I’ve run into a problem with the new iPhone 17 Pro Max not working with the Astell and Kern HC4 dongle and had been considering buying the new HC 5 which is about to be released but will wait for assurance that the problem has been fixed
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Is this really a problem with ARC?
I suspect it’s a compatibility issue with Astell and Kern HC4 dongle and the iPhone 17?
I was gonna say the same thing. The title of this thread seems to be a bit misleading.
Yes. I asked a couple of weeks ago in this forum whether the transfer of Roon to the new iPhone 17 went smoothly and the answer was yes and bought the phone and found that the roon content did not transfer and my dongle no longer worked and thought others in the community might want to know this. It may be a generic problem related to how the phone gets power and will begin to affect more roon users such as the one who recently posted about his phone shutting down
I understand that but as I see it, whilst this does affect Roon users the root cause is outside of Roon’s scope as it’s a compatibility issue between the A&K and iPhone 17.
As such I’m moving this topic to Audio Gear Talk and adjusting the title.
Understand. Hopefully it isn’t a generic problem that will hit home as the new iPhone takes over
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I am also waiting to read reviews of the new HC5. I am also an iPhone 17 Pro Max user and compatibility — because of changes in the iPhone 17 — is a concern. However, this issue was raised in the dedicated thread at Head-Fi and A&K said that it tested successfully by their engineering team. I’ll still wait until there are reviews from customers who can verify this.
Wise. My HC4 does not work and I’ve got the HC 5 on order.
Interestingly just found that my old HC2 works with iPhone 17 Pro Max
Interesting. Let’s see how reliable the HC5 is with it.
Incidentally, since getting my iPhone 17, my Fiio Q5s DAC/AMP does not work with it unless I restart the phone with the Q5s already plugged in. Not sure if it is related, but it is incredibly frustrating and it has made me look for a replacement. Hence my potential interest in the HC5.
I believe several brands are affected by the same power issue.
The Type-C power delivery protocol on the iPhone 17 series seems to have changed, and this issue bothered me for quite a few days. At first I thought it was a cable problem, so I even replaced the adapter cable, but it didn’t help. Later I bought a Belkin dual USB-C adapter, connected it to the HC4 and then to my earphones, and that finally solved the problem.
Now Astell&Kern has officially stated that a hardware replacement is required. You can check the details on their website:
They offer a paid mainboard replacement. I asked the seller I bought it from, and the cost is about 200 RMB here. I’m not sure how much it costs in your area. Personally, I don’t want the trouble, so I decided not to replace it.
Thanks for this information and for the link. I bought and am now using the HC5 with the iPhone 17 and it’s excellent – as good as my SP-3000. AK postponed delivery of the HC5 by a month to resolve the problem I think and it’s good to know that AK is standing behind their older product but it seems that this announcement is restricted to Asia and doesn’t apply in North America
I just received my HC5 and use with iphone16. I also feel it is just as good sound as my sp3000 with better wifi throughput. It lets me stream 16fs pggb files with roon and arc on the iphone. Of course in that useage the battery is hit hard but it is bit perfect.
I’m playing hi-res files downloaded from Qobuz and my own dsd abums offline via Roon ARC on the iPhone 17 Max with the AK’s DAR and IEM’s. Now we need someone to come up with a way to overcome the iPhone’s limitations on CarPlay!