[fotomeow]

@seedubchris : I looked at the AK recording set up again.
It is quite capable and well-engineered so i hope I didnt dissuade you in my last post, just pointing out some pros/cons.
YMMV.
Despite its abilities, it is just not in line for my personal uses (field recordings, transferring vinyl to digital, etc)

But I think adding a couple good small omnidirectional microphones to the AK recorder would be a great kit.
Alternatively, since Africa is a big place with some unwelcoming environments (desert, jungle, mountains),
consideration may be given to a digital recorder that is more robust to protect from the elements (dust, heat, downpours, etc)
The AK320 is the best portable I have ever had the pleasure of using, but I consider it more of a polite, urbane product that was
not made for the riggers of international travel. Unless you will be recording in studios, and then you are golden.

But we are curious, let us know how the tests with the new AK Recorder turn out.
Meet your expectations? pros? cons? would love to hear your report.
Gary

 

[seedubchris]

@seedubchris : I looked at the AK recording set up again.
It is quite capable and well-engineered so i hope I didnt dissuade you in my last post, just pointing out some pros/cons.
YMMV.
Despite its abilities, it is just not in line for my personal uses (field recordings, transferring vinyl to digital, etc)

But I think adding a couple good small omnidirectional microphones to the AK recorder would be a great kit.
Alternatively, since Africa is a big place with some unwelcoming environments (desert, jungle, mountains),
consideration may be given to a digital recorder that is more robust to protect from the elements (dust, heat, downpours, etc)
The AK320 is the best portable I have ever had the pleasure of using, but I consider it more of a polite, urbane product that was
not made for the riggers of international travel. Unless you will be recording in studios, and then you are golden.

But we are curious, let us know how the tests with the new AK Recorder turn out.
Meet your expectations? pros? cons? would love to hear your report.
Gary

You asked for it...
It seems to do fine with all functions with the possible exception of 48v phantom power while recording at DSD 256. This is where it started to cough .
I started my sea trials with the AES from my Burl A to D out. It worked flawlessly in this capacity printing bit for bit . It recognizes the incoming bit depth and sample rate and goes to town. No problems here .All as advertised.
Next was the line in via the Anphenol mini XLR connecters (nice pro touch that). Again no issues printing through the AKM 5572EN A/D converters contained in the recorder portion of the system. At first I was worried that it wouldn't print DSD to anything less than the 380 but it did and there were no problems . Nice clean conversion as well. I tried all the different pcm and DSD options with no problems .
Next is the microphone test. I put up a matched pair of AKG 414's over the drum kit and started banging away . It took a miniute to figure out the software and outboard switches to get the voltage to flow but eventually figured out the process and went through the same pattern of moving up the ladder from 16 bit 44.1 all the way up to 32 bit 192khz with no trouble. It was only when I set the recorder to DSD that it started to choke for voltage and subsequently shut down issuing a error message of "battery too low for recording" please shut down and charge battery. This was strange as there was in actuality 60% battery left. The problem here I believe speaks to your research into the voltage needed from pro condenser mic's and the combination of this voltage requirement and the DSD power consumption simultaneously is too much for the little player to provide. This is where I believe if I were to plug in the 5v fast charging system it world hopefully be enough. I ordered the adaptor which shipped this morning so I will be able to report soon if this assumption is in fact a correct one.
I guess so far so good. It does do most of what is says it will. Just have to wait and see about its ability to run DSD and power condenser mikes simultaneously when I get the power adapter.
Now the only other niggle is the very limited time afforded by the internal storage while writing DSD. I think at DSD 256 it's limited to an hour or so which is not nearly long enough to be useful while recording shows which are usually two hour sets at minimum. This is where there is still some ambiguity relating to the final ruling of the systems actual ability to record DSD in the field(the one thing AK touts the devise as being a first in the world). If it can't write to the external memory card it's pretty useless for this application. Now comes the process of figuring out what the largest card can be installed and what write speeds will it require. Also at the bleeding edge of read/write speeds and larger sizes where is the tipping point of performance. I bet the largest cards available are not nearly as fast at writing as they are at reading but I am assume my that based off my experience with computer media.
Please let me know if anyone has any more ideas in this field as it will be my first mini ad card purchase and the cost of these high end cards will be substantial.

 

[fotomeow]

thx for your report. interesting about the 48v phantom power using DSD was not up to standards.
perhaps that was asking the 320 battery supply to do too much despite being hooked up to the recorder.

