[aquarium-stereo]

Standard Bluetooth supports less than CD quality sound transmission. apt X supports 16bit/44.1 CD quality streaming and apt x HD supports up to 24bit/48Khz streaming over Bluetooth. We include Bluetooth for convenience, but it is not a reliable collection if you are listening to files at CD quality or better. Very few car head units and Bluetooth speakers are supporting apt or apt X Bluetooth. We are seeing a number of headphones that are supporting up to aptX HD. All of our players support aptX HD streaming up to 24/48 if you have a compatible aptX HD headphone.

So if I do have only Bluetooth the sound would be worse, with less resolution if A&K put in the bandwidth hogging track information.

I would still go with that for the conveyance of knowing what track I was playing.

Having had satellite radio, the Kann even with the less resolution would still sound better.

Regards

Bill

 

[aquarium-stereo]

The 2017 Lexus has Bluetooth, I called the dealer and will meet with them on Monday to find which Bluetooth I have. Right now I’m sure I only have Bluetooth and not the AptX and definitely not the AptX HD. I don’t think any car presently has the newer AptX HD. I will let everyone know more on Monday when I find out what type of Bluetooth I have.

So if I do have only Bluetooth the sound would be worse, with less resolution if A&K put in the bandwidth hogging track information.

I would still go with that for the conveyance of knowing what track I was playing.

Having had satellite radio, the Kann even with the less resolution would still sound better.

So to get better sound in the Lexus, they would have to remove the present Bluetooth chip and install the CSR8675 Bluetooth audio SOC (system on chip).

This can handle end-to-end 24-bit audio, it also provides greater digital-signal processing than its predecessors. Qualcomm (the provider of aptX HD) promises a lower signal-to-noise ratio through encoding and decoding, and less distortion too, particularly in the 10 – 20khz range.

This requirement means I will get aptX HD only if I have the right device in the first place. I will have to see if the Bluetooth on the Lexus can be changed out and at what cost.

Then I will have the full potential of the Kann DAP experience when listening in the RX 350.


Regards

Bill

 

[jasonbrent]

Howdy folk -- "New" Audiophile here...

I made the "mistake" of purchasing Focal Elear cans for my desk which ruined my historical perception of a "good" portable solution (bose QCs)... So because of this thread and a couple of others on head-fi, I now have migrated my portable solution to the following:

KANN
CD Ripper MKII (slowly churning through my cache of CDs)
B&W PX's
Campfire Audio Andromeda's (just arrived a few moments ago, yet untested)
IEMatch iFI (for the Andromeda's+KANN)
Chord Mojo (unsure if I'm going to keep this, or use it with my Elear's)

My early observations:

* AptX HD + B&W PX's is reasonably good (PX comfort is not "reasonably good" in my experience).
* KANN bluetooth range is more limited than would have expected.
* TIDAL+Bluetooth frequently results in stuttering (Ugh), but TIDAL+wired does not.
** This stuttering frequently happens when the KANN does things like blank the screen after the screen timeout; it makes me wonder about the CPU headroom on the KANN
* KANN+Elear is good, but not portable (more the open back than physical portability in my use case).
* CD Ripper MKII is a lot slower than I expected. Information on it is very limited.
* CD Ripper MKII + KANN is finicky. Sometimes the import just works, other times I have to hold my tongue just right for KANN to recognize it properly.
** Manual for KANN and MKII are laughable. Really under par for devices in this price range.
* KANN UI is usable, but slower than I'd expect from a device made in the last ~year.
** The inability to turn the screen back on other than the power button is a poor design choice in my opinion.
** Battery life should be shown on all screens, including when CD Ripping is occurring as well as the DAC (previously suggested in this thread)
* The KANN's ability to double as a USB DAC is a useful up-sell.
* Thermal management in the KANN might not be ideal (time will tell how it holds up under the heat it generates)
* The world of the audiophile is dangerous, especially when I think what my wife will do to me when I fess up to the new items on my desk.

Just wanted to say hello and I'm continuing to read through the entirety of this thread....

-j

 

[Luckyleo]

Howdy folk -- "New" Audiophile here...

