*PLEASE READ CAREFULLY* THIS IS A TEST -- With this video, we are trialling a new way of doing things: the comments section below has been switched ON but will be *moderated by a third party*. The upshot? You get to leave a comment below the video and I don't get tied up by comment moderation to stay focussed on making the next video or podcast as well as keeping the Darko.Audio website and Patreon up to date. That means more content for EVERYONE. Our new third-party moderator is under strict instruction not to approve racist or sexist remarks, URLs, (the seeds of) conspiracy theories or the unsubstantiated ramblings of grumpy geezers.

From one audiophile to another, you are most loved and appreciated. Thank you for what you guys do. Stay safe, and happy listening.

Finally a Astel and Kern Product I can afford

Awesome to see comments back on. John, thanks for getting creative and finding (hopefully) a workable solution to bring them back. Danka!

I am completely blown away by the way you explain things. Brilliant! Very satisfied find a channel were things are actually explained and not just product description reading.

Olaf's kitchen is life goals.

I love your content! Keep up the excellent work on behalf of audiophiles and music lovers everywhere :)

I know John's not moderating here, but I'm still going to say that I think the new set or studio or whatever you want to call it for these videos is very nicely put together and lit, and the color grading and editing are very nicely done as well. Hats off to whomever does all that.

I love how carefully pronounced your german is.

Thank you for your work. Thank you for your music tipps! And thank you for the DigiOne Signature Tipp, Amazing!!! greetings from an audiophile from Bavaria :-)

Really enjoying the Darko News Desk. Keep ‘em coming.

A&K are owned by Iriver. I remember them as one of the OGs on the mp3 market. Friend of mine had the traingular one

OMG, comments are back! Thank you :) Now we have something to do during the not so interesting parts of the video, hehe

Oh the Toneh! Love the Toneh!

Oh the Toneh! I see that someone is a fan of Camera Conspiracies! :D

Stereo Conspiracies by Darko.........love it.

Great background and light :)

Great background. Really dig the complementary use of colours in your setup

Love this format! Going beyond just gear really takes this to the next level.

Yes mate, the first time I have seen comments switched on since I subscribed - your videos are fantastic!!

Just purchased the A&K Portable PEE-51 Dac to use off my Macbook Pro and HD58x - cant wait to see the audio improvement from going just directly off the Macbook Pro! Great review thanks!

Can I just leave a comment here to say how much I’ve missed commenting about just how awesome john’s vids are?

Yay the comments are back!! Ive missed this. This chanmel has always been great but it just didnt feel right without it, you know? :)

Really appreciate the comment section is back. Thanks John!

Well said John, hopeful but realistic. Our vaccine rollout in Canada has been at a glacial pace as well. Much appreciation for your insights and knowledge.

USB Audio Player Pro for Android is great. And you can unlock a graphic equalizer that's also great (although bit perfect mode sounds somewhat better). Just to note, I only play files, don't stream)

Excellent show as always! Thank you

Glacial pace.. I’m going to work that phrase into work comms today! Good review, I’ll wait for the IFI 👿 to arrive then.

Thank you for your hard work and wonderful reviews and information. 😀

I like this new news in brief segment. Keep it up.

John, please, tell me what's that thing on the wall behind you. Is it wallpaper? It's paint-concrete? I love itttt. I want it in my room. Please, share what's that.

Hello, I followed your suggestions and got a HELM Bolt as my portable DAC solution. I have an iPhone, so I looked for a small USB-C (Female) to Lightning (Male) adapter. For any one with an iPhone and a USB-C portable DAC, check this one that I purchased from Amazon USA (MEENOVA USB C Female to lightning, iOS, OTG ). Note 1: Make sure that any adapter like this one, is USB OTG (On The Go), meaning that it allows power delivery PD and Data. There are adapters for power only and obviously will not work, so always confirm. Note 2: This small profile adapter only added about 2 cm to the HELM Bolt and it fits well on my bulky Moment wood case and it works well. Thank you for the great video, and I hope that you keep covering portable DACs.

Rather enjoying this new series, despite very little (well, nothing so far) has been of relevance to me. It's entertaining and informative, and bonus Darko content. Good move dude. Keep it up.

