[seeteeyou]

.

 

[mjlee181]

hi guys, anyone used fedex to send their item before? got a sms from fedex regarding i will be charged a certain amount of tax, the ridiculous thing is that the tax cost me approx 100usd for a moon audio silver dragon cable, that's crazy, it's almost 3/4 for the price of the cable itself, waiting for the next day for the fedex specialist to call me and explain why the tax is so expensive. which made me pay almost double for that one damn cable....

 

[hkppl]

No offend, but "benefits to end customer" is not an excuse to copyright infringement. Think of those site that offer illegal downloads to films, musics, software etc...

 

[midnightwalker]

No offend, but "benefits to end customer" is not an excuse to copyright infringement. Think of those site that offer illegal downloads to films, musics, software etc...

It is NOT an excuse. It is at least a good thing they can bring to end customers.

Music, film and software we have royalty and copyright. That is correct. But for service perform that is a different story. For example: i have a broken cable, i need to fix it so I send it to company A. They charged me 50 bucks. Next time another cable is broken, company B offers me 10 bucks so I will have options. If company A do a better job with warranty or whatever company B does not offer that is fine. Otherwise, the customers will most likely to switch. So now think about the AK100, i have one with 20 ohm output impedance and want to fix it. I will have choices to send it to RWA, send back to the company or send it to another third party to fix.

For the S and B modifications, yes, RWA is the first company offer DAC replacement and by pass built-in amp for the AK120 but they still can not stop people replace DAC or by pass built-in amp unless they register copyright for their jobs, the copyright is valid in that region and they can prove the other company/person is copy their product/service certain percentage based on copyright law.

Again, i do not support or encourage copycats or copyright infringement. I hope we together can analyze, solve and learn from this case.

 

[goodvibes]

It is NOT an excuse. It is at least a good thing they can bring to end customers.

Music, film and software we have royalty and copyright. That is correct. But for service perform that is a different story. For example: i have a broken cable, i need to fix it so I send it to company A. They charged me 50 bucks. Next time another cable is broken, company B offers me 10 bucks so I will have options. If company A do a better job with warranty or whatever company B does not offer that is fine. Otherwise, the customers will most likely to switch. So now think about the AK100, i have one with 20 ohm output impedance and want to fix it. I will have choices to send it to RWA, send back to the company or send it to another third party to fix.

For the S and B modifications, yes, RWA is the first company offer DAC replacement and by pass built-in amp for the AK120 but they still can not stop people replace DAC or by pass built-in amp unless they register copyright for their jobs, the copyright is valid in that region and they can prove the other company/person is copy their product/service certain percentage based on copyright law.

Again, i do not support or encourage copycats or copyright infringement. I hope we together can analyze, solve and learn from this case.

 
I think you guys that are into these mods should just start a new thread away from the factory supported product.
 
Nothing is broken to be repaired. Someone is treading on another's R&D and making exact copies. It's poor form and how well will it be backed if he breaks one or it just fails in the future. This is not the sort of product to save a buck on. This is different than replacing or removing an output resistor. It's a much bigger deal. 
 
Personally, I think the DAC mod detracts from the original design and intent of the unit as a very portable all in one with outstanding performance but trade offs are personal. If I was willing to carry around something bigger, there are other options. Where do you stop rwak120 with amp, 901 with balanced card, 901 with amp, pull a wagon with a car battery?

 

 

[sutjahjo]

Likewise I prefer original to one that's modified.

 

[Goldlion973]

.lol. All due respect and thanks to Vinnie and his team for modifying the AK devices (honestly) but I'm sure there's someone in the iRiver team who's probably saying the same about Red Wine, hence the slight confession in response back there .lol. iRiver have posted on here denouncing the modified devices trying to stop people from making changes to what they see as their device and intellectual property. Anyway, as others have mentioned, Red Wine has little to worry about from this guy, no one is going to send their device to a hobbyist who might disappear or be difficult to contact when needed but as said, if this Wong guy thought he was Right (sorry) and could make a good something better it can be seen as encouragement for Red Wine and other modifying companies to keep up their game. Such is the ethos of capitalism. Shouldn't rip intellectual property from them though, kinda lame if you're already borrowing from said persons idea, got to at least try and be diffrent and not piss off the originator too much.
 
P.S: Vinnie was kind enough to email me back saying that he had tried other connectors and found that they protruded too much, wouldn't be portable, the variance in SQ isn't there and that the TRRS he uses makes a solid lasting connection.

 

[Goldlion973]

   
I think you guys that are into these mods should just start a new thread away from the factory supported product.
 
