[Pinna-inna]

First of all sorry for the caps... but I'm just apoplectic about what i've discovered...
 
Ok - I have spent about two years organizing my music collection. I have about 5 terabytes of music, with 99% of it being classical. I have meticulously entered all the metadata. Anyone who has undertaken such a task knows how painstaking this is. Anyway... 2 years, 10 terabytes.... thousands upon thousands of albums. I have entered the composer, the artist...
 
Last week I purchased an Astell and Kern AK120 ii. I did a lot of research, and decided this was the player for me. I upload music to it... and... please somebody tell me i'm wrong here!!!! I CAN'T SEARCH BY COMPOSER!!!!!
 
This can't be true! You can search by artist, album, song and Genre.... but not composer! How can this be?
 
It is just unbelievable... I can search by artist, but not composer!I can search by the name of the person who is PLAYING the piece of music.... but i cant search by the name of the person who WROTE the music.
 
UNBELIEVABLE    !!!!!
 
If this is the case I shall be returning the piece of JUNK that is the Astell and Kern. Searching by artist is not feasible, since artists in classical music are the performers, and the same performer will likely play and record hundreds of pieces of music. Searching by son is no good either: I have many 'songs' that have more than 200 recordings.
 
I purchased this product because it sounded like a premium, well designed piece of kit. I read how well the UI had been designed. I cant believe that you cannot do a search by composer. I'm sure I have made some rookie error here, and someone more knowledgeable than myself will offer a quick solution to bring up the 'composer' search function.
 
Please someone out there help me! The device is lovely, seems very well made, and the sound is excellent. If through the asinine oversight of Astell and Kern  I cannot do a simple composer search I will be returning this piece of junk. I have all my music on micro sd cards, but if I cant do a composer search this ridiculous device must sadly be returned.
 
Hoping for someone's help out there!

 

[Music Alchemist]

I'd recommend contacting iriver (the company who owns Astell&Kern) with this question.
 
http://www.iriver.com/etc/contactus.asp
http://www.iriver.com/company/contact.asp
 
I would imagine that there would be a universal search function that enables you to search regardless of the tag, though.
 
I searched the user guide, but it didn't help. Here's a link in case you don't have access to it.

 

[Pinna-inna]

If a company doesn't realize that people might want to search for music by the composer, then that company is obviously UTTERLY INEPT. I will be returning the PIECE OF JUNK ASTELL & KERN AK120ii
 
The Astell and Kern is junk... I cant do the most basic thing... I cant search through my music collection by composer. this is RIDICULOUS. I could maybe understand this oversight or limitation of a cheaper product... but I spent £1400 on this RUBBISH ASTELL AND KERN PRODUCT.
 
 
How can a company design a music player, and not let you search by composer???? Composers compose music.... you should be able to search by composer. There are, incidentally, other problems with the device, but I will not go into them here.
 
If astell and kern have a good reputation it is certainly not deserved.
 
My needs were to have a music player with the most basic options.
 
To be able to store a decent amount of music and search through it. The astell and kern utterly fails in these most basic requirements. It is a poorly designed piece of rubbish.

 

[Music Alchemist]

I wouldn't jump the gun just yet.
 
Can you list all the search options for me?
 
Is there a search function that lets you search for something regardless of the type of tag?
 
If you're not able to solve the issue soon, I would still recommend asking the company about it, just to verify.

 

[Pinna-inna]

Hi Music Alchemist - you give me hope... but i fear it is unfounded!
 
The search options are few, and are as follows:
 
 
 
Songs
Albums
Artisis
Genres
 
 
 
That's it!
 
 
UNBELIVABLE.
 
 
What a piece of TRASH
 
I have spent more than a month's wages on this EXECRABLE junk the ASTELL & KERN AK120 ii
 
 
 
Just realized it's a mark 2 version of the product.... they had a SECOND CHANCE to rectify their dumb oversight... and they failed.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Dang. If those are really the only search options on such an expensive player, that's inexcusable.
 
Even many cheap DAPs have universal search functions where you can search all the tags.
 
In the user guides, I did find this, though it's probably not helpful: "Select [Folder] to search by folder."
 
Do you need a portable system? Or do you only listen to music at home like I do? Because when you use a computer as your source instead of a DAP, you have full control.

 

[Pinna-inna]

Finally a SANE and HUMAN reply!!!
 
 
 
I have had messages on other threads from people suggesting I am at fault for not checking this!!!! They were saying it was 'arcane' of me to think I would be able to search be composer! There really are some very wierd people here. Nice to find a normal person on head-fi!
 
I assumed that I would be able to search through the music on my Astell and Kern
 
I was wrong
 
ASTELL & KERN ak120ii = CR@P PRODUCT
 
 
£1400 to buy this JOKE OF A MACHINE

 

[ThinWalls]

Could you use an mp3 tagging tool to do an automated mass copy of 'composer' field to 'genre', and then use that to search?

(which would mean giving up on actually using "genre" as "genre", but maybe you can sacrifice that field in order to get a useable composer search?  Its not a field I ever actually use myself, but then with rock/pop music that field ends up being filled with a vast range of meaningless labels anyway)

(I don't have this player, I was just passing through!)

 

[charlie0904]

Although i find your post abit harsh but somehow your points are valid.