[Ales R]

OK, borrowed my daughters iPhone 11, the same setup as yours with W2 and Solaris 2020, balanced terminated. I don't use iPhone and not sure if there are settings I need to tweak in there, but I had to set the phone volume very low and had to turn down W2 volume to around 36 with Solaris because it was already very loud. When turning it up to over 70, I did hear the volume stuttering. I also tested it with a few other IEMs, and hear the same. Testing these on my Galaxy phone, I can go up to 80 without a problem. I think this could be phone related. Also, I connected it to my Win10 laptop, and with Solaris 2020 in high gain on W2 going over 35 is already loud enough, but I did push it over 70 (with iems out of my ears) and there was no stuttering.

So could be an issue related to iPhone and power supply restriction since at high gain and 70% of volume W2 will be drawing more current. Will wait what you hear back from L&P.

Thanks a lot for your info and test, it calmed me a little bit, we'll see what the guy from L&P says, but as it seems iPhone power supply restriction is the true reason...

 

[BadgerRivFan]

Just received my W2 this afternoon.

Been listening to Qobuz and Tidal with the W2 connected to my iPod Touch via the Lootoo S1 lightning cable. FiiO FH7 iems, 4.4 balanced connection.

Wow! Sounds every bit as good as my HiBy R6 2020. I haven’t even bothered to mess with any of the filter settings.

For those who are worried about the lack of MQA, don’t give it a second thought as Tidal Hi-Fi sounds awesome. I did not expect this little dongle to sound this good.

With a little BlueTac this makes a killer lightweight/portable stack...

 

[Strifeff7]

Just received my W2 this afternoon.

Been listening to Qobuz and Tidal with the W2 connected to my iPod Touch via the Lootoo S1 lightning cable. FiiO FH7 iems, 4.4 balanced connection.

Wow! Sounds every bit as good as my HiBy R6 2020. I haven’t even bothered to mess with any of the filter settings.

For those who are worried about the lack of MQA, don’t give it a second thought as Tidal Hi-Fi sounds awesome. I did not expect this little dongle to sound this good.

With a little BlueTac this makes a killer lightweight/portable stack...

this...

 

[Niyologist]

these...

Yes! I need this!

 

[BadgerRivFan]

these...

Do they make one with a lightning connector? If so, care to share a link?

 

[snowy8171]

Just received my W2 this afternoon.

Been listening to Qobuz and Tidal with the W2 connected to my iPod Touch via the Lootoo S1 lightning cable. FiiO FH7 iems, 4.4 balanced connection.

Wow! Sounds every bit as good as my HiBy R6 2020. I haven’t even bothered to mess with any of the filter settings.

For those who are worried about the lack of MQA, don’t give it a second thought as Tidal Hi-Fi sounds awesome. I did not expect this little dongle to sound this good.

With a little BlueTac this makes a killer lightweight/portable stack...

what is the bitrate you can get when streaming tidal? tidal app or uapp? that was the one thing i was wondering since i do listen to tidal through uapp a lot

 

[FooFighter]

For own files I can recommend Neutron on IPhone.
Connected via UPNP to Macbook library, upsampling 16/44 to 32/176khz

Haven't measured but to my feeling W2 drinks less battery than S1...

It's awesome to control volume with small steps and skip tracks with Apple Watch!
That fine granularity is better in Neutron than in the Native player Apps plus over sampling paired with NOS filter on W2, very good equalizer, etc, stunning SQ with hires files, transparent, stage, quality bass, not so much in your face as I felt at first with some tracks in native Player Apps
guess I will get rid of S1...

 

[BadgerRivFan]

what is the bitrate you can get when streaming tidal? tidal app or uapp? that was the one thing i was wondering since i do listen to tidal through uapp a lot

32 bit / 44.1 kHz using the Tidal native app. UAPP is Android only, so I don’t have it on any of my iOS devices. One of the benefits of Apple is their devices pass through the digital signal bit perfect, so there really isn’t a need to use an app like UAPP unless you want to use EQ I suppose.

The W2 is upsampling the signal to 32 bit which I suppose you can change in the settings if you want. It sounds really really good to me just leaving everything in the default settings though.

Even listening to lower quality internet radio streams sounds terrific.

The only negative is the power drain on the iPod Touch battery (which is no real surprise) but the battery in this device is known to be pretty lousy.

 

[musicday]

these...

Any link for that? Looks nice.

 

[romekbono]

While I think SR25 is a great player I had to send it back because it had too high output impedance on my Andro Golds making them lack bass and body.
With W2 that's not the case.
It has the clarity I was missing on the S1 while not lacking the bass and body.
Tuning as mentioned is indeed forward into your face, that can be good or bad depending on the song or your liking.
Andro Golds are themselves into your face, this tendency is supported by the W2, this now sounds like a good car stereo when you select the according tracks
RnB style is absolutely stunning, though not my style usually but there you have holography, clarity and stunning clear low end kick bass.
So S1 is the more relaxed combo but for me not revealing enough.
I will play around more with the different filter settings...

Hey FooFighter,

How would you compare the W2 with the A&K SR25 ?? It seems that this W2 has been compared to the SR25 but what is your real opinion about that ??
if I had opportunity to buy one of this item.. which one would you advice me. can you help

 

[FooFighter]

Hey FooFighter,

How would you compare the W2 with the A&K SR25 ?? It seems that this W2 has been compared to the SR25 but what is your real opinion about that ??
if I had opportunity to buy one of this item.. which one would you advice me. can you help

Hi
I had the SR25 for only a few hours and returned it because of missing bass and body paired with my low impedance Andromeda Gold.
That doesn't mean it sounds bad with different gear.
So I can only advice you with this specific pairing.
SR25 is a bit quirky installing extra apps as you need to do that through A&K app on PC/Mag and not directly on the player.
If you are looking to play with Full Size Cans W2 can be a hit and miss.
Here it's the opposite to what I wrote before with SR25.
On my Denons W2 is detailed and with good stage but too lean and missing the Denons superior bass qualities...

 

[romekbono]

Many thanks for your advice.

I am looking for something punchy with bass .... So I supposed I should pair my Dunu SA6 dk2001 with W2 instead of a SR25

 

[FooFighter]

Many thanks for your advice.

I am looking for something punchy with bass .... So I supposed I should pair my Dunu SA6 dk2001 with W2 instead of a SR25

@WB79 told it's a good combo at least. But I cannot personally judge that specific pairing.

 

[romekbono]

@WB79 told it's a good combo at least. But I cannot personally judge that specify pairing.

Yeap !!!

I am in contact with him already
We are in touch via the Discord of Pierre Alexandre, PA for the "intime" if you don't know him yet, here is one of his videos :

 

[Niyologist]

I got a shipping confirmation. I'm getting my W2 tomorrow. Wow! So soon!?