[M-13]

It wasn't because I was fully aware.

I turned up the volume quite a bit to compensate, even much louder than what I had for SE.

The balanced output kinda just sounds bad in general regardless of volume or gain. Sounds muffled with a wonky frequency response.

 

[jjacq]

Sounds like I'm in a disappointing treat since I just got balanced cables for my JH13/AK100II setup.

 

[cantara256]

  Sounds like I'm in a disappointing treat since I just got balanced cables for my JH13/AK100II setup.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It seems almost everyone else loves the balanced out. I haven't done a comparison yet, but I would very surprised if you didn't like it.

 

[akhyar]

It wasn't because I was fully aware.

I turned up the volume quite a bit to compensate, even much louder than what I had for SE.

The balanced output kinda just sounds bad in general regardless of volume or gain. Sounds muffled with a wonky frequency response.

 
Same experienced here, but with the Tralucent Ref 1 iem.
The SE sounds much better over the balanced.
 
Those considering the balanced, maybe should aim for the 120ii

 

[cantara256]

  I have had that happen, but only while the player is plugged into a computer (PC) and in normal playback/file transfer mode (not DAC mode).  I figured it was the PC's file system polling the device.  Is it happening while free-range, or plugged in?

FWIW I have also noticed less-than-perfect buffering at the start of tracks, that sometimes makes the player skip over the first fraction of a second of music, but that only happens to me when starting playback, and not in the middle (and occurs regardless of whether it's plugged in).

It's happening not plugged in, though only once or twice, and I've been pretty busy so haven't had more than 5 hours of listening time. If the buffering sucks it makes sense it might be worse plugged into a PC since there's more stuff going on in the background.
 

   
+1. I also have that happen (in unbalanced mode, though i suspect it's not in the amp stage anyway).

Yeah it's almost certainly a software problem. Buffering problems in portable players goes back 20 years. Even the iPod Classic had this problem and I don't believe Apple ever fixed it. 
 
Do either of you recall if it happened with music in the SD card or in internal storage?
 
Has anyone with a AK120ii had this happen?

 

[dacari]

I had a couple of drops/fade with my AK100 II, exactly the same I previous had with the DX90.
 
Maybe some kind of internal rutine/maintenance of Android?

 

[cantara256]

  I had a couple of drops/fade with my AK100 II, exactly the same I previous had with the DX90.
 
Maybe some kind of internal rutine/maintenance of Android?

Nah, I doubt it's Android. I've had several Android phones over the years and never had this problem. It's ironic it occurs in dedicated player hardware.

 

[MadGTI]

It's happening not plugged in, though only once or twice, and I've been pretty busy so haven't had more than 5 hours of listening time. If the buffering sucks it makes sense it might be worse plugged into a PC since there's more stuff going on in the background.

Yeah it's almost certainly a software problem. Buffering problems in portable players goes back 20 years. Even the iPod Classic had this problem and I don't believe Apple ever fixed it. 

Do either of you recall if it happened with music in the SD card or in internal storage?

Has anyone with a AK120ii had this happen?
[/quote

I Don't have this issue as I only used internal storage in my AK120ii. When I first used micro Sd, I also recall has no such Issue.

 

[Dopaminer]

  I just got my AK100ii and ... I've gotten a couple of pauses in the middle of playing music. Rare, but it's happened.
 
How many other people are experiencing this? Does it happen with the AK120ii?
 
I wonder if it's related to playing ALAC off the SD card (which is slower than internal memory, especially for lossless since it has more data to fetch), or just bad buffering in the player.

 
 
I used my 120ii for 7 months with a 64gb microSD.  A couple of weeks ago I got a 128gb card, and now I`m getting these short cut-offs, but only with DSD files.  I`m also getting a few totally unplayable tracks, where I get a error notice saying, " Too many unsupported files".   I`d like to know if these problems are related to the new card, so I guess I should put the old one back in and test the situation . . .  

 

[Richsvt]

I did the exact thing you did, recently changed to a 128g card from a 64. I recently got the same message and wondered about the card. I went in and pulled out some files that I knew it couldn't read, like M4Ps and some other movie files that inadvertently got added when loading the card. Once I removed those, hadn't gotten that message again. But I did notice a slight skip just last night. Was very brief and didn't happen again in the hours I used it. Not sure the the song was on internal memory or the card...

 

[kenman345]

  I did the exact thing you did, recently changed to a 128g card from a 64. I recently got the same message and wondered about the card. I went in and pulled out some files that I knew it couldn't read, like M4Ps and some other movie files that inadvertently got added when loading the card. Once I removed those, hadn't gotten that message again. But I did notice a slight skip just last night. Was very brief and didn't happen again in the hours I used it. Not sure the the song was on internal memory or the card...

