Astell and Kern SR15 fault

chasmore

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Hi all, I am hoping some bright spark out there may be able to help me.

The issue is simple. I have about 75000 tracks in my library. When I load the first 50,000 or so, functionality is great. As I increase the number on there, the specific issue crops up which is that when I switch the player off (whether in mid track or having paused it first), when I switch it back on it goes to the following error screen instead of back to the track that was playing.
1592393550248.png

I cannot tell you how irritating this is.

Now, I know you might say do you really need to have 70000+tracks on it at any given time. and the answer may well be not but what I want from this device is something I can carry all my music on so that depending on where I am at any given time I can choose to listen to it on shuffle or I can play specific albums.

Given that it works properly up to around 50,000 tracks it must presumably be some sort of processing error whereby the additional number of tracks can't be handled.

Any assistance gratefully received but right now it is destroying the pleasure I get from this machine.
 
Maybe tell us what an “SR15” is?
I know it's a player but what brand?
 
sorry - it's an Astell and Kern - from their A&Norma range.
 
Torq is probably correct this is likely an indexing limitation in the software. This is the trade-off of using a dap and dap manufacturers have to apply track count limits because the available processing power is finite. I doubt A&K would update the software when 1tb = approx 40k of lossless 16 bit CD quality files as it is. It might not even be possible because the software is linked to the hardware. This is all speculation though have you reached out to A&K direct?
 
Thanks Steven - have only just found the means of communicating direct to them so have sent a message and am awaiting a reply.

That makes sense and if correct then I have two options - live with it or reduce the content to the manageable limit.

Cheers
 
Further to the above, A&K tell me there is "no track number limit". Which leaves me puzzled. In case anyone has any bright ideas I thought I would set out the whole story with pictures of what I am looking at on the player:


To recap:
1 I switch on
2 I wait for media scanning to finish (10-15 mins). Note - Doing a manual scan at this point (which takes c90 mins doesn't change what happens next.
3 I go into songs (takes c15 seconds for them to appear)
4 I select a song at random it plays but as per the below it says "band name" - "unknown album". this happens every time for the first song I select.

1592485784306.png


(when it moves onto the second track it gives track name and album name)
5 if, in the first ten seconds or so of playing I try to pause or forward, I get the following error:

1592485856299.png


(but the track plays, with the correct information showing, if I leave it for a few seconds before pressing play)
6 I leave it playing a few tracks then I switch it off
7 when I switch it back on, I get the following screen instead of the last track that was playing:


1592485977963.png


If I press play I get the following "no recently played song"

1592486211823.png


But the player clearly retains all the songs previously played as when I swipe up it shows the most recently played tracks including the one that was last playing before I switched off:

1592486044966.png


sorry for the length of this but I wanted to give as much info as possible in case anyone has any bright ideas...….(he says in hope).

Thanks for your time.
 
The message "unplayable files" is probably instructive. Some of the files are not like the others and are messing up the media library. Like it or not you need to identify those files and remove them and go from there
 
Thanks. Really appreciate your trying to help. As best as I can tell there are only two types of file - mp3 or M4A*. Both types play individually. That error message only comes up the first track I play (regardless of which track it is) and only if I try to pause or skip forward during the first ten seconds of play. After that the "unplayable files" message doesn't come up.

From a complete dummy's point of vie (me being the technological dummy!) it feels like it needs a bit of time on being switched on to process the number of files on the microsd card and that affects the player picking up the last played track and how the first track plays initially.

But that may be complete uninformed nonsense.

*if you are aware of an easy way to list the types of file on a card, I can double check this thoroughly but everything comes out of iTunes and there are only two kinds of file listed (save for 2 protected AAC tracks which I have removed from the Microsd card).
 
You should go further and start over. With a blank SD card proceed to format the SD card with the player.

Once done, remove SD card from player.

Use your computer to transfer tracks to the music folder that should now exist on the SD card.