It's interesting to see how the A&K Dual DAC cable compares to the Dragonfly Red/Cobalt seeing that its almost £60 cheaper than a Red. Could you do a comparison or take on this?

I love the video of hifi 1,000 euro. Be happy to see more like 2k, 3k etc. it’s so useful and eye opening. 🙏🏻

Great video. I really appreciate your attitude and take on audio in general. I am currently using a USB dac with my android (Fiio BTR5) and through Poweramp it does output 384k.

It hurts to hear that John about the lack of distribution of the vaccine in the EU. They have caught a great deal of hell over this and a great many people have suffered over it. Don’t know the particulars on this as it isn’t spoken about much over here to any great degree. I hope this changes. I have only had one shot myself. Not sure when the next will be, but I sure wish you all well despite all the troubles. It would be lovely to see this show make a big splash, but what I would like even more is to see an end of this worldwide! Stay safe mates!😊👍🏻😷

Wow you look fit John, nice to see! Nice video aswell 👍🏻

Like the Toneh reference. Everyone should know what Toneh really means.

You're right that android resamples but there are certain players and softwares that can bypass that resampling in a really good way (for example , poweramp)

Nice glad you activated the comments section 😁

i love the videos, thank you

thanks for another good video! :)

I just bought the Helms Bolt last night, you're killing me 😂

I found this video informative, thank you. I've upvoted it. Also if you fancy a trip to the UK, you can have my shots, for free.

What is the upside of having two dac chips?

One of the 10 points in your X video was that Audirvana just sounds better and I have to agree! I wanted to ask whether you found that upsampling improved the sound quality or not? I have tried both ways but I don’t think that either my hifi or my ears are up to hearing which is better. Thanks Zane

John, I think Moon by Simaudio definitely could stand to have a less awkward name. However, I think an analogy would be Pioneer Elite. So I better way to phrase the above name would be Simaudio Moon.

Keep on keeping on Mr D and please take care ✌️🌹🇦🇺

Question about Chromebooks. Does anyone know whether chromebooks upsample to 48K like android does (unless bypassed by an app like USBAPP)? My chromebook detects my dongle dac and I can tell it to play though the dac or through the built-in speaker, but I can't tell what it's doing. USBAPP runs on my chromebook, but I don't think it is detecting the dac separately from the on-board audio. At least it doesn't pop up when I plug in the dac as it does with android. I'm guessing that there is no way to get bit perfect out of the chromebook when using android apps. Does anyone know?

The Toneh is perfect, LOL!

Hi Darko, I would love to see a TWS adaptor for IEMs.

Thanks for your review (Martial from Paris)

Interesting price point for the A&K dongle, plus use of aramid fibre to counter the weakness of all cable tail dongles is an excellent idea. Will I take the plunge and try one to replace a Dragonfly Red? I’m not sure, having been slightly disappointed in the sound quality of the aesthetically pleasing Astell & Kern Acro L1000. I think I’ll wait and hear what early adopters have to say...

Thanks

Alva Noto, Longform Edition, Astal Industries, Rod Modell, Terre Thaemlitz.. some known, and perhaps unknown stuff you should check out.

Looks like Toneh 5.6 or 8, I'd say...

You could try HiBy Music or FiiO Music for HQ-Audio-USB-DAC like Dragonfly or others. both also allow to bypass the standard Audio route within Android and acces directly the USB-DAC with higher bit rate.

For Android... Poweramp and Onkyo HF Player both can do bitperfect, in addition to USB Audio Player Pro. Note Poweramp doesn't auto switch sample rates to the track playing. Your have to switch manually. USB Audio Player switches sample rate to match track sample rate.