Interesting. I havent had that on my AK120ii, but I got a Lexar 128gb microSDXC card that was rated for 95 MB/s READ. I figured that would work best for me. Not sure if it's reaching that potential with the player, but hey, its gotta be working in my favor versus one rated for 48MB/s Read.  
 
As for those worrying about balanced, i havent heard the AK100ii balanced, and havent even heard my AK120ii balanced either, but I will check in in a few weeks when I have my new cables in. I am getting 4-wire braided stock cables for my CIEMs reterminated with the proper 2.5mm TRRS plug. I am also trying to get my PM-3's that are set to arrive this week with a balanced cable. 

 

[threephi]

  It's happening not plugged in, though only once or twice, and I've been pretty busy so haven't had more than 5 hours of listening time. If the buffering sucks it makes sense it might be worse plugged into a PC since there's more stuff going on in the background.
 
Yeah it's almost certainly a software problem. Buffering problems in portable players goes back 20 years. Even the iPod Classic had this problem and I don't believe Apple ever fixed it. 
 
Do either of you recall if it happened with music in the SD card or in internal storage?
 
Has anyone with a AK120ii had this happen?

As it so happens, I recently upgraded to the 120II, and the starting-skip buffer issue still happens.  My listening style is pretty much exclusively to run full albums start to finish, so it's only an issue in the first fraction of a second after I hit play, and only on those albums where there is no lead-in black noise at the head of track one.  It doesn't happen between tracks (I also run in gapless mode FWIW).

One thing I didn't consider is whether the wifi or bluetooth might be contributing to this... I keep them off now for the most part, but back when I experienced the mid-track skips like you described, I can't say with certainty whether I might have had the antenna on or not.  Did you have yours on when it happened?

 

[threephi]

AK100II RMA completed

In other news, this morning I finally received the return package from my RMA for my AK100II's cracked screen, described in these earlier posts.

To my delighted surprise, they sent me as replacement a brand-new unopened retail box!  That should make it easier to sell, considering that I have already upgraded to the 120II 

All told the process took about three and a half weeks from the time I dropped it off at the post office, with at least half of that time taken up by the shipping itself.  It was easily one of the smoothest and most professionally-handled RMA's I have ever done for any computer/electronic device.  My only expense was for the outgoing shipping to return the unit for repair, as it was unclear when I sent it whether it would be covered by warranty or not.  It was. 

The only hiccup was in finding an effective way to reach iRiver's customer support in the first place, as the email address that is most commonly used on their websites (support.inc@iriver.com) proved to be unresponsive.  I have a suspicion that this email goes to the home office in Korea.  There is another email shown on some parts of their sites (support@iriverinc.com) which might be better for those of us in the Western Hemisphere, but I haven't tried it.

But if anyone needs customer support for Astell & Kern/iRiver products, save the headaches and frustration, and use the phone number for the California office: 

(949) 336-4540/4541

 

[intlsubband]

   
 
I used my 120ii for 7 months with a 64gb microSD.  A couple of weeks ago I got a 128gb card, and now I`m getting these short cut-offs, but only with DSD files.  I`m also getting a few totally unplayable tracks, where I get a error notice saying, " Too many unsupported files".   I`d like to know if these problems are related to the new card, so I guess I should put the old one back in and test the situation . . .  

 
I have 1 128gb card and several 64gb cards. Lately, every time I try to hit "play all" when the 128 is mounted, it freezes - it used to give me that error but now i just get a blank screen and have to restart. It has nothing but music so there shouldn't be any unsupported files... and this continues even after formatting the card. never happens with the 64gb cards though. 

 

[cantara256]

   
 
I used my 120ii for 7 months with a 64gb microSD.  A couple of weeks ago I got a 128gb card, and now I`m getting these short cut-offs, but only with DSD files.  I`m also getting a few totally unplayable tracks, where I get a error notice saying, " Too many unsupported files".   I`d like to know if these problems are related to the new card, so I guess I should put the old one back in and test the situation . . .  

I just spoke with A&K's support and they recommended formatting the card with FAT32 and not exFAT. He said on Mac OS X it was fine to use Disk Utility. It shouldn't matter as long as you don't have music files over 4GB (FAT32's limit). I don't know if DSD files get that big.
 
I ordered a Lexar 128GB card with 95MB/s (vs the SanDisk 48MB/s I have now, which came formatted with exFAT out of the box), and I'll try formatting it FAT32 and see if those help and report back. Other threads suggest formatting on the player itself. It seems there's an interesting combination of people with play pauses, file corruption, and no problem at all, and of course various suggestions for all of it.