Astell & Kern SR15: A&norma Impressions & Reviews
Jul 6, 2020 at 6:51 AM Post #2,401 of 2,727
chasmore, even my humble (in comparison to yours) collection (~23000 mp3/flac files) is too big for SR15's software - almost every time I add/remove several albums, I need to restart the unit, because otherwise it eNORMously heats & navigation through folders doesn't work --> drains battery --> turns itself off.
But at least after the manual restart it works OK, while collection is not modified (BTW, manual rescan instead of manual restart doesn't help).

Have you tried to install Foobar2000 on your unit using these instructions: https://us.astellnkern.com/blogs/news/open-app-service-instructions ?
Maybe it will be able to work with your music collection.
I have tried installing Foobar2000 but keep getting an error message - error parsing the package. No idea what this means and no obvious way to solve.......
 
Jul 6, 2020 at 12:44 PM Post #2,402 of 2,727
Hi JAson

I have tried everything I can think of including a completely ne card formatted only in the player and then loaded up bit by bit. but no joy Same problem. Once I get past 50,000 tracks it all gets flakey.

And I have heard back from A&K via their European service operation in Germany:

We got a feedback from Headquarter regarding the limitation of numbers for AK devices: the limit is 10.000 files !!!!

Ak devices are proofed for max. 10.000 files to play without any issues.


Now I am quite annoyed - one of the reasons I bought the player was the capacity for a 1TB card and the implied capacity for music files - I am using c50% of the card. There was nothing published about a track limit of 10,000. I simply would not have bought it if there had been. What's the point of a 1TB card capacity if the working capacity of the player is only 10,000 files? Very very irritating.
I believe the 10,000 track limit they are referring to is for a playlist. There should be no issue with a full 1TB card as there are many people using 1TB close to capacity on our players without issue.

I need to confirm with our dev team, but I am pretty sure the issue is with the player trying to index the 50,000 tracks. When tracks are added, the player will index the tracks in the background over several starts. 50,000 tracks take a significant amount of time to background index. My suggestion would be to do a manual media scan which will force the player to index all files in both internal and external memory. This can take a while to do. For 50,000 tracks, possibly 30 minutes or more. To perform a manual media scan - settings -> System reset -> Initialize media scan.

If you have playlists on the player, make sure "clear playlists" IS NOT selected.
 
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
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Jul 6, 2020 at 12:52 PM Post #2,403 of 2,727
I believe the 10,000 track limit they are referring to is for a playlist. There should be no issue with a full 1TB card as there are many people using 1TB close to capacity on our players without issue.

I need to confirm with our dev team, but I am pretty sure the issue is with the player trying to index the 50,000 tracks. When tracks are added, the player will index the tracks in the background over several starts. 50,000 tracks take a significant amount of time to background index. My suggestion would be to do a manual media scan which will force the player to index all files in both internal and external memory. This can take a while to do. For 50,000 tracks, possibly 30 minutes or more. To perform a manual media scan - settings -> System reset -> Initialize media scan.

If you have playlists on the player, make sure "clear playlists" IS NOT selected.

Thanks Jason -Your explanation sounds entirely logical so would be interested what your dev team say.

I have tried the manual media scan many times without success. I cannot see the "clear playlists" option - where is that in settings?

Cheers
 
Jul 6, 2020 at 12:53 PM Post #2,404 of 2,727
I believe the 10,000 track limit they are referring to is for a playlist. There should be no issue with a full 1TB card as there are many people using 1TB close to capacity on our players without issue.

I need to confirm with our dev team, but I am pretty sure the issue is with the player trying to index the 50,000 tracks. When tracks are added, the player will index the tracks in the background over several starts. 50,000 tracks take a significant amount of time to background index. My suggestion would be to do a manual media scan which will force the player to index all files in both internal and external memory. This can take a while to do. For 50,000 tracks, possibly 30 minutes or more. To perform a manual media scan - settings -> System reset -> Initialize media scan.

If you have playlists on the player, make sure "clear playlists" IS NOT selected.
@chasmore

Just to add to what I wrote above, if you have any non-supported files types loaded onto the microSD card, such as DRM protected AAC, ISO or other non-supported file types, the player will have issues trying to index when they encounter those non-supported file types. The scanning (both background and manual scan) will skip over them when they encounter them, but will continuously try to rescan those tracks in the background as long as they are present, which will cause slowdowns and potential crashes.
 
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/astellnkern/ https://twitter.com/astell_kern https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern.official/ https://astellnkern.com astellnkern@astellnkern.com
Jul 6, 2020 at 12:58 PM Post #2,405 of 2,727
@chasmore

Just to add to what I wrote above, if you have any non-supported files types loaded onto the microSD card, such as DRM protected AAC, ISO or other non-supported file types, the player will have issues trying to index when they encounter those non-supported file types. The scanning (both background and manual scan) will skip over them when they encounter them, but will continuously try to rescan those tracks in the background as long as they are present, which will cause slowdowns and potential crashes.
Yes, there were two such tracks which I have removed but everything else appears to be a supported file. The vast majority are AAC (copied from cd) with a handful of purchased AAC, some MPEG audio files and the two protected AAC files which I have removed.
 