I made the "mistake" of purchasing Focal Elear cans for my desk which ruined my historical perception of a "good" portable solution (bose QCs)... So because of this thread and a couple of others on head-fi, I now have migrated my portable solution to the following:

KANN
CD Ripper MKII (slowly churning through my cache of CDs)
B&W PX's
Campfire Audio Andromeda's (just arrived a few moments ago, yet untested)
IEMatch iFI (for the Andromeda's+KANN)
Chord Mojo (unsure if I'm going to keep this, or use it with my Elear's)

My early observations:

* AptX HD + B&W PX's is reasonably good (PX comfort is not "reasonably good" in my experience).
* KANN bluetooth range is more limited than would have expected.
* TIDAL+Bluetooth frequently results in stuttering (Ugh), but TIDAL+wired does not.
** This stuttering frequently happens when the KANN does things like blank the screen after the screen timeout; it makes me wonder about the CPU headroom on the KANN
* KANN+Elear is good, but not portable (more the open back than physical portability in my use case).
* CD Ripper MKII is a lot slower than I expected. Information on it is very limited.
* CD Ripper MKII + KANN is finicky. Sometimes the import just works, other times I have to hold my tongue just right for KANN to recognize it properly.
** Manual for KANN and MKII are laughable. Really under par for devices in this price range.
* KANN UI is usable, but slower than I'd expect from a device made in the last ~year.
** The inability to turn the screen back on other than the power button is a poor design choice in my opinion.
** Battery life should be shown on all screens, including when CD Ripping is occurring as well as the DAC (previously suggested in this thread)
* The KANN's ability to double as a USB DAC is a useful up-sell.
* Thermal management in the KANN might not be ideal (time will tell how it holds up under the heat it generates)
* The world of the audiophile is dangerous, especially when I think what my wife will do to me when I fess up to the new items on my desk.

Just wanted to say hello and I'm continuing to read through the entirety of this thread....

-j

Welcomw Jason!

Sorry about your wallet

Please stay with us along your journey.

Leo

 

[Shetzu]

Howdy folk -- "New" Audiophile here...

I made the "mistake" of purchasing Focal Elear cans for my desk which ruined my historical perception of a "good" portable solution (bose QCs)... So because of this thread and a couple of others on head-fi, I now have migrated my portable solution to the following:

KANN
CD Ripper MKII (slowly churning through my cache of CDs)
B&W PX's
Campfire Audio Andromeda's (just arrived a few moments ago, yet untested)
IEMatch iFI (for the Andromeda's+KANN)
Chord Mojo (unsure if I'm going to keep this, or use it with my Elear's)

My early observations:

* AptX HD + B&W PX's is reasonably good (PX comfort is not "reasonably good" in my experience).
* KANN bluetooth range is more limited than would have expected.
* TIDAL+Bluetooth frequently results in stuttering (Ugh), but TIDAL+wired does not.
** This stuttering frequently happens when the KANN does things like blank the screen after the screen timeout; it makes me wonder about the CPU headroom on the KANN
* KANN+Elear is good, but not portable (more the open back than physical portability in my use case).
* CD Ripper MKII is a lot slower than I expected. Information on it is very limited.
* CD Ripper MKII + KANN is finicky. Sometimes the import just works, other times I have to hold my tongue just right for KANN to recognize it properly.
** Manual for KANN and MKII are laughable. Really under par for devices in this price range.
* KANN UI is usable, but slower than I'd expect from a device made in the last ~year.
** The inability to turn the screen back on other than the power button is a poor design choice in my opinion.
** Battery life should be shown on all screens, including when CD Ripping is occurring as well as the DAC (previously suggested in this thread)
* The KANN's ability to double as a USB DAC is a useful up-sell.
* Thermal management in the KANN might not be ideal (time will tell how it holds up under the heat it generates)
* The world of the audiophile is dangerous, especially when I think what my wife will do to me when I fess up to the new items on my desk.

Just wanted to say hello and I'm continuing to read through the entirety of this thread....

-j

Good to see your analysis on various aspects of the Kann. If you flick few pages back there has been discussion on APtX & Bluetooth and reply from A&K @Jason.
* Tidal streaming works but have not seen much inputs from users. Depends upon which country you are based and also restrictions with built in Android.
* Kann has pretty good equation with bigger cans. I personally have used with my Hd800 & LCD2c without hassels. However, feel the driving power grind a bit. So have been using them with desktop amps.
* Never had any issues with the user manual of the Kann.
* Have you updated the Kann firmware to the latest version. UI will be a bit slow as Kann has a large file capacity and it takes the hardware to read the files which is normal.
* Power button turning the screen ON in my opinion is good to avoid accidental press on the screen. However as said opinions are deceptive.
* Battery life indicator is an optional requirement. Perhaps A&K may consider the suggestion, it depends.
* The Kann tends to get hot under normal usage which as per A&K is normal for a large battery.

Welcome to the Kann family. Cheers

 

[jasonbrent]

@Shetzu -

Agreed re: opinions, so take mine like a grain of salt.

