[The jedi Baritone]

Using my KC in DAC mode the first time in about 5 hours I had no battery, the second time I used it it actually charged slowly, really slow but I could use it and was charging, the first time I was surprised but then I don’t remember if it was connected to an usb 3 or 2,the second time I am pretty sure it was a 3,0. Nevertheless I will try it again and check if it does charge and play as a DAC. Will come back with this in a few days, or better at the end of the week.

 

[mightyKyn]

@mightyKyn you are the second or third person I have heard say that the Kann Cube destroys the Sony TA-ZH1ES. Now, it's getting hard for me to ignore! I love my TA-ZH1ES, but would like something a little more practical since a lot of my listening is done with a laptop these days. I already have a nice DAP, but the Kann could be a nice "stay home" rig that can serve as a DAP, USB DAC for my desktop or laptop, etc. and also my only source of music is Tidal. It seems like this thing was made for my use case, other than I have at least 10 IEMs with 4.4mm cables. UGH! I hate adapters and it's why I went 4.4mm in the first place.

Anyway, before my thinking-out-loud rant above I was going to ask: could you elaborate a little bit on the TA-ZH1ES test you did vs. the Kann Cube? I saw the PHA-3 which I would expect it to handily beat, but I'm still surprised that a top of the line desktop rig was easily slaughtered by the Cube. Would love to know more, any details you can!

-Collin-

Holographic soundstage VS TAZ

literally transformed the Z1R

when I tested balanced vs unbalanced on the TAZ with Z1R sounded a bit better but it was nowhere near as pronounced... to the extent the Z1R seemed like a different set o of cans.

very noticeable to everyone I let listen to as well.

TAZ.. MEH

 

[mightyKyn]

the guys selling his kann cube... DM me.

 

[mightyKyn]

just did some A/B with LCD 4Z (silver cable) and Z1R (copper cable) on the cube . both balanced

interesting

there is some music that the LCD4Z outperforms the Z1R on... Pentatonix type vocals...

BUT

although the soundstage is larger on the 4Z... vocals seem to get lost in more complicated mixes... something seems to be missing.

the soundstage on thr Z1R is great but you get a more intimate soundstage... which overall seems to sound better... vocals more forward.

with 4Z found I was turning up the vol to bring out vocals but the accompanying music too loud.

the Z1R seems to be a much better generalist on the Cube and the best I have ever heard them.

Comparing now with MQA.

LCD4Z CLEARLY wins on MQA...

very interesting... lower quality recordings fall apart with expanded soundstage.

most redbook unless exceptionally recorded will sound better on Z1R with smaller soundstage.

MQA and above 4Z SHine.

goddammit... need to drop 3k for this.

so without exception Z1R sounds better on cube for redbook in 90% of cases.

MQA and above 4Z wins and is stellar substantially better than Z1R.... really interesting how it looses its mojo with most under MQA.

literally if you have a 4k tv you need 4K content... this is 4Z.

we need computational DACs. way ahead on photos here... i see a new era of dacs that will literally usher in a new era of music will... most likely take 5+ years as demand is not there like photos in smartphones. NONE of the current DAC makers have the engineering talent to currently do this.

 

[subguy812]

@mightyKyn you are the second or third person I have heard say that the Kann Cube destroys the Sony TA-ZH1ES. Now, it's getting hard for me to ignore! I love my TA-ZH1ES, but would like something a little more practical since a lot of my listening is done with a laptop these days. I already have a nice DAP, but the Kann could be a nice "stay home" rig that can serve as a DAP, USB DAC for my desktop or laptop, etc. and also my only source of music is Tidal. It seems like this thing was made for my use case, other than I have at least 10 IEMs with 4.4mm cables. UGH! I hate adapters and it's why I went 4.4mm in the first place.

Anyway, before my thinking-out-loud rant above I was going to ask: could you elaborate a little bit on the TA-ZH1ES test you did vs. the Kann Cube? I saw the PHA-3 which I would expect it to handily beat, but I'm still surprised that a top of the line desktop rig was easily slaughtered by the Cube. Would love to know more, any details you can!

-Collin-

Collin...it is sweet...really nuff said

 

[havagr8da]

Well in my last post I had to admit the honeymoon is over, but reconciled to the fact that I love this Kann Cube. So much so that I thought, maybe I could introduce her to some of my old friends. Well in a previous post I told you how that turned out. It was great! Then another pal stopped by (THX AAA 799) so introductions were made. She (Kann Cube) said Hey maybe your old pal would like to meet my BFF (Fearless Audio S8 Freedom). Why not! I thought this might be a great match up. To make a long story short. It ended up at 4am and FLASH I realized I had to go to work at 9am, sadness set in as the night was cut short. By the way her BFF is a 10/10.

 

[The jedi Baritone]

I just enjoy a post like this havgr8da

 

[omoanya]

I have it. Max rip is 16/44.1 however the SQ is top notch, noticeable difference compare to my pc rom ripper with easy audio copy. Its full body and less rough, rip all my CDs collection again, good investment for me. Be prepared to spend lot of time as it rips really slow , with medium (fast) speed and error correction enabled.

I have it. Max rip is 16/44.1 however the SQ is top notch, noticeable difference compare to my pc rom ripper with easy audio copy. Its full body and less rough, rip all my CDs collection again, good investment for me. Be prepared to spend lot of time as it rips really slow , with medium (fast) speed and error correction enabled.

Nice! Thank you.

 

[omoanya]

It depends on the very nice hi-fi system.

If its DAC section is better than the one in the Cube, use an optical Toslink cable. Connect one end to the Cube's 3.5 port, the other end to the Toslink input of the hi-fi. You may have to buy an appropriate cable, or a toslink/3.5mm adapter to a normal toslink cable. This case a digital PCM signal is transmitted from Cube to hi-fi, which is not sensitive to electrical noise. The D/A conversion happens on the hi-fi.

