Astell & Kern SR25: The next A&norma player

[d m41n man]

Just did a battery stress test on my 2-month old unit. Was able to stretch to 20 hours 14 mins with volume level 91 on single-ended 3.5mm playing 44.1khz FLAC on loop. WiFi and BT off with brightness at 30%. It does justice barely to its 21-hour rating.

At the point of image below (9%), I was still able to squeeze almost 1 hour 40mins playtime before ending and turning it off at 1%. Quite the portable we have here. Though it is noticeable coming from its predecessor that the older SR15 does go louder at the same volume number level than the SR25. Noticed this as I do have some certain volume level memory listening.

 

[paulobao]

Hi everyone.
Received my SR25 today. I'm new to AK.
Already installed Tidal and it's working flawlessly. About the sound: still evaluating it. I'm using an IT07 right now and I'm expecting a Dorado2020 at the end of the week.
My previous DAP was a DX220 with various AMPs. Was great soundwise but too heavy and bulky. Sr25 it's a liitle funny DAP.
I have to a DC04 USB DAC connected to my S10+ or to my Toshiba Kira Laptop. Very nice sound and it's the one I will compare the SR25 to.
Could anyone tell me some tricks/settings to improve the SR25?
To access Tidal should I always need to go to services and start Tidal from there? I mean, is not possible to have Tidal as a shortcut somewhere?

Thx
Paulo

 

[tirezege]

Hello guys,

New guy here, have been following the thread for quite sometime and finally got my hands on SR25 and it's time to post here. I really liked the device so far. I have a question tho:

I've downloaded Spotify app and using it in open service mode currently as a temporary setup. My listening gear is Sony WF-1000XM3 currently, still a temporary gear. (The mail headphone I will be using is Sennheiser Momentum 2)

I'm aware that DAPs show their potential in cable mode and even designed for cable listening. To make use of the quality DAC inside SR25, cable connection is a must I get it, otherwise this has no difference than a smartphone that supports same codecs.

To cut it short, my problem is: The volume over bluetooth is insanely low with Sony WF-1000XM3. As I said, I'm aware that this DAP is meant to be used in cable mode with a good headphone, BUT STILL, I really didn't expect the volume to be this low over bluetooth. Sony WF-1000XM3 supports, AAC and SBC only, and when I connect them to my SR25, they work in AAC as default.

Is there any way to increase the volume over bluetooth? Are there any settings that I should tweak or anything at all that I could do?

Any help is appreciated. Are there anyone who used the same setup and didn't experience the low volume issue? These same earbuds give much louder volume with my Android smartphone..

 

[paulobao]

Ok, listening to SR25 for about 8 hours. Tidal installed without any problem and running flawlessly.
Not very impressed with the sound, I mean, it's marginally better than S10+ + iBasso DC04. But it is much more reliable. The connection between S10+ and the usb dac (DC04) it's not strong enough and with even a small movement the usb c disconnects between both devices!
One question: is it possible to sort albums by artist like in Tidal or UAPP for example?

Thx.

 

[Queen6]

Hello guys,

New guy here, have been following the thread for quite sometime and finally got my hands on SR25 and it's time to post here. I really liked the device so far. I have a question tho:

I've downloaded Spotify app and using it in open service mode currently as a temporary setup. My listening gear is Sony WF-1000XM3 currently, still a temporary gear. (The mail headphone I will be using is Sennheiser Momentum 2)

I'm aware that DAPs show their potential in cable mode and even designed for cable listening. To make use of the quality DAC inside SR25, cable connection is a must I get it, otherwise this has no difference than a smartphone that supports same codecs.

To cut it short, my problem is: The volume over bluetooth is insanely low with Sony WF-1000XM3. As I said, I'm aware that this DAP is meant to be used in cable mode with a good headphone, BUT STILL, I really didn't expect the volume to be this low over bluetooth. Sony WF-1000XM3 supports, AAC and SBC only, and when I connect them to my SR25, they work in AAC as default.

Is there any way to increase the volume over bluetooth? Are there any settings that I should tweak or anything at all that I could do?

Any help is appreciated. Are there anyone who used the same setup and didn't experience the low volume issue? These same earbuds give much louder volume with my Android smartphone..