Nothing is broken to be repaired. Someone is treading on another's R&D and making exact copies. It's poor form and how well will it be backed if he breaks one or it just fails in the future. This is not the sort of product to save a buck on. This is different than replacing or removing an output resistor. It's a much bigger deal. 
 
Personally, I think the DAC mod detracts from the original design and intent of the unit as a very portable all in one with outstanding performance but trade offs are personal. If I was willing to carry around something bigger, there are other options. Where do you stop rwak120 with amp, 901 with balanced card, 901 with amp, pull a wagon with a car battery?

 

 
I did... no one replied

 
 
Was thinking along the same lines as you, not sure if I could do that to such a 'perfect' device, the volume knob thingy is sooooo coooool, I'd miss it and really if you want a balanced device you'd have to carry a stack so why not keep the original device and output to a balanced amp if needed... stack either way.... still, I have a thing for taking things too far and am going to send mine to Vinnie. Heh.

 

[goodvibes]

 I think you picked the right guy. There's nothing wrong with what Vinnie is doing because he did the homework and backs it up.
 
I just personally think it goes against the original design goals even if it improves a bit as a LO only device. The AK120 addressed the objections of the previous model to where it's a nice complete device as is. It drives anything intended for on the go and sounds great. Almost anything can be improved if you want to more focus and limit it's function and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Just not for me and I'm sure most that have owned it.

 

[ianmedium]

Completely agree goodvibes, the mod is not for me, the quest for sound quality improvement can be never ending if one allows it. I am more than happy and content with the sound of mine on its own and through the stock line out.

I find the stock line out more than clean and clear enough for my uses.

As to those defending this thief in HK, I simply do not know how you can defend him. The argument about Vinnie does not hold water. Vinine modified the original player. He did not build a whole new player based on the AK and alter it.

All this thief in HK is doing is stealing someone else's intellectual property and saying it is his. Where is the grey area there?

 

[Goldlion973]

Is for some, not for others as usual... I'll probably end up with another device if I want a truly portable thingy to play with, being a bit of a geek I like having a strange device in my pocket/bag that's able to confuse and baffle people.... the look of wonder and amazement on their faces is worth the extra $600, oh yeah and then there's the sound .lol. Have been using the device on its own recently, did have it in its box for a while and was going to send it straight to Vinnie... can say it is a wonderful thing with the right headphones as I found out today but yup, everything should be modded in my opinion, improvement is progress... people have modded the colourfly and iBasso were smart in allowing people to make their own Amps for their new device. "Opoensource" is the way.
 
As per intellectual property I'm no fan of the new guy but its obvious he's just modifying what Vinnie has done just as Vinnie and Mrspeakers modified other devices giving hobbyists inspiration to do the same, Wong has tried to improve it by adding a 4pin balanced out taking from its use as a portable device, not sure if he even fully achieves what RW's mod does. I say if he can find his own way so be it, no one is calling out other people after the first hobbyist modified a Fostex headphone and others did the same... can guarentee that Dan at Mrspeakers has bought other modified devices and given them a look over to refine and improve what they do. I'm down with Vinnie's service, sounds like a cool guy also but I personally encourage research and competition as long as its not too much of an infringement... which some could say this is I suppose.
 
Live and let live. Life goes on.

 

[nogi replicant]

Hi All,
 
I am looking to pickup an AK120 however I will be pairing it with my UM Merlins. Merlins are 12 ohm impedance so technically the 1/8 rule could cause some problems with this match, however it does seem to play nice with Miracles which I believe are 16 ohm, so I figure the Merlins could be OK.
 
I would prefer not to have to use an additional amp for this match. Does anyone have any experience with the Merlins with the AK120. Many thanks for your help. I am slowly trawling through this thread, but LOTS of pages.
 
I might pickup some ie800's also which others have stated play nicely with the AK120.

 

[Goldlion973]

... of course if you want portable you could always hook up the RW mod to a Pico slim.
 
With the mod you get the best of both worlds really.

 

[suxxer]

​Hi everybody
​
​Just recently I stumbled over the following Link of an Italian website showing a AK120 TITAN.
​
Apparently are some modifications between the AK120 and that AK120 TITAN Model. Fist the case has a silver finish. Second there seems to be an increased internal memory of 128GB (instead of 64GB).
​
Availability should be first week of December 2013.
​
Has anyone every head of that unit? Or is this just another bad joke?
​
http://www.prase.it/images/contenuti/astellkern-new-1113.png
​

​

 

[ThogthoD]

It's true informations. My friend is a AK reseller and he told me so.