[PinkyPowers]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this? Thanks. Pete

The new Astell&Kern SE100, or simply, A&futura.

 

[kubig123]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this? Thanks. Pete

The new AK SE100

 

[EagleWings]

The new AK SE100

Kubig, is it warm and smooth like the 1Z or neutral detailed like the Hugo 2?

 

[kubig123]

Kubig, is it warm and smooth like the 1Z or neutral detailed like the Hugo 2?

To my ears it retains the same sound signature of the SP1000, slightly less warmer than the copper version, in particularly in the mids, smooth treble, with soundstage that is slightly smaller than his big brother, I have to say that considering the price of the SE100 vs. SP1000, it's a great deal.

The wm1z is warmer and has deeper bass, while the Hugo retains more details and treble extension.

Very curious to know what Pinky thinks about it.

 

[Mimouille]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this? Thanks. Pete

A mid tier DAP for 1800$

 

[Wyville]

Kubig, is it warm and smooth like the 1Z or neutral detailed like the Hugo 2?

The SE100 is one of the more interesting DAPs I might want to upgrade to (as Mim says, it sits nicely in the middle at $1,800, making it TOTL for my budget ). A lot of it has to do with the convenience of having most of my cables terminated in 2.5mm TRRS, so switching to Sony (etc) would mean using an adapter or re-termination.

The main question is, how does it sound, because I have once again found that the balanced out on my AK70 is just too laid-back. When I reviewed the Phantom I briefly tried pairing them with Lionheart and was not that impressed by the result. Too laid-back, not enough bite to brass instruments and strings. Well, I have been experimenting with cables and an adapter and guess what... the pairing with Lionheart has surprised me when using SE out.

It is early days yet, but yesterday I spent some quality time with Paganini and I wanted to try and optimise the tonality. Ares II 8-wire from balanced is great with full-bodied instruments that sound very distinct from one another, but I felt strings lacked a little bite and texture. The PlusSound Exo Silver + Gold on the other hand really accentuated violins, but was a little bright overall from balanced. So I switched to SE out, which added a little warmth and resulted in a really nice tonality for something like Paganini's concertos, but not quite as good for, say, Beethoven, as woodwinds would loose some fullness. Then I decided to give Lionheart another try from SE out and was surprised by how well strings and brass instruments sounded. Slightly warmer than the PlusSound, but with a similar bite and texture to the strings. With this pairing I could hear the violin's bow perform all kinds of acrobatics in Paganini's concerto No.1, while it maintained a great tonality for woodwinds and brass instruments.

I still need to try more types of music to see if Lionheart might get its revenge on the Ares II 8-wire, but so far I am really liking the result. It seems like synergy with the balanced out of A&K DAPs, or at least the AK70, can be a little fickle at times.

 

[SeeSax]

@Wyville I went from the AK70 to the AK70 II and found it to be a pretty noticeable improvement. Still not the most energetic or detailed sound, but an improvement over the laid-back nature of the AK70.

Then again, I am terrible at picking out the nuanced sound of DAPs. I find my DX200 with the AMP3 module to be even more relaxed and laid-back than both AK70s. I'm on my desktop setups 90% of the time and haven't given proper listening to any of my DAPs. Either way, let us know what you end up with and how it pairs with the Phantoms.

-Collin-

 

[davidmolliere]

@Wyville I went from the AK70 to the AK70 II and found it to be a pretty noticeable improvement. Still not the most energetic or detailed sound, but an improvement over the laid-back nature of the AK70. Then again, I am terrible at picking out the nuanced sound of DAPs. I find my DX200 with the AMP3 module to be even more relaxed and laid-back than both AK70s. I'm on my desktop setups 90% of the time and haven't given proper listening to any of my DAPs. Either way, let us know what you end up with and how it pairs with the Phantoms.

If you have DX200 then the best AMP so far to pair with the Phantom is AMP4 by far but YMMV.
I look forward to test the Phantom with AMP8, I'll report about that

I'd love to have someone who has a DX200 report on SE100 comparison, but aside from moving to the famed SP1000 (if only I could have a listen to check it out) I am wary of loosing the AMP flexibility of the DX200...