If it’s not broke don’t fix it. I like the video in your house they were more personal, relaxed if you will. Either way I will continue to watch…

My sympathies to Olaf. (Keep him focused!) 🤣😂🤣😂

So will these work with the SP200 it looks like the Focal Radiance already has a DAC to IFi audio & Blutooth. Look like good pair here, providing their are balanced property

I'm in France & I'm very lucky as I've had both my Jabs. Also due to a publicity stunt my wife & 18yr old son have had their first jabs but we've no idea when they will get their second jabs. Lets hope we can soon get back to some kind of normal. 👍

Toneh 😂 i understood that reference

Love your content and having lived in Munich (and Luxembourg) for 6 years, love hearing about Europe. Regarding the USB Audio Player Pro App - love this idea, thanks for sharing. Wondering if there is anything similar for Windows10. I have a SurfaceBook like you do and would love the same feature...

I kinda wonder if astell and Kern joining the dongle DAC race might actually end the reign of the dragonfly in the portable world, since it's half the price of the cobalt, has a well respected brand doing the work, and unless you need mqa (in which you said the helm bolt might in your opinion sound better), the a&k would possibly be the better dongle, especially for qobuz.. Also I think the use for those super high end formats is for things like HQ player can upsample to as high as it can.

Have you not heard of HD Tracks? You can get albums in DSD, there.

Thoughtful commentary on the Covid situation. In Canada the vaccines are being rolled out slow but steady. We are a large country so the number of new cases varies by province but it would be fair to state the obvious being that the higher population areas have more difficulty dealing with the spread. We are not out of the woods yet but there is light at the end of the tunnel. As far as the Munich Show, it looks like next year for me.

Like it ..

6:50 it's future proofing

Any idea how to get hi res in car which does not have AUX

Yay.. I get to comment.... umm.. hmm.. I have nothing to say :(

So is the dongle any good?

How about Hiby android music app? Doesn't that bypass the androids 48kHz?

Surprised at the reasonable price of the A&K dongle dac, I was expecting an absurd price.

I love your wall..tell us how its done.😍

You didn`t just say to check the "Toneh", did you!?

Would any of these portable DAC's result in a material improvement in sound quality If used with a combination of an iPhone and the Airpods Max headphones?

Need to get back to the UK John - we’ll have vaccinated everyone by June

Just to double check: I knew about the Android bottleneck and that some stuff gets around it, like the Bang & Olufsen DAC for the LG G5. But that thing stuttered itself, anyways. But dedicated DAPs running Android, like my own Pioneer XDP 100R - they get around that bottleneck as well, don't they?

What is the downside to having a dap and an iPhone

If you're making music 32bit is the new daddy. Maybe that's the reason. The HDR of audio?

Can someone link usb audio player pro in play app?

Hi, hace you review Fiio DAC? And a very popular new in-ear headphones that use dynamic drives and balance armature drives for a hifi experience for low cost name KZ headphones?

what about poweramp instad of usb player pro

Please.. Do a video on the Musical Fidelity MX-Stream.. :)

Can somebody besides Apple (I'm looking at you Helm Audio) please make a svelte lightning-specific dongle dac? Although the Apple dongle dac is dirt cheap and sounds ok enough, I manage to break one about every 6 weeks or so - I've been through 4, it's just wasteful. Yeah I can use a second USB-C to lightning adapter but I'm anti-kludge.

First! Thanks for your thoughtful approach to KZfaq comments, John.

Did you say, just $150 for A&K's Dongle DAC? Please 🙏 compare it to the Dragonfly Cobalt.

Could you recommend headphones 🎧to buy to listen to music and still hear when people are talking to me

Neutron Music Player, I think, does the same job, as USB Audio pro

Comments! Everyone behave! I thought that ak dongle was going to be 500, but its like 150 so its quite interesting.

I wish they put more effort into their cheaper Activo brand tbh~

Have a USB C 3.1 Digital Audio 3.5 with Charging support 65W PD Luxorpart small thing have in my Xperia1 use dongle and give fantastic Sound and can charge phone or headphones when kiste cable use X1000M3 say 19$ well spend money very cheap way get great sound

Only 150 usd wow

From an Android phone. Try the App AirMusic

There are more options on Android. e.g. Neutron Music Player

A Mod. Solved.

We should all speak up and tell Android on twitter, tell them that we don't want an OS that resamples everything to 48khz and we want a Bit Perfect OS.

Transforming files from MP3 to HiRes is not as good as original source in HiRes.