If you want to benefit from the super DAC of the Cube, use the 3.5mm output with a 3.5mm to RCA electrical cable.

As far as I understood the different explanations I've read so far, balanced output shall not be connected to single ended input, it may even damage the amplifiers.

I suspect the wired connection will give better results than aptxhd - in that case the small bluewave makes the D/A conversion, plus some compression applies from aptxhd. Please keep us updated, including what hi-fi you have.

Thank you, that helps and I will definitely pursue the toslink firstly and compare to the 3.5 wired and maybe invest in a decent 3.5 cable. The hifi is RedWine audio battery powered so pretty quiet the dac is the RWA bellina. I'll report back w results.

 

[nicodem]

I have it. Max rip is 16/44.1 however the SQ is top notch, noticeable difference compare to my pc rom ripper with easy audio copy. Its full body and less rough, rip all my CDs collection again, good investment for me. Be prepared to spend lot of time as it rips really slow , with medium (fast) speed and error correction enabled.

Can you tell how long per CD approximetly with these settings?

 

[omoanya]

My Cube made its first visit to the studio, it was a big hit w the engineers and now has an official place as an additional mix reference playback system. Just waiting on the xlrs so we can patch her in properly!

 

[Terry Newton]

Solved.

Is there a way I can add a cd to my Cube but mot have it play unless I select it?

I have my Cube on shuffle and will keep it on that setting but when I select the cd I want to add I want it to play in sequence.It's the Chesky Headphone Test CD.Can it be done or do I just have to listen to an occasional test track,I know I can skip that track manually.

If it can't be done then I would have to go to albums,select the test cd,and then disable shuffle just for that cd.Not a big deal but having the test cd sitting alone and not in shuffle rotation would be nice.

 

[audio-]

Has anyone had success with connecting KC to a vehicle? I have an in-vehicle infotainment system specifically made for Android devices. When I connected the KC, a pop-up window appeared on the KC which said something along the lines of "Won't work, would you like to learn more about Android car connections?" I had the option to click to learn more or just cancel out. Sorry, that is just an approximation of what appeared in the pop-up box, I didn't think to take a photo.

Is it likely that KC should work with autos? This is actually my use case as I sit in traffic every day (even weekends).

I tried to do a Bluetooth connection to the vehicle but it is not even close to working. Popping noises and dropouts with sudden pop-back-in but skipping about a quarter of a second of the music. In other words, totally unusable.

This will be the case for every 2019 Honda vehicle. Oddly enough, I have several other Bluetooth devices, KC connects to all of them flawlessly (although they are all Aptx or Aptx HD, Honda Bluetooth is most likely SBC). Also I can connect any of my other Bluetooth sources and ipods/iphone to the infotainment system, they all work perfectly. So it is just the KC as it connects to the Honda 2019 in-vehicle infotainment system.

There are actually two reasons I mention this in the forum, one is it's my primary use case, but two, this I am pretty sure will be easy to reproduce by the A&K engineering team. Just try to connect to any 2019 Honda infotainment system...

Hope to hear from @JasonNYC about this...

 

[mightyKyn]

A/B'd the Chord TT VS CUbe today... not surprising TT wins. The "digital sheen" wiht the cube recedes... music thicker.

Then dropped in the Mscaler... another level.

Played some dream academy on the Cube... as I stated before I believe 90% of recording on earth suck... so DA was tinny... sounded old. 4Z + Mscaler + TT... sounded better tyhan a well produced Tidal Master...

Damn in can't wait for for 2025 when this tech MAY be portable. Mojo 3? Hugo 4?

Or lets just call it the BOB (Dave level dac, poly & mscaler in a unit the size of Mojo) - Cosmic

A/B'd the Z1R, LCD 4Z and Utopia on a Chord TT + MSCALER AND DAVE + MSCALER today for a few hours.
4Z destroys the Z1R...

4Z WAY better than Utopia... not sure how Focal can price them in same category as 4Z.

FYI MScaler is the real deal ... may get TT and MScaler with 4Z phenomenal...

Dave + Mscaler better than TT + Mscaler.

Did not get a chance to do serious A/B between those 2. Will try at a later date.

Will have TT + MSCALER for three day this weekend with my personal 4Z, IER Z1R and Z1R

If anyone wants me to test some music etc... let me know.

anybody shouting "end game" without listening to this setup is f'n nuts

 

[jmills8]

A/B'd the Chord TT VS CUbe today... not surprising TT wins. The "digital sheen" wiht the cube recedes... music thicker.

Then dropped in the Mscaler... another level.

Played some dream academy on the Cube... as I stated before I believe 90% of recording on earth suck... so DA was tinny... sounded old. 4Z + Mscaler + TT... sounded better tyhan a well produced Tidal Master...

Damn in can't wait for for 2025 when this tech MAY be portable. Mojo 3? Hugo 4?

Or lets just call it the BOB (Dave level dac, poly & mscaler in a unit the size of Mojo) - Cosmic

A/B'd the Z1R, LCD 4Z and Utopia on a Chord TT + MSCALER AND DAVE + MSCALER today for a few hours.
4Z destroys the Z1R...

4Z WAY better than Utopia... not sure how Focal can price them in same category as 4Z.

FYI MScaler is the real deal ... may get TT and MScaler with 4Z phenomenal...

Dave + Mscaler better than TT + Mscaler.

Did not get a chance to do serious A/B between those 2. Will try at a later date.

Will have TT + MSCALER for three day this weekend with my personal 4Z, IER Z1R and Z1R

If anyone wants me to test some music etc... let me know.

anybody shouting "end game" without listening to this setup is f'n nuts

Another AK fail.