Try remapping the Sony WF-1000XM3 so that you can adjust the volume on the ear piece. This worked for me with my Android phone as the volume was not unified so although the phones BT volume was at max the hardware in the ear pieces was set to low with no control, once remapped the Sony WF-1000XM is more than loud enough.

Q-6

 

[tbrobison]

Hello guys,

New guy here, have been following the thread for quite sometime and finally got my hands on SR25 and it's time to post here. I really liked the device so far. I have a question tho:

I've downloaded Spotify app and using it in open service mode currently as a temporary setup. My listening gear is Sony WF-1000XM3 currently, still a temporary gear. (The mail headphone I will be using is Sennheiser Momentum 2)

I'm aware that DAPs show their potential in cable mode and even designed for cable listening. To make use of the quality DAC inside SR25, cable connection is a must I get it, otherwise this has no difference than a smartphone that supports same codecs.

To cut it short, my problem is: The volume over bluetooth is insanely low with Sony WF-1000XM3. As I said, I'm aware that this DAP is meant to be used in cable mode with a good headphone, BUT STILL, I really didn't expect the volume to be this low over bluetooth. Sony WF-1000XM3 supports, AAC and SBC only, and when I connect them to my SR25, they work in AAC as default.

Is there any way to increase the volume over bluetooth? Are there any settings that I should tweak or anything at all that I could do?

Any help is appreciated. Are there anyone who used the same setup and didn't experience the low volume issue? These same earbuds give much louder volume with my Android smartphone..

This won't be any help, sorry, but I've experienced the same low volume output with my Sony WH-1000XM3's. I also have the WF's (earbuds), but have not paired them with the SR25. I'm okay with that because I use those wireless options with different gear. I just received a replacement cable for my iem's(Meze RAI Solo's) that let's me use the balanced output of the SR25. That's a nice improvement over the unbalanced, 3.5mm output that I had been listening to the past week.
I mainly use the SR25 for listening to my privately owned cd's that I ripped, lossless of course, plus lossless album downloads and placed on a microsd. I have to admit, this little DAP is definitely growing on me, though I'm still baffled about why some album artwork doesn't show.

 

[tbrobison]

Try remapping the Sony WF-1000XM3 so that you can adjust the volume on the ear piece. This worked for me with my Android phone as the volume was not unified so although the phones BT volume was at max the hardware in the ear pieces was set to low with no control, once remapped the Sony WF-1000XM is more than loud enough.

Q-6

What a great tip! Thanks, Q6!

 

[Queen6]

This won't be any help, sorry, but I've experienced the same low volume output with my Sony WH-1000XM3's. I also have the WF's (earbuds), but have not paired them with the SR25. I'm okay with that because I use those wireless options with different gear. I just received a replacement cable for my iem's(Meze RAI Solo's) that let's me use the balanced output of the SR25. That's a nice improvement over the unbalanced, 3.5mm output that I had been listening to the past week.
I mainly use the SR25 for listening to my privately owned cd's that I ripped, lossless of course, plus lossless album downloads and placed on a microsd. I have to admit, this little DAP is definitely growing on me, though I'm still baffled about why some album artwork doesn't show.

That's an issue with the metadata and tagging of the music files etc. not the SR25. All my own ripped disks the album art shows up flawlessly, unless in WAV format then you need to rename the album art jpg to "cover" and place it in the album's specific folder. Album art I source from bendodson.com (600x600 pixels) and any reputable MP3 tagging program should work with FLAC etc. to embed the album art. I use Sony's SW as it has a specific metadata feature for their own DAP's.

Q-6

 

[tirezege]

Try remapping the Sony WF-1000XM3 so that you can adjust the volume on the ear piece. This worked for me with my Android phone as the volume was not unified so although the phones BT volume was at max the hardware in the ear pieces was set to low with no control, once remapped the Sony WF-1000XM is more than loud enough.

Q-6

Perfection!

Thank you very much yeah! I've connected them to my phone and within the Sony Headphones application I maxed out the volume. And then paired them back to SR25. Now it is as loud as it is supposed to be. Ofcourse it's not exploding my ears like it would on a cable connection, but that's how it is, and it is definitely loud enough.

Thanks again!

 

[TjFont]

Sorry to hear that. I had concerns about stability when I bought it but It has been three months with no random crashes. I will ask the obvious question of whether you are running the latest software version.

