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I have been scouring through the AK4495S/95 data sheet & the only difference between 95s vs 95 I found was one reference saying the s version is a "special sound quality package" I can't find the S version for sale anywhere so that only leaves samples & that's no good for a production run. Anyway I will certainly keep eye out for them at Digikey.

Hey Matt where did you find the premium DAC sound comparison chart on the AKM site! A link would be good.

Also a AK4497 link would be good too, thanks.

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Hey Matt where did you find the premium DAC sound comparison chart on the AKM site! A link would be good.

Also a AK4497 link would be good too, thanks.

Hi Clay,

I found it here:

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/featured/premiumaudio/

The bubble size shows the sound quality.

Besides that I found no additional information about AK4497.

BTW, any news about the AK4137 SRC?

Kind regards

Matt

Edited by matth
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Hi Matt,

thanks for the link, very interesting stuff!

Unfortunately I still can't find anyone who stocks the AK4137 SRC

I would love to to play with that chip. I guess I could try & ask for samples again.

Thanks everyone for the support on the new SE Klein, it is definitely up & running now.

 

:party

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Bought a SE Klein today

Straight out of the box its impressive. The one thing I immediately noticed was better spacial separation between instruments

Early days yet though.

I'll do some serious listening against the standard Klein

Impressions to come in the following weeks

Cheers

Edited by Bill125812
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No sign of any release date on the AK4497 so that one may be a fair way off.

What is exciting is the AK4137EQ sample rate convertor is now available so I will order some next week.

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/detail/0056/?link_id=link768

It is a pretty amazing device & will do DSD to PCM conversion & vice versa all the way up to DSD256.

Put one of those in front of a AK4490EQ & you will end up with a super flexible DAC, can't wait!

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No sign of any release date on the AK4497 so that one may be a fair way off.

What is exciting is the AK4137EQ sample rate convertor is now available so I will order some next week.

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/detail/0056/?link_id=link768

It is a pretty amazing device & will do DSD to PCM conversion & vice versa all the way up to DSD256.

Put one of those in front of a AK4490EQ & you will end up with a super flexible DAC, can't wait!

I've been looking at this chip for a while but the data sheet is pretty thin on ground WRT real specs of filter types and jitter rejection.

Remember this is an ASRC, the asynchronous implying that any jitter that is not rejected will be encoded permanently into data stream. Same goes

for filter anomalies. ASRC's are a pretty cool fix-all tool box but they come with implications.

Still they (ASRC's) have always been an attractive option from a flexibility POV and may be a worthy addition to your DAC,

however I would not bank on a magic bullet when it comes to ultimate performance. It will be interesting to see how far they have come.

cheers

Terry

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I used to live in Alice Springs and there we were quite isolated.  Last year I moved to Grafton in NSW.  Many people would think that it is still a little place somewhere in the country - yeah, true, but it is very easy to travel from  here. Living here has made it easier to visit  very interesting people. Long story, but I have been fortunate  as I was able to visit Clay and pick up my new Klein SE Dac. 

 

We are very very lucky in Australia to have people in the hi fi industry that are very passionate. I have met some and Clay is one of them. I told Clay straight out that my experience with the Klein Dac is that he is selling it too cheap. $750 is just not enough for the effort he has put in to design the dac and to build it. Greg Osborn told me that in the industry the RRP of a product is about 7 times the cost of producing it due to freight, advertising, and multiple layers of people inmvolved in the distribtion channel. 

 

By no means I am saying that the price should be 7 times what he is charging, but if you realise the cost of the parts and the intellectual property as well as the cost of manufacturing the $750 is one of the bargains in the industry.

 

To be honest there are things I do not like in the Klein and SE Dac. I dont like the toggle switches and the enclosures. So lets get that out of the way.(I dont like the looks of the PS Audio products either - nothing wrong with it, just bland and uninspiring, but that is just me.) Clay explained to me that the enclosures are important to his design and to assist in the production process. The toggle switches are very good and reliable. Clay explained that it is a mechanical way of making our choices that will remain reliable and operational unlike more esoteric switches that may look good, but may end up not being reliable. Point taken.

 

So

 

Initail thoughts - well at my request it is black. OCD - I know, but thanks Clay for that. How does it sound, though?

 

Clay was  burning it in in his workshop so I heard it there.  Could not really evaluate it, so I immediateluy plugged it in last night  when  I got home and played a couple of songs.

 

Wow! 

Edited by Jventer
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Well it's been about 4 or so weeks of burning in and listening so I think I can now give an honest opinion about the Klein SE DAC

To begin with, I will say that I was extreamly happy with my standard Klein, and it was only my endless search for "that sound" that made me purchase the SE from Clay

Did I hear a difference A B testing the two dacs. Is the upgrade to the SE worth it

The answer to those questions is Yes. To me it certainly was worth the extra few dollars

The differences are sometimes subtle.

What you will firstly notice is the better spacial seperation between individual instruments, very evident in orchestral pieces, but decernible in almost everything I've tried

Then you will notice that the detail is a little better. A twang there. A ping here. I'm hearing things from the recording that I haven't noticed before

And the bass is tighter. Faster

All in all. A nice upgrade. And to my ears, which are aging these days, a very mucsical yet very detailed DAC

For those of you already proud owners of the standard Klein. You still have a fantastic piece of gear

For those who can afford the extra $. Go for the SE

Either DAC is amazing and will blow most anything away

Hope that helps

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OK 

7 days later.

Whilst the SE was impressive last weekend,-there were things that bothered me. It gave me ear ache - like what people are saying that the music sounds digital, getting fatigue. I wanted to have no negative feedback, and actually did not say much, as on last Saturday and Sunday I found it very nice on the one hand , but a few hours later had to switch it off.

