Up today from me is the brilliant Astell&Kern AKT8iE mkii earphone. In the three short weeks I've had it in office, it has become my favourite single-driver earphone of all time.
Check it out: Review: Astell&Kern AKT8iE mkii – Age of Consent
Under Ryuzoh's mod knife: my Plenue D and AK100 mkii
In Ryuzoh’s clutches are a Plenue D and an AK100 mkii, mine both. The latter is scheduled to return by 22 May along with my newly-balanced Chord Mojo. The former- well, that depends.
Read moreAstell & Kern's wholesome AK300
Apology and RMAA comparison: MS-AK100, AK Jr, AK380
I don’t swear a lot. But when I do, I swear hard. Like when I swore the following in my review of the MS-AK100:
Read moreMusashi Sound Technology's AK240 mod: AK240 R
Now that the AK380 is out and the AK480 is on the horizon, the question on many people's mind is: is it worth upgrading my AK240? After all, the AK380 is defined by Astell&Kern's own maladroit marketing department as the evolution of a masterpiece (and that masterpiece itself being an end-game prodcut). If advertising copy were the measure of performance, the AK240, Be[ing] The Ultimate, couldn't be bested.
Read moreRumour: the mighty Astell & Kern AK480
Disclaimer: ohm image generally doesn't host rumours, but with a scoop this big, and this mofo is BIG, ohm makes a jump. I was approached by an anonymous source deeply familiar with, or employed by, Astell & Kern.
That the recently announced AK380 doesn't feature Ultimate in its copy was the first hint that it wasn't their top model. That was the first clue that something else was coming. Last year, Head-fi fooled everyone with a mockup of an AK480 on 1 April.
Read moreCymbacavum: Jerry Harvey Layla VS Ultimate Ears UERM
Shotgunshane's rapid reaction to Astell&Kern X Jerry Harvey's universal Layla earphone runs hot with expressions such as: insanity!, absolutely huge, and coherency. Shot is reasonably impressed. But there are a couple of hitches, one being the earphone's enormous size, another being bass tuner ergonomics. The final, and 2500$ crux is this:
“However, if Layla‘s bass was very good and treble simply fantastic, then I’d have to label the midrange as somewhat disappointing. I found the Layla midrange to be oddly veiled and honky. I joked with my friend that it was like Myles Kennedy was singing through a toilet paper roll. Here, I found the UERM to handily outperform the Layla in both transparency and midrange resolution. I did find a sizable dip around 1.5 kHz and I’m betting this may be contributing to my perception of slight veil.”
Overall, Shot gives the clarity and overall performance edge to the UERM, which goes for quite a bit less.
And if that's what Jerry Harvey's team were going for (and if Shot's impressions mete out reality), then good on 'em. If not, this earphone may be quite the polariser.
And nothing would be more siren than that.
For more information about Layla universal, head to Astell&Kern's Layla page.
No, Tyll, the AK240 isn't revolutionary
The AK240 is a great-sounding player. It is an expensive player. Inner Fidelity's Tyll thinks it is revolutionary. Its price certainly is.
Read moreMezzo HiFi's MS-AK100 and MS-AK120 mods
Fore: MS-AK120; aft: MS-AK100
Long-time readers will know that I disapprove of iRiver's handling of the AK series. The AK100, which has been on the market for just over a year and a half, feels old. In Japan, pristine models are selling used for anywhere from 23.000¥ to 35.000¥, which is 40% - 55% off MSRP. (By contrast, a used iPod of the same vintage sells used 75-85% of its new price.)
Read moreAK DAP Mini Shootout: Why subjective volume matching is a waste of time
Four days ago, headfi moderator, warrenpchi, published the beginning of what looks to be a legendary Astell & Kern shootout in the already legendary AK120/100ii thread. He went to great lengths to volume match each device by ear.
Yes, by ear.
“This actually took MUCH longer than I anticipated. It seems simple, but you’d be amazed how long it can take to subjectively match levels between five devices using 6 different tracks of varying genres and file qualities.
I began by going through all of the test tracks above to find a comfortable volume level on the AK120 - the device that I am most familiar with. It had to be loud enough that I felt confident in hearing the most intricate of details, but not loud enough that I would be subjected to too much discomfort.”
Warren, it IS simple. Calibrate each device to a single, pre-recorded frequency-neutral tone. Use a split cable, not your ears. And by all means, don't bring out a bunch of songs to do it.
Matching volumes by ear is cognitive dissonance. Not only is it not possible, it is wasteful of effort, time, and, when published, wasteful of headfi bandwidth. At worst, it is deceptive.
Myriad problems ensue even when matching via line outputs. The most insidious is current variability between devices, which can render differences in volume between tracks normalised to the same mean volume levels.
Why? When not fed ample enough current, headphones will return various anomalies, including the loss of contrast, and sound pressure in certain frequencies, all of which affect perceived volume levels.
Hire the best ears in the world. Give them the rest of their lives to match volumes. They will fail. It is neither possible - nor an expedient use of someone's life. It is far quicker and accurate to simply split the output between a single pair of earphones and a sound card. Match the volumes against a frequency-neutral calibration signal. Voila!
Subsequent volume differences indicate output defaults. They cannot be normalised across devices. I won't even get into the problems of various stimuli that trick the ear to thinking it hears one thing when it hears another.
I wish you luck Warren, but your test has already begun on the wrong foot.
Source: Mini Astell&Kern DAP Shoot-Out