 

[491326]

how is the dx200 compared to the chord mojo?

 

[PinkyPowers]

If you have DX200 then the best AMP so far to pair with the Phantom is AMP4 by far but YMMV.
I look forward to test the Phantom with AMP8, I'll report about that

I'd love to have someone who has a DX200 report on SE100 comparison, but aside from moving to the famed SP1000 (if only I could have a listen to check it out) I am wary of loosing the AMP flexibility of the DX200...

That is indeed a comparison I tend to make. But it won't be for a while. I need to spend some quality time with the SE100 first.

My early impressions are mighty positive, though. I've certainly had thoughts throughout the day, how I wouldn't be sad if this was my one and only DAP. I love what I'm hearing.

 

[SeeSax]

If you have DX200 then the best AMP so far to pair with the Phantom is AMP4 by far but YMMV.
I look forward to test the Phantom with AMP8, I'll report about that

I'd love to have someone who has a DX200 report on SE100 comparison, but aside from moving to the famed SP1000 (if only I could have a listen to check it out) I am wary of loosing the AMP flexibility of the DX200...

Good timing! I ordered the Amp8 a few hours ago

-Collin-

 

[Wyville]

@Wyville I went from the AK70 to the AK70 II and found it to be a pretty noticeable improvement. Still not the most energetic or detailed sound, but an improvement over the laid-back nature of the AK70.

Then again, I am terrible at picking out the nuanced sound of DAPs. I find my DX200 with the AMP3 module to be even more relaxed and laid-back than both AK70s. I'm on my desktop setups 90% of the time and haven't given proper listening to any of my DAPs. Either way, let us know what you end up with and how it pairs with the Phantoms.

-Collin-

Interesting, haven't heard the AK70 II yet. Since I am only window shopping for now I still have some time to mull things over and see in what direction I will go once we have settled back home (I might add a desktop setup). I am just really enjoying exploring synergy and how I personally like the Phantom to sound for different types of music (eg. Ares II 4-wire for jazz, Ares II 8-wire for Beethoven, Exo Silver + Gold (SE) for Paganini and Lionheart (SE) for possibly the best overall compromise). Not sure about any of it yet, just having fun and quite likely setting myself up for wanting some additional TOTL IEMs and/or headphones (dare I say U18t, or even HD800?), but I will worry about that once I have paid off my current puppy debt.

 

[SeeSax]

I think synergies are what have ultimately cost me the most money. I now have a spreadsheet that depicts which cables go best with which IEMs in my collection. It's sick really. LOL

Happy travels and good luck getting into the new place!

-Collin-

 

[Wyville]

I think synergies are what have ultimately cost me the most money. I now have a spreadsheet that depicts which cables go best with which IEMs in my collection. It's sick really. LOL

Happy travels and good luck getting into the new place!

-Collin-

Thank you my friend!

Yes, it can get a little silly, but I too find it a lot of fun to work out the best synergy and pick certain pairings for specific types of music. That is when I really start to love my music and it becomes the most absorbing. Heck, I even find that when I play some string quartets at low volume in the background while I work, it works so much better to use the Phantom. Occasionally (well, not really "occasionally") I loose my concentration and the music just draws me in and allows me to regain my focus more quickly, just because the music is so immersive. But that is also where I guess the biggest singularity resides, irresistibly sucking up every bit of money you have.

 

[davidmolliere]

A bit off topic but a friend from TellementNomade (kudos, Simon!) showed me a very nice case for his CIEM and given what happened to my Phantom with the Empire case...

I decided to order two of those for the VE8 and Phantom, it's the AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-HPP300 and indeed it's both very compact and quite secure (it won't be crush proof like a Pelican but safe enough, luckily I can fit two of those into a Pelican 1060 for transport). I like the fact you can snap them in place with the cable preventing movement during transport. Also you can fit uprade cables, 8 wire probably won't fit but still pretty good it fits the Ares II and the Lionheart with 2.5 termination.

Here are a few pics and the diagram for dimensions.

The Phantom :

The VE8 :

Found them on eBay for 15€ a piece.
Thought I'd share