[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC i bought a couple of 24bit 44khz flac albums from HDtracks and when i play them on my AK70 they are fine but when i play them on my SR15 it says that they are MQA. The file size of the album is similar to other 24bit 44khz, so im not sure if this is a bug or not. I can play them on my PC and i have no special software so i am quite lost by this. I hope you can shed some light on it

@Sparx81 Confirmed it is showing as MQA for me also on SR15, SE100 and SP1000M. We reached out to our HDTracks contact to confirm it should not be an MQA album. I will also pass this onto our HQ team.

 

[JTori]

And it depends on what kind of sound you’re looking for- smooth, or more sharper and analytical. Also I can’t imagine the SR15 sounding sharp or analytical. The ones I mentioned I think are kind of in between.

Thanks for the recommendations. And, fair point. I prefer natural, sonorous bass when it's there in the recording and natural (not shouty) mids. As for highs, not biting. I've tried a couple different phones with the SR15 and concluded impedance match and sensitivity matter with this player.

 

[Leftbehind]

I've have had an AK300 for about a year now and have been watching this thread and considering an upgrade to the Sr15, mostly to get Spotify. Recently the device has begun bootlooping, sitting at the spinning 'A'. I have a number of Android based devices in the past and in the rare event that this happens this can almost always be fixed by a system restore from the recovery menu, or even as easy as removing the battery.
Worst case scenario, unless it's a hardware issue you can use ADB/Fastboot to reinstall the operating system.

Unfortunately, with the AK300 there is no documentation on the recovery menu and no recovery tools.

You'd think when you pay this kind of money they would have some sort of restore tool for PC, readily available roms, or at least some sort recovery mode described in the manual that can be done from outside the OS. This is provided by every android based cell phone and tablet manufacturer, even the old iPod, yet this is not available from AK. Without a service center in my area, I'd be charged nearly $200 for the software reinstall and $50+ for shipping. Seems like a cash grab when this type of information could be made accessible, and nearly always is.

I guess during the first year when you have a device that works well it's easy not to consider the importance of the support behind the product. Recently I found that a device costing as much or more than any phone has less support, no support tools, few support centres, and no interest in providing the tools or diagnostics. Android devices are known to bootloop, at least give your customers a way to restore for an android menu that exists for every device.

It's unfortunate, but it's likely driven me to look for a device with a actual support professionals that are willing to help instead of just ask for money, recovery tools, firmware posted, or one that isn't so locked down . A&K is often known as the apple of audio but at least I could reset my iPod from iTunes.

 

[Leetransform25]

Sorry for the very generic question, but would this DAP or the ZX300A be better? If any of you have had experience with both DAPs, I'd love to hear your input.

 

[Swoti]

Has anybody experience with using the balanced cable of the t5p2 with the sr15? Is there a hearable difference to the standard cable and connection?

 

[JeremyLaurenson]

Quick update on playlists:

We've been testing here in the US and put together some detailed reports for the dev and engineering teams. Had a call last night with the various groups to discuss. Everyone fully understands the issue users are having now and as we all know, the engineering team agrees that since the Open App update, external playlists are broken. They need to research and check all the code to find out what the issue is and how to restore it. I have no ETA on this, it could be a quick process or could take a while. They will also need to test that any fix they implement will not break Open App or affect something else. Unfortunately again, I have no idea on timing, but there is now some urgency on figuring this out and working to resolve it.

This is amazing news. Jason, I hope you can show this post to the folks at AK, you are making a real and visible difference to your customer base.
I can not tell you hos big a deal this is. Having been around for years building an app that syncs these various manufacturers devices I can tell you that what you personally are doing here is rare and extremely valuable to Astell and Kern.

 

[Dustpond]

Has anybody experience with using the balanced cable of the t5p2 with the sr15? Is there a hearable difference to the standard cable and connection?

I have the AK t5p2. So did a test for you.
The balanced cable which comes with it, is much much better than using the adapter and going in on the unbalanced. It is how it should be (in my opinion). Wide sound stage and natural sounding. As if I was in the room.
I hope that helps.

 

[abitdeef]

Sorry for the very generic question, but would this DAP or the ZX300A be better? If any of you have had experience with both DAPs, I'd love to hear your input.

Depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a good basic UI and great battery life I’d go with the ZX300. Or if you want a dap that can stream I’d go with SR15.

Both sound great, but I prefer the SR15 personally. It just sounds more natural and correct in timbre/precise to me.

Both are very good choices imo.

 

[abitdeef]

Just to point out, the balanced out and SE out DO definitely sound different.

The SE is fuller sounding with closer/fuller mids and everything mixing/blending in better in the stage.

The balanced is wider with bass and treble more defined and mids further back in the mix. Everything is more defined and has more space in the stage- it can be a tiny bit thinner sounding because of the space between instruments and wider stage.

 

[Vincentaria]

I will pass this request on to our dev team.

Hi Jason, may I know if there is any news of last fm support? I also strongly need last fm scrobble on my SE100, I've tried some methods to manually install the last fm app but it can't detect the AK music player for scrobble, really hope last fm scrobble can be supported in next SE100 firmware upgrade, thanks!

 

[Swoti]

Thanks for the testing. The balanced cable was in the package when you bought the t5p? Or did you buy it extra at Beyer dynamic? It is about 100 euro, so I'm thinking if it's worth it? Thanks again.

 

[Dustpond]

Thanks for the testing. The balanced cable was in the package when you bought the t5p? Or did you buy it extra at Beyer dynamic? It is about 100 euro, so I'm thinking if it's worth it? Thanks again.

What I have is the Astell and Kern version of the Beyerdynamic T5p so it comes with a balanced 2.5mm cable and two adapters. I don’t know the full difference.

 

[Swoti]

Would you agree that sr15 and t5p2 is a good package? I read a lot in the last days and it seems that many people are quite happy with using a smartphone and state that there's no quality difference

 

[JTori]

I have the AK t5p2. So did a test for you.
The balanced cable which comes with it, is much much better than using the adapter and going in on the unbalanced. It is how it should be (in my opinion). Wide sound stage and natural sounding. As if I was in the room.
I hope that helps.

Thanks for this information. I'm contemplating buying a pair of AK T5Ps. How would you characterize the sound and the SR15's ability to drive them. Very interested in listening impressions.

 

[JeremyLaurenson]

@JasonNYC i bought a couple of 24bit 44khz flac albums from HDtracks and when i play them on my AK70 they are fine but when i play them on my SR15 it says that they are MQA. The file size of the album is similar to other 24bit 44khz, so im not sure if this is a bug or not. I can play them on my PC and i have no special software so i am quite lost by this. I hope you can shed some light on it

MQA is supposed to be transparent to players which don't decode mqa. That was one of the "features"... so the fact it plays back on "dumb" equipment isn't conclusive