[audio-]

i would love to have the Kann Cube, but the SR 25 is my first, and probably not last, A&K. I cannot compare with Kann Cube or with SR15, but the sound of the SR25 for me is the best I have ever experienced in a portable device. I come from Iphone XR with dragonfly black, then sony nwa-55 and finally sony nwa-105 which I returned for the capped volume of European models and horrible battery life. Sound in the SR25 is sublime. I love all types of music but specially for classical the thing performs really well. Violins in this player are out of this world! So soft! Also, I found particularly good for vocals. I have the Sennheiser HD 599 which excell with this player. Sound is also good with my Sony wh1000xm3. Very good with Bluetooth and I have just received Final E4000 iem and the sound is excellent with a balanced cable. I still have the sony nwa-55 and the iphone+dragonfly. The iphone I do not use anymore for music, the sony only for the Bluetooth receiver function not available in the Sr25. I like to watch sometimes concerts at night and the sennheiser - sony - bluetooth give me the best solution so far. I have tried to stream through dlna with the SR25, but I get an annoying delay and image and sound loose synchronization.
I am very happy with the sound quality, excellent battery life and general functions, works well with all the platforms that I have tried: Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal. Dlna function with Ak connect works well. I have also tried the dac funcion and works perfectly again delivering a very beautiful sound. The device is really small and portable. So if you are looking for something portable, I can only recommend it.
is it perfect? Of course not. The user interface is not so cool, much better in the sony nwa-105. UI, I believe is the same as Kann Cube. Wifi range could be better. Connection is sometimes lost, something rarely happening with my iphone.
i hope this helps

Thanks for an incredibly detailed assessment!

Have you had any luck with the SR25 Bluetooth in a vehicle? I bought the Kann Cube partly to use in my car, but in the manual (buried somewhere) it says Kann Cube won’t work with car Bluetooth and Astell & Kern stated to me they have no plans to fix it.

By the way, I have heard good things about the DragonFly. For example the Red uses an ESS ES9038Q2M. For comparison the Kann Cube uses the ESS ES9038pro in dual dac configuration, so the dac chips are very similar.

One other question. How do you like your Sennheiser IEMs? I have been wanting to upgrade my Sony headphones and I can actually buy a Sennheiser IEM through Drop or even visit their brand store in San Francisco (even with COVID-19 happening! Pretty serious commitment to be selling headphones in the middle of a pandemic!).

Thanks very much again!

 

[Luis Mad]

Hi, my pleasure.
i am not sure what you mean with car bluetooth, is it any different to any other Bluetooth? My car is already 11 years old. I have a Bluetooth adapter, Eximtrade Mercedes media interface MMI to Bluetooth and it works perfectly. It took some time to find the network, i had to try two or three times, but once connected it worked really well. Recently I did a two hour drive and no disconnections or any other problem. I have also connected Sony headphones and a Denon amplifier with Bluetooth with the same results, also a bit difficult to connect but once connected no issues.
As to the Dragonfly, mine is the more basic model. Sound is not bad at all but very far from the quality of A&K. A different league. Also the connection to the Iphone with the camera adapter is not very practical, rather uncomfortable.
My current Sennheiser are not the iems, but the over ear headphones, the HD599, I can only speak wonders of them. They are really amazing for classical music, are extremely comfortable and are good value, at least in my country, you can easily find very good offers for them regularly.
About Sennheiser iems, I have had three of the cheaper models. Last was the CX 5.00. Cables break very easily but I like Sennheiser sound.
Stay safe!

 

[Facta]

Curious. Any app from APK library can be installed on CUBE? Or just a few approved ones?

 

[Newsee]

Curious. Any app from APK library can be installed on CUBE? Or just a few approved ones?

Just the approved ones.

 

[Facta]

Just the approved ones.

Thank you. Could you please share the link to find the list of approved apps from APK?

 

[thecrow]

Thank you. Could you please share the link to find the list of approved apps from APK?

https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/support/faq/view.asp?li=1000606

 

[Nostoi]

Has anyone used the Cube with the PEE41 cable to connect to an external amp. If so, how is it? Clean, convincing, transparent?

 

[OverlordRush]

so which port does it play out of???

 

[Newsee]

Is it possible to operate the Kann Cube while it is connected to a wall socked for charging? Does this affect the sound?

