[audionewbi]

I find AK70 very refreshing and detailed but long term fatigue sets in rather quick. 

 

[Ultrainferno]

  Just posted my AK70 review:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/astell-kern-ak70-portable-high-resolution-audio-player-mint-green/reviews/16789
 
Enjoy!

 
I skipped the sound part as I still have to review this one but looking at all the rest I can only say: well done. extremely complete. Bravo

 

[shigzeo]

   
I skipped the sound part as I still have to review this one but looking at all the rest I can only say: well done. extremely complete. Bravo

Yeah, one of the best DAP reviews I've ever seen. Amazing. 
 
BTW, here're my AK70 RMAA results and comparisons. 

 

[glazglazov]

But i still have a question.
For instance, when you play a live album (flac 16 44.1) it's totally gapless or it's possible to hear anything/gap in transitions between the tracks?

Just checked on my ak70. It plays Chemical Brothers Further (FLAC tracks, this album recorded without pauses between songs) without gaps. One track continues previous without pauses.

Отправлено с моего XT1095 через Tapatalk

 

[earfonia]

 
Yeah, one of the best DAP reviews I've ever seen. Amazing. 
 
BTW, here're my AK70 RMAA results and comparisons. 

 
Wow thanks for the measurement! The Lynx Studio HILO is really good indeed!
 
Do you mind to show a picture how you connect the IEMs as load for the RMAA test?  DIY cable?

 

[shigzeo]

   
Wow thanks for the measurement! The Lynx Studio HILO is really good indeed!
 
Do you mind to show a picture how you connect the IEMs as load for the RMAA test?  DIY cable?

I connect in parallel: y-split from dap to ADC and earphones. Stock HOSA cables.

 

[earfonia]

 
I connect in parallel: y-split from dap to ADC and earphones. Stock HOSA cables.

 
Oh ok. Noted! 
Looking at your RMAA result with Lynx really tempt me to get Lynx 

 

[silvahr]

Just checked on my ak70. It plays Chemical Brothers Further (FLAC tracks, this album recorded without pauses between songs) without gaps. One track continues previous without pauses.

Отправлено с моего XT1095 через Tapatalk

Thank you very much. It's very important to me that information.
Not even a slight glitch in transitions between tracks? 
BTW, the Chemical Brothers album was in internal memory or in the mSD?
I'm asking this because i bought a Cowon Plenue D wich i liked a lot but had problems in gapless, specially with the music in mSD.
Thank you in advance.

 

[rockwell]

  I find AK70 very refreshing and detailed but long term fatigue sets in rather quick. 

what do you mean by that? can you elaborate?

 

[davidcotton]

 
what do you mean by that? can you elaborate?

I'd imagine that he meant that at the start it all sounds terribly impressive, but the longer he listened to it the more tiring it got for him as it wasn't quite his sound signature for whatever reason.  Might be wrong of course (it does happen ).
 
In the uk (and I imagine the states) when auditioning hifi it was a common trick for the dealers to turn the volume up to make it sound more impressive.  Of course as that was hardly going to be the optimal normal listening levels, the advice was to turn it back down a bit to what you would commonly listen at and see if you still liked it

 

[luisandre]

Need to decide between ak70 and ak300. I live in portugal and can not try them
I have Noble3 IEM but plan to upgrade in the future for K10 or Katana. I listen to almost everything. Like analog warm detailed sound.
Thays for any advise!!

 

[RC99]

A superb review too. One point worth mentioning is how easy AK Connect is for streaming from my Mac, using either AK's own MQS or JRiver MC22. And I'm someone who didn't know anything about streaming till less than a month ago.

I'm glad to see this. I was just looking into the question and found a lot of complaining on the JRiver forums about connectivity with AK DAPs. But to be sure, not on the MC22 Mac forum specifically (and that's my setup too).
 
So you're finding it smooth, without drop outs? Do you stream any large DSD files?

 

[georgelai57]

 
I'm glad to see this. I was just looking into the question and found a lot of complaining on the JRiver forums about connectivity with AK DAPs. But to be sure, not on the MC22 Mac forum specifically (and that's my setup too).
 
So you're finding it smooth, without drop outs? Do you stream any large DSD files?

I think that MC22 Mac connects better than MQS but with streaming, I can accept albums taking a second or two slower to load than from an SD card because for me, streaming is when I want access to a large library whereas my (too many) SD cards are for favorite albums. Some large DSD files will load well, some don't and again, for the reason stated earlier, it's not an issue for me as my best and favorite albums are on the SD cards.
 
AK Connect "connects" well with an Aries Mini I use as that does not require my Mac to be left on. I attach a large HDD to the back of the Mini via USB.

 

[shigzeo]

   
Oh ok. Noted! 
Looking at your RMAA result with Lynx really tempt me to get Lynx 

Lynx is good to about 122dB, so as you noted in your excellent review, it has loads of measuring headroom. Also, amazing DAC and a good, but not excellent headphone amp. I've reviewed it at headfonia and supplied RMAA measurements for its HPA at ohm image. 

 

[shigzeo]

I've been testing bluetooth connectivity with Nuforce BE6i earphones. Not good. 2 metres tops, and stable to less than a metre. AK100 original: 3 metres, stable up to 2 metres. iPhone 6: stable up to 18 metres.