[Carpet]

The unbalanced output of my SR25 is insanely low volume. I need to turn the volume up to around 100 on the dial to get decent sound. Is that normal? Is my SR25 defective?

I find 80 is enough to drive planar IEMs on the 3.5mm single ended output. 100 is way too loud! High impedance over ear headphones may require higher levels, but for IEMs you are going to cause damage to your hearing at that level.

 

[Queen6]

Was thinking about getting a DAP eventually, and came across A&K! The SR25 MKII will probably be what I'm getting, but I had a few questions first:

1. How is A&K's customer service, and warranty support? I can't find any customer experiences online.

2. I read somewhere that A&K DAPs do not support Tidal. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I'd like to know if it is true even if I am not thinking about getting Tidal. I just like having my options open.

3. On the spec sheet, the output power of the SR25 MKII is measured in vrms, but this is confusing to me as I normally read power output in mw. Does anyone have the output power of this DAP in mw?

4. How well does this DAP do at powering full sized headphones?

If memory serves, A&K quotes for SR25 (no load) unbalanced Vrms as 2V; balanced Vrms as 4V, so;
16 Ohm load: 250mW; 1000mW
32 Ohm load: 125mW; 500mW
320 Ohm load: 12.5mW; 50mW

Drives my Hifiman Ananda with ease.

Q-6

 

[rlw6534]

If memory serves, A&K quotes for SR25 (no load) unbalanced Vrms as 2V; balanced Vrms as 4V, so;
16 Ohm load: 250mW; 1000mW
32 Ohm load: 125mW; 500mW
320 Ohm load: 12.5mW; 50mW

Drives my Hifiman Ananda with ease.

Q-6

Your ohm's law math is correct, but that doesn't mean the amp can provide the current needed for the load.

 

[Queen6]

Your ohm's law math is correct, but that doesn't mean the amp can provide the current needed for the load.

True, but I don't think the SR25 is far off as I have the Hifiman R2R2K and that is rated for 500mW @ 32 Ohms. Overall I think the SR25 will deliver unless you have unreasonable expectations of a smaller sized DAP. SR25 & R2R2K are very different in application & execution, yet neither are listenable at anywhere close to maximum with my headgear.

Q-6

 

[rlw6534]

True, but I don't think the SR25 is far off as I have the Hifiman R2R2K and that is rated for 500mW @ 32 Ohms. Overall I think the SR25 will deliver unless you have unreasonable expectations of a smaller sized DAP. SR25 & R2R2K are very different in application & execution, yet neither are listenable at anywhere close to maximum with my headgear.

Q-6

Agreed, first hand experience is always best. I do wish A&K would provide actual power ratings, though. In their defense, they do at least use RMS for the voltage measurement.

 

[JasonNYC]

How is A&K's customer service, and warranty support? I can't find any customer experiences online.

For North America customer support and warranty, our offices are in Irvine, CA. We offer both phone and email customer support for North America customers. Currently any repairs are being sent to AK's main repair center in Korea. Hoping to reinstate in country repair soon. Typical turnaround time is about 2 weeks, but with shipping issues that timeframe has been affected and we are quoting a max of 6 weeks, although we are seeing about 3 weeks turnaround these days.

Customer pays shipping to our offices in Irvine, we cover expediated shipping back to customer after repair.

I read somewhere that A&K DAPs do not support Tidal. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I'd like to know if it is true even if I am not thinking about getting Tidal. I just like having my options open.

All AK players have an embedded Tidal app. This embedded Tidal app DOES NOT support offline mode, so you cannot download files. You can also install the Tidal Android app, which does support offline files and does full MQA decoding, just like the embedded app. Only select Android streaming apps that we whitelist can be installed. A full list of supported apps can be found here - https://us.astellnkern.com/blogs/news/open-app-service-instructions

How well does this DAP do at powering full sized headphones?

The SR25 will drive most headphones and IEMs in balanced mode. Unbalanced is about half the power output so it will not drive as much as if you were using balanced. We recommend a max 300ohm impedance headphone for best results. The SR25 can drive more power hungry headphones and I have personally used the HD8000 with the SR25, but volume will be close to max. I also don't listen at really high volume levels, so YMMV.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

 

[Queen6]

Agreed, first hand experience is always best. I do wish A&K would provide actual power ratings, though. In their defense, they do at least use RMS for the voltage measurement.

Me too, as would help the customer make an informed decision equally not disappointed. Lost in this now, love the inflection in her voice....