Yes, it is possible to operate while on charger. I have not noticed any difference in sound, however, I was just checking it shortly.

 

[Nostoi]

Yes, it is possible to operate while on charger. I have not noticed any difference in sound, however, I was just checking it shortly.

What about when used as a DAC on a laptop? Does the Kann hold a charge or does it slowly drain?

 

[471724]

Yes, it is possible to operate while on charger. I have not noticed any difference in sound, however, I was just checking it shortly.

I tried this and noticed a small difference: just a little grunge or grain was added to the sound . Not much, but enough to not do this regularly. It's not surprising there would be at least some sonic effect due to AC-derived noise from the charger. One of the reasons for the outstanding sound of the Cube is its isolation from AC noise.

 

[Fontaine]

Thank you for the update. We will take a look. I do know that some of the streaming services such as Spotify are blocking downloads of their APKs from APKPure for only North America residents, but allowing the APK to be downloaded from other countries without an issue. We are currently exploring other options for these cases.

@JasonNYC
Hi Jason,

Looks like the problem with sideloading apk files is not just apkpure.com specific. I've just tried to install Onkyo HF Player apk file taken from another apk website which is considered safe and legitimate - apkmirror.com. I use xapk installer installed on Kann Cube, because otherwise the player doesn't see the apk files that I put in the Open Service folder. Anyway, I go to Service menu item > open xapk installer > see the Onkyo HF Player apk > tap on Install > tap on Next > tap Install again and get a message : "Parse Error. There was a problem parsing the package".

Tried this with Onkyo HF Player apk files from both apkpure and apkmirror resources. Get exactly the same error message. And I'm not based in the North America region, so shouldn't be about the region restrictions, either.

Have the latest firmware update on my Kann Cube. I have even checked the MD5, SHA1 and SHA256 hashes for both apks - looks perfect. So yes, please ping the team and have them take a closer look at the problem.

 

[Newsee]

What about when used as a DAC on a laptop? Does the Kann hold a charge or does it slowly drain?

I was doing a quick check for you today. I made a power off/ power on to make sure no sideloaded app is running. Connected the Kann Cube to a desktop computer to an USB3 port. The battery level was 36%. Turned on USB-DAC mode. Connected my LCD-3 to the Cube, set my usual listening level 76, started up Qobuz on the PC and started to play Grimes for 15 mimutes.
Then I turned off USB-DAC mode and checked the battery level, which was 38%. -> Slowly charge.

It is an interesting result, while a year back there were some complains from users that the battery slowly drains while in USB mode. I remember using the Cube in USB-DAC mode, where the battery run out. Then somehow it was not a topic any more even with 4 hours sessions.
I suppose the change has someting to do with the firmware upgrades.

 

[fedfan6]

Has anyone used the Cube with the PEE41 cable to connect to an external amp. If so, how is it? Clean, convincing, transparent?

I just bought the Yamaha A-S2200 integrated amplifier which has an XLR connection so did buy the PEE41 too. Just set up the amp today. So far sounds good, listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits DCC. Of course the amp needs break-in, and this is a great mastering, but it does seem clean and transparent thus far. Will give more impressions later. My old amp was the Denon PMA-2000IVR which has served me well for a long time.

 

[Nostoi]

I was doing a quick check for you today. I made a power off/ power on to make sure no sideloaded app is running. Connected the Kann Cube to a desktop computer to an USB3 port. The battery level was 36%. Turned on USB-DAC mode. Connected my LCD-3 to the Cube, set my usual listening level 76, started up Qobuz on the PC and started to play Grimes for 15 mimutes.
Then I turned off USB-DAC mode and checked the battery level, which was 38%. -> Slowly charge.

It is an interesting result, while a year back there were some complains from users that the battery slowly drains while in USB mode. I remember using the Cube in USB-DAC mode, where the battery run out. Then somehow it was not a topic any more even with 4 hours sessions.
I suppose the change has someting to do with the firmware upgrades.

I just bought the Yamaha A-S2200 integrated amplifier which has an XLR connection so did buy the PEE41 too. Just set up the amp today. So far sounds good, listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits DCC. Of course the amp needs break-in, and this is a great mastering, but it does seem clean and transparent thus far. Will give more impressions later. My old amp was the Denon PMA-2000IVR which has served me well for a long time.

Thank you both for responding and providing this info - much appreciated.