Astell & Kern AK120 mk1 as digital source in Naim system.

Posted by: Alan Paterson on 27 September 2015

I bought the AK120 to replace my iPod classic that was liberated from me by a Washington taxi driver. After a long reading reviews I plumped for some Dunu DN2000 IEM's. Apart from the earpiece coming off the rest of the unit regularly and having to be fished out my ear even though they have been glued countless times ( not to mention the time it happened and a tiny blue spacer that fits between the earpiece and unit disappeared and I eventually found it inside a vacuum cleaner bag that I had to rummage through much to my colleagues and the 6 year old daughter of one of them finding it hilarious) these are excellent. Not sure if they are making the music sound exciting.
I bought from eBay a 3.5-din chord ichord to try through the hifi. While the sound was acceptable when I tried the cd that been ripped ( xld, 16 bit, WAV ) on my cd5/HiCap/HiLine ( both player and psu on PowerLines ) and the CD player blew the little AK120 out of the water. Now the cd5 is at the highest level it can be upgraded to and the cost if added would a few times that of the AK120 but is there a way of having in my hifi instead of the CD player that wouldn't compromise my digital music. Is there a cable out there that could connect the AK120 to my nac 202 that could transform the sound/style of what I currently get when using it as my digital source?

Posted on: 27 September 2015 by Alan Paterson

What cables go between the AK120 and Hugo and what from Hugo to Nac 202 pre amp?
Cheers

Posted on: 04 October 2015 by Alan Paterson

Funny that no one has suggested the ndac which I thought would have been the ideal partner.
The Hugo with headphone amp would leave the latter part redundant as I have a headline/hi cap to power my Grado GS1000 phones.
2qutedac from chord?

Posted on: 09 October 2015 by Alan Paterson

Anyone familiar with this DAC?

Posted on: 12 October 2015 by Alan Paterson

Also I assume the naim DAC connects to the nac with my hi-line? AK120 to DAC via optical or coaxial?

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Richard Dane

Yup, that should work. AK120 connected to the DAC via s/pdif Toslink, DAC connected to NAC via Hi-line (great). Limitation may be the quality of the AK120's digital output and Toslink implementation.

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Alan Paterson

Would USB stick offer better sound?

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Richard Dane

Quite possibly. However, navigation of the stick with the DAC can be tricky once you have more than a couple of albums on board.

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by ChrisSU

Originally Posted by Alan Paterson:

Would USB stick offer better sound?

Yes, as long as you use a DAC that will play from a memory stick. They work well into Naim streamers, but you can't navigate easily through files and folders, or view metadata effectively.