my post was a bit too long.

Thanks in advance Velocita

 

[abitdeef]

Hello,

I am looking for some thoughts, opinions and advice. I have ways had an interest in enjoying music at the highest Quality possible but budget Constraints have left me behind.

Recently I've decided I would like a digital audio player and narrowed my search down to 3 options.

1. The cowon plrenue D2. Which seemed to be well regarded for its sound quality. (I've since decided against it for the common UI issues and lag) I can handle minor quirks but think in spite of the great sound quality this would feel disappointing.

2. The Astell & Kern SR15, apparently this DAP sounds amazing. I've heard people complain about the display resolution but with a quad core chip I imagine the user experience would be quite slick and the ability to stream spotify would be great. I know everyone here is probably partial to tidal instead but for Hi quality music I'd rather buy physical and convert it, or use my own vinyl rips. I also favor the unusual aesthetic.

3. Hiby R6 pro, this device also look great and I've heard good things about the audio from the original R6. However there seems to be a bit of a walled garden around the R6 with only 1 or 2 reputable sites talking about it in press release and reviews. I like a good spread of opinions to make an informed judgement. Also I just want a good music player. I dont need full fat android on a DAP I have a galaxy note 9 that would outperform it on everything apart from Audio quality. So wouldn't A small DAC with the note 9 be better than this given I'd rather not have androids distractions on my player.

I cant try these players anywhere prior to purchase so looking for some help making a good choice. I am also quite fond of the idea of the overpriced AK CD ripper mk 2. I think I this Would be a great Way to start building up a good archive of my CDs to FLAC.

Lastly IEM's I've not got a huge budget but from all the reviews I've studied I have shortlisted the Shure 425 as a good starting point? Thoughts.

This is my first post here, and i have very limited knowledge of audiophile hifi Equipment. I'm looking for great sound, reproduced from my vinyl and CD collection and the ability to stream spotify.

This is my first post on here although I have read many of the posts as a non member, i appreciate everyone's in put as this is what has brought me here. Sorry if my post was a bit too long.

Thanks in advance Velocita

Ok, first welcome

Now onto business, The cowon plenue D2 isn't in the same league as the sr15 it doesn't have the resolution, note weight, tonal accuracy and timing that the sr15 has. It sounds good but not really a fair comparison, also the soundstage of the sr15 is so much more holographic than the plenue.

The hiby r6 sounds really good, but the sr15 resolves more and has a more neutral sound- It's a touch to soft/warm for my liking- although it has the magic 8 ball dsp effects which are really nice. I haven't heard the r6 pro so no help there.

I can tell you for the money I don't think you can get a better sound quality than sr15, although Sony zx300 is really good also and has great battery life. I've tried some amp/dacs combos dragonfly red, ifi xdsd, and topping nx4 dad and they just don't have the clarity and tone/ depth that the sr15 has. Although the topping and ifi are more powerful, which I don't need because I don't have any hard to drive cans myself.

On sound and build quality I highly recommend this dap, in fact I got fidgety and sold mine (lost $$$ lol) but ended up buying another one because nothing sounded quite like it for the money. There is the ibasso 200 and fiio x7ii which both sound amazing- but they are a little too neutral for me.

Sr15 ticks all the sound boxes, and the display is small but looks nice and is of good quality for a dap. Only caveat is I wish the battery life was a bit better, but the great amp section and dual dacs suck quite a bit of juice, and it's pretty close to normal for most dacs.

If your looking for nice sound and a tiny dap the cowon is nice, and if you want a better android experience r6 is a nice dap also.

Oh, and sr15 unfolds mqa files all the way if you're into tidal or mqa. Not all android daps do.

Oh also the shure are nice, but I'd stretch up to the 535 if you could.

 

[velocita]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond I Was kind of leaning towards the A&K based on the reviews and on the A&K being a dedicated music player as opposed to the Hiby R6 pro having the same experience albeit havIng full android on top. That in itself could be a disappointment as I said because of the smartphone i have. No matter how good the android experience it couldn't compete with the note 9 with the exception of audio quality. I'd Rather have the music interface alone built on Android without the social updates emails games video services etc.

I have struggled to understand complaints about battery life when the battery lasts upwards of 8 hours. I can only imagine being away from a power source for longer than that on a long haul flight or train journey where I'd be using a power bank. So battery life of the SR 15 is not an issue.

Also I own some Samson Open back headphones, Bose QC15s, Senheiser Momentum on ear, And Sony WH-1000XM3's which to my ear sound amazing. Will In ear monitors offer up more detailed sound than any of these and are they offering a better experience?

 

[AndyGer75]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond I Was kind of leaning towards the A&K based on the reviews and on the A&K being a dedicated music player as opposed to the Hiby R6 pro having the same experience albeit havIng full android on top. That in itself could be a disappointment as I said because of the smartphone i have. No matter how good the android experience it couldn't compete with the note 9 with the exception of audio quality. I'd Rather have the music interface alone built on Android without the social updates emails games video services etc.

I have struggled to understand complaints about battery life when the battery lasts upwards of 8 hours. I can only imagine being away from a power source for longer than that on a long haul flight or train journey where I'd be using a power bank. So battery life of the SR 15 is not an issue.

