Astell&Kern KANN CUBE

[wormcycle]

Currently do not have any info on if or when KANN CUBE may become Roon Ready. Astell&Kern is planning on expanding Roon Ready support to more players in the future, but I cannot confirm if/when KANN CUBE will be added.

That is exactly why Kann Cube was my first A&K player and most likely it will be the last. I am not very interested in the products from a company that would crete a new platform and immediately deprioritize it, or abandon it, to focus on like five new players every year. Not interested in spending $2, $3, $4 every year.

 

[WyattEarp]

Hey folks,

I have installed Foobar2000 player on my Kann Cube (have the latest version of Kann Cube firmware).
Now, is it possible to add additional foobar skins to make Foobar look nicer ???
I've spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to do this and so far no luck. I have found a bunch of foobar skins on the Internet which are basically files with the .fbskin extensions. I have copied these files from my laptop on to the Kann Cube, have put them in the Internal Storage / OpenService / Foobar skins folder. Then I go to the main menu of Kann Cube > Services > foobar2000 > open foobar on Kann Cube > tap the screw key icon in Foobar's top right corner to go to foobar's settings > from there I tap Choose skin > and then Foobar offers the choice of only 2 stock skins : White and Black. Below there is a User Skins menu item (see the photo attached) and it says "No user skins found". There is also "Add More" menu item and when I tap Open, Foobar just opens my media folder with all the music in there. There seems to be no way to navigate to the location where I have stored foobar skins. And even if I place the foobar skin files right in my music media folder, Kann Cube just doesn't see them (as Kann Cube is not able to recognize files with .fbskin extension, I suppose).
So, is this doable at all or maybe Kann Cube doesn't offer the option of tweaking Foobar's interface with additional skins ?
It's kinda weird, because the menu item to choose skins is there in Foobar, but alas - no way to actually do this.

Thanks to everyone who is able to contribute to this discussion, guys.

Although, I have not played with Foobr2000 the Cube is designed as a music player only from what I've seen. I believe it will only read supported media files and even though you were able to install Foobar2000 it may not be able to access the player's folder structure due to how the OS is customized for the Cube.

 

[Fontaine]

Although, I have not played with Foobr2000 the Cube is designed as a music player only from what I've seen. I believe it will only read supported media files and even though you were able to install Foobar2000 it may not be able to access the player's folder structure due to how the OS is customized for the Cube.

Yeah, that seems to be the case. I know the Cube has a 'simplified' version of Android, so the user experience with Foobar on Cube is not even the same as it would have been on an Android phone with a standard vanilla Android OS.
Anyway, if someone finds smth interesting on this topic, please shout out

 

[WyattEarp]

Yeah, that seems to be the case. I know the Cube has a 'simplified' version of Android, so the user experience with Foobar on Cube is not even the same as it would have been on an Android phone with a standard vanilla Android OS.
Anyway, if someone finds smth interesting on this topic, please shout out

Why would you want to run Foobar on a DAP anyway. It's a music player already so I don't understand the point.

 

[wormcycle]

Yeah, that seems to be the case. I know the Cube has a 'simplified' version of Android, so the user experience with Foobar on Cube is not even the same as it would have been on an Android phone with a standard vanilla Android OS.
Anyway, if someone finds smth interesting on this topic, please shout out

I used Foobar on Kann Cube without any problems usually the issue is the version vs the firmware. For most of the APP supported apps the latest version may not work.
Try the version of Foobar that is widely used and a bit older.
But, if Foobar indeed cannot access the player folder structure it means that A&K screwed up. Here is their website:

Open APP Service's Supported

- All countries: 7Digital, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Audiobooks by Audible, AWA, bandcamp, Bugs, Deezer, DS Audio, Foobar2000, IDAGIO, Joox, KK BOX, KT genie, Melon, Moov, Music Mate, myTuner Radio, Nugs.net*, Onkyo Music Store, Pandora*, Player FM, Qobuz, QQ Music, Sirius XM, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tidal and Tune-In Radio.

So it is "supported" by APP but it does not work? I would not conclude that before trying different version. Comparing to when I looked at the list last time they added Spotify and Idagio, which is great, particularly when Spotify starts lossless streaming

 

[Fontaine]

Why would you want to run Foobar on a DAP anyway. It's a music player already so I don't understand the point.

Well, in fact the only reason I started messing around with Foobar on Cube is because I needed the ReplayGain option that's not available natively in Kann Cube but it's available in Foobar. I have a fair amount of albums in my music collection that are actually my own compilations and when you compile tracks like this, of course you are going to have tracks of different volume level within a single compilation. And it's annoying to change the volume up and down after each track using the Cube's volume wheel. So I decided to try out the replayGain to sort of level out the volume of all the tracks in a compilation. I knew Foobar is supported thru OpenApp services, so I thought: "What the heck, let's try it". Installed Foobar, don't have any complaints about the sound quality or anything, managed to get the replayGain work, but honestly - the interface does look pretty ugly - a fact that is acknowledged by a whole lot of users across the net who have ever tried Foobar's Android version But I guess I'll have to put up with this and forget about my aesthetic quirks. After all, the sound is good and that's what matters the most to me.

 

[wormcycle]

Why would you want to run Foobar on a DAP anyway. It's a music player already so I don't understand the point.

