[commingled]

Before, with my little AB box, it was easy to distinguish between Mojo and the AK70. With the modded one, the differences are way smaller and I'm not confident I would be able to pick them out blind.

The biggest contribution to that most likely is that the output impedance is much lower/better now (from 3+ Ohm to 0.4 Ohm). Output impedance is a DAP spec that a lot of people ignore and goes a long way in explaining why certain DAPs sound different to others with IEMs with wildly irregular impedance curves.

Good to know. Thanks. I have wondered if my Mojo could be on the verge of redundancy with a slightly better DAP. I do enjoy the Mojo over the AK70, but most often for the extra power with the Hifiman HE-560. I made a likely downward move from the AK100ii to the Ak70 for portability and without spending much time judging the differences in sound because I have the Mojo to stack in case I thought it was necessary. But I don't, so I don't stack and the Mojo stays attached to the computer. The Katanas driven by the AK70 isn't horrible compared to the Mojo, but to have it sound that close would be great.

Still not sure if I can be that patient, or whether the cost of the player plus mod would be preferable to an upgraded player. Not sure which, and I do like the AK70's form.

 

[ThomasHK]

Good to know. Thanks. I have wondered if my Mojo could be on the verge of redundancy with a slightly better DAP. I do enjoy the Mojo over the AK70, but most often for the extra power with the Hifiman HE-560. I made a likely downward move from the AK100ii to the Ak70 for portability and without spending much time judging the differences in sound because I have the Mojo to stack in case I thought it was necessary. But I don't, so I don't stack and the Mojo stays attached to the computer. The Katanas driven by the AK70 isn't horrible compared to the Mojo, but to have it sound that close would be great.

Still not sure if I can be that patient, or whether the cost of the player plus mod would be preferable to an upgraded player. Not sure which, and I do like the AK70's form.

Yeah, please note that for less efficient headphones the Mojo will offer better performance, even with the mod. It's perfect for iems,but starts to run into distortion for higher output levels.

 

[frfrtx]

Decided not to wait for A&K to publish test results on the Sandisk 400GB micro SD. Have 304GB of music (10393 songs with a mix of about 20% HD and 80% CD) on the card. The AK70 Systems information shows 56GB of space left on the internal memory and 63GB of space left on the card. All songs are FLAC. No problems so far.

 

[ATau]

Was there any official spec by A&K saying what's the highest supported capacity for the microSD cards on the AK70?

 

[JasonNYC]

Decided not to wait for A&K to publish test results on the Sandisk 400GB micro SD. Have 304GB of music (10393 songs with a mix of about 20% HD and 80% CD) on the card. The AK70 Systems information shows 56GB of space left on the internal memory and 63GB of space left on the card. All songs are FLAC. No problems so far.

We've finished internal testing and are happy to announce official support for the Sandisk 400GB microSD cards for all of Astell&Kern's players!

 

[frfrtx]

We've finished internal testing and are happy to announce official support for the Sandisk 400GB microSD cards for all of Astell&Kern's players!

Jason, thanks for the update. I had been checking the A&K Facebook page for an update on the testing, but never saw that the testing was completed successfully.

 

[ATau]

We've finished internal testing and are happy to announce official support for the Sandisk 400GB microSD cards for all of Astell&Kern's players!

Will this be through a firmware update?

 

[JasonNYC]

Will this be through a firmware update?

Current firmware supports the 400GB cards. No firmware update necessary!

 

[ATau]

Awesome! Thanks Jason

 

[glazglazov]

Got a new firmware update yesterday.
Version 1.31 (released 31 oct.)
Don't see any changes.

EQ still doesn't work.

Improvements (from official website):
- AK CD-RIPPER MKII Support
- Improved operational stability

 

[bmichels]

HELP ! I just received well the AK70 mk2, but..... I cannot mount any MicroSD card.

In system information, when I go to SD card, the « install the SD card » icon do not work, it stays on the « insert the SD card to mount » !

my system version was 1.02, so I upgraded to the latest 1.03, and … still cannot mount any MicroSd card

the SD card that I try to mount comes either from my AK100 (and works perfect in it) and also comes from my AK SP1000 and also works perfectly …and booth are formated MS-DOS Fat32.... as recommended !

any idea ?

thanks in advance for your help

 

[ilovespud]

Just got mine today and its a lot smaller than I thought - One question as I am confused by the MQS streaming. I downloaded onto my Mac and ran it but it still scanning though my music drive of 40k tracks plus - Can I not use it till its finished and how do I then see them on the AK70 as I can find no guidance anywhere about the specifics of how it works - TA

 

[ilovespud]

Just got their MQS streaming server to work 2 mins ago so now can stream my entire 3TB hard drive of FLAC (or better) direct to my AK70 anywhere in the house so just need to keep my "essential" files on it for outside use. Its a shame their AK app doesn't allow you to dump Hi-Res files on it like the Onkyo one does...or does it ? (goes off to the web to look see) - well its allowing me to dump hi-rez files in the iPhone app it via file sharing in iTunes so just need to fire the Ak up in 5 and see if works ok....and lo and behold it does - How is it connecting though ? Presumably through wifi in which case at home I'd be better off using my home wifi and then out and about it wouldn't work unless my phone and it were on the same wifi network although I suppose like the Oppo I could use it via a usb cable to my iPhone ?

 

[djansia]

Well, label me disappointed.

I've been doing A/B between SE and balanced. Using my Mojo as an anchor. I have a setup on the PC where I can feed the exact same feed to two DACs. Allows for easy volume matched A/B-ing. I have balanced cable and a 2.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TRS adapter that allows me to easily go between SE and balanced outputs.

In SE mode, the AK70 and Mojo are actually quite similar. There's a little definition loss in the highs, but that's due to the higher output impedance messing with my SE846 response. I actually tried to add EQ to the Mojo to match the AK70 OI x SE846 load and the differences become very small indeed. The Mojo is a little tighter in the low end and the 3D image has more depth, but other than that, the differences are not huge.

In balanced mode however... the AK70 is worse. The low end becomes boomy and loose. It is more muffled. Worse instrument seperation.
All of these observations are contradictory to what one could ideally expect from a balanced output especially since the OI is lower than the SE?! Also, the balanced output is roughly 11 volume steps lower than the SE... Weird...

Same for me and with Shure SE846.
I like the AK70's SE exit very much, but in balanced mode (with Fioo balanced cable) things are pretty bad and I can describe how it sounds, exactly like you Thomas.
With the Fiio Q1II, things go exactly the way opposite (same Shure and Fiio cable) and the balanced output not only plays at a higher volume than the SE, but even better.

 

[Martijn W]

Currently I use a pair of IEM's with an efficiency of 123dB/mW with the AK70 player.

When I have the volume at 1/150 they already play louder than the lowest setting I ideally would use. Is there a way to handle this issue without changing player or IEM's?

I can only think of:
- change volume of all music
- enable EQ and set it full range on -5dB
- accept lowest setting

and I don't like any of those options..

edit:

I haven't tried the balanced output. Is the volume lower when using the balanced out option?