Sony is the worst, I like the sound signature, I like the colouration, but power output is a joke as is pricing with zero input to the community. A&K SR25 is very neutral with a mild mid focused bump, great with Jazz, yet easily pushes past WM1A/Z. Hifiman's R2R2K is like hearding cats and a totally different story LOL.

Prop"s to A&K as there's a voice here that listens and informs the community, something many others could lean from if they cared to do so.

Q-6

 

[NightBeast]

For North America customer support and warranty, our offices are in Irvine, CA. We offer both phone and email customer support for North America customers. Currently any repairs are being sent to AK's main repair center in Korea. Hoping to reinstate in country repair soon. Typical turnaround time is about 2 weeks, but with shipping issues that timeframe has been affected and we are quoting a max of 6 weeks, although we are seeing about 3 weeks turnaround these days.

Customer pays shipping to our offices in Irvine, we cover expediated shipping back to customer after repair.


All AK players have an embedded Tidal app. This embedded Tidal app DOES NOT support offline mode, so you cannot download files. You can also install the Tidal Android app, which does support offline files and does full MQA decoding, just like the embedded app. Only select Android streaming apps that we whitelist can be installed. A full list of supported apps can be found here - https://us.astellnkern.com/blogs/news/open-app-service-instructions


The SR25 will drive most headphones and IEMs in balanced mode. Unbalanced is about half the power output so it will not drive as much as if you were using balanced. We recommend a max 300ohm impedance headphone for best results. The SR25 can drive more power hungry headphones and I have personally used the HD8000 with the SR25, but volume will be close to max. I also don't listen at really high volume levels, so YMMV.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

Thanks! I was using the wired connection of a Sennheiser Momentum 3.

 

[rmantheman]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I would really appreciate some help or guidance from the community please.
I just bought a SR25 over the weekend and have been playing and started to get familiarized with it but I have come across an issue that is really puzzling me. I have tried to search for any information on troubleshooting the problem but haven’t been able to find anything matching.
I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or whether this could be some kind of malfunction on the device Itself.
The issue I have is that I cannot play any of my .dsf files when the device is not “plugged“ via USB . So when I try to play .dsf files and listen to that through headphones ( either on both the 3.5 or 2.5 balanced jacks) no matter if the files are stored in the SD card or in the internal memory, the songs wont play and the player gets kind of stuck. Flac files play just fine but dsf cannot be played. At times a message is displayed, ‘unplayable music has been moved”.
However, if I plug the device via USB onto my computer, the disk mode sets in and those same .dsf files still on the card or the device internal memory play as normal and I can hear the sound by connecting any of the jacks ( to headphones or to my amp via rca).
I come from a Pioneer XDP-300 and i was used to play dsf albums with the device being portable -directly through the headphones jack- and not playing through usb. Is this not possible with the SR 25 or am I doing something wrong?
Many thanks in advance.
cheers

Factory reset your sr25.
Had the same problem.
Did a factory reset.
It has been working all day now.

 

[aravaioli]

Was thinking about getting a DAP eventually, and came across A&K! The SR25 MKII will probably be what I'm getting, but I had a few questions first:

3. On the spec sheet, the output power of the SR25 MKII is measured in vrms, but this is confusing to me as I normally read power output in mw. Does anyone have the output power of this DAP in mw?

4. How well does this DAP do at powering full sized headphones?

It is a very valid question you ask. The reason why Astell & Kern does not post power output (only voltage output) is that it is very low. Shamefully low in some cases.

Take the Kann Alpha, pimped up as the player able to drive just about any headphone. I had it for a couple of months and could not explain why it performed so poorly with planar headphones. The lower the impedence, the the worse the performance. My Dan Clark Audio Aeon RT closed (12.5 ohm) was unlistenable at sustained volume because of distortion: the amplifier was obviously clipping. LCD-X and Arya were ok in terms of volume but clearly underperforming when compared to a modest iFi Zen CAN setup: huge difference!

I then did some digging on the internet, since I have so many planar headphones none of which was properly driven, and found an article on Hifinews which confirmed all my suspicions: https://www.hifinews.com/content/astellkern-kann-alpha-portable-playerheadphone-amp-lab-report

It turns out that the measured output power in unbalanced mode (that is all they test) is an astonishing low 85mW/32ohm, the same of a modest Fiio BTR5 or Qudelix 5k and roughly half as much as the power of an iFi Go Blu which weighs just 27g (0.95 oz).

