Bingo.
Or why multi-thousand dollar players can't simply have proper outputs from the start. I also think that earphones are too hard to drive, but they exist and have been like that for decades. Self-respecting audiophile companies shouldn't let out of their gates something with such high ohm output unless they specifically market their device for high-ohm headphones with provisos governing the use of low-impedance high-current earphones and headphones.
The AK240, a 'hi-end' portable player, is flawed in its delivery, not to mention, a product that will suffer digital rot, in that in a year or two it will be totally outclassed, rendering its expensive innards a basic heap. If it can't (and it can't) play the e-Q8 properly, it isn't fit to be called a hi-end PORTABLE player.
That said, the e-Q8 is a pretty hard to drive earphone. It doesn't sound right when driven by anything with a very low impedance output and the necessary current to back it up.