Astell & Kern

[Staxxx]

I love the look of the products from this little company....

hope someone gets to hear them soon.

Astell&Kern

 

[prem]

Very interesting. Thanks Staxx for the link.

 

[andi10]

Anyone there who tried and can give a litte description of this?

I will travel in 2 weeks to Shanghai and at the HongKong Airport, they sell that. I might go for it, if its worth the value.

I use actually IPod touch, with HighRes MP3 files, but looking for Upgrade if feasable...

Im also very interested in the protability while walking, travelling or also sports, as i use my mp3 player almost everywhere...

Some review would be fine....

 

[Her Master's Voice]

I love the look of the products from this little company....

hope someone gets to hear them soon.

Astell&Kern

I love the look of this one Calyx M :yahoo:

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Original sound perfectly matched with an aluminum body

Oh, right.

Er... What?

:lol:

That's Astel & Kern, by the way. The Calyx M looks like it might look nice if the web site was actually viewable, and not some Flash (probably?) monstrosity!

The only thing that worries me about A&K (apart from the prices) is that I can just hear the marketing man giving the brief: Give me a name, a name that looks respectable and English...). Apart from that, their stuff looks very nice indeed.

But... Don't mention any of this to Neil Young. The poor guy thinks his porno machine is all new, and that its 24/192 has never been done before. Shame he didn't look!

:lol:

 

[indialogue]

A&K100 now available locally at INR51000
The A&K120 at INR83000

Not too much of a premium over international pricing. Enjoy!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

At those prices... No chance!

Mr Young's device has a huge affordability factor by comparison!

 

[indialogue]

Mr Young's device has a huge affordability factor by comparison!

That's why it has USD4Mn raised so far :lol:

Another good news for portable users like myself is that the Fiio X5 is now available for pre-order in India at a small premium as well - INR22K. A much more palatable price than the A&K and supposed to be nearly as good (excepting the UI which is quite amateurish)

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Regardless of whether of the fact that I just could not afford those A&K prices, I couldn't justify spending that much on a portable player. Perhaps if I stuck one in my ear I might feel different. After all, people used to say "How much? " to me when I bought my Cowon A2 long ago.

Part of my reluctance is the same thing as with phones: just how much am I willing to see fall in the toilet as I bend over to get the jug to swill it down? Or into a puddle? Or scatter shards of glass as it crashes from a table top onto the tiles? There is more to this whole portable device thing than just sound quality.

Leaving aside lack of regular use these days, I was prepared to pay at least some premium for commuter-sound. I had the best cassette "walkmans" from Sony and then (not as good) Aiwa, and then I moved up to minidisk, far, far superior, for use both as commuter and music student. But I would never, well, could never. have gone out and spent a couple of weeks pay on a mobile device.

The Fiio comes at a price which is just-about-reasonable. Or at least, not impossible. I'm unlikely to seek to buy or obtain any music files over 96Khz, so these marketing-department terms "high resolution" and "high definition" (no, there are bit depths and sample rates, not, technically, resolution or definition) do not wow me, but, If the thing sounds great at 44.1 then I'm not going to object to the specs going up to 24/192!

By the way, the X3 looks nice to me, and I might even have bought one except it would be way underused. I see it also plays 24/192. For Rs15,750 in India

 

[Her Master's Voice]

Does anybody have an idea when the new Sony HighRes Walkman will be available in India? From the What HiFi reviews the Sony seems to be better than Astell&Kern. And even cheaper.

 

[indialogue]

Does anybody have an idea when the new Sony HighRes Walkman will be available in India? From the What HiFi reviews the Sony seems to be better than Astell&Kern. And even cheaper.

Not even released in the US yet, so expect a long long wait.

 

[Her Master's Voice]

Not even released in the US yet, so expect a long long wait.

Strange. In Europe it's already available. Usually it's the other way round. First US and Japan, then Europe and last the rest of the world where ever there are markets.
The Sony HighRes Walkman looks like good VFM when compared to A&K and Calyx (1K Dollar).

 

[indialogue]

Strange. In Europe it's already available. Usually it's the other way round. First US and Japan, then Europe and last the rest of the world where ever there are markets.
The Sony HighRes Walkman looks like good VFM when compared to A&K and Calyx (1K Dollar).

I believe it's still on pre-order in the EU and UK. Still not available at retail stores. The price is not too far away from 1K dollars too. It's MRP is 550GBP

SONY Thailand site has it on pre-order for 22000 baht, which is a great price!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I use a portable device so rarely (just for train/plane journeys a couple of times a year) that I am not allowing myself any upgrade while my Cowon brick still functions --- and even then, I may have to just put up with whatever the phone gives. Better to spend money at home.

But, with the porno machine news and all, I've been interested enough to do some browsing. Among many other tings, I was looking at this head-fi forum:

The Sad State Of The So Called Audiophile DAP Market.

It's really quite shocking! So much money, and one gets devices which may sound great but a ropey and unreliable in operation? That won't do, especially when it comes to up-in-the-sky priced stuff.

The Sony HighRes Walkman looks like good

I saw some praise for Sony. They are certainly big enough to make something decent.

It seems that the iBasso DX50 is maturing, and there is excitement about a coming new Cowon.

We have yet to see what the porno machine brings, but their promotion, so far, leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Which is one reason why I am going to persist in calling it the porno machine!

 

[indialogue]

I am looking at the FiiO X5 this is on preorder and expected to be avaible in April for around 22K (Pre-Order FiiO X5 High-res Portable Music Player).

Does anybody have any experience with the X3? Essentially my requirements are to dip into my extensive FLAC library and listen to music in the car, and in the office through a small amp/speaker set up.

Thanks

X3 is said to sound very good for its price - as long as you can live with its UI. X5 is supposed to have a much better UI (and obviously sound)

 

[anm]

For home/ office/ car - a large usb stick or set of sticks would be the best bet. Play on ur laptop or work machine and stick it in the car stereo. Wav should work fine I guess.

 

[Her Master's Voice]

Yesterday Jochen (The Listening Room) told me that there are rumors that Apple will soon launch it's next generation iPod. It shall be capable of playing HighRes audio files. ALAC for sure, FLAC most likely.
If that is true the unconfirmed news that iTunes will offer HighRes downloads by June 2014 seems to be true. I also read about it in these blogs:

MUSIC DISCUSSION and Audio, Vinyl, related thoughts.: Led Zeppelin and the Future of Hi-Res Audio Downloads:
HRA Planet - Apple and iTunes Moving to HiRes Audio?

 

[vkalia]

^^^ That'd be spectacular news! I have 2 high-end portable systems (Centrance M8/HE-500 and a CLAS -R/Continental V3/Oppo PM-1), both fronted by an iPod Classic, but I'd love to get a high-res iPod with, say, 256GB of capacity. I spend enough time on the road, and a good source would be spectacular.

FiiO can FOAD after that, for all I care (their UI is a disaster, no matter what the fanboys on Head-Fi may say).