Jul 6, 2020 at 3:16 PM Post #2,406 of 2,727
I have tried installing Foobar2000 but keep getting an error message - error parsing the package. No idea what this means and no obvious way to solve.......
I've tried several APK versions from https://apkpure.com/foobar2000/com.foobar2000.foobar2000/versions:
V1.2.6, V1.2.1, V1.1.55 - the same "error parsing the package" result;
V1.1.18 (release date - 2018/07/17) - successfully installed.
So you may try this old version (or maybe something between 1.1.18 and 1.1.55).
 
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Jul 6, 2020 at 3:48 PM Post #2,407 of 2,727
I've tried several APK versions from https://apkpure.com/foobar2000/com.foobar2000.foobar2000/versions:
V1.2.6, V1.2.1, V1.1.55 - the same "error parsing the package" result;
V1.1.18 (release date - 2018/07/17) - successfully installed.
So you may try this old version (or maybe something between 1.1.18 and 1.1.55).
For some reason the APKpure site has been modding the file name of the apps on their site. As as result the seem to get blocked by the AK firmware. Try getting the APK from somewhere else. I had a ton of issue recently. It wasn't until I went somewhere besides APK pure.
 
Jul 6, 2020 at 4:11 PM Post #2,409 of 2,727
Jul 6, 2020 at 5:18 PM Post #2,410 of 2,727
I've tried several APK versions from https://apkpure.com/foobar2000/com.foobar2000.foobar2000/versions:
V1.2.6, V1.2.1, V1.1.55 - the same "error parsing the package" result;
V1.1.18 (release date - 2018/07/17) - successfully installed.
So you may try this old version (or maybe something between 1.1.18 and 1.1.55).
This is the correct version from the Foobar2000 site - http://foobar2000.org/getfile/4d849833304a102169712d42644f4e97/foobar2000-1.2.6-arm_32.apk

You want to download the arm32 version. I just tested, it downloaded and installed without issue.
 
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/astellnkern/ https://twitter.com/astell_kern https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern.official/ https://astellnkern.com astellnkern@astellnkern.com
Jul 6, 2020 at 5:19 PM Post #2,411 of 2,727
Hmmm... I'm out of ideas. Sorry it didn't work. Good luck. Let us know if you have any progress.

Usually when you get the "error parsing the package" message, it is because you are trying to load an apk with incorrect architecture. The SR15 is an armeabi-v7a device - arm64-v8a packages will not work. For foobar2000 on apkpure, use this:

https://apkpure.com/foobar2000/com.foobar2000.foobar2000/variant/1.2.3-XAPK

Chose the armeabi-v7a version.

Many apk download sites offer the arm64-v8a packages by default.


Or, use Jason's link above, which is the latest version (he beat me to it)... :wink:
 
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Jul 8, 2020 at 4:17 AM Post #2,412 of 2,727
This is the correct version from the Foobar2000 site - http://foobar2000.org/getfile/4d849833304a102169712d42644f4e97/foobar2000-1.2.6-arm_32.apk

You want to download the arm32 version. I just tested, it downloaded and installed without issue.
Thanks - got the 1.18 version working ok so will now try this one.

One question - is there a way to make it the default option so that when I switch the player on it just picks Foobar back up instead of me having to go into services and activate it - once I activate it it does exactly what I want which is restart where I left off so happy day (only test to 55k tracks so far but it's definitely progress....for which many thanks to you both Jason and punknotyet
 
Jul 8, 2020 at 1:43 PM Post #2,413 of 2,727
I see there are other people having problems downloading Android music streaming apps for the Astell & Kern DAPs. I recently bought (on sale!) the SR15 and I am at the point where I would like to stream Apple Music (that is what I have as part of my Verizon contract atm). I have dutifully gone to the download website and the downloads abort and fail every time. I have disabled security software, checked for malware, etc. My broadband connection is quite good. I emailed A & K customer service about this and so far have received no good news. Does anyone have a workaround or another source for this software? I would hate for my DAP experience to founder on such a seemingly trivial obstacle.

Doug Greenberg, Berkeley, CA
 
Jul 8, 2020 at 6:40 PM Post #2,414 of 2,727
Hey guys...trust everyone is well in the "new normal." Question re gapless playback in the SR15:

I just purchased a new SR15 and am getting intermittent and audible gapless "glitches" between continuous FLAC (live concert) tracks, both 16 and 24 bit files. The issue is not track dependent. Fast forwarding and reversing within a few seconds of track change will often resolve the audible glitch. Firmware is 1.41.

Diagnostic steps thus far: System reset, factory data reset, formatted Sandisk microSD in the device, replaced SD card with new, etc. Thank you in advance for any suggestions you may have! R. Wade
 
Jul 9, 2020 at 11:25 AM Post #2,415 of 2,727
I see there are other people having problems downloading Android music streaming apps for the Astell & Kern DAPs. I recently bought (on sale!) the SR15 and I am at the point where I would like to stream Apple Music (that is what I have as part of my Verizon contract atm). I have dutifully gone to the download website and the downloads abort and fail every time. I have disabled security software, checked for malware, etc. My broadband connection is quite good. I emailed A & K customer service about this and so far have received no good news. Does anyone have a workaround or another source for this software? I would hate for my DAP experience to founder on such a seemingly trivial obstacle.

Doug Greenberg, Berkeley, CA

Direct download from apple for android apk.

https://www.apple.com/lae/apple-music/android-download/

Unfortunately, you will need another android device for the link to work as the SR15 has no browser. It do not believe the link will work from a PC or Mac (page loads but no download link).
 

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