[lee730]

Quote:

Absolutely HUMONGOUS! The album is 1.78gb. The bit rate is around 6mbps. Take Five is 241.7mb on its own. I've resampled it in 24/88.2 as not all my players handle above 96 sample rate and even that is 786mb. Only HD album I have in that sample rate. I'd run out of storage and download width if I got too many of these. Frankly, I can detect differences between 16/44 and 24/44 but I think I'd need something far mor sensitive than my ears to tell the difference to 24/96 and 24/192. I'm sure others can or claim they can but I reckon they'd have to A/B the tracks without listening to anything else to detect them. And then it would need to be blind testing.

Barring all that, Take Five is one of my most favorite albums and delighted to have it in my HD collection.

 
I agree with you at 24/96 and 24/192 it is harder to tell the difference. Although for me the dead give away is the sound staging in comparison. 24/192 generally has a more spacious sound stage with instruments having better distinction. This is more so apparent on well mastered recording/good rips.

 

[DICOM]

Thanks for the prompt reply spkrs01! Can you elaborate on what tweaks you feel need to be made? I'm currently running an unmodded AK100 into an ALO International, which is feeding a pair of TG334s via an ALO SXC 24 balanced cable.

 

[kkcc]

Quote:

Thanks for the prompt reply spkrs01! Can you elaborate on what tweaks you feel need to be made? I'm currently running an unmodded AK100 into an ALO International, which is feeding a pair of TG334s via an ALO SXC 24 balanced cable.

 
Yes DICOM, I heard his AK100-S and has to be quite disappointed at iriver's decision to put two 8740 instead of 8741 into the AK120.  With the 8741 the 100-S has noticeably larger soundstage, and with more blacks in-between notes.  Notes are delivered with more authority but yet sounded more refined.
 
However, if your preference is the very intimate and lush sound of the Internation + TG334, you may find its presentation more clinical than musical for your taste.   I also even venture to say Internation+TG334 may not do justice to the 100-S.  I'd much preferred the 71B or Intruder with the 1plus2 with the 100-S as their resolution would allow you reap the full benefit of the 100-S mod.

 

[spkrs01]

Thanks for the prompt reply spkrs01! Can you elaborate on what tweaks you feel need to be made? I'm currently running an unmodded AK100 into an ALO International, which is feeding a pair of TG334s via an ALO SXC 24 balanced cable.

Not much really! Just matching line level output to input with regards to voltage requirements. I think it is still too loud at 1Vrms so sending an amp, the RSA would be a good sample amp, that would allow Vinnie to dial it in perfect.....

 

[DICOM]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply kkcc. I'm headed to Chicago in August, so maybe I'll give Ray a call to start putting together a 71B, although the his as-yet unreleased F-35 Lightning sounds intriguing ...

 

[DICOM]

Thanks spkrs01. I may well send Vinnie all the pieces of my puzzle (i.e., source, amp, IEMs, and interconnects) if I choose to do the mod, as amp-matching will likely be critical.

 

[Jpfe8851]

I agree with you at 24/96 and 24/192 it is harder to tell the difference. Although for me the dead give away is the sound staging in comparison. 24/192 generally has a more spacious sound stage with instruments having better distinction. This is more so apparent on well mastered recording/good rips.

Precisely... Even for my bad hearing the soundstage at 24/192 was noticeable. And over 16 bit rips it is clear as night and day. Where I have some difficulty is hearing a noticeable difference between incremental bit rates. Which I think you are confirming.

 

[lee730]

Quote:

Precisely... Even for my bad hearing the soundstage at 24/192 was noticeable. And over 16 bit rips it is clear as night and day. Where I have some difficulty is hearing a noticeable difference between incremental bit rates. Which I think you are confirming.

 
Well John the biggest difference between 24/96 and 24/192 is actually the sound staging (at least for me . Not so much more over that (maybe some subtle nuances but not much more other than that).

 

[Gintaras]

Quote:

 
Yes DICOM, I heard his AK100-S and has to be quite disappointed at iriver's decision to put two 8740 instead of 8741 into the AK120.  With the 8741 the 100-S has noticeably larger soundstage, and with more blacks in-between notes.  Notes are delivered with more authority but yet sounded more refined.
 
