[audiorantia]

I picked up a used SR15 yesterday, paired with Sennheiser HD660s using the balanced output. I haven’t had a dedicated music player since the iPod nano way back when, but I’m loving having a dedicated device for music again - brings me back to feeling like a wistful youth seeking self-expression through music

I have successfully sideloaded Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer and Spotify, and also transferred a bunch of FLAC files from my computer.

The user interface takes a bit to get used to (and this coming from a long-time Android user), but I’ve been able to figure it out. I’m relieved to see other people have the power-on issue as well - I thought I might have gotten a dud unit. Happy to wait for this to be resolved with a firmware update.

I don’t know how to use all of the fancy words to describe sound quality and whatnot, but I have no complaints so far - sounds awesome I’ve been listening to an electronic music station on Apple Music, and the bass response is good, although I can’t wait to have a listen with the Fostex TH-X00 headphones that I’m expecting to receive today (supposedly they’re real “bass cannons”). I haven’t yet tried my Beyerdynamic DT1770 headphones with the SR15 yet.

 

[Vypan]

Have you tried using a different cable?

Hi Jason, have not tried different cable with SR15 but used the same cable with a phone and it worked fine without any crackling. I might just try again with a different cable and see whether that might make a difference. Thanks for your reply.

 

[lonelyboy888]

Hello all,

Received an SR15 today as a birthday gift and whilst I am chuffed in general, I have a major issue - bluetooth volume is tragically low.

I am using B&W PX7s and have turned off the volume limiter and updated the firmware which didn't make much of a difference. Am I missing something here as I cannot believe I need to go to max for a medium output level. Using the audio cable is much better but I do like using BT and frankly should be able to with a device of this calibre.

Any/all help greatly received! Thank you.

S.

For all blue tooth connection, I usually set the volume button to maximum on my SR15. I am using Sony WH1000XM3 and also connecting to my car, I need to turn to max volume at 150 on my SR15 and then adjust volume by my Sony 1000M3 or on the volume button of my car.

 

[erik456]

Hi all, i am new here, i just got my sr15 recently, I am using tidal a lot, may i know if you guy will install the tidal on apkpure or using that originally come with?

 

[Vypan]

Hi all, i am new here, i just got my sr15 recently, I am using tidal a lot, may i know if you guy will install the tidal on apkpure or using that originally come with?

APK for me as the original won't let you download playlist and albums for offline playback.

 

[Andrew11111]

Hi,

I have so many different artists and albums on my SR 15, and tagging all over the place, that I find it easier to use the Folder menu rather than Artist or Album when navigating my music collection to select music to listen to. However at times this does not work. I select 'Folder' and the device doesn't respond. Instead the work in progress circle thing just spins endlessly. Does anyone know why or what I could do to fix it. It is entirely inconsistent in that it works sometimes perfectly, and then might not the next time. And turning it off doesn't seem to play any role.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[SimCC84]

this may sound stupid, but did you try to raise the volume from the headphone itself?

Hi

Thanks for this. Not stupid at all as I didn't even think of this. I tuned up the volume to max on the headphones themselves and it made a big difference.

Definitely getting some power from the Norma now!

 

[punknotyet]

However at times this does not work. I select 'Folder' and the device doesn't respond. Instead the work in progress circle thing just spins endlessly.

I reported about this problem several times starting from 2018/11/02 (https://www.head-fi.org/threads/astell-kern-sr15-a-norma-impressions-reviews.885313/post-14573510), but unfortunately it's still actual.

 

[SimCC84]

Is there a reason why the auto sleep and power-off features do not work? I mainly use side-loaded Tidal offline and so disabled wifi thinking maybe it was triggering the player awake - this still doesn't help though. Seems like a pretty annoying bug as when I forget to turn the player off the battery takes a total hammering!

Many quirks to this little beast it seems.

Thanks.

S.

 

[noobandroid]

Is there a reason why the auto sleep and power-off features do not work? I mainly use side-loaded Tidal offline and so disabled wifi thinking maybe it was triggering the player awake - this still doesn't help though. Seems like a pretty annoying bug as when I forget to turn the player off the battery takes a total hammering!

Many quirks to this little beast it seems.

Thanks.

S.

the sound is good but at the cost of a lot of comprimises, and i dont like overly amount of comprimise, this bitch aint cheap

 

[Kenji1066]

the sound is good but at the cost of a lot of comprimises, and i dont like overly amount of comprimise, this bitch aint cheap

Yep my thoughts exactly, had mince since Nov 2019 and a little bit dissapointed to be honest. (normally I am super enthusiastic about everything too )

 

[Sebasistan]

I reported about this problem several times starting from 2018/11/02 (https://www.head-fi.org/threads/astell-kern-sr15-a-norma-impressions-reviews.885313/post-14573510), but unfortunately it's still actual.

I had that issue a lot with a borked (cheap) SD card. Went for a Samsung after, and haven't had any issues since. IDK if you looked into that. I noticed that since I had several cards to play around with when I got the player new, one was a cheaper 512GB one that just gave me issues upon issues, the other a (smaller) Samsung EVO, which worked flawlessly. Then I went and got me a 512 Samsung card, and that solved the issues, so I assume it's an issue with the cards.

 

[Sebasistan]

I still wish there was way to fiddle with the hierarchies in viewing music by tags. In Winamp (yes, still using that) I usually go Genre > Album artist > Album > Song. So since that doesn't quite work with the SR15, I use the folder structure.

Which gets frustrating when I want to listen to albums that have their file names out of order, since there's also no way to auto-sort the now-playing files by track number (or am I missing that option somehow...?)

 

[punknotyet]

I had that issue a lot with a borked (cheap) SD card. Went for a Samsung after, and haven't had any issues since ... Then I went and got me a 512 Samsung card, and that solved the issues, so I assume it's an issue with the cards.

No, it's not .
It happened more often, when I used Samsung EVO 256 GB (so both internal memory and card memory were occupied ~ for 90-95%).
It still happens now (but not as often as earlier) after I moved to Samsung EVO 512 GB (so internal memory is almost not occupied now (1% is used), and card memory is occupied for 68%).

 

[Sebasistan]

No, it's not .
It happened more often, when I used Samsung EVO 256 GB (so both internal memory and card memory were occupied ~ for 90-95%).
It still happens now (but not as often as earlier) after I moved to Samsung EVO 512 GB (so internal memory is almost not occupied now (1% is used), and card memory is occupied for 68%).

Huh. I had this issue a lot with the other card, going back to the main "folder" level often would just greet me with endlessly spinning loading signs, sometimes the card would (I assume) just unmount and throw me back to the folder screen now loading forever. And that has now happened maybe twice with the newer, pricier card. Hence my assumption it could be a card issue.

And in both cases I have nothing in the internal memory, while the card is now almost 96% full.