[MaJoMax]

 

Lol I use my desktop dac/amp to drive my HD800 and LCD3... really no point to use a portable source to drive these open headphones.  More so for the HD800, Hifi-M8 is still far (EDIT: more) from adequate to do justice for these flagships. 

 

[ComradeDylie]

  That's what I was thinking as well but I've seen a few posts questioning the amp power in the AK240 to drive some headphones. I would imagine most IEMs will be fine but how does one approach driving headphones such as the TH-900, HD800, LCD-3, etc?

Pretty much anything can drive a TH-900, thats its special niche. 
 
I bet the AK240 would pretty much be the end all be all for the TH-900 (especially if you get it wired for that balanced 2.5mm plug).
 
Moreover, of the flagships you listed, the TH-900 is the only closed headphone.  Since the AK240 is king of portability it wouldnt really make sense to pair it with an open phone.  Unless you are a complete jerk that likes to walk around blaring music for all to hear (see: people playing ringtones non-stop circa 2004)

 

[Bluebear]

Pretty much anything can drive a TH-900, thats its special niche. 

I bet the AK240 would pretty much be the end all be all for the TH-900 (especially if you get it wired for that balanced 2.5mm plug).

Moreover, of the flagships you listed, the TH-900 is the only closed headphone.  Since the AK240 is king of portability it wouldnt really make sense to pair it with an open phone.  Unless you are a complete jerk that likes to walk around blaring music for all to hear (see: people playing ringtones non-stop circa 2004)

The cable of TH-900 is non-removable right? How do we rewire it for balanced output? Is there some kind of mod for that?

 

[jamato8]

I would never wire to the 2.5 TRRS but would go to an adapter. I wire all my phones to Hirose and then can use a female on any fitting I want, TRRS to Hirose, Single ended TRS to Hirose and on and on. You could use the wire already used for the TH900 and have it reterminated. I chose to go with Whiplash gold plated silver in 8 braid for a noticeable improvement over the stock cable. 

 

[ComradeDylie]

The cable of TH-900 is non-removable right? How do we rewire it for balanced output? Is there some kind of mod for that?

You can ask moon audio, double helix, etc and they will rewire the internals. I agree that 2.5 mm trrs would be a little strange in that it wouldnt really fit anything else. But hey if all you have is a th-900 and an ak240 why would you want to connect to anything else? You would just want the most convenient streamlined way to get balanced audio into your th900s from your ak240. (Unless you go to meets, or sample and swap gear a lot) if you also have a desktop rig or another set of phones with removable cable like lcd 3 then it would make more sense to have it recabled to mXLRs like the lcd 3s have and you could swap cables between the two.

 

[AnakChan]

  I have asked Centrance the same question about the dac comparing between the M8 and AK100/120/240,  and got the difference answer from the head engineer of Centrance.
 
I was told:  ''the dac on HiFi-M8 is believed to be more competent compare to the dac on AK240 ( better than the one AK100/AK120 ), dual dacs doesn't really mean "better'', balance output is the key though''
 
However, Native DSD playback is a very good function indeed.

 
I think equal amount of focus on how the DAC is implemented is also relevant, not just what DAC is used. I can say that with the CS4398 implementation in the Marantz DV9300 & DV9500 SACD players, I was never really impressed with it. However in reading reviews of the AK240 it sounds like a different DAC altogether. So how the DACs are implemented is probably just as relevant.

 

[daseinpdx]

Someone was asking about whether the 10,000+ song problem with previous AK products has been solved with the 240.  Unfortunately, after loading all my music from 100 to the 240, there does not seem to be definite way to answer that question.   The scanning seems to go on in the background.   However, the good news is I have not noticed any missing music so far.
 
I will post an update if I notice any issues.

 

[Steph86]

  Someone was asking about whether the 10,000+ song problem with previous AK products has been solved with the 240.  Unfortunately, after loading all my music from 100 to the 240, there does not seem to be definite way to answer that question.   The scanning seems to go on in the background.   However, the good news is I have not noticed any missing music so far.
 
I will post an update if I notice any issues.

Hi
 
I can confirm there is no limit for library scan on the AK240:
There is 10k tracks limitation in one page however, for example if you go to “All music”, it can list a maximum of 10k.
But there is no limitation for library scanning. That means if you put 20k tracks in the internal and external memory, it can sort all of them and list each by Albums, Artists Genre etc
 

 

[Saraguie]

  Someone was asking about whether the 10,000+ song problem with previous AK products has been solved with the 240.  Unfortunately, after loading all my music from 100 to the 240, there does not seem to be definite way to answer that question.   The scanning seems to go on in the background.   However, the good news is I have not noticed any missing music so far.
 
I will post an update if I notice any issues.