 

Two possible factors:

  • I was very tired. I had an average of 4 hours sleep for a couple of weeks
  • and it was brand new

I used it for about 2 hours a day  in the last week and have just run through a few of my test songs.

  

Much better! 

 

In my terms the goosebumps are there  :) . My test songs are simple - no goosebumps - no good, goosebumps all good. After that I will listen to the finer details. 

 

I dont believe it is at an optimum level yet, I still find it a bit sharp - so watch this space, I hope it will setlle down more, just amazing what a difference emotions, feelings and burn in makes.

 

So, IMO at this stage:

as said before for $750 the Klein is an absolute no brainer.

The law of diminishing returns do apply, at $1,200 the SE is better than the Klein at $750, but IMO it is not $450 better. BUT I HAVE TO QUALIFY THIS. I have told Clay that the Klein should be sold at a minimum of $1,000. So at $1,200 the SE is also a no brainer. Maybe the SE should also be sold for more.

And I think it is system dependant.

 

Which model you buy I suggest depends on the rest of your system.

 

Will provide more feed back in a few weeks when it should have settled down more.

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  • 4 weeks later...

No sign of any release date on the AK4497 so that one may be a fair way off.

What is exciting is the AK4137EQ sample rate convertor is now available so I will order some next week.

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/detail/0056/?link_id=link768

It is a pretty amazing device & will do DSD to PCM conversion & vice versa all the way up to DSD256.

Put one of those in front of a AK4490EQ & you will end up with a super flexible DAC, can't wait!

Clay,

now the AK4137 SRC is available and I would like to make a suggestion regarding your upcoming DSD DAC.

What do you think about to design the DSD DAC with the AK4137 and without any additional chip for DA conversion?

You could convert all the digital input signals to DSD256 with the AK4137 and use a (first) order LPF only for conversion to analog.

I am very curious about your opinion.

Matt

Edited by matth
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Guest scumbag

Hi peeps,

My name is mark and I am a Klein DAC owner. (that's the First Step in Klien DAC Owners anonymous out of the way ;) ).

 

I have been doing some proper listening to my Klein DAC today and I saw some comments that the SE has more bass than the standard.I was running an M51 and the bass on that is not outstanding but did improve when feed by a Stello U3. Switching to the Klein straight USB out of my laptop (power pack disconnected), the amount, quality of punch bass is amazing. All I can say is, having cranked up the standard, the SE must be one almighty bass machine!

 

Happy days ahead.

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Hi peeps,

My name is mark and I am a Klein DAC owner. (that's the First Step in Klien DAC Owners anonymous out of the way ;) ).

 

I have been doing some proper listening to my Klein DAC today and I saw some comments that the SE has more bass than the standard.I was running an M51 and the bass on that is not outstanding but did improve when feed by a Stello U3. Switching to the Klein straight USB out of my laptop (power pack disconnected), the amount, quality of punch bass is amazing. All I can say is, having cranked up the standard, the SE must be one almighty bass machine!

 

Happy days ahead.

Hi Scum

Glad you've come out of the closet with the DAC lol

I have an SE and did have a standard Klein, so I did a couple of weeks of AB comparisons

To my ears the bass was tighter and slightly more extended.

The detail a little better

Your right

Very happy days ahead

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OK 

7 days later.

Whilst the SE was impressive last weekend,-there were things that bothered me. It gave me ear ache - like what people are saying that the music sounds digital, getting fatigue. I wanted to have no negative feedback, and actually did not say much, as on last Saturday and Sunday I found it very nice on the one hand , but a few hours later had to switch it off.

 

Two possible factors:

  • I was very tired. I had an average of 4 hours sleep for a couple of weeks
  • and it was brand new

I used it for about 2 hours a day  in the last week and have just run through a few of my test songs.

  

Much better! 

 

In my terms the goosebumps are there  :) . My test songs are simple - no goosebumps - no good, goosebumps all good. After that I will listen to the finer details. 

 

I dont believe it is at an optimum level yet, I still find it a bit sharp - so watch this space, I hope it will setlle down more, just amazing what a difference emotions, feelings and burn in makes.

 

So, IMO at this stage:

as said before for $750 the Klein is an absolute no brainer.

The law of diminishing returns do apply, at $1,200 the SE is better than the Klein at $750, but IMO it is not $450 better. BUT I HAVE TO QUALIFY THIS. I have told Clay that the Klein should be sold at a minimum of $1,000. So at $1,200 the SE is also a no brainer. Maybe the SE should also be sold for more.

And I think it is system dependant.

 

Which model you buy I suggest depends on the rest of your system.

 

Will provide more feed back in a few weeks when it should have settled down more.

OK

It is about a month later and I think it has settled down a lot.  I have just spent a very enjoyable hour with it. 

Just nice, very very nice, cant fault it.

The things that bothered me at the beginning are now gone. Very enjoyable listen.

Clay, you are selling these things too cheap!

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Guest scumbag

OK

It is about a month later and I think it has settled down a lot.  I have just spent a very enjoyable hour with it. 

Just nice, very very nice, cant fault it.

The things that bothered me at the beginning are now gone. Very enjoyable listen.

Clay, you are selling these things too cheap!

 

Shhhhh. Don't tell him that.

 

Have to agree though.  ;)

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Sorry

There is an issue, that blue light - it is too bright. I know Clay can turn it down. 

When you order it, ask Clay to have it at its lowest setting.

I am going to use my usual method, whiteboard black marker  :)

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