[LuckyNat]

I still want to buy AK240. AK240 is 5 years old now.. but its price is still minimum $850.
When can I buy AK240 for $300?
A $2,000 flagship laptop that came out 5 years ago now sells for $250 on Ebay..

That is to miunderstand markets and human nature. Depreciation is not a simple mathematical formula to do with age. Audio technology also doesn't advance in sound quality in the same way as required processing power - it's subjective (the human nature part ).

There's a massive market in highly priced second-hand audio equipment out there - Luxury CD players and cassette decks and even FM tuners fetching thousands, despite their techonology and SQ technical specs being surpassed long long ago...

Don't forget that the AK380 is still available new from AK.. so in a sense, it's still a current model.

https://us.astellnkern.com/collections/closeouts/products/ak380?variant=17574077379

Any secondhand price will reflect that.

 

[udesign48]

Well, I don't fully agree.
Pono Player now sells for $100 brand new on Ebay.
I'll wait until used AK240s price drop.

 

[LuckyNat]

Pono is great - I have one.

But it was panned by so many when it came out. Many people hate the design and wont even listen to it either. And so there's not much demand for them secondhand. And anyway, they didn't cost much when new!

Meanwhile, because the AK range is mostly crazily expensive, it becomes desirable in people's minds - the cost, the luxury is part of buying one. And so people are always willing to pay more. However, that depends on the cost of newer models.

If sound quality is what you're after, I'd get the Pono.. It sounds better in some ways than the AK120 MkII which has the same output chain as the AK240 (DACs and amp).

 

[udesign48]

I have Pono player and Sony's dual 3.5mm balanced MMCX cable. Pono player's balanced output is great... but Pono's hardware and software are terrible.

Pono players heats up if you put it inside your pocket while playing music. I found out this is the case for all Pono player...
Also, its plastic case isn't that good for daily use. You'll want to carry it in your hands rather than in your pocket.
Its software is too slow for reading micro SD cards and transferring music files.

I admit its balanced output sounds really great but nonetheless it has so many problems. I use Sony ZX1 as my daily driver. ZX1 sounds worse than Pono balanced output but it's more compact and portable.

 

[LuckyNat]

I sympathise with that but for me it's not a problem and tend to hold DAPs in my hand anyway. My phone too when listening to music. I want to be able to stop or mute it straight away because taking out iems is too much of a problem when you need to hear what's going on around you.

 

[udesign48]

For me, the biggest problem of Pono is its slow software.. Pono OS is too buggy.

ZX1's 3.5mm single ended output has 70% clarity and detail of Pono's dual 3.5mm balanced output. But ZX1's android UI is way better... making it more suitable for daily use.

 

[LuckyNat]

You mean on the player itself? It is slow at updating and checking music yes.. Perhaps it would be much worse if I put much more music on. The PC software I left behind a good while ago.

 

[udesign48]

Yes.. so I paid a very fair price for Pono ($100). It doesn't worth $399. I think it worth max $75 maybe.

I paid only $110 for Luxury and Precision L5 because the unit is five years old.

 

[ehjie]

"No" ? There is no such thing as absolute fact when it comes to subjective opinion.

So, it may be your *opinion* that the AK240 sounds better than the AK320 but the logic doesnt hold up fo it being any kind of absolute truth when other opinions are considered. My AK320 sounds more detailed and less vieled than the 120MKII (which, to reitterate, has the same audio architecture of the AK240).

... When we auditioned the 320 & then later 240 from early last year, we used the W80 & the 846. Most probably, u were using a better IEM than what we had at the moment. But the most analytical, clear and raw sounding among the 3 is the 240. Raw, i mean not forgiving in recordings of albums. Soundstage is wider on the 240 compared to 320. The best of the 3 is of course the 380 before the SP1000 came out...

 

[LuckyNat]

Yes.. so I paid a very fair price for Pono ($100). It doesn't worth $399. I think it worth max $75 maybe.

I paid only $110 for Luxury and Precision L5 because the unit is five years old.

But some people will pay $1000 to upgrade their iems to a new model for the tiniest bit of sound quality difference... In that context I don't think you can give the Pono a judged value - it becomes meaningless. It simply costs what it costs due to all sorts of other factors and price doesn't reflect something's value.. If you've lots of money and want to try one then you're not going to bother looking for the best price, you'll just buy one at full price and not care. On top of everything else, how much one is willing to pay is a personal one . Until perhaps recently (apple wireless earbuds , noise-cancelling things etc seemed to have been marketted well enough to catch people's attention) I don't think many people I know would justify paying £100 on any part of their personal audio equipment - they'd think that much was crazy.

 

[udesign48]

Patience is the key. Patiently wait... you'll be able to buy AK240 for $240 a few years later.

 

[burtomr]

Patience is the key. Patiently wait... you'll be able to buy AK240 for $240 a few years later.

Sure it will. And just think...a few years after that I will actually pay you $240 to take my AK240 off my hands since it will be totally worthless!

 

[indra040293]

Patience is the key. Patiently wait... you'll be able to buy AK240 for $240 a few years later.

Sure, maybe after the device is old enough to be broken with a slight trigger

 

[LuckyNat]

Patience is the key. Patiently wait... you'll be able to buy AK240 for $240 a few years later.

I've tried that kind of thing.... the hype of a model 3 generations newer pulls you in and you reject the old, now cheap model like everyone else (why it becomes worthless). Support disappears too so suddenly Tidal or whatever no-longer works on your old model - essentially you loose features. Much like an older iPad - works perfectly well for all apps on it, but you can no-longer update the OS and use newer apps that now need the new OS. Sadly that's how things are with tech and 3rd party services.

If you don't need any of that, then it's cool and you can get things cheaper, treat it much like classic hifi.

 

[gazzington]

If you don't intend to stream though, then the ak240 and ak380 must be seen as great purchases.