It makes me think of when I need to download some updates on my iPhone: it will not even attempt to download them
unless i am on a wifi system and my phone is plugged in, so that the phone will not die in the middle of the download.
That said there may even be a toggle availability b/w the AK battery and other external battery pack/power source.

But of course that is a maybe. The more these devices do, the more complicated they are ...
so more testing and trial and error is required to dial in one's recording preferences.
Just curious what kind of music will you be recording? in what kind of situations? (inside? outside? professionals? local tribal ethnomusicology?

 

[seedubchris]

Had a real scare with the recorder. It wouldn't activate the recorder function. After many hours of head scratching i came across a very fine print item un the features of the recorder which indicated it had a battery in addition to the battery in the 320. This was news to me as there were no instructions indicating the need to charge the battery that came with the product, So confusing .... Good news is it has started to work again with the charging of the "recorder battery" AK should hire a translator to write some basic manuals for these things. The fact that there is nothing packaged with the recorder and nothing available on line either makes me question what the hell they are doing over there. The are supposedly very advanced but their attention to detail is pretty lacking in this instance imho...

 

[fotomeow]

Had a real scare with the recorder. It wouldn't activate the recorder function. After many hours of head scratching i came across a very fine print item un the features of the recorder which indicated it had a battery in addition to the battery in the 320. This was news to me as there were no instructions indicating the need to charge the battery that came with the product, So confusing .... Good news is it has started to work again with the charging of the "recorder battery" AK should hire a translator to write some basic manuals for these things. The fact that there is nothing packaged with the recorder and nothing available on line either makes me question what the hell they are doing over there. The are supposedly very advanced but their attention to detail is pretty lacking in this instance imho...

I read your post before the edit above, that blows ... but you figured it out. I agree about the "small print" with this unit.
As I alluded to before, this is a capable but complicated little piece of unit. e.g. it has 54 page User Manual.

Yeesh, the "recorder battery" in addition to regular battery?
I mean, that is probably awesome technology, but did you want to tell us about it ....... ??!

Thats the paradox about highly capable tech, they sell you this idea ,like Apple, that it is "user friendly".
no, it is not. it is effin' marketing to sell a product. But the more complicated the product, the more you can do with it ...

That is why I want to find a proper portable source like AK to use for at least a few years, I'm so tired of having to
learn and relearn the complexities of new tech and new units every year ... Im getting older, I want EZ ....

 

[marcussmj]

Odd, I am running a windows 10 pc and it refuses to detect the player. Any thoughts? I tried all possible ports.

 

[seedubchris]

Did you instal ak connect? The drivers are needed for it to see it. Are you trying to use it as a dac or media device?

 

[marcussmj]

Did you instal ak connect? The drivers are needed for it to see it. Are you trying to use it as a dac or media device?

I figured it out anyway. Had to force the USB cable into the port to detect.

 

[fotomeow]

↑
"Did you instal ak connect? The drivers are needed for it to see it. Are you trying to use it as a dac or media device?
I figured it out anyway. Had to force the USB cable into the port to detect."

And of course one has to turn ON the AK for the computer to recognize it.
Learned this the hard way, lol.

But what I need help on is finding a good free or cheap App to transfer files b/w the AK Android and my Mac computer.
I tried the VERY basic MTP file transfer- neanderthal material.
What are you guys using??

 

[zuber]

I use Android File Transfer. Simple and free.

 

[akira281]

I just snagged a AK320 off of A&K's sale and its now in the mail. But I just realized that A&K's US website lists the specs differently (32bit/382khz bit-to-bit) than the main A&K site (24bit/192khz bit-to-bit). I understand that the chip used in the 320, the AK4490, is fully capable of the playing the higher res natively. My question is, if any current owner knows, has A&K recently removed the artificial limitation of 24/192 on this DAP?

 

[zuber]

This is interesting. All AK300 series share the same DAC. Nice comparison here: https://www.moon-audio.com/astell-and-kern-digital-media-players. I am not sure, but all these DAPs should be able to play 32bit/382kHz. So, even the cheapest one AK300. If firmware hack is possible and there is someone who can do this.

 

[seedubchris]

I doubt it will be possible to ever really know what its doing as it will list the file sample rate and word length but may be downsampling internally...

 

[haiku]

Don´t get caught up on the specs too much, folks. I have all AK3XX Daps, and while the specs of both AK320 & AK380 aren´t that different, in terms of SQ the AK380 is a completely different animal. That being said, I like all of my AK3XX Daps. In fact, the AK300 was my first love....

 

[fotomeow]

How is the AK recorder? any glitches? happy with sound quality?