[Cat Music]

I tried it according to the instruction above. My experience differs a bit.

Sitting in very silent environment. I set low gain on Cube (however same result in high gain). Choose music - Mozart piano sonatas HiRes 96/24. Set decent volume. Concentrate if I hear hiss. Difficult to judge, the music is beautiful. Pause music. Then I can hear some weak hiss, not much louder than the hiss I hear when the iem is in my ear, but not connected to anything. Weak, but audible. For 3 seconds. Then the hiss is gone, no difference if I plug or unplug the iem. I can also hear the same level of hiss when I concentrate on it, where there a silence period in the music.

I have not even noticed the hiss until this explicit experiment. I can imagine there are people with more sensive ears on high frequencies, who experiece this differently.

I will continue enjoy music, not concentrate on the existence of hiss .

Can the Kann Cube move your LCD-3?

 

[audio-]

No, you are not right. What you purchase on Qobuz can be downloaded DRM-free and played with any player at your convenience.
As you see above, there is more than hope. Once you downloaded the purchased content on your PC from Qobuz, you can copy it to the Cube to the other songs, and create playlist. You do not need the Qobuz sideloaded app any more.
That is correct (regarding the streaming content)Only the purchased ones. Not the offline streaming files.
Not that I know.
You do own them, and you can listen to them by any player, even if you quit your Qobuz account.

I hope that helps. I tried it out, it works.

Thanks very very much for your careful assessment.

I really really think Qobuz is insanely great. They seem to have a lot of music in 16/44 which is just fine for my ears. Anything higher than that is a wonderful bonus.

Is Qobuz an anomaly or do the other installed or side-loadable apps offer purchasable DRM free music as well?

Thanks again!

 

[Newsee]

Can the Kann Cube move your LCD-3?

Oh yes, it can drive it very well, if that's what you meant. Recently there were some question marks, if a deskop dac/amp could drive it even better. However, my listening preference is mobile and I like what I hear, so I have not bother to investigate it any further yet.

 

[KevP]

im trying to navigate thrlugh downoaded songs on quobuz and its exremely slow. Evenything I do it failed to load or doeesnt load at all. Its infuriating. my internet is fine. Even song ive downloaded dont load. why do artists and songits dits appear in offline if I havent downloaded them before? I love the sound of the kann cube but I feel like throwing though a solid window. does it not work well with quobuz? it makes me mad with the kann but i know its a good item. what is going wrong?? why are my offline downlaods not working with no internet?im about to sell or throw this player in a deep hole. which saddents me as it sounds good

Qobuz is rubbish on any Android device, Zcubr included. It’s not the Cube’s fault. It’s a Qobuz problem.

 

[HarlanDraka]

So my Kann Cube arrived on Friday and I had the whole weekend to test it.

First impressions:

- Dimensions: The Cube is bigger than all the Daps I have ever tried. It can still be carried around no problem but if you are looking for a small Dap to walk around, this is not it. For my usage exclusively at home, I like it.

- Built quality: The Kann Cube is very well built and you can feel that it’s a premium product. Volume nob is smooth and the screen has good colors and saturation. The screen is nice however is not as nice as the dx220 one (but no Dap has a better screen). Holding the Kann is OK but the shape and the corners are a bit sharp. It will improve with a case (which I’ve been waiting)

- Sound: The most important part, the sound.
OMG this thing is powerful. The sound is natural, warm and meaty. The bass hits hard and has excellent body. Soundstage is wide, separation and layering top class. You can feel that it could drive everything, from IEMs to hard to drive headphones. Compared to DX220 with amp1 mk2 the sound has more body and the bass hits harder. DX220 sounds thin in comparison. The DX220 is more neutral references while the Kann Cube is more organic and more “musical”.IMO they complement each other very well. My U12T really sing with the Kann Cube.

- Hiss/Noise: I tested the Kann Cube with Iems and headphones. Generaly speaking It’s only possible to detect hiss when pausing a song and looking for it. Here’s my findings:

U12t balanced no hiss I could hear
InEar SD5 balanced - very very low hiss, almost undetectable (to my ears)
Andromeda hiss from balanced.Very very low hiss from 3.5.Not a problem for me since I was going to use the Andro with ieMatch anyway to bring the output impedance to 2.5ohm.It would have been fine anyway from 3.5 without ieMatch.
VModa M100 no hiss from 3.5
HD650 no hiss from balanced.

All in all considering all the power the Kann Cube has, I’m pretty impressed by the low amount of noise

- Software/streaming: I like the AK Software which I found very intuitive. Downloaded Tidal and Apple music with no problems. Browsing the albums in Apple Music and Tidal is pretty fast, no new smartphone fast but very good indeed. I downloaded around 4000 songs from Apple music to SD card and after that I noticed that browsing and scrolling albums was not as fast as before.Still usable but not as smooth as before.Transferred them to the internal memory and browsing was still not as fast as before.Strange. I deleted the files downloaded, restarted and it was as fast as before.Not sure if it’s a problem related to apple music compatibility. Still not a problem for me since I’m going to use the Kann only at home and I don’t need offline download.

