Astell & Kern SR25: The next A&norma player

[Luis Mad]

Hello !!

I wish to buy this SR25 but I could read two blocking points :

1. It seems that the WiFi is not fully well implemented and disconnects often. Is it true for all the models or just few of them ?
Generally speaking, owners of SR25, do you face all this issue ?

2. I could read that to install app we must go through a laptop ? Can we by pass the laptop and install app via the SR25 direcly ??

Ps: I an quite noob in the dap world, I had a shanling m2x in the past but I had to send back to Shanling because tidal was freezing when I was scrolling in some gender of music

Thanks for your feedback which help me to purchase an appropriate dap

1. I have only had issues with range of the Wifi. Same room or adjacent room no problem at all. Three rooms away and then I get cuts and disconnects. This is my experience. I can stream Apple Music or Tidal, stream files from my pc, for hours with no problem.
2. You have to install the apps with a PC, you cannot do it directly.

 

[Lu Mazzmarill]

In terms of output power, the SR25 can run HD600's and Argon Mk3's in just the single-ended jack. Those IEMs will be easily driven by either jack.

I asked because with my Sony Mdr-1A i have to run to 100 to make them sound on SE, and they only have 48 OHMS. Thank you.

 

[romekbono]

1. I have only had issues with range of the Wifi. Same room or adjacent room no problem at all. Three rooms away and then I get cuts and disconnects. This is my experience. I can stream Apple Music or Tidal, stream files from my pc, for hours with no problem.
2. You have to install the apps with a PC, you cannot do it directly.

Thanks for feedback amigo

 

[romekbono]

I'm currently doing a comparison, but I think the newly released Shanling M3X is almost as good as the SR25 in terms of battery life and sound quality. The 3.5mm single DAC output seems a little suspect but I think dual DAC playback on the single-ended and balanced output should sound, at the very least, 95% as good as the SR25. Plus you also get a better WiFi (2.4GHz AND 5 GHz) connection and full Android + Google Play utility. All you're really gonna miss is a noticeable reduction in portability - for my hand size, the SR25 is almost perfect for it, whereas the M3X is a bit too big for me. Larger hands may prefer the M3X.

Tidal via APK sideload works well for me on the SR25 and I have downloaded it via Google Play on the M3X but have not tried it yet. It should function as well as it does on my phone, though.

Thanks mate.my target was the M3X but Android 7.1 is a cons for me and I asked questions on the shanling FB and the m3x thread and looks like no planning to updrade

 

[romekbono]

I've been enjoying the SR25. Since I haven't been traveling much lately I've mostly used it as DAC with my PC--works great. Today, I was saddened to see the back of the player popped out and won't go back in place. It seems like the battery has expanded and now it doesn't fit.



@JasonNYC : can you please advise?

That's surprising.... What happened ??

Did you get a new SR25 ? How A&K fixed your issue ??

 

[Chaz1952]

Wouldn't worry on it as next track the player will pick up the artwork.

Q-6

Thanks Q-6. I guess that behavior is considered normal...

 

[Chaz1952]

I understand you very well. But I think SR25 doesn’t like the album artwork that is bigger than 800 X 800 though. I have been busy doing for all of my musics too. They were fine on the company but strange because sometime it showed on the screen of SR25, but often not.

I've kept my art to 500x500. I learned "back in the day" to keep them around that size. I'm assuming that the behavior I mentioned is standard for the player. perhaps it can be addressed in a future FW update? Thanks, tru6794!

 

[tru6794]

I've keep my art to 500x500. I learned "back in the day" to keep them around that size. I'm assuming that the behavior I mentioned is standard for the player. perhaps it can be addressed in a future FW update? Thanks, tru6794!

To be honest, even though I have been working on it all with mp3tag. Still some albums only shown the artwork just for the first song only.

 

[Chaz1952]

To be honest, even though I have been working on it all with mp3tag. Still some albums only shown the artwork just for the first song only.

I'm going to "leave well alone" for now and live with the quirky startup missing art. All displays fine *after* the player progresses on to the next track. (Or I manually select FF/RR)
Best of luck to you tru6794.

 

[JasonNYC]

I'm going to "leave well alone" for now and live with the quirky startup missing art. All displays fine *after* the player progresses on to the next track. (Or I manually select FF/RR)
Best of luck to you tru6794.

Try running a manual media scan to fix the album art issue. It is possible it did not index correctly when first loaded on the player. To do a manual media scan, settings -> system reset -> manual media scan.

The player will scan all tracks and reindex them. It can take up to 15+ minutes to rescan and index, depending on how many tracks you have on the player in internal and external memory.

 

[Imbrie]

Try running a manual media scan to fix the album art issue. It is possible it did not index correctly when first loaded on the player. To do a manual media scan, settings -> system reset -> manual media scan.

The player will scan all tracks and reindex them. It can take up to 15+ minutes to rescan and index, depending on how many tracks you have on the player in internal and external memory.

This worked for me with an album artwork that wasn't displaying properly so definitely worth a try.

 

[pippen99]

I am able to mow my lawn with no dropouts. For me startup is always the generic artwork.

 

[Chaz1952]

Try running a manual media scan to fix the album art issue. It is possible it did not index correctly when first loaded on the player. To do a manual media scan, settings -> system reset -> manual media scan.

The player will scan all tracks and reindex them. It can take up to 15+ minutes to rescan and index, depending on how many tracks you have on the player in internal and external memory.

Thanks JasonNYC. Will try that right now.

 

[Chaz1952]

I am able to mow my lawn with no dropouts. For me startup is always the generic artwork.

Running a manual scan now, as suggested by JasonNYC. I'll post the results...

 

[Chaz1952]

Try running a manual media scan to fix the album art issue. It is possible it did not index correctly when first loaded on the player. To do a manual media scan, settings -> system reset -> manual media scan.

The player will scan all tracks and reindex them. It can take up to 15+ minutes to rescan and index, depending on how many tracks you have on the player in internal and external memory.

Hi, JasonNYC. The manual media scan did not solve the missing album artwork. Curiously, it only happens on the very first track right after powering up the SR25. All other art is properly displayed - on all screens - during listening sessions. I see, by their comments to my post, a few other owners have the same issue. Thanks for the suggestion, though - much appreciated.