[spkrs01]

I have at last shipped off my AK120 for the S mod to Vinnie, yesterday

 
Great review harryb

 

[nashton]

Quote:

Very nice....
If only those outside Japan can get hold of it...

You can - whilst Van Nuys only ship/sell within Japan, but Sensui (in a much earlier message in this thread) turned us all on to Kolektakon, a buying service in Japan. I have used them and can confirm they are excellent. Visit http://proxy.kolektakon.com/

 

[burtomr]

Quote:

I'm currently trying to get my hands on some 1plus2's, LCD-3's, and SpiralEar 5's.  I'm trying not to change to many variables at once, including the balance in my bank account.

 
Good luck keeping your 'balance' with that list!  

 

[dj nellie]

One feature I'd like to suggest for the next firmware update:  Allow deletion of a song that is "Playing Now."  Rockbox allows this, I think by queuing the file for deletion once the song is over.  As it is, you have to choose another song, then find the song you want to delete in the Songs list.
 
This might not sound like a big deal, but for people like me that are constantly swapping in new songs and albums, the delete function is a key way to keep space available.

 

[harryb]

Quote:

I would rather wait for their new dap...if mentioned it, it means it will come out soon...what will it be...dual sabres and full balanced amp...forget about dx50 and x5...this is interesting. Not for my wallet though.

 
It's always hard to pull the trigger on audio equipment, and computers too.  As soon as you buy something, a new model will be announced.  I guess if we all waited and waited and didn't pull the trigger because a "newer" model will be coming out, we'd all still be using Commodore 64 computers.  When the AK200 is finally released, I'm sure there will be an AK500 in the works.  It will probably have an plug-in external disc drive that will be able to read and copy SACD.  

 

[AmberOzL]

Quote:

I would rather wait for their new dap...if mentioned it, it means it will come out soon...what will it be...dual sabres and full balanced amp...forget about dx50 and x5...this is interesting. Not for my wallet though.

I think it will be expensive enough to get your attention

 

[sensui123]

Quote:

You can - whilst Van Nuys only ship/sell within Japan, but Sensui (in a much earlier message in this thread) turned us all on to Kolektakon, a buying service in Japan. I have used them and can confirm they are excellent. Visit http://proxy.kolektakon.com/

 
Glad someone used his services as I do all the time when buying in Japan (recently Fitear Parterre bundle from yodobashi).  He is a good friend of mine for over 5 years and extremely trustworthy.  He's actually built quite a reputation now for his services and services a lot of enthusiasts for different hobbies ranging from collectables to fashion in Japan.  I just picked up a DX50 and will listen to that first and see how things go before deciding on the ak120 but if I were buying that case (I may, seems like the best option as of now), quite easy to contact Hiromi.

 

[Gintaras]

do i get it right, DX50 sells for 240-270$? gosh, this is cheap, damn cheap vs. ak120 or even ak100.... Tell me more pls

 

[AmberOzL]

Quote:

do i get it right, DX50 sells for 240-270$? gosh, this is cheap, damn cheap vs. ak120 or even ak100.... Tell me more pls

So far it is a very promising unit but nobody heard how it sounds. There is a great hype and I do believe it will kind of good price/performance device. Check the thread, it is moving on lightspeed now since iBasso released officially and started to take orders.

 

[Sam Edwards]

It's hard to imagine that a newer version would be that much better. I think we'd be getting deeply into diminishing returns.
It will be interesting.
Sam

 

[Gintaras]

Dx50 sounds too good to be true but Ibasso reputation is great so why not, after all priced insanely competitive close to Fiio x3 but Ibasso was always known as master of sound.

 

[DMinor]

Quote:

It's hard to imagine that a newer version would be that much better. I think we'd be getting deeply into diminishing returns.
It will be interesting.
Sam

 
The diminishing returns do not apply to placebo effect, in fact the opposite.

 

[alexberg]

harryb thanks for your review and sharing your experience with RWAK120S. It’s always nice to hear an opinion from someone who was into vinyl for a long time and I guess you still listen to your vinyl collection. By the way, did you rip any of the vinyl records to be played on AK120 and what codec and bit/sample rate did you use?

 

[harryb]

Quote:

harryb thanks for your review and sharing your experience with RWAK120S. It’s always nice to hear an opinion from someone who was into vinyl for a long time and I guess you still listen to your vinyl collection. By the way, did you rip any of the vinyl records to be played on AK120 and what codec and bit/sample rate did you use?

 
I haven't been listening to vinyl for quite a while although I still have lots of vinyl i would love to rip.  I gradually moved from vinyl to digital about 15 years ago and have been listening to almost entirely redbook CD and SACD during that time. Not sure exactly how or why that happened....just did.   My most recent project was to rip my CD collection, and I'm about to rip my SACD collection with a PS3 so everything will be on my NAS.  Once that's done, I may start thinking about ripping any vinyl content that i don't already have on CD or SACD.

 

[alexberg]

Thanks for reply! The reason I’m asking is because my entire music collection is on vinyl except of few CDs. Most probably I’ll be getting AK120 soon, mainly for listening during trips, flights etc.
Same time I’m thinking of archiving my vinyl collection and considering new Tascam DA3000 that can do recording at High Sampling Frequencies DSD 5,6 MHz and PCM up to 192 kHz. As far as I see AK120 can play PCM 192 kHz files without any issues.