 

[tbrobison]

That's an issue with the metadata and tagging of the music files etc. not the SR25. All my own ripped disks the album art shows up flawlessly, unless in WAV format then you need to rename the album art jpg to "cover" and place it in the album's folder. Album art I source from bendodson.com and any reputable MP3 tagging program should work with FLAC etc. to embed the album art. I use Sony's SW as it has a specific metadata feature for their own DAP's.

Q-6

Thanks for providing more tips! My music files are mostly, aiff and some occasional flac files. I also have a Bluesound Node 2i, and all of the artwork shows up nicely on the Bluesound apps (Mac OS, iOS). What baffles me, for example, is a five disc collection I have. Each album is in its own folder, each folder has the exact same "cover.jpg" image, via copy and paste. Only four of the five albums show up with the artwork on the SR25. This is the baffling part. So, I have many albums that show beautiful artwork on the SR25, but a lot that aren't showing the artwork, which I just can't figure out. I've looked at the sizes of the "cover.jpg"'s in a lot of the albums I have, and while there are different sizes of jpg's, some smaller ones show up, some larger ones show up, but some others just don't.

 

[tbrobison]

That's an issue with the metadata and tagging of the music files etc. not the SR25. All my own ripped disks the album art shows up flawlessly, unless in WAV format then you need to rename the album art jpg to "cover" and place it in the album's specific folder. Album art I source from bendodson.com (600x600 pixels) and any reputable MP3 tagging program should work with FLAC etc. to embed the album art. I use Sony's SW as it has a specific metadata feature for their own DAP's.

Q-6

What's the best way of getting my music library, located on an SSD, onto the microSD card? I have only used DropSync (MacOS) to copy files from the SSD to the microSD card, and that worked, albeit with some albums missing artwork.

 

[JasonNYC]

Thanks for providing more tips! My music files are mostly, aiff and some occasional flac files. I also have a Bluesound Node 2i, and all of the artwork shows up nicely on the Bluesound apps (Mac OS, iOS). What baffles me, for example, is a five disc collection I have. Each album is in its own folder, each folder has the exact same "cover.jpg" image, via copy and paste. Only four of the five albums show up with the artwork on the SR25. This is the baffling part. So, I have many albums that show beautiful artwork on the SR25, but a lot that aren't showing the artwork, which I just can't figure out. I've looked at the sizes of the "cover.jpg"'s in a lot of the albums I have, and while there are different sizes of jpg's, some smaller ones show up, some larger ones show up, but some others just don't.

Did you try a manual media scan to see if that fixed the issue? It is possible the first time tracks were loaded on the player, they did not scan and index correctly. I would recommend trying a manual scan to see if it fixes the issue. A manual media scan can take 15+ minutes depending on how many files you have in internal and external memory. To run a manual media scan - Settings -> System reset -> Initialize media scan. If you have playlists saved on the player, make sure clear playlists is not selected.

 

[tru6794]

Did you try a manual media scan to see if that fixed the issue? It is possible the first time tracks were loaded on the player, they did not scan and index correctly. I would recommend trying a manual scan to see if it fixes the issue. A manual media scan can take 15+ minutes depending on how many files you have in internal and external memory. To run a manual media scan - Settings -> System reset -> Initialize media scan. If you have playlists saved on the player, make sure clear playlists is not selected.

I have tried to do what you suggested as well as using mp3tag, but still not every album works though.

 

[paulobao]

Hi,

Listening to it for 12h now. No flaws at all. Listen to flac files and Tidal offline. Nothing to report .

But I would like to see:
- (at the native AK music player) the possibility to have Albums sorted by artist too (the default and no other option it's to have them sorted by album name). Is it possible to ask this to AK?

- The possibility to get at least one of the "Services" (mine would be Tidal) at the home page (ex: the first page would be the AK music player, the second page would be, in my case, the Tidal app). Is that so difficult to do? It would be much more easy.

Like it is now, and unless I didn't figure it out yet, if I'm playing a file using the AK player and after I want to play something on Tidal, I need to go to the A menu, find services and then press Tidal. Not so practical, specially because the screen is tiny (which I like) and my fingers are not lady fingers .

Make it happen and I will be a devoted AK fan.

1 TB card, removed from my Sam S10+ and directly inserted in the SR25. No need to format it. All my music (about 350 GB) ready to use after the auto scan with no errors ✌.



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