Astell & Kern SR25: The next A&norma player

[melons]

Would the SR25 MKII power a pair of Sennheiser HD 620S Closed Back Headphones with or without the balanced cable? Impedance is listed as 150.

Have the SR25, also have a pair of HD660S, if they're similar impedance which I suspect they are then the answer is No, not anywhere near the headphones potential

 

[melons]

Deleted...repetition

 

[kristwi]

Would the SR25 MKII power a pair of Sennheiser HD 620S Closed Back Headphones with or without the balanced cable? Impedance is listed as 150.

Skip Astell and Kern. Head for Shanling or Hiby. Youre welcome. Saved your day!

 

[mac2244]

just got the mkii and using it with apple music - but have download some tracks but can't see them on the main device homepage (where you can arrange playlists ect ect) how can I view/add them to a play list so they appear in this front screen and not just in the apple music app?

 

[JasonNYC]

just got the mkii and using it with apple music - but have download some tracks but can't see them on the main device homepage (where you can arrange playlists ect ect) how can I view/add them to a play list so they appear in this front screen and not just in the apple music app?

They will only appear in the Apple Music app because of copyright restrictions.

 

[mac2244]

They will only appear in the Apple Music app because of copyright restrictions.

ok understood so:
1)Are there any other apps (such as tidal) where downloading the tracks would appear in the main homepage so you can download and add them to your main playlist?
2)Apps aside what's the easiest way to get tracks onto the SR25 that would appear in the main homepage?
3)Is it possible (for example) to buy hi-def tracks on an app and then download them directly onto the SR25?

 

[Neweymatt]

ok understood so:
1)Are there any other apps (such as tidal) where downloading the tracks would appear in the main homepage so you can download and add them to your main playlist?
2)Apps aside what's the easiest way to get tracks onto the SR25 that would appear in the main homepage?
3)Is it possible (for example) to buy hi-def tracks on an app and then download them directly onto the SR25?

1&2)Stuff you download in each app will only appear within that app's own Downloads menus. You can't get Apple Music, Tidal, or anything else to show up in the A&K's own library...

3) Yes, any music you purchase, rip or whatever can be added as files in folders on the SR25. It will scan these files and add them to the A&K "Songs", "Album", "Artist" menus etc.

Bandcamp is a great place to purchase music you can copy over to the SR25 internal storage, and of course there are others..

 

[mac2244]

1&2)Stuff you download in each app will only appear within that app's own Downloads menus. You can't get Apple Music, Tidal, or anything else to show up in the A&K's own library...

3) Yes, any music you purchase, rip or whatever can be added as files in folders on the SR25. It will scan these files and add them to the A&K "Songs", "Album", "Artist" menus etc.

Bandcamp is a great place to purchase music you can copy over to the SR25 internal storage, and of course there are others..

thanks for the reply:
1)so I did try and purchase music from QoBuz (have the app installed on the sr25) - it lets me download(selected my SD card as download location) the purchased tracks but it seems they remain playable only when I go in via the QoBuz app - it seems they can still be played when I have no wifi connection but I prefer to view/organise then using the device front end/menus not via the app...
2)noting the above how can i get them to show up on the device front end (note there defintely downloaded on my SD card) but I cant see them or view them from the SR25's frontend and I cant arrange the tracks onto my device playlists? - any help appreciated

 

[punknotyet]

>> it lets me download(selected my SD card as download location) the purchased tracks
Do you see these tracks as flac (or some other extension) files, when you connect sr25 to PC?
Perhaps they are located in some weird directory that's known only to qobuz app, that's why they are ignored by the "front end".

My use case with this DAP is pretty simple:
- I don't use any streaming services / 3rd party apps on it;
- I buy music in digital formats on Bandcamp, HDtracks, Boomkat, etc., or (quite rarely these days) on CD (in such case you'll additionally need to rip the CD, obviously);
- connect DAP to laptop with Windows 10;
- copy new files (usually flacs) from laptop to microSD card inserted in sr25;
- unplug DAP and wait a couple minutes for database update;
- done - new music is visible and available to play via sr25's "front end" interface.

