[daseinpdx]

One could fly to the US for a long weekend and pick up a A&K 240 for the difference in price to the UK retail price!

Have a great short break weekend's holiday, and come back with a shiny new player for the same cost, no brainer really!!!

Either that, or just get someone to bring you one back who's in the US and heading to the UK, as I did with my Fostex TH600 headphones and save yourself a heap of money...

 
As far as i know, not available yet in US.  Would have to wait to take that long weekend!

 

[Steph86]

Hi all,
 
The following play list formats are supported by the AK240:
 
M3U : “audio/x-mpegurl”
M3U : “application/x-mpegurl”
PLS : “audio/x-scpls”
WPL : “application/x-scpls”
 
 
 
 

 

[Gintaras]

 
I am gonna get bashed with some harsh words for saying this here but this is just one unimportant person's opinion.  I feel X5 has fuller body and better authority over AK240. I just got no synergy from pairing with my Paterre (Pekingduck had better synergy with his CIEM, he can chimp in)...my demo tracks were all instrumental jazz and classical... I feel X5 is more revealing... I did crank up the vol up of AK240 and felt the voice is still struggling... My preference in sound is big and full body like you can hear/see the texture. I demo using single-ended and maybe balance out is better but I dont know. It is AK house sound, you like it or you dont..
 
Hugo on the other hand looks and sounds like it is from out of the world..airy, hifi and heavenly sound..

 
now you know what makes a proper high-end so much better? i never believed that ak240 with all its gimmicks can attain Chord or similar, and seeing opinions i receive good confirmation to this.
Chord is hell of a company and one is unique but expensive one too. i myself get intrigued by Hugo, want to hear it but cannot find a delaer here.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

   
now you know what makes a proper high-end so much better? i never believed that ak240 with all its gimmicks can attain Chord or similar, and seeing opinions i receive good confirmation to this.
Chord is hell of a company and one is unique but expensive one too. i myself get intrigued by Hugo, want to hear it but cannot find a delaer here.

I hope you find demo soon. Again, it is just my personal feeling.. I am not analytical, I like what I like.. After all, it is personal audio hobby.
 
We need to have comparison like below:
 
1. AK240 line out to high end headphone amp
 
v.s.
 
2. AK100 toslink/X5 coaxial to Hugo to same high end headphone amp
 
 
v.s.
 
3. RWAK120-s line out to same headphone amp
 
We can then find out who is portable DAC king.

 

[achl354]

 
I hope you find demo soon. Again, it is just my personal feeling.. I am not analytical, I like what I like.. After all, it is personal audio hobby.
 
We need to have comparison like below:
 
1. AK240 line out to high end headphone amp
 
v.s.
 
2. AK100 toslink/X5 coaxial to Hugo to same high end headphone amp
 
 
v.s.
 
3. RWAK120-s line out to same headphone amp
 
We can then find out who is portable DAC king.

personally i feel carryingg the X5 + Hugo + amp way to heavy  (or any other triple stack combos)
 
unless u are sitting stationary in a quiet environment, the benefit of carrying so much gear; which might be that additional detailing, soundstage, etc is likely to be less noticeable when you are constantly moving around or in a noisy train/car

 

[CraftyClown]

Hugo is DAC + AMP no? Therefore only source and hugo, so not as bad as a triple stack

 

[harmonix]

personally i feel carryingg the X5 + Hugo + amp way to heavy  (or any other triple stack combos)

unless u are sitting stationary in a quiet environment, the benefit of carrying so much gear; which might be that additional detailing, soundstage, etc is likely to be less noticeable when you are constantly moving around or in a noisy train/car

Question folks - can Ak240/120 output DSD over PCM? Just hit me that Dop 1.1 is implemented via USB 2.0 and probably means toslink cannot output DSD ? looking for a bigger capacity server than my iPhone 64gb which has other stuff on it but I want to play DSD files native!!

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

personally i feel carryingg the X5 + Hugo + amp way to heavy  (or any other triple stack combos)

unless u are sitting stationary in a quiet environment, the benefit of carrying so much gear; which might be that additional detailing, soundstage, etc is likely to be less noticeable when you are constantly moving around or in a noisy train/car

It was just an imaginary shoot out as all three have TOTL DAC feature with analog line out. If we remain the amp as constant, which one produces the best sound?

On the practical side, Hugo is not easy to walk around with. Its ideal for long travel or hotel.

 

[DrSheep]

Question folks - can Ak240/120 output DSD over PCM? Just hit me that Dop 1.1 is implemented via USB 2.0 and probably means toslink cannot output DSD ? looking for a bigger capacity server than my iPhone 64gb which has other stuff on it but I want to play DSD files native!!

Not true, as I can listen to DSDs from my AK120 to CEntrance M8 LX via TOSLINK without problems, and the M8 has no DSD support.  So the AK120, and should be for the 240, will convert DSDs in to PCM for the optical out.

 

[harmonix]

  Not true, as I can listen to DSDs from my AK120 to CEntrance M8 LX via TOSLINK without problems, and the M8 has no DSD support.  So the AK120, and should be for the 240, will convert DSDs in to PCM for the optical out.

Ok thanks that answers my question - which is no.
 
DSD over PCM means the DoP 1.1 standard which DSD files stream over PCM frames with the appropriate protocol to decode it on the other end by a DSD capable DAC. I think this is unique to USB 2.0 implementation which is why I asked whether there was native DSD stream over toslink... 

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

  Ok thanks that answers my question - which is no.
 
DSD over PCM means the DoP 1.1 standard which DSD files stream over PCM frames with the appropriate protocol to decode it on the other end by a DSD capable DAC. I think this is unique to USB 2.0 implementation which is why I asked whether there was native DSD stream over toslink... 

just out of curiosity, has any other company implemented DoP1.1 over toslink yet?

 

[pekingduck]

  Ok thanks that answers my question - which is no.
 
DSD over PCM means the DoP 1.1 standard which DSD files stream over PCM frames with the appropriate protocol to decode it on the other end by a DSD capable DAC. I think this is unique to USB 2.0 implementation which is why I asked whether there was native DSD stream over toslink... 

I believe the Concero HD and the Benchmark DAC2 can output or accept DoP over SPDIF but of course they aren't DAP..

 

[harmonix]

 
just out of curiosity, has any other company implemented DoP1.1 over toslink yet?

Cosmic if there is it probably won't be DoP 1.1 which is unique to USB and was a way of "wrapping" DSD file transmission into a PCM protocol (DSD64 ~ PCM 16/176.4 bit wise) by embedding some unique markers to flag this to the DSD DAC on the other side to recognize DOP. Thought native DSD over coax exists but no idea on TOSLINK although it should be possible conceptually speaking (though I'm not sure TOSLINK can handle DSD128 ~ PCM 16/352.8 because of transfer rate)...

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

  Cosmic if there is it probably won't be DoP 1.1 which is unique to USB and was a way of "wrapping" DSD file transmission into a PCM protocol (DSD64 ~ PCM 16/176.4 bit wise) by embedding some unique markers to flag this to the DSD DAC on the other side to recognize DOP. Thought native DSD over coax exists but no idea on TOSLINK although it should be possible conceptually speaking (though I'm not sure TOSLINK can handle DSD128 ~ PCM 16/352.8 because of transfer rate)...

Thanks, harmonix...
 
Now it makes me wonder why iriver chose tosklink as digital out instead of coaxial...

 

[seeteeyou]

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