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The Astell & Kern AK120
Aug 17, 2013 at 10:48 AM Post #3,258 of 7,071
Quote:
harryb said:
Let me change the subject here.  I received my RWAK120-S back from Vinnie today.  Sounds pretty awesome out of the gate and after listening to 3 or 4 of my favorite tracks I'm hearing knock your socks off improvement.  But I'm not going to review it until it has a few days to burn in.  I found that there were fairly dramatic changes in the stock AK120 after a couple of days, so I'll let the mod settle down a bit.
 
I will say that I couldn't be more impressed with the service Vinnie gave.  I called him several times to discuss the mod before I made my decision and he was quite generous with his time and knowledge.  Once I decided to move ahead, I asked him if he could do the mod fairly rapidly.  He promised to turn it around in a week.    He received my unit on Tuesday, and when I called him Thursday to check in, he had completed the mod just two days later.
 
For me, the decision hinged on 3 factors:  (1)  Was there enough added value to the mod to justify spending precious dollars on this as opposed to other possible changes/upgrades in my setup? (2)  Was the "brick" size of the AK120 plus an amp going to be tolerable to me relative to excellent portability of the stock AK120.  (3)  Was I going to have to give up my unit for several weeks or could I get it done in a week or so.
 
These are highly individualized factors that I imagine will vary widely among those with an AK120
 
On all 3 fronts I, personally, am very satisfied so far.
 
More to follow about sonics in a few days.
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Congrats. I bet it's great. The brick factor is my biggest objection to doing so. Very personal consideration. I agree about the run in as well. It's a lot more even after a day. It also seems to 'warm up' over 15 min. or so.
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 10:53 AM Post #3,259 of 7,071
Quote:
burtomr said:
....what happens to the 120's volume knob & fence?....izita useless appendage now?
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Quote:
onlychild said:
Pics of the Ak120-s please. Curious to see what it looks like without the vol wheel.
 
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No pics yet but here's what the RWAK120S description sez:
 

Hardware volume control removal

Since the digital volume control functionality is completely disabled, we also remove the volume wheel that exits from the left side of the AK100, and we install a new, higher quality 3.5mm (1/8") stereo jack in its place. 

 
Aug 17, 2013 at 12:10 PM Post #3,260 of 7,071
goodvibes said:
. I agree about the run in as well. It's a lot more even after a day. It also seems to 'warm up' over 15 min. or so.
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I think this is a really important point. In my experience the higher one goes up the HiFi food chain the more important what would seem subtle things like burn in and warming up before each session become more important.

I think we have an expectation from lesser portable equipment of everything working fine from the get go but as we get into the realms of more esoteric and exotic components, just as in home HiFi I feel we have to adopt home HiFi parameters in using the better grade portable equipment.

I find my 801 really comes on song after around 15 minutes and I have a standard rule with my TU-05 amp of letting the whole rig play songs for twenty minutes before listening as everything comes together.

I think one the most underrated/abused headphones on headfi ( magazines seem to get it more) is the T5P. You have to feed it well but more importantly it really comes together after around 300 hours. This seems an abomination in the portable world but coming from higher end home HiFi it is accepted as the norm.

I guess the more transparent and higher quality the components the more they show up these things where as at the lower end there are so many other factors putting a veil on the music it seems hardly necessary to burn in, warm up!

On other news my 120 did not arrive with the post yesterday ( gotta love Canada post! ) so hopefully early next week it will arrive!
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 1:05 PM Post #3,261 of 7,071
I have no interest in the mod.  I did not find the AK120 to have any issues with my Sony XBA-4 (8 Ohms).  The pairing sounds great.  
 
Modding the AK120 to pair with an amp defeats the purpose of this player.  It was designed to used as a single unit player, not as portable transport & DAC, not stacked on top of an amp.  Which turns it into an ugly brick of gear.  yuck!
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 1:11 PM Post #3,262 of 7,071
Quote:
hifiguy528 said:
I have no interest in the mod.  I did not find the AK120 to have any issues with my Sony XBA-4 (8 Ohms).  The pairing sounds great.  
 
Modding the AK120 to pair with an amp defeats the purpose of this player.  It was designed to used as a single unit player, not as portable transport & DAC, not stacked on top of an amp.  Which turns it into an ugly brick of gear.  yuck!
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+1 - Butcher someone elses $1300 player 
angry_face.gif

 
Aug 17, 2013 at 4:21 PM Post #3,265 of 7,071
Are there any reviews of the AK120 DAC section specifically, or that go more in depth into discussing the AK120 as a laptop/desktop DAC? Maybe someone can offer some comparisons, or be kind enough to rate the DAC by dollar value even compared to desktop DACs around 1000USD.  Thanks.
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 4:28 PM Post #3,266 of 7,071
Quote:
goodvibes said:
Congrats. I bet it's great. The brick factor is my biggest objection to doing so. Very personal consideration. I agree about the run in as well. It's a lot more even after a day. It also seems to 'warm up' over 15 min. or so.
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Thanks Goodvibes.  Sound is great, and I agree that the decision to use an external amp is a difficult one.  I will be posting more detail about the sonics and hopefully, that will help some people who are on the fence make the appropriate decision.  I appreciate you viewing the decision to mod the unit as a "very personal consideration".  I couldn't agree more and appreciate that many will NOT want to do it purely because they want to keep the unit functioning without external amplification.
 
Quote:
hifiguy528 said:
I have no interest in the mod.  I did not find the AK120 to have any issues with my Sony XBA-4 (8 Ohms).  The pairing sounds great.  
 
Modding the AK120 to pair with an amp defeats the purpose of this player.  It was designed to used as a single unit player, not as portable transport & DAC, not stacked on top of an amp.  Which turns it into an ugly brick of gear.  yuck!
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HiFiGuy:  I wonder if you can consider that modding the AK120 to pair with an amp defeats the purpose of this player....FOR YOU, because your priority is ultra portability.  Can you also consider that there might be others who place a higher priority on the sound and don't care if they need to carry an external amp with the modded AK120??    
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 4:51 PM Post #3,268 of 7,071
A question for lee730, as I know you have both AK120 and 8.A, how do you like the two of them together? How would you describe the fit between them? Believe that you have a more trained ear than me. Any thoughts? Any recommendation for a noob like me?

Thanks
 
Aug 17, 2013 at 4:57 PM Post #3,269 of 7,071
llloyd said:
Are there any reviews of the AK120 DAC section specifically, or that go more in depth into discussing the AK120 as a laptop/desktop DAC? Maybe someone can offer some comparisons, or be kind enough to rate the DAC by dollar value even compared to desktop DACs around 1000USD.  Thanks.
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yeah, a shootout between the dac sections of the ak120, dx100, and hm901 would be awesome
 
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