There’s something I don’t like however and this is something that Astell and Kern may want to fix with a software update: the volume pyramids onscreen.
When you change the volume with the nob, the pyramids pop up on the screen taking the whole screen space for 2-3 seconds.What happened was that I changed the volume with the nob then I scrolled the screen to change the song and I increased the volume so much I risked to blow my ears and the IEMs I was using. Fortunately my ears and the IEMs are fine as it only lasted 2-3 seconds beforeI unplugged the IEMs but I’m now aware that I have to be extra careful and wait until the pyramids disappear before using the screen. Astell&Kern please give us an option to disable those pyramids.

Summary: I’m loving the kann Cube for what it is.Portable but more transportable player with sublime organic and powerful sound.If you are looking for a Dap to use at home or in the office and you have a mix of Iems and hard to drive headphones look no further. If you are looking for a Dap to walk around the city, first try it.

 

[HarlanDraka]

Btw did you notice any changes in sound after burn in?

 

[Newsee]

So my Kann Cube arrived on Friday and I had the whole weekend to test it.

There’s something I don’t like however and this is something that Astell and Kern may want to fix with a software update: the volume pyramids onscreen.
When you change the volume with the nob, the pyramids pop up on the screen taking the whole screen space for 2-3 seconds.What happened was that I changed the volume with the nob then I scrolled the screen to change the song and I increased the volume so much I risked to blow my ears and the IEMs I was using. Fortunately my ears and the IEMs are fine as it only lasted 2-3 seconds beforeI unplugged the IEMs but I’m now aware that I have to be extra careful and wait until the pyramids disappear before using the screen. Astell&Kern please give us an option to disable those pyramids.

You do not have to wait 3 seconds for he pyramid to disappear. You can shortly tap on it, then it disapperars immediately. You can tap anywhere for the same effect, do it on the lower quarter at the beginning to be on the safe side.The volume changes only when you swipe it. It is possible to get used to it pretty quickly.

 

[wormcycle]

You do not have to wait 3 seconds for he pyramid to disappear. You can shortly tap on it, then it disapperars immediately. You can tap anywhere for the same effect, do it on the lower quarter at the beginning to be on the safe side.The volume changes only when you swipe it. It is possible to get used to it pretty quickly.

The volume pyramid is a useless idea, purely visual effect that does not add anything to the KC usability and may a actually be harmful to your ears. There is no reason to getting used to it. It should be removed.

 

[zeroselect]

The volume pyramid is a useless idea, purely visual effect that does not add anything to the KC usability and may a actually be harmful to your ears. There is no reason to getting used to it. It should be removed.

Why? Better to have a reference. Maybe have a option to pick whether or not the touch screen affects the volume maybe.

 

[PACSman]

The volume pyramid is a useless idea, purely visual effect that does not add anything to the KC usability and may a actually be harmful to your ears. There is no reason to getting used to it. It should be removed.

I haven't had a concern about this. However, I see the point as valid and I think if only 2% of the users are at risk, it ought to be changed. I believe zeroselect is suggesting making the pyramid an option. That seems like a good way to solve the problem. Maybe someone at Head-Fi has the ear of someone with influence at A&K?

 

[JasonNYC]

I haven't had a concern about this. However, I see the point as valid and I think if only 2% of the users are at risk, it ought to be changed. I believe zeroselect is suggesting making the pyramid an option. That seems like a good way to solve the problem. Maybe someone at Head-Fi has the ear of someone with influence at A&K?

There is a redesign of the on screen volume controls coming soon in a future firmware update.

 

[The jedi Baritone]

Thinking to buy a new dap and debating between kann cube and n6ii.

Unfortunately I cannot find many reviews online for the kann cube.

How would you describe the sound signature of the cube? Neutral/Bright/analitical or warm/organic/musical?

Anybody tried sensitive IEMs (for example Andromeda) out of the 2.5 balanced? How is the noise floor?

Is it possible to download songs from tidal to the sd card?I checked the astell page about side loading apps but I can’t really get the part about offline songs from streaming services and download path.

Are the side loaded apps like tidal responsive enough?

many thanks for any answers!

Hello Harlan

I use KC with my IEMs mostly,
The Ultimate Ears Live and LCDi4
And for me KC has a neutral sound with maybe a very faint touch of warm but really not much
Nevertheless I find it to be really black silent, no noise floor no hiss on both 3,5 and 2,5 balanced outputs

I think it is a piece of remarkable technology and a class of itself. Love it.

but it is just my opinion.
George

 

[PACSman]

There is a redesign of the on screen volume controls coming soon in a future firmware update.

Someone at Head-Fi (with) the ear of someone with influence at A&K noted . Thank you for the update!

 

[Death_Block]

Someone at Head-Fi (with) the ear of someone with influence at A&K noted . Thank you for the update!

I'm happy to hear this, wasn't a fan of the volume graphic doovey either

 

[audio-]

+1 on redesigning the way volume works.

My issue with volume is I regularly set the volume to 150 when using Bluetooth and I’m switching between Bluetooth and headphones all day long. Every once in a while, I get music through my headphones at volume 150 and it takes a loooooong time for that volume knob to turn down to level 70 which is my preferred volume through headphones. So I have been connecting my headphones without wearing them. Then, after connecting the headphones, if the volume is at level 150, I rip out the 3.5mm connector as rapidly as possible to try to prevent damage to my headphones.

The + and - buttons below the volume knob in theory would work much faster at large volume changes but in practice I never use those since my hand is already on the volume knob.

It seems like the design could really be a lot better.