Then put the SD card filled with music into the player and allow a fresh database build

Could go more nuclear. Before the above steps also format the player, which means losing your settings and any play time counter etc, check firmware is up to date and then begin the above steps.

I would also be trying with a different SD card just to be sure
 
You should go further and start over. With a blank SD card proceed to format the SD card with the player.

Once done, remove SD card from player.

Use your computer to transfer tracks to the music folder that should now exist on the SD card.

Then put the SD card filled with music into the player and allow a fresh database build

Could go more nuclear. Before the above steps also format the player, which means losing your settings and any play time counter etc, check firmware is up to date and then begin the above steps.

I would also be trying with a different SD card just to be sure
Thanks Steven - busy weekend ahead! Will give that all a go and see how I get on. Will let you know. Have a good weekend.
 
You should go further and start over. With a blank SD card proceed to format the SD card with the player.

Once done, remove SD card from player.

Use your computer to transfer tracks to the music folder that should now exist on the SD card.

Then put the SD card filled with music into the player and allow a fresh database build

Could go more nuclear. Before the above steps also format the player, which means losing your settings and any play time counter etc, check firmware is up to date and then begin the above steps.

I would also be trying with a different SD card just to be sure
Me again - I have now tried all of the above (other than a new microsd card with no success. The same problem.

I shall now try a brand new card which will only have been formatted in the player and then had the music copied onto it. If that doesn't work then it must surely be down to a track number limit...….
 
Sorry to read that. Could be a database limit rather than a track limit per se.

If the new blank SD card does not work, the only other step I would suggest is to start again with a blank SD card and put the music onto the SD card in batches. Test the SD card in the player before adding the next batch of files.

Eventually you will (a) discover the limit, or (b) discover the problem files*

*I realise you say 2x protected tracks were removed but that does not mean other tracks are not also causing issues or were in fact the real culprit
 
OK - so no joy. Same problem. Once I get past 50,000 tracks it all gets flakey.

And I have heard back from A&K via their European service operation in Germany:

We got a feedback from Headquarter regarding the limitation of numbers for AK devices: the limit is 10.000 files !!!!

Ak devices are proofed for max. 10.000 files to play without any issues.


Now I am quite annoyed - one of the reasons I bought the player was the capacity for a 1TB card. There was nothing published about a track limit of 10,000. I simply would not have bought it if there had been.
 
They may tested the device for 10,000 tracks is not the same as it will not work with over 10,000 tracks. It is merely what they will vouch for :)

As above, 1tb of lossless CD quality files is approx 44,000 files. Your 75,000 tracks within 1tb must mean there are lots of lossy quality files. The majority of people who even know what this device is will not report this problem. That's not said to cause upset, is just outlining the current state of technology and software

For example the TOTL SP2000 dap has 512gb onboard storage and accepts additional micro SD. I would be confident of fitting 40k to 50k of lossless CD files onto the SP2000
 
They may tested the device for 10,000 tracks is not the same as it will not work with over 10,000 tracks. It is merely what they will vouch for :)

As above, 1tb of lossless CD quality files is approx 44,000 files. Your 75,000 tracks within 1tb must mean there are lots of lossy quality files. The majority of people who even know what this device is will not report this problem. That's not said to cause upset, is just outlining the current state of technology and software

For example the TOTL SP2000 dap has 512gb onboard storage and accepts additional micro SD. I would be confident of fitting 40k to 50k of lossless CD files onto the SP2000

no upset caused...quite understand the point and accept that I am unusual here in prioritising quantity and lacking in the technological depth of understanding of most on here.
 
Out of interest what happens when you insert the SD card into an Android smartphone and attempt to play music with your app of choice
 
My phone is a Google Pixel which doesn't have a slot for a card...….and I am not sure my wife's phone does either...…..
 
my inevitable next question is whether anyone knows of a device which can handle 75,000 files properly?
 

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