 

[Neweymatt]

thanks for the reply:
1)so I did try and purchase music from QoBuz (have the app installed on the sr25) - it lets me download(selected my SD card as download location) the purchased tracks but it seems they remain playable only when I go in via the QoBuz app - it seems they can still be played when I have no wifi connection but I prefer to view/organise then using the device front end/menus not via the app...
2)noting the above how can i get them to show up on the device front end (note there defintely downloaded on my SD card) but I cant see them or view them from the SR25's frontend and I cant arrange the tracks onto my device playlists? - any help appreciated

I don’t use Qobuz, so I can’t say for sure how it works, but in general, any music you download within a streaming app will only be playable within the app.

You need to copy files directly to the SR25 internal storage, or the SD card for the SR25’s music player app to be able to scan and index them.

 

[mac2244]

>> it lets me download(selected my SD card as download location) the purchased tracks
Do you see these tracks as flac (or some other extension) files, when you connect sr25 to PC?
Perhaps they are located in some weird directory that's known only to qobuz app, that's why they are ignored by the "front end".

My use case with this DAP is pretty simple:
- I don't use any streaming services / 3rd party apps on it;
- I buy music in digital formats on Bandcamp, HDtracks, Boomkat, etc., or (quite rarely these days) on CD (in such case you'll additionally need to rip the CD, obviously);
- connect DAP to laptop with Windows 10;
- copy new files (usually flacs) from laptop to microSD card inserted in sr25;
- unplug DAP and wait a couple minutes for database update;
- done - new music is visible and available to play via sr25's "front end" interface.

Yes its definitely in some kind of Qobuz folder thats been created (either in my SD card or on the internal) - have not checked with the PC but I will - if i find the track is there a particular folder I need to move everything into so it will be picked up? (does this require some special PC software or I can just drag and drop?)

 

[mac2244]

I don’t use Qobuz, so I can’t say for sure how it works, but in general, any music you download within a streaming app will only be playable within the app.

You need to copy files directly to the SR25 internal storage, or the SD card for the SR25’s music player app to be able to scan and index them.

ok as per reply above - if I need to move the files into a special folder in the internal or SD card whats the folder called and can I just drag and drop?

 

[Neweymatt]

ok as per reply above - if I need to move the files into a special folder in the internal or SD card whats the folder called and can I just drag and drop?

If you are on PC, then the SR25 should show up in File Explorer. Not sure it matters exactly the path, but I've always used the one that was there from the beginning:
"This PC\SR25\Internal storage\Music"

Drop each album in there as a folder and done.

On the SD Card, the SR25 called it 'disk', and I created a folder there called "music", so the path to that is:
"This PC\SR25\disk\music"

I don't think the names of the folders really matters, the OS will find files anywhere and use the tags to organise the library.

 

[punknotyet]

if i find the track is there a particular folder I need to move everything into so it will be picked up?

I don't think so.
I keep all my music on micro SD card and use following folder's hierarchy there: <genre_dir>/<artist_dir>/<album_dir>/<track_file>, just because I prefer navigation by folders.
You may use the different system to keep your library.

There is no need in any special PC software to copy music from PC to sr25, although I prefer Multi Commander to default Windows Explorer + something like TagScanner is very useful for metadata (tags) adjustment.

 

[johnoronomon]

Strangest thing, I have successfully used the file transfer function between my Mac and AK SR25 (updated to firmware 1.81) multiple times, but it has been a while. I recently plugged it into my Mac mini running Sequoia and the DAP isn't recognized in either the finder or the Android File Transfer app. I thought it might have to do with the new OS so i plugged it into my older mini running Catalina and same issue. I used OpenMTP to see if it was an Android File Transfer issue and the drive won't appear there either. I've changed the USB mode back and forth a few times between DAC and Media Device without luck. I WAS able to recognize the device through file drop FTP but when I try to drag a folder to the device is gives me the and I am unable to drop it. Am i missing something obvious? Any ideas what could be causing the issue?