Way better DSP than KC native player, no degradation in SQ as all APP supported apps access the KC DACs directly without Android resampling.

 

[WyattEarp]

Well, in fact the only reason I started messing around with Foobar on Cube is because I needed the ReplayGain option that's not available natively in Kann Cube but it's available in Foobar. I have a fair amount of albums in my music collection that are actually my own compilations and when you compile tracks like this, of course you are going to have tracks of different volume level within a single compilation. And it's annoying to change the volume up and down after each track using the Cube's volume wheel. So I decided to try out the replayGain to sort of level out the volume of all the tracks in a compilation. I knew Foobar is supported thru OpenApp services, so I thought: "What the heck, let's try it". Installed Foobar, don't have any complaints about the sound quality or anything, managed to get the replayGain work, but honestly - the interface does look pretty ugly - a fact that is acknowledged by a whole lot of users across the net who have ever tried Foobar's Android version But I guess I'll have to put up with this and forget about my aesthetic quirks. After all, the sound is good and that's what matters the most to me.

I see. I just rip everything with the ReplayGain setting so I don't have that issue.

 

[WyattEarp]

Way better DSP than KC native player, no degradation in SQ as all APP supported apps access the KC DACs directly without Android resampling.

To each his own. I think the DSP is fine but maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[Newsee]

Lately I was spending more time with couch listening, making use of my Burson Conductor 3XR. I was using the USB input from mobile phone or from HiBy R8, but it was somehow uncomfortable with the cable, sometimes causing contact problems. I also bought a 10 meter optical cable to connect the TV set top box to the Burson. This made me the idea to use the Cube as streamer. With this long optical cable the Cube is sitting half a meter away from the router, no wifi problems any more, I am remote controlling it from the mobile phone by AK Connect app or by BubbleUPnP for Qobuz.

The optical input on the Conductor sounds smoother than the USB input, no contact problems, no wires, nice setup.

I am still amazed how similar sound signature has the Cube and the Conductor.

 

[nachjos]

If i am feeding the xlr into active monitors is it ok and/or wise to use the variable voltage out (as opposed to fixed 2v) as the volume control.

Does resolution drop at all - i’m thinking not (?)

i’m currently using a tc electronic level pilot
https://www.tcelectronic.com/Catego...essories/LEVEL-PILOT/p/P0D71#googtrans(en|en)
but am considering a solution with less (and better) cables

Hi together,

I buy a Adapter Cable Mini-XLR -> 3.5mm TRS for the cube to connect my cube with a external mobile amplifier. I got the cable and tested it wiht a 3.mm line input of a Wireless Speaker. Works without problems, BUT: I can use the Volume Wheel of the cube to adjust the volume level on the Wireless Speaker! How could that be? I think the XLR-Output is fixed?

 

[thecrow]

Hi together,

I buy a Adapter Cable Mini-XLR -> 3.5mm TRS for the cube to connect my cube with a external mobile amplifier. I got the cable and tested it wiht a 3.mm line input of a Wireless Speaker. Works without problems, BUT: I can use the Volume Wheel of the cube to adjust the volume level on the Wireless Speaker! How could that be? I think the XLR-Output is fixed?

Have a look at posts 1113-1117 in this thread and the video there.

i no longer have the kann cube but the 5pin output can work as a ”standard“ output as well as line out. Via the settings selection.

hope that helps

 

[nachjos]

Have a look at posts 1113-1117 in this thread and the video there.

i no longer have the kann cube but the 5pin output can work as a ”standard“ output as well as line out. Via the settings selection.

hope that helps

Tanks for the post links. But no, this doesn't really help. OK, I know now that XLR out is controlled fully by the DAC Chip. In my understanding I have to be carefully to adjust the volume knob always to 150, otherwise I will lose resolution on the DAC. That's not what I want, I like to have a fixed output and volume control on my mobile amp.

There are a few other things:
- I can set Balanced Out too and then choose different output voltage to XLR. But that doesn't have any impact, it's always and only the volume knob.
- I can use the Equalizer during XLR connection. Is this done by the DAC too and if yes, will I also loose resolution on the DAC when using it?

 

[thecrow]

Tanks for the post links. But no, this doesn't really help. OK, I know now that XLR out is controlled fully by the DAC Chip. In my understanding I have to be carefully to adjust the volume knob always to 150, otherwise I will lose resolution on the DAC. That's not what I want, I like to have a fixed output and volume control on my mobile amp.

There are a few other things:
- I can set Balanced Out too and then choose different output voltage to XLR. But that doesn't have any impact, it's always and only the volume knob.
- I can use the Equalizer during XLR connection. Is this done by the DAC too and if yes, will I also loose resolution on the DAC when using it?

Don’t you just have to select “line out” (and maybe “xlr”)?

i’m only working from memory here

when the usa wakes up hopefully
someone else can give you more info because that’s all i got

 

[nachjos]

Don’t you just have to select “line out” (and maybe “xlr”)?

i’m only working from memory here

when the usa wakes up hopefully
someone else can give you more info because that’s all i got

Select "line out" doesn't have any effect on the volume adjustment. After select "line out" I can choose the output voltage for alle line outs (2.5mm, 3.5mm, XLR), but a change here does also have no effect. So no way to get a fixed line out thru XLR.