However, if your preference is the very intimate and lush sound of the Internation + TG334, you may find its presentation more clinical than musical for your taste.   I also even venture to say Internation+TG334 may not do justice to the 100-S.  I'd much preferred the 71B or Intruder with the 1plus2 with the 100-S as their resolution would allow you reap the full benefit of the 100-S mod.

that what i wanted to hear. thanks mate
100-S is on my list now, i am so happy i did not care for AK120.

 

[Gintaras]

Quote:

I have the AK100S and it is a very very good sounding source! There needs to be a few tweaks yet I feel.

To take one for the boys here, I will be:-

-sending my AK100S back
-sending my Gold AK100 to be modded
-sending my RSA 71B
-sending a pair of either ToGo! 334 or 1plus2

tomorrow to Vinnie so he can fine tune the mod for portable amps.

kkcc heard my AK100S briefly Friday with the 71B and I think he concurs that it is quite a big step up!!

Gavin, you are our helper mate :-D
 
love your conclusion, sounds inspiring to me.

 

[Mimouille]

Quote:

 
Yes DICOM, I heard his AK100-S and has to be quite disappointed at iriver's decision to put two 8740 instead of 8741 into the AK120.  With the 8741 the 100-S has noticeably larger soundstage, and with more blacks in-between notes.  Notes are delivered with more authority but yet sounded more refined.
 
However, if your preference is the very intimate and lush sound of the Internation + TG334, you may find its presentation more clinical than musical for your taste.   I also even venture to say Internation+TG334 may not do justice to the 100-S.  I'd much preferred the 71B or Intruder with the 1plus2 with the 100-S as their resolution would allow you reap the full benefit of the 100-S mod.

I am by no means an AK120 fanboy, but in all fairness, the comparison is not balanced, because the AK100s needs to be amped, so you have a stack and not an all in one solution no ? Besides, I does would the 8741 not use up the battery much faster ? So I imagine an AK120 with dual 8741 would have a short battery life...
 
Finally, the warm and lush presentation on the AK120 is very dependent on firmware from what I understand. I thought the modded AK100 really sucked before Listrid (total lack of fullness and weight) and the firmware changed the sound totally. So I think evolutions to the firmware may quite change the sound sig.

 

[kkcc]

I am by no means an AK120 fanboy, but in all fairness, the comparison is not balanced, because the AK100s needs to be amped, so you have a stack and not an all in one solution no ? Besides, I does would the 8741 not use up the battery much faster ? So I imagine an AK120 with dual 8741 would have a short battery life...

Finally, the warm and lush presentation on the AK120 is very dependent on firmware from what I understand. I thought the modded AK100 really sucked before Listrid (total lack of fullness and weight) and the firmware changed the sound totally. So I think evolutions to the firmware may quite change the sound sig.

M, the 120 v 100-S comments or comparison are referring when both amped. Gavin and I are of the opinion when both amped, 100-s is a more resolving source. Based on this I would reasonably expect an ak120 with 1 8741 may sound better than the Dual 8740, which I understand would be easily to market and command the price and retain the batt life....

Also the warmth comment is not 're AK120 but 're DICOM's preference on international+334...

.Cheers!

 

[musicheaven]

Looking for sq in different dac arrangements, the dual is always preferred over single so I would expect the following order to be going from best to worse (amp out of the equation):
Dual WM8741
Dual WM8740
Single WM8741
Single WM8740

I am only talking about using the base functionality, the 8741 has more functions which could change the balance even used in single mode.

As many observers have found, the implementation is also extremely important, for example an implementer can use external filtering instead of the internal dac filtering function.

As far as battery life and portability, the 8740 in single and dual is the preferred DAC.

Knowing the power requirement of those two ICs the only way to extend battery life is with a more powerful battery which will invariably make the portable bigger and heavier, unless somehow battery technology changes.

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

Quote:

Thank you for the thoughtful reply kkcc. I'm headed to Chicago in August, so maybe I'll give Ray a call to start putting together a 71B, although the his as-yet unreleased F-35 Lightning sounds intriguing ...

 
+1
 
The AK100/Lightning combo seems like a match made in heaven.   And the S mod would kick it up even more so...

 

[seeteeyou]

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