how much is an WM8740 chip? 5usd? 10usd each?

An iRiver brand player with a plus-1K price tag would be the portable audio version of the VW Phaeton: no matter how good it is, you can't sell it at that price.

Apparently they can. Over at the Audio vendors lickspittle site there are a few claiming to have bought. Then again their grandads were probably really proud when they brought their Edsels home the first time.

I suspect that the actual buyers thus far are trade. It would be interesting to know what they actually paid. I suspect wholesale on this beast leaves a LOT of leeway

I tried the AK100 at the recent NY Audio show.  I had my modded Fostex T50RP's with me to compare them with the Mr. Speakers Mad Dogs that were on display.  I had an O2 amp, a rockboxed/flash drived 4th Generation ipod w/line out cable, and a rockboxed Sansa Fuze. 

I pulled the SD card from the Sansa, and put it in the AK100.  I think it was only an 8GB card.  It took about 3 or 4 minutes to load.  Totally ridiculous.  I should have been able to browse the file structure and play while it loaded the metadata, but nope, it is useless while it loads a card.  The software is pretty bad, and the screen is unresponsive to button pushes.

Unfortunately, all that I had in common between the ipod and the SD card was Frank Ocean's album Orange.  Very quickly on comparison it was obvious that the AK100 could not drive my T50RP's anywhere close to as well as the O2.  From my brief listening, I was very underwhelmed, considering the price tag.  I did not see a line out on it either, so you are stuck with the built in amp, or going through the headphone out. 

The pricing on the AK100 is beyond absurd, and the AK120 moves it up to insulting.  I wish that I had pulled out my IEMs and compared it more, but the show was closing up, and the sales guys for AK were hitting me hard with "Don't you want to get rid of all that stuff and upgrade to this".  I told them it couldn't drive my headphones, didn't sound as good, and bailed.  I could have stuck around and tried my IEM's, but I very much doubt that would change my mind.  I think this is for people with more money than sense or taste, like so many audiophool products.  I would guess that the metal chassis is by far the most expensive part.  They certainly didn't spend much on the crappy software.  Why not just use Rockbox with it, it is open source, and much, much, much better.

What would I pay >$1K for?

A 256 gig iPod Touch that plays 96/24 and has a quality amp section.

Well you can mod the amp section. So 96/24 and FLAC would be a winner:)

Taking for granted that iRiver hasn't exactly been subtle in its disembrace of gender egalitarianism in the past,





It is not that surprising that their rep at Munich fits the audiophile archetype of the awkward male nerd (VP of marketing, mind you):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k28P8H52hkY

I don't know whether to give them brownie points for not hiring a convention model in a crass attempt to project whatever sex appeal and exclusivity their product is said to embody, or to deduct points for putting forth an awkward talking head who pretty much has to be prompted by the interviewer.

It's mean to criticize a Korean doing his best to maintain the company line in English at a German locale, I know, but in a sick way it's funny to see how haphazard A&K is as a luxury brand.

Interesting how quickly that ended at the mention of price:)

Presentation a little lackluster all through. You really have to wonder how serious they take these trade shows to put forward a presence of that calibre.