Astell&Kern AK120 MP3/MP4 Players and Recorders (MP3 Player, 64 GB, LED, 3.5 mm, 143 g, Black)

NICE DESIGN, GREAT SOUND BUT CAN NOT PERFORM THE SOFTWARE UPGRADE ON A MAC COMPUTER.

Been a hifi enthusiast all my life. My first purchase, once I had a job (in the 60s) was a Truvox R102 stereo tape recorder. Was as big as a school desk. Been grieving over the breakdown of my pocket sized Sony DAT machine for some years now - and apart from spending silly money on an audiophile quality lounge system, I'd been becoming grudgingly OK with the idea that iPods and iPhones were the best I could do for portable hifi. (and they ARE pretty good with good cans and a separate headphone amp).And then I came across reviews of this little beauty. In UK, across world, enthusiasts were suggesting THIS was the dog's . . . er . . . bees knees. On the back of them, I saved up, tried to find a place which demo'd them, in the end had to rely on Good Old Amazon, knowing their return policy would save me if I really didn't like the product.Well, no chance of that. From opening the delivered package (what a beautiful box it comes in !) to seeing and feeling the sheer build quality - just blew me away. Not an ounce of plastic anywhere. Yes, true, the on-board display screen is not as clear or responsive as Apple's products, there's a time lag between switching on and playing, it can take a longish time when you input new tracks into it to (re)build the library - but all those are minor qualities. This little unit delivers QUALITY. I'm not even playing back master quality sound files yet - my files are FLAC ripped from CD - yet I can hear detail that just isn't there on my iPOD files. Incredible detail in voice tracks, separation on instruments. Sound stage isn't quite what I'm after - yet - but not worried about this because my experience is that it will take at least a few months for a new piece of hardware to burn in, and I've also noticed it's even better with my headphone amp.More than happy with this. Unable to put it down as I discover new depths and greater nuances in my traditional folk, folk-rock, jazz and classical discsExpensive ? Yes, #1100 is a lot to pay for something smaller than a packet of cigarettes. Worth it ? Every penny.

This beats every other portable DAP I have tried hands down. With the DSD firmware update and paired with my Ray Samuels Audio headphone amp and Ultrasone edition 8 headphones I can close my eyes, lean back and I swear I am in the studio while the album is being recorded (try it with a blue coast records recording).I have tried various combinations of iDevices/DAPs with CLAS -dB, Alo Audio amps, Fiio, etc. In total I have burned more than twice the cost of this unit trying to get a setup that gets a sound I can enjoy. This genuinely has exceeded all expectations. I do recommend a good amp with it as the AK120 provides an excellent clean neutral signal out but with the right amp/pair of cans combined it can be pushed to have any kind of sound signature you'd want.Cons:The battery life is not amazing (but you can use an iphone wall charger and usb cable as well as a USB port). The GUI is a little crap. If, like me, you have all 192GB of storage maxed out and more besides on other cards, then navigating through the small touch screen to find something you're in the mood for can be a laborious pain in the ass. The scanning process is not too awkward but is a little annoying sometimes. The metadata is often not brilliantly handled. It seems to list Z before A and have other quirks like that. It can often feel a little slow and underpowered when sorting through files, especially if you're using higher resolution and DSD formats.Warnings:A lot of people just won't get it when they hear the sound. I had the setup described above and a co-worker asked to try it. He maxed out the volume on both the AK120 and the headphone amp and then told me it wasn't very loud. He reckoned his £300 monster beats fed by an iPod touch was louder and therefore better. In point of fact there is no way in hell his setup had even a quarter of the volume he had just destroyed his ear drums with. He just was so used to poor SN ratios and THDs and muddy jitter type sounds that the clarity sounded quiet to him. If you are not an audiophile and/or do not have any experience with high quality sound sources then you should at least try before you buy. I am just glad he didn't reduce my headphones to molten slag.Another warning... this setup is ruthlessly revealing. If you have decent ears and decent headphones, etc. then you may find that you start to find a lot of your music files disappointing, sounding thin, bunched up, compressed, tinny and tiny. I even recently purchased a 24bit 192kHz album from Linn and the sound engineering was so poor I can't listen to it (Dear River). It sounds optimised for a cheap car stereo when compared to any Blue Coast Records recording. So, while you may have a thousand albums you may end up finding that only a small percentage of them have been engineered well enough to enjoy on this system.Having said all of that... If you get the components combined right for you ears, if you get high quality files and music that has been well engineered, mixed and mastered, if you like music, the AK120 is capable of surpassing full sized components costing ten times the money.

I use the AK120 with Sennheiser i.e 800 and listen to 48 bit flac files. That little lot doesn't sound like a DIGITAL player. By that I mean it doesn't have the soul-less glassy sound which I so despise of digital sound. That little combo makes music in the correct sense of the word. It has good timing and frightening dynamics and transient attack.There isn't great bass slam, which might be a product of the Sennheisers, but at least one can hear the differences between a bass guitar, plucked double bass and bass drum,which is quite a feat as I've yet to hear any other DAP that can do this. Usually they just produce a thud regardless of which phones are used. Rubbish in, rubbish outThe Ak120-ie 800 isn't digital "music" it's analogue music in a small package I've just tried a 128gb micro sd card in the AK120 and it works perfectly. That means that the total capacity for the AK120 is presently 320gb or 384gb for the AK120 TITAN No excuse for not downloading 24bit/48khz and better from HDtracks.com

i purchased this one month ago.wow what a sound as a walkman and through my high end separate system.i played 24 bit flac studio recordings and 16 bit aiff files both were great with the 24 bit 192hz mono double dacs from under the hood of this portable system . it takes sd cards up to 64g. and is very easy to use.worth every penny.a great product for audiophiles.