The manual is functional, yes, but unclear (to me) with respect to the Ripper MKII as an example. In reality, it's a matter of getting used to the UI of the KANN to know which icon means "connect to the ripper" (the USB icon). So yeah, I'd say your point is valid and I'm picking nits with the manual.

Firmware is the latest version, slowness has been observed before I loaded any of my personal materials onto it. It's likely that I'm just used to the responsiveness (which is a design priority) with other touchscreen devices (phones, oscilloscopes, etc.). c.f. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-limits/ - one of my day job hats is in systems performance and UI bits on the KANN can sometimes fall somewhere between the 100ms->1000ms range which is enough to notice.

I've put some more thought into my screen comment and edged towards your view point, with the only exception being that hitting the power button to turn the screen on requires repositioning of my hand relative to the other controls (another one of my day job hats is related to user experience in products and is the source of my viewpoint on consistency with meta-presentation of information like battery life in the various modes of the unit).

I've yet to try my Elears with this, but hope to do some A/B testing between KANN/Mojo at some point with them.

Analysis aside and ignoring the cost of entry, KANN+CA Andromeda's streaming from TIDAL have made the last couple of hours entirely enjoyable -- I didn't realize how enjoyable music outside of my nominal genres for the last couple of decades can be with "good sound".

-j

 

[JasonNYC]

If anyone is planning on attending AXPONA this weekend in Chicago, we will have the SP1000 Stainless Steel, Copper and Black Onyx available for demo, along with the KANN, AK70 MK II, ACRO L1000 Desktop Amp and ACRO S1000 speakers.

 

[Miniculthero]

Have really been enjoying the line out with some budget speakers, I have in my possession a bose soundlink |||, always maligned for its booming bass, playing the Kann through it is a re-evaluation, it’s a cracking speaker to have on the go

 

[Shetzu]

@Shetzu -

Agreed re: opinions, so take mine like a grain of salt.

The manual is functional, yes, but unclear (to me) with respect to the Ripper MKII as an example. In reality, it's a matter of getting used to the UI of the KANN to know which icon means "connect to the ripper" (the USB icon). So yeah, I'd say your point is valid and I'm picking nits with the manual.

Firmware is the latest version, slowness has been observed before I loaded any of my personal materials onto it. It's likely that I'm just used to the responsiveness (which is a design priority) with other touchscreen devices (phones, oscilloscopes, etc.). c.f. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-limits/ - one of my day job hats is in systems performance and UI bits on the KANN can sometimes fall somewhere between the 100ms->1000ms range which is enough to notice.

I've put some more thought into my screen comment and edged towards your view point, with the only exception being that hitting the power button to turn the screen on requires repositioning of my hand relative to the other controls (another one of my day job hats is related to user experience in products and is the source of my viewpoint on consistency with meta-presentation of information like battery life in the various modes of the unit).

I've yet to try my Elears with this, but hope to do some A/B testing between KANN/Mojo at some point with them.

Analysis aside and ignoring the cost of entry, KANN+CA Andromeda's streaming from TIDAL have made the last couple of hours entirely enjoyable -- I didn't realize how enjoyable music outside of my nominal genres for the last couple of decades can be with "good sound".

-j

Yes one has to take the UI slag with a pinch of salt. This is normal and everyone having large library would have to go through that. I am now used to it with my Kann and have no complaints yet. Let us know your impressions with mojo/kann. Cheers

 

[jrbgarcia]

Does the Kann allow for offline storage of Tidal songs?

 

[lithrai]

No, at least not yet.

 

[tienbasse]

Does the Kann allow for offline storage of Tidal songs?

No AK DAP does.
Only the use of the native Android Tidal app does, which is not possible on DAPs with altered Android-based UIs.

 

[jrbgarcia]

No AK DAP does.
Only the use of the native Android Tidal app does, which is not possible on DAPs with altered Android-based UIs.

Thank you

 

[Mr. Thompson]

Just a note for the A&K folks. The battery in my Kann is dying. Not only does the Kann have to be shipped back to Seoul for repairs so it will be gone for quite a while, they have been dicking around for a week and still no RMA. I'm not impressed with the service for what is supposed to be a high end product.

 

[Terry Newton]

Just a note for the A&K folks. The battery in my Kann is dying. Not only does the Kann have to be shipped back to Seoul for repairs so it will be gone for quite a while, they have been dicking around for a week and still no RMA. I'm not impressed with the service for what is supposed to be a high end product.

Good to know,thanks.