DAP discussion thread

(on QP1R) In my experience with CS4398 based dacs/soundcards/daps, all has this bad soundstage depth and varying degrees of grain and harshness. For ΣΔ, I prefer the sound of AKM or AD or (good ESS) anytime over Cirrus Logic.

 

So Mad I can get a good price on the ak300 or get another sony zx2. Answer is obvious but your thoughts on ak300?

 

AK300 has one of the most artificial sound. Timbre is totally off. It's not the clinical , shallow type sound. Harshness and digitus are controlled but the overall timbre is very synthetic. The pitch is totally wrong, almost all instruments sound with equal weight.

 

Frankly I never liked the house sound of A&K. It makes music sound flat and boring.

"What happened to the dynamics?" was the first thing on my mind after listening to the A&K AK120 for the first time. Granted it didn't have very noticeable digitus or grain but coming from a R2R Dac owner, I am very used to timbre and the rich tonality which is pretty much missing in the A&K DAPs that I tried. My conclusion for A&K was.. Are they selling jewellery or functional audiophile equipment? My opinion was the former.

The Onkyo DP-1X had the same problem as A&K but not as bad, with a very laidback sound that although is smooth for a sabre isn't real sounding for me. The worst offender than the A&K was the Fiio X1.

my 2cents: Stick with Sony ZX2 or LG V10/20(with UAPP). These are better than all the above mentioned DAPs.

Huawei P9 Plus and Sony Xperia XZ are also pretty good sounding for mobile audiophile playback too.

 

Having spent some decent amount of time with the QP1R, I have to agree with this. When I first listened to it, I thought "wow, this sounds really great and clean." But I also think that's the problem - it sounds too clean, to the point where the music doesn't sound entirely real and lively. I think this is more due to the DAC since I compared the line-out of the QP1R and my FiiO X7 using an external amp, where I observed that the X7's DAC just sounded more real, even if it wasn't as clean.

It's a shame, because I do think the QP1R has a great amp section - but I'm not so sure about the DAC part.

 

Well I felt it the moment I heard it, I was like F*ck....but kept listening to see if it was burn in.....It wasn't. Can't trust any ears but your own. Everyone said the Andro and Qp1r were a good match.....Its actually pretty terrible. It actually completely shuts down the Andros Soundstage where it sound like just a normal iem. I can see how some people can think that the thinness of the QP1R paired with the less than 1 IO gives a warmer sound and bass impact, but to me it just just as thin and sounded veil with no air and constricted soundstage. Coming from my 1964 v6s I was like....f'ing andro was hyped! That was until I plugged the andros into my Samsung Galaxy S6 and it sounded less detailed, but overall better. I can finally understand the massiveness of the soundstage of the andromeda now. Also had the chance to use the andros with some of the better gear at New York Audio Show.....none of them sounded as sterile as the QP1R. I was thinking about getting a WM1A but I am now on my way to just getting another zx2, then getting a gungnir multibit for the desktop next. Think that will be better as I cant critically listen to stuff while going around NYC with a cello. Cheers!

 

I'd highly recommend avoiding most AK players. Zx2 is a safe bet, but I believe it was @shotgunshane who didn't like that zx2 Andromeda pairing. I believe it was due to the impedance of the zx2.

Another DAP I highly recommend is the Cowon P1, which is a complete steal at $699. Definitely better than all the AKS I've owned, and I order it to the zx2. I feel most couldn't go wrong with either zx2 it P1. My biggest issues with the zx2 are the power, or lack thereof, and the slow speed of the device. Scanning takes quite a while and the UI and version of Android is dated.

P1 runs on Linux, boot times and scanning is amazing. With close to 200gbs of music, boot time (with scanning on every boot) is lightning fast. About ten seconds each time.

If eq and dsp are your thing, Cowon again is amazing. Battery life goes to zx2 and its not even close.

 

Looks amazing. Iassume that go v2+ Se is more than 500. How far is it from the infinity in terms of performance? I actually don't mind the andros out of the go v2+ infinity. Nice cable too but seems you are using the single ended instead of balanced. Do you intend to use them balanced soon?

 

The form factor and data out of Shanling M1 would certainly intrigue a lot of audio players. It's really handy.

 

I'm hoping to get a little advice. I recently sold my qp1r. I loved the sound but just couldn't justify keeping it given the price and that I don't often get a chance to use it. I'm looking for a lower cost player around $250-$300 that leans towards clarity and detail. I have jh13 pro v2 and that are a bit on the warm side so I'm looking to find something to balance them out.

 

@zerodeefex - how much have you been using that M1, and has anything broken or pissed you off about it yet?

 

Nice, please post any gotchas, if anything odd does happen. I'm tempted to import one to play with, at this point.

 

Love the shanling M1 too...its very handy in term of function, it can be used as a transport or as a dac for my smartphone...but my biggest gripes are, their usb C cant stream dsd format because it downscaled to pcm...hopefully in the next firmware upgrade it will support dsd via usb c out..

 

Sorry to derail the thread a little, but is that the No. 5 copper cable you're using with the Andros?