So my advise is not to buy any AK player if your objective is to drive planar full-size headphones. Even the one pimped as most powerful, powerful is not.

I'd recommend you to consider the AK SR25 (mark I or II) only if you really like the tuning, which is indeed quite unique to AK DAPs, and you intend to use it with IEMs.

 

[wbrisett]

Greetings all. New around here. I've had my Astell & Kern SR25 MKII for a few months. I bought it with the intention of using it as my portable player that simply has a awesome DAC. In that, it hasn't disappointed me. There are areas that I'm wondering if anybody else has struggled with...
1. Pairing the bluetooth to almost any car head unit! Even the cheapest bluetooth audio devices I have laying around connect pretty seamlessly. But this unit, won't connect to either of mine. I emailed the A&K support folks about this, and they were not helpful. Their 'solution' was to simply use an SD Card since most vehicles support that (actually they aren't correct there, but whatever). After a few dozen attempts, I finally got my Volvo and this unit paired, then I had to go trade that vehicle in and on the new car (which is running an Android based infosystem), I can't get it to pair again. Haven't ever been able to get it to pair to my GMC. I'm out of ideas here and thinking this is simply a hard limitation of the Bluetooth implementation in this unit.
2. USB-C audio? While there are different implementations available, I'm not sure this unit is using any of them. I can't find anything online either way. Anybody know?

-Wayne

 

[Neweymatt]

Greetings all. New around here. I've had my Astell & Kern SR25 MKII for a few months. I bought it with the intention of using it as my portable player that simply has a awesome DAC. In that, it hasn't disappointed me. There are areas that I'm wondering if anybody else has struggled with...
1. Pairing the bluetooth to almost any car head unit! Even the cheapest bluetooth audio devices I have laying around connect pretty seamlessly. But this unit, won't connect to either of mine. I emailed the A&K support folks about this, and they were not helpful. Their 'solution' was to simply use an SD Card since most vehicles support that (actually they aren't correct there, but whatever). After a few dozen attempts, I finally got my Volvo and this unit paired, then I had to go trade that vehicle in and on the new car (which is running an Android based infosystem), I can't get it to pair again. Haven't ever been able to get it to pair to my GMC. I'm out of ideas here and thinking this is simply a hard limitation of the Bluetooth implementation in this unit.
2. USB-C audio? While there are different implementations available, I'm not sure this unit is using any of them. I can't find anything online either way. Anybody know?

-Wayne

I gave up attempting to use Bluetooth with the SR25 quite a while ago, you can read my comments/frustrations about this if you go back in this thread. But I'm OK with that, as I've realised the real strength of the SR25 is as a fantastic sounding player with IEMs that don't demand a lot of power, with best in class battery life, and in a size that fits very easily in my pocket. Does your car have Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? Using either of those with your phone will work much better for you than any DAP.

Not sure what you're asking about USB-C audio? How would you want to use the SR25 in this case?

 

[wbrisett]

Not sure what you're asking about USB-C audio? How would you want to use the SR25 in this case?

Pretty much the same way a lot of folks use their phones in vehicles, plug into the USB-C into one of the USB ports in a vehicles, then have audio via the USB cable instead of via BT since that method simply isn't working.

 

[Neweymatt]

Pretty much the same way a lot of folks use their phones in vehicles, plug into the USB-C into one of the USB ports in a vehicles, then have audio via the USB cable instead of via BT since that method simply isn't working.

Right, for that to work, the SR25 would have to support Android Auto, which it doesn’t today and I’d be surprised if it ever does.

If you want to use the SR25 as a source in your car, you can set it to Line Out and use a 3.5mm cable to connect it to the Aux In of your car. That way you’ll be using the SR25’s DAC stage, which is why you bought it, right?

Or, you could do what I did and forget about using the SR25 in the car, and just use your phone instead

 

[Carpet]

Right, for that to work, the SR25 would have to support Android Auto, which it doesn’t today and I’d be surprised if it ever does.

If you want to use the SR25 as a source in your car, you can set it to Line Out and use a 3.5mm cable to connect it to the Aux In of your car. That way you’ll be using the SR25’s DAC stage, which is why you bought it, right?

Or, you could do what I did and forget about using the SR25 in the car, and just use your phone instead

Yep, pragmatism wins over technical perfection every time. I got fed up with USB devices off my phone. BTR3K over bluetooth is much easier.