I'll admit sometimes I miss the warmth that the X5 lent to Norah Jones and John Mayer, but I think what I've gained in my upgrade is easing my suffering They stay a little further back so they sound more cohesive with the rest of the track, rather than isolated to give them the spotlight. The 100ii doesn't just rush voices to the front of the mix. And while I loved the thick and lush vocals and crunchy guitars that the X5 gave me, going to the AK has shown me that I was losing out quite a bit on texture and depth.
My entire desktop rig is designed around the RS1's incredible midrange. The AK has made me realize that the X5's low end was a little warmer than I realized, perhaps to strike a happy medium between the budding audiophile and average consumer. When called for, it can certainly bring the rumble, but that's only when I'm listening to hip hop or EDM which have that sound in the recording. What I'm hearing is bass that is incredibly textured, articulate, fast, and dynamic. There's no bloat, no over-the-top sub-bass, and no Earth-shattering mid-bass lift (unless they're already in the recording).
Starting from the bottom, the bass is truly and completely audiophile quality. After giving it the full run-through with my RS1, GH1, and 1+2 however, there's no doubt in my mind that the X5 has been usurped. Figured if for whatever reason, I didn't like it, I'd be able to move it along quickly. The X5 never left me feeling like I was missing much on the sound end of things, but when a nice deal on a secondhand AK100ii came up, I pulled the trigger. Portable audio should be portable after all! After all, most of my music is redbook quality, my main headphones are very easy to drive and I have no desire to have to carry a giant stack of gear around. Some like the iPods, C3, and DX50 were used with additional amps & DACs, while the X3, X5, and DX90, have been standalones.įor a while, the X5 was my go to as it checked off just about everything on my list. To give you an idea of where I'm coming from, my head-fi DAP history has included a plethora of iPods, a sample of Sansas, a cache of Colorflies, a basket of iBassos, and a few Fiios. Smoothest, most natural UI I've encountered.
Support for every lossless format under the Sun.Reading up on it's specs and the fact that it keeps (and improves) on it's previous iteration leads one to believe that for the asking price, this should be a one stop product, where a bunch of tweaking, additional cables, outboard DACs or amps shouldn't be necessary.Īnd ya know what? It lives up to the hype. At first glance, it's obvious that it's a premium piece of kit, with it's clean efficient lines, quality touch screen, minimal physical interruptions, and compact size. The AK100ii is a DAP I've had my eye on for quite some time.
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