[nicodem]

After two months of use, I can state a few things.
Also for me some things have been disappointing. It must also be said that this is my first portable player.
First thing great disappointment for the equalizer that is not very incisive and is not active in connection BT.
You will tell me that if you want to listen to music well you don't use the equalizer ... ok but I don't see this big difference with the samsung S9plus phone.
You will tell me, of course ... it depends on the headphones. Ok, I bought some headphones and earphones including:
- Sony WH-1000XM3
- Audio-Technica ATH-SR9
- 1MORE Triple Driver
etc ... but I still don't notice big differences.
The sound is not as detailed as I read, the low frequencies do not feel dry and clean, the highs do not seem well defined.
Furthermore, the battery does not last long.
If it doesn't improve with the next update I think I'll sell it.

If you use bluetooth then why you complain about sound? It goes to headphones and then the magic of digital-to-analog comes to life so SR15 is just a source here.
So YES - you should not hear the difference or even SR15 should be worse then some mobile phones as does not have advanced bluetooth codecs.
If you was thinking about this use scenario - its simply not for you then. But also not AK fault...

1MORE Triple Driver - still not a good choice as they are known for kind of strange signature, specially at highs where you find problems.

Can you try to use yours SR15 with some other IEMs? Go for Andromeda and you will change your mind
Of course - its a way larget budget but good example could be some FiiO IEMs - FH5 or FA1 if you go more for low freq.

 

[Ninosan]

If you use bluetooth then why you complain about sound? It goes to headphones and then the magic of digital-to-analog comes to life so SR15 is just a source here.
So YES - you should not hear the difference or even SR15 should be worse then some mobile phones as does not have advanced bluetooth codecs.
If you was thinking about this use scenario - its simply not for you then. But also not AK fault...

1MORE Triple Driver - still not a good choice as they are known for kind of strange signature, specially at highs where you find problems.

Can you try to use yours SR15 with some other IEMs? Go for Andromeda and you will change your mind
Of course - its a way larget budget but good example could be some FiiO IEMs - FH5 or FA1 if you go more for low freq.

I partially agree with you.
Actually using it with BT is no better than a good phone but then I wonder why a $ 650 DAP doesn't have an advanced BT system, it's still a laptop and even a BT connection should be taken care of, I expect this from very new products such as the FiioM11.
Even on the wired it does not change much, I made a comparison with the Audio-Technica ATH-SR9 wired. They are not headphones for € 1,000 but a leap in quality should I have it with the SR15? instead little or nothing.
Furthermore there are defects that are not BT's fault but certainly of A&K. The low incidence of the equalizer, the constant problems with the connection to the PC, heats up like crazy and sometimes it burns so much that I almost can't hold it.
In conclusion, a model just released, which is positioned in the medium price range, in my opinion this money is not worth it.

 

[MadDane]

Well.... From my experience DAP's in general are about the sound quality and from a wired perspective, at least at this point, it's the best. BT is getting close but not quite at the ultimate resolution most audiophiles and their DAP's are searching for.

 

[Leetransform25]

Well.... From my experience DAP's in general are about the sound quality and from a wired perspective, at least at this point, it's the best. BT is getting close but not quite at the ultimate resolution most audiophiles and their DAP's are searching for.

Facts right here. I know people who buy these kinds of DAPs strictly for Bluetooth usage and it leaves me scratching my head

 

[nicodem]

Well, its like buying a race car and then drive only within city with 50km limit. Lot of people do same

 

[stanleylieber]

sr15 supports aptx hd, which apple products, and most stand alone players, do not.

 

[imexdanny]

Is it usual for the SR15 to lose power even with hard shut down? I left mine on 100% and shut it down and a few days later 97% when turning back on

 

[Amish]

Is it usual for the SR15 to lose power even with hard shut down? I left mine on 100% and shut it down and a few days later 97% when turning back on

Mine would do the same after several days.

 

[Sebasistan]

Having some odd issues here.
Took me a bit to get all the music I wanted on it sorted. Now it's all on there and things were going fine until a few minutes ago. Now the device will play individual tracks, but will stop playback, stating "too many unplayable files so player has stopped". If I then navigate back into the folder and manually select the next track, that track will play. Now I navigated back to the "main" page, hit "folders" and it's just showing the "loading" swirl and the player is noticeably heating up. It does not show the "media scan in progress" thing on the pulldown menu, but that's what it seems the player is doing. I was in the midst of creating a playlist when the third album I wanted to add ended up with a "music not found" thingy.

Now, is this because I'm asking too much of the player? I am using a 512gb microSD card which has about 330GB of music files in various formats on it. Should I downgrade to a smaller card? A more reliable one? I got this one from Adorama since I don't fully trust the microSD market on Amazon these days. This is a Lexar, so not one of the better known brands. Not sure if the make of the card could be an issue too...