Also I own some Samson Open back headphones, Bose QC15s, Senheiser Momentum on ear, And Sony WH-1000XM3's which to my ear sound amazing. Will In ear monitors offer up more detailed sound than any of these and are they offering a better experience?

Hello Velocita,

I also came from an obvious android based DAP the FiiO X5III to the SR15 and I love to have got back to the real basics (for my personal opinion) "my" DAP should be there for, for playing music ... nothing more and not to play arround with other features and options and addons and apps on it. I am so glad to have come back to pure music enjoyment again, I use my Galaxy S8 for all the other things, just my 50 cents!

 

[velocita]

Thanks for the response. That was my thinking. Heard Fiio are pretty good too. It's just such a big investment to go in blind(deaf). But these DAP's are just not stocked anywhere. Online purchase is my only option.

How do you compare the fiio sound quality with that of the A&k

 

[abitdeef]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond I Was kind of leaning towards the A&K based on the reviews and on the A&K being a dedicated music player as opposed to the Hiby R6 pro having the same experience albeit havIng full android on top. That in itself could be a disappointment as I said because of the smartphone i have. No matter how good the android experience it couldn't compete with the note 9 with the exception of audio quality. I'd Rather have the music interface alone built on Android without the social updates emails games video services etc.

I have struggled to understand complaints about battery life when the battery lasts upwards of 8 hours. I can only imagine being away from a power source for longer than that on a long haul flight or train journey where I'd be using a power bank. So battery life of the SR 15 is not an issue.

Also I own some Samson Open back headphones, Bose QC15s, Senheiser Momentum on ear, And Sony WH-1000XM3's which to my ear sound amazing. Will In ear monitors offer up more detailed sound than any of these and are they offering a better experience?

Yes I've got an galaxy 10e (love it!) so I'm also set for android. And the battery life isn't bad at all for how compact the sr15 is. I think it's when you use balanced and stream it goes down to about 6 or so hours, and that bugs some people, but that's to be expected.

As far as the cans, I'd say yes if you get some good iems you will get more detail and intimacy/isolation which helps to pick things out. But the Sonys sound really good for the price, I like them a lot (nice big sound stage) but I have a hard time with anything that touches my ears, so that really limits me.

The 6 driver bgvp dm6 is really an excellent iem for 200 dollars. It compares well with more expensive shures, sennhiesers, beyer etc. Unfortunately they are too big for my sensitive ears.

Oh, and you're very welcome! If you get sr15, you won't be disappointed. AK knows what they're doing and they make really nice daps and the support is good. Them and Sony are my 2 favs. Only thing is I don't know how it does with Macs, I know some daps can be finicky with their OS.

 

[velocita]

The sony wh1000mx3 are quite spectacular, I work at sea and fly alot so the ANC on these is a blessing even when not listening to media they can help me sleep on the ship.

I also have the Jabra Elite 65t tried wireless earbuds. They have a decent sound but cant compare them with the headphones.

One thing I did notice was that testing between my old yet immaculate QC 15s i found there to be a more relaxed and mellow feeling when compared side by side with the new Sony ones. I cant tell really if I prefer the Bose or Sony's Across the board and the QC 15s are old now.

Any way sorry for going off topic.

 

[officerdibble]

Roon was targeted for the end of 2018, but I had commented on here that with the holidays and backlog of Roon certifications that it would be pushed. Still coming soon. Once we have a more concrete date, I will post.

Are you able to elaborate on the level of integration? For example will this just be the Roon android application that is limited to 48kHz - or will it be fully fledged Roon endpoint capable?

 

[ThomasHK]

I now have the SR15 and can agree with you. The same goes for Hiby R6 (which claims no SRC is taking place with tidal apk). Sounds slightly off compared to UAPP apk which I trust is bypassing android. However, that's not a direct indication that SRC is really happening. There are other factors that could cause the sound to be 'slightly' off. it's very slight and I don't think I'd pass a blind test - and I'm not above admitting it's placebo effect.



It's good to have this noted. And with that, I hooked up chord mojo via usb out of the SR15 and noted the sample rate of 44.1 (red indication light) was retained using the stock tidal streaming only player that comes with SR15. Unfortunately, when I tried this with the Tidal APK, 88.2khz (yellow light) was showing on the mojo for 44.1 material. Now, that's better than 48 or any variant of 48 (ie 96,192) as it preserves all original samples and interpolates just as many (IOW samples are not getting mangled since it's a 2x exact conversion). For some reason SR15 is performing one round of upsampling, simply doubling the 44.1 frames to 88.2. Fine by me, but I'm a bit puzzled as to why this would be - perhaps it's some requirement for software MQA unfolding and A&K was following spec when certifying this for MQA.... who knows. If enough people are really curious, I'm sure @JasonNYC can find out for us.

I thought that maybe my eyes were deficient and saw yellow (88) when the mojo was really displaying orange (48). But I tested 48 material I own and it surely turned a darker shade into orange with true 48. So, yeah, over USB to mojo via tidal APK, 44.1 material is doubled to 88.2 - there you have it. Just my observation.

Strange. I don't have this behaviour. For me Tidal APK and Tidal stock both 44.1 on Mojo. Did you set your audio settings in the apps to HiFi or Master? In HiFi (what I use) it stays as 44.1 in both apps. I don't bother with Master/MQA.

 

[329161]

Are there any alternative eq apk's which are compatible with the SR15? I don't like the stock eq.