Astell & Kern SR25: The next A&norma player

[Carpet]

How long did the AK go without use? This happened to creative players back in the day. If you didn't charge and discharge the battery, after a 6 months or so the batteries would swell.

Okay, the SR25 has just become my default burn in device for IEMs. That will guarantee the battery cycles!

 

[uncle b]

Completely off topic but.......freakin' love Metal Church!! They're from my hometown and I've known them for a long time and got to tour with them as a guitar tech back in the early 90's.
Awesome band!!

Amazing! I’ve been Re-discovering some my favorites from my misspent youth!

 

[uncle b]

Okay, the SR25 has just become my default burn in device for IEMs. That will guarantee the battery cycles!

I really did screw up and leave that player (with the original battery) plugged into my MacBook a lot. Thankfully, A&K honored the service, even though I was JUST outside the one year warranty period. Helps to have a trusted retailer on your side!

 

[emdeevee]

Okay, the SR25 has just become my default burn in device for IEMs. That will guarantee the battery cycles!

That's a great freakin idea for my SR15 sitting around gathering dust! Perfect use.

 

[Puertex]

How long did you have sr25 before the battery was blown?

I had it for about 2 1/2 years.

 

[Puertex]

hey don't trash it - i'll have it

OK, I will not trash it I will sell it. I found the batteries on ebay and ordered the battery. So, I will replace the battery myself, and then I will sell the device. I will probably put on sale in the classifieds in this forum. I have my eyes on a Sony NW-ZX707. But the SR25 served me well during my travels and I am ready to try something different.

 

[Ieonasj]

hello,im tried few times Tidal MQA times via wifi tidal service and max unfolding was 88.2 or 96khz masters quality. that means sr25ii not full decoding mqa files/ only 8x ? as full decoding goes to 192khz or more.

 

[kel77]

hello,im tried few times Tidal MQA times via wifi tidal service and max unfolding was 88.2 or 96khz masters quality. that means sr25ii not full decoding mqa files/ only 8x ? as full decoding goes to 192khz or more.

It depends on the track. Not all are above 192kHz.

 

[Ieonasj]

It depends on the track. Not all are above 192kHz.

MQA full decoding is 16x,astell kern is mqa 8x decoding only? 2x decoding make software and 8x hardware? for full MQA quality liosten need full decoding dongle?

what im found only one song Tidal masters quality is Louis Armstrong "what a wonderfull world" shows 192khz on my xduoo TA-22 screen,but xduoo audio control app on pc screen shows current sample rate 96000kz. it is first unfold only? TA-22 is MQA Renderer 32bit/384khz. all other masters songs play 48khz or hifi 44.1khz

 

[WDitters]

Just out of curiosity, as Astell & Kern Wi-Fi implementations do not seem to have improved over the years, is there anyone out there that has better success optimizing their Wi-Fi settings to maximize AK Wi-Fi signals?

My current setup is a Unifi U6 PRO Mesh network with 3 nodes. Their location has been optimized with the Ubiquiti network designer (room by room has been optimized for perfect signal coverage), and signal strength in the entire apartment is absolutely spotless, down to the smallest corner ...

Settings: 2.4Ghz channel width is set to 40Mhz, transmit power (for the sake of testing) is set to high. (5Ghz channel width is set to 160Mhz, transmit power is set to auto) I have almost no channel interference with neighbors.

Anything else I can or should do in order to improve the connection quality on an AK device? My kids both have an SR25 mkII and both are complaining about signal drops. And as a result they both are now starting to eye my Shanling M3U and M6U .. So any tips & tricks are welcome (that do not involve replacing the AKs for Shanling)

 

[Octavius]

I guess there is nothing to do. I have a suspicion that WiFi module is since Ak240 times, because there is no explanation why a 2019 device has no 5ghz WiFi, like this is a premium option available just for over 1000$ devices.
I have no problems with WiFi, because I mostly use hotspot internet from my phone, which is alway close to player but still, even old Fiio x7 has 5ghz.

 

[rlw6534]

Just out of curiosity, as Astell & Kern Wi-Fi implementations do not seem to have improved over the years, is there anyone out there that has better success optimizing their Wi-Fi settings to maximize AK Wi-Fi signals?

My current setup is a Unifi U6 PRO Mesh network with 3 nodes. Their location has been optimized with the Ubiquiti network designer (room by room has been optimized for perfect signal coverage), and signal strength in the entire apartment is absolutely spotless, down to the smallest corner ...

Settings: 2.4Ghz channel width is set to 40Mhz, transmit power (for the sake of testing) is set to high. (5Ghz channel width is set to 160Mhz, transmit power is set to auto) I have almost no channel interference with neighbors.

Anything else I can or should do in order to improve the connection quality on an AK device? My kids both have an SR25 mkII and both are complaining about signal drops. And as a result they both are now starting to eye my Shanling M3U and M6U .. So any tips & tricks are welcome (that do not involve replacing the AKs for Shanling)

My suggestion would be to set up a separate 2.4 GHz SSID for the A&Ks. I don't have Ubiquiti but it was easy enough on my Asus router. As you probably know 2.4 GHz has better range. Also I wouldn't force maximum channel width, as the wider the channel, the more interference. A nice clean 20 MHz, 2.4 GHz channel is plenty for music. Also, turn off bluetooth on the DAPs if they don't need it.

 

[WDitters]

My suggestion would be to set up a separate 2.4 GHz SSID for the A&Ks. I don't have Ubiquiti but it's was easy enough on my Asus router. As you probably know 2.4 GHz has better range. Also I wouldn't force maximum channel width, as the wider the channel, the more interference. A nice clean 20 MHz, 2.4 GHz channel is plenty for music. Also, turn off bluetooth on the DAPs if they don't need it.

Already did that, an AUDIO-only SSID at 2.4Ghz .. No joy ...

 

[rlw6534]

Already did that, an AUDIO-only SSID at 2.4Ghz .. No joy ...

Sounds like you know what you are doing. On my Asus there is also a setting called "roaming assistant" which drops connections with low signal strength. I always turn that off as it makes no sense for home network. Sorry I was not helpful.

 

[WDitters]

Sounds like you know what you are doing. On my Asus there is also a setting called "roaming assistant" which drops connections with low signal strength. I always turn that off as it makes no sense for home network. Sorry I was not helpful.

Mesh networks have multiple access points between which clients can roam (and should be able roam if needed). But dis/enabling roaming did not make any difference in terms of signal quality