Hi I’m interested to know how much a difference it’s between the A6 and A8 only sound wise not all the other parts and updates I have to now if it’s worth the extra money? So Please give some input’s and information all Thanks
Unless you are 14 y.o. with very well trained ears, I doubt you will hear a difference sound-wise. Both DACs are very resolving and transparent. Moreover the A6 now is coming with DSP / PEQ / GEQ / Gain control, so you can tailor to also correct some weirdness in your room... Definitely not worth the money IMO, if you are only interested in sound differences, and not other functionalities.
With the latest firmware changes, the only features gap is in terms of the ability to import a FIR filter for room correction purposes. The A8 has this, the A6 not. Also the A8 has some digital routing possibilities via the I2S output which the A6 doesn't have. The DAC section in the A8 would be considered the best AKM can offer with improved clocks while the A6 has good but standard dual ESS chips. Can one hear these differences, possibly not and dependant on the rest of your system.
I now have both the A6 (standard) and A8. I use them via XLR directly into active speakers (no external DAC or other boxes). Without doing any kind of A/B testing, I do think that the A8 has a different ‘sound’. I agree with Jay’s iyagi (on Youtube) about the A6 vs A8. The A6 (other than having brighter treble) also seems to have ‘artificial bass boost’ which the A8 does not have. For a lack of better words, I would call the A8 more ‘analogue sounding’ with more details and a better soundstage. But at twice the price, it might not be worth it to everyone. My front speakers (Buchardt A10) cost around 4000 Euro a pair, so a 2000 Euro streamer that completes my setup is OK with me, I’m happy…
The last thing not specified in my HW compare is the exact processor and Android version used. Is it the same? Please enlighten us.
Arm Cortex-A55 Quad Core (if that was the question, so yes, the same). I’m not sure where I might see the Android version…
I did a volume matched blind listening test of the A6 standard with 2 friends (separate, on 2 different days) comparing the internal dac and a 800€ smsl D400ES as external dac. They both preferred the internal dac. They are experienced listeners, both have high end equipment at home. (Martin Logan/ Avant-Garde acoustics) The smsl was sent back to the seller…
EQ on the A6 seems to always work on both right and left channels. With FIR Filters on the A8, you can import measurements from Room EQ Wizard for both left and right channel. I will be doing measurements with REW and a Umik-2 mic to try and get rid of / lower my room modes at 48htz and 96htz (and maybe also 200htz). Here is an example I did as a test a few days ago. Green is left speaker and red is right speaker. You can see that my room treatment (acoustic absorbers) give me an RT60 of 200-400 miliseconds meaning that I have quite little reverberation in my room (not very lively which makes it easier to hear details in the music but it might also sound weird to people who have a very lively room with few soft materials and hard, reflective walls and floors.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help with his question at all. You compared two dacs with ESS chip implementations. He wants to know the difference in the A6 and the A8 - ESS vs AKM implementation.
If I recall correctly, you don't own either unit do you ? From my own experience and what I've picked up over time from others, many are able to hear subtle differences between ESS and AKM implementations, usually with ESS seeming brighter or more sharp and AKM chips being more natural or neutral.
Yes, you are right. Although I have listened to different DACs being implementation of either ESS or AKM chips (more ESS to be honest) And my point was exactly that: emphasizing subtle.
I think you'd need to hear it in person to understand it, because for me, there were some non-typical tonal changes happening with the A6 and I've heard a few reviewers mention them, including a subtle bass boost and thinner upper midrange. This is compared with an AKM based dac.
I was just trying to give some input about this question: "So Please give some input’s and information all" , and specifically about the internal dac and an other high quality dac, and wether it pays off spending 1200 Euro extra. If he thinks my comment doesnt help he can ignore it. My opinion is, till you do a blind comparison, you will be very hard pressed to make reliable sound comparisons. remember, differences between dacs are subtle, especially dacs that are state of art or near.
Having upgraded from A6 Standard to A8, I needed an alternative to the A6 multi-channel playback which the A8 does not have (if I want to sell the A6). I purchased the Magnetar UDP800 (SACD / region free 4K Blu-ray / network player). I don’t have a NAS, so I just added the M2 SSD (in a USB case) and can report that the Magnetar can playback everything from the USB port (except DSD512 .dsf). So if you want a player to output .dsf, FLAC and Wav multi-channel files via HDMI, then this one can handle that. But of course the menu system / music player software is very basic… Just a heads-up, I’m not sure just how many players will do this.
It is one of those things that you have to try if you have the extra money. I’m sure it all depends on what other ‘boxes’ you use it with. I think the sound of the A8 is more neutral/balanced with better stereo image/soundstage (I call it a more analogue sound). But it is not a ‘night and day’ difference (as they say on Youtube). It is not twice as good but I want to try out FIR filter (DSP) with measurements from Room EQ Wizard. Ask what your seller’s return policy is before you buy, if you think you want to maybe return it. Only buy it, if you are going to use all features - preamp, dac, dsp and streamer. As a transport, it is probably no different than the A6.
Simple qustion is the streamer in the A8 the same as in A6? I have a McIntosh 8600 and Martin Logan Monties speakers. Thinking of using the DAK in the McIntosh. My prime interest is in the streamer section.
The streamer is a set of android apps, and you'll be sending their data (retrieven from the internet streaming services, or played locally) to the McIntosh via coax / optical / usb (am ignorant about its digital inputs, sorry). Despite what may people say, in this case the A6 and the A8 (apart from possible bugs due to, eventually, different app versions) will serve you in the exact same way. HTH