 
It was I

  Hi
 
I can confirm there is no limit for library scan on the AK240:
There is 10k tracks limitation in one page however, for example if you go to “All music”, it can list a maximum of 10k.
But there is no limitation for library scanning. That means if you put 20k tracks in the internal and external memory, it can sort all of them and list each by Albums, Artists Genre etc
 

 
Thank you for the answer Steph. Care to share how your sales of the AK240 are going? Not exact numbers, but are you sold out of your fist allocation? If so, approx. waiting time?
As a businessman myself, seeing your the UK/FR distributor for as good a product as A&K produces AND APPLE WOW!, I can say it is good to be you 

 

 

[Steph86]

   
It was I
 
Thank you for the answer Steph. Care to share how your sales of the AK240 are going? Not exact numbers, but are you sold out of your fist allocation? If so, approx. waiting time?
As a businessman myself, seeing your the UK/FR distributor for as good a product as A&K produces AND APPLE WOW!, I can say it is good to be you 

 

Hi,
 
Unfortunately I can't get the stock quick enough... i'm already on my 4th delivery of the AK240s which sold out today. I have so many back orders - as soon as the stock arrives they allocate from our DC and ship out the same day. I already have quite a few dealers on back order again... more stock should hopefully be here in the next 1-2 weeks, but due to the very high demand in China, Japan and USA supply is limited at the moment.
 
Regards
Steph 

 

[Papiro2]

  Hi,
 
Unfortunately I can't get the stock quick enough... i'm already on my 4th delivery of the AK240s which sold out today. I have so many back orders - as soon as the stock arrives they allocate from our DC and ship out the same day. I already have quite a few dealers on back order again... more stock should hopefully be here in the next 1-2 weeks, but due to the very high demand in China, Japan and USA supply is limited at the moment.
 
Regards
Steph 

 
Would you mind sharing the approximate volume of sales in Europe?
Just curious...

 

[Saraguie]

  Hi,
 
Unfortunately I can't get the stock quick enough... i'm already on my 4th delivery of the AK240s which sold out today. I have so many back orders - as soon as the stock arrives they allocate from our DC and ship out the same day. I already have quite a few dealers on back order again... more stock should hopefully be here in the next 1-2 weeks, but due to the very high demand in China, Japan and USA supply is limited at the moment.
 
Regards
Steph 

Well, if you need a business partner based in Hawaii (great write off to come have meetings I am recently a pensioner and need the next opportunity. I just sold my 33 year old sucessful business I built from the ground up. I am too young to retire. (I say tongue in cheek about the partner part.) I was in a very passionate, discretionary income, product type industry and was in the top 15% in the USA. Ok, sorry got OT.
 
Anyway Steph Aloha!

 

[Zagfan]

You can buy it now at Crutchfield with a 60 day money back guarantee.

 

[JACONE]

So I went to the local Hi Fi store to check out the AK 240.
 
Below is my first impression:
 
Headphones used - JH 16s Freq.
 
Build Quality = Very solid and comfortable to hold. The case is a nice touch.
It was actually smaller than I expected. The volume control felt very smooth and precise
 
Screen quality = Looked very sharp
 
UI = It's nicely implemented and very intuitive. It felt very snappy. 
(note: After a few minutes it started to jump around to different screens and had to re-boot.
 
SQ = To my ears, it sounds a little bit better from a soundstage perspective than my AK 120 when playing 24 bit files.  However, as others have noted, when playing DSD files, 
it's substantially better than the AK 120 due to DSD being native.
 
Streaming feature = It sounds like a nice feature but didn't try it out.
 
Observation = When playing DSD files it got pretty warm (took case off to appreciate build quality before started playing music).
 
 
Conclusion - Definitely a step up from the AK 120 in every aspect. Are the improvements worth double the price of the AK 120? To me personally it would be no but only you can decide for yourself. The AK 120 provides 80% of what the AK 240 provides for 1/2 the price.

 

[Papiro2]

  So I went to the local Hi Fi store to check out the AK 240.
 
Below is my first impression:
 
Headphones used - JH 16s Freq.
 
Build Quality = Very solid and comfortable to hold. The case is a nice touch.
It was actually smaller than I expected. The volume control felt very smooth and precise
 
Screen quality = Looked very sharp
 
UI = It's nicely implemented and very intuitive. It felt very snappy. 
(note: After a few minutes it started to jump around to different screens and had to re-boot.
 
SQ = To my ears, it sounds a little bit better from a soundstage perspective than my AK 120 when playing 24 bit files.  However, as others have noted, when playing DSD files, 
it's substantially better than the AK 120 due to DSD being native.
 
Streaming feature = It sounds like a nice feature but didn't try it out.
 
Observation = When playing DSD files it got pretty warm (took case off to appreciate build quality before started playing music).
 
 
Conclusion - Definitely a step up from the AK 120 in every aspect. Are the improvements worth double the price of the AK 120? To me personally it would be no but only you can decide for yourself. The AK 120 provides 80% of what the AK 240 provides for 1/2 the price.

Very interesting feedback, thank you. I wonder then, were will the AK240 stand against the RWAK, based on your comments. I hope someone can provide us with that comparison. Thanks.