The player ran fine last night and this morning and I didn't change any files in the meantime (except that I created a playlist through the player itself).

And it did scramble the data on the card once too, but I think that was my fault for plopping the card in and hitting "scan media" before the card was properly mounted.

Edit: I get the same issues when trying to play things through any of the tag categories. Initial track will load, if I hit forward, it will do the "unplayable music has been moved" and if I then hit play again to play the previously playing track, it says "too many unplayable files so player has stopped."

So my question is a) why does this happen? and b) how can I prevent this from happening again? (unless there is something wrong with the player or the card, be it size or whatever else...)

 

[JasonNYC]

Having some odd issues here.
Took me a bit to get all the music I wanted on it sorted. Now it's all on there and things were going fine until a few minutes ago. Now the device will play individual tracks, but will stop playback, stating "too many unplayable files so player has stopped". If I then navigate back into the folder and manually select the next track, that track will play. Now I navigated back to the "main" page, hit "folders" and it's just showing the "loading" swirl and the player is noticeably heating up. It does not show the "media scan in progress" thing on the pulldown menu, but that's what it seems the player is doing. I was in the midst of creating a playlist when the third album I wanted to add ended up with a "music not found" thingy.

Now, is this because I'm asking too much of the player? I am using a 512gb microSD card which has about 330GB of music files in various formats on it. Should I downgrade to a smaller card? A more reliable one? I got this one from Adorama since I don't fully trust the microSD market on Amazon these days. This is a Lexar, so not one of the better known brands. Not sure if the make of the card could be an issue too...

The player ran fine last night and this morning and I didn't change any files in the meantime (except that I created a playlist through the player itself).

And it did scramble the data on the card once too, but I think that was my fault for plopping the card in and hitting "scan media" before the card was properly mounted.

Edit:

Sounds like a corrupted scan. Do a manual media scan to fix the issue. Settings -> System Reset -> Initialize media scan. If you have playlists created, make sure you do not have the "clear playlists" box checked. Let it do a full scan and do not touch anything. It could take up to 15 minutes to complete, but usually take about 5 or 6 minutes on average.

Just an FYI, there will be a firmware update coming probably this week that will officially enable 1TB microsd card support and will improve scanning with larger capacity cards.

 

[JasonNYC]

Sounds like a corrupted scan. Do a manual media scan to fix the issue. Settings -> System Reset -> Initialize media scan. If you have playlists created, make sure you do not have the "clear playlists" box checked. Let it do a full scan and do not touch anything. It could take up to 15 minutes to complete, but usually take about 5 or 6 minutes on average.

Just an FYI, there will be a firmware update coming probably this week that will officially enable 1TB microsd card support and will improve scanning with larger capacity cards.

We also recommend formatting the card as FAT32 for best results. This can be done in the player itself or with a third-party utility.

 

[JasonNYC]

New firmware coming for the SR15 in the next 24 hours.

Firmware changes include:

• New Open APP Services added: 7Digital, Apple Music, Audiobooks from Audible, BBC iPlayer Radio, Foobar2000, IDAGIO, Last.FM, Onkyo Music, Player FM and Yandex Music.
  
• 1TB microSD card support
  
• Car Mode function added
  
• EQ Sharing Sync function added
  
• Other operational stability improvements

 

[Jprod]

Let me be the first to ask - Roon ?

 

[CANiSLAYu]

Let me be the first to ask - Roon ?

Unfortunately not. Jason confirmed on the KANN CUBE thread last Friday it’s not in this round of firmware updates.

 

[antdroid]

I partially agree with you.
Actually using it with BT is no better than a good phone but then I wonder why a $ 650 DAP doesn't have an advanced BT system, it's still a laptop and even a BT connection should be taken care of, I expect this from very new products such as the FiioM11.
Even on the wired it does not change much, I made a comparison with the Audio-Technica ATH-SR9 wired. They are not headphones for € 1,000 but a leap in quality should I have it with the SR15? instead little or nothing.
Furthermore there are defects that are not BT's fault but certainly of A&K. The low incidence of the equalizer, the constant problems with the connection to the PC, heats up like crazy and sometimes it burns so much that I almost can't hold it.
In conclusion, a model just released, which is positioned in the medium price range, in my opinion this money is not worth it.

BT sound quality is almost entirely based on your headphone's BT receiver's quality. The DAP just sends a digital signal to your headphone which does a DAC conversion to sound to your ears. The only difference is the codec used, which I do agree that I wish the AK SR15 supported LDAC.

The Triple Driver, imho, is a very bloaty muddy IEM and no source is going to make it any less muddy or bloaty sounding. You won't get very good low end and mid range detail when your driver can only produce so much detail resolution.