Is the AK100 better than the X5 ?
There is one for sale on head-fi classifieds for $300 ??
Please let me know ASAP guys
thank you
Snatch it up! (I say this mainly because the retail price is $699.)
That being said, I will paste a few comparisons here as I come by them:
"I enjoy the X5’s sound more than the Astell & Kern AK100 (Mk1 or Mk2 variants) though I have to admit that the Astell have more steps, more resolution, and easily sounds richer in the small details. For some reason the X5’s sound is less tiring and more analog. Certainly the Fiio sounds darker in tonality, though the brilliant clarity still shines through the black background of the music. It’s undeniable that the AK100s is a step up in resolving micro details, portraying ambiance, and seems to have far more steps in the gradients from soft to loud passages, but these strong points fail to dull the X5’s sound quality. The X5 felt more analog, somewhat like a poor man’s Altmann Tera. The superior depth of the X5 combined with the wider soundstage and blacker background, makes the music more palpable than on the AK, even if the X5 doesn’t resolve as much micro details as the AK. The X5 also sounds more planted on the low end, and I’m not talking bass presence here (though the Fiio’s bass slams harder), but rather a feeling of weight that gives each note in the music a more realistic feel.
The dynamic range is better on the AK (the steps from soft to loud passages), but the dynamics or the explosiveness is far stronger on the X5, even when driving easy IEMs from the lowly Visang, Ocharaku’s Donguri, to the mighty FitEar MH335DW. My verdict between the AK100 (Mk1 or Mk2) and the X5, in this case, is that while the AK resolves more, the X5 makes a more lifelike music."
"can’t quite reach the heights of the AK100"
"I loved the RWAK100 and held it in high regard as a reference for affordable portable sound, but the X5 offered greater accuracy and size in the soundstage!"
"I am surprised about its sound quality even better than my AK100. X5 sounds more organic, more dynamic, more musical with a wider sound stage and with the same level of details than AK100."
I'm too lazy to dig deeper. The X5 is definitely better value.