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The Alien and the iPod shuffle
For years I've had a hankering for a screen-less audio player that was small, friendly, and sounded great. Something that could replace, or complement, my original iPod shuffle.
Finding one has proven impossible. In 2006, Apple ruined the shuffle series. The 2nd generation shuffle sounded poor, hissed more than the first generation, and frequently got lost in the wash or broke its clip. Worse yet, it required a cable.
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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 moreFore: 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.)
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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
The Leica M (model 240) looks nothing like the Astell & Kern AK240, and it appears to lack optical output, not to mention support for DSD audio files. No matter. There must be a connection somewhere. I'm doing my damndest to suss it.
My gadget is smaller than yours, big boy. It's true. And that is only one of the reasons I love the original iPod shuffle. I swear, there are dozens of audiophile reasons, too; but I ain't listing them here. You can find a few of them at Headfonia:
Back to the Future Friday: the original Apple iPod shuffle (512)
In its 1,5 years at market, the AK100 has been replaced/updated thrice. So, too, has its younger sibling, the AK120 (once called the Ultimate Joy of Music). Now there's the AK240 (which bears the dubious: BE THE ULTIMATE tag). If Astell&Kern had a porn name, it would be Prejack Luvpump. Its signature move would be ejaculating every time the word 'sex' was mentioned. Somehow that sticky icky appeals to Mono and Stereo.
“The AK100 II and AK120 II replace the Wolfson WM8740 DAC with the Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chipset found in the flagship AK240. The AK100 II features a single DAC chipset like its predecessor, while the AK120 steps up to two (2) DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) that output audio signals independently to each channel, making the AK120 II a true dual mono (dual monaural) setup like those found in expensive hi-fi equipment. The dual Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chips found in the AK120 II dedicates each DAC chip to a completely separate left and right channel. In result, the AK120 II provides far superior depth, clarity, and spaciousness to the audio. By providing a much clearer sound with lower distortion, the AK120 II truly replicates how the original music was recorded. ”
Maybe I just don't get it. Or maybe, my hopes for luxury goods are higher, and clearer than iRiver's.
Luxury is a category established by superiority in service or product quality. It is punctuated by follow through, by grace, by snob appeal, and almost always, by lucid, intelligible copy. It is not established by escalating prices. It is not established by products or services whose relevance expires within a season, or whose copy contradicts itself. It is not established by Google translate and primary school editors.
Willy-nilly upgrades are the marks of indecisiveness; and indecisiveness is a mark of the cheap, of the mundane, of the mass market. It is a mark of the sticky-sheets adolescent who still chews his pronouns.
The much-delayed, and rather impressive HiFiman HM901 receives good coverage over at Headfonics.
“Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was the HE6 and the HM-901. I am usually quite skeptical when it comes to anything other than Class A min of 5 watts per channel and preferably balanced and true enough the HM-901 doesn’t drive as authoratively as the Mjolnir or the EF6 but what it did seem to manage to do was to give me a competent level of volume control between 7 and 8 without clipping or sounding overly thin or tinny and definitely not sharp. Outside of the DX100 I think on experience this is probably the only DAP I could recommend at this price point to pair with the HE6 and even then I much prefer the more natural tonality the HM-901 with the balanced amp card over the DX100.”
While not boasting the same level of build and attention to detail as its Astell&Kern counterparts, the HM901 looks to be a solid contender for most-reaching all-in-one digital audio player.
Read the full review here.
Headfi's got the scoop on the first portable player that you won't be able to buy with the funds from the sale of a 2013 VW Passat.
;)
Not enough of the media attention sucked up by Neil Young's Pono portable music player and music service is about the qualitative improvements the player boasts over other players.
Ayre, the company engineering the Pono, released a white paper illustrating how their digital filters outperform the filters used in "99+% of all modern digital equipment" through, essentially, the elimination of digital pre and post ring. If Ayre's minimum phase digital filters do make it into Pono, Neil's player will have a real, audible leg up on the competition.
Ayre MP White Paper (PDF)
Thanks @Cymbacavum
Tsukuba, Japan