[iridium7777]

thank you for the instructions, the UI is completely brand new to me and i still don't know my way around it.

i'll force a re-scan and hopefully it'll address the issues. also, no playlists, just artist folders with album subfolders for each -- i use itunes as my database catalog.

. To do a manual scan - settings, default settings, initialize media scan. If you have playlists set up, you may want to uncheck clear playlists or else you will need to rebuild them.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

...i'm hoping now that they've been formatted through the kann it won't complain anymore in the future.

One can hope. Unfortunately, I just experienced my first "spontaneous" corruption, not involving removal and reinsertion. When I turned on the player, it wouldn't recognize the SD card; it was like there was no card in the slot. I had not done anything to bring about this problem; I had not removed or reinserted the card, or added any data to it. It was working fine before I turned off the player, and not working when I turned it on. Since the card was not recognized, I could not "safely remove" it. I turned off the player, removed it, turned the player on, and reinserted it, hoping that would cause the player to recognize it. At that point, the player declared it corrupted. I tried a manual scan, but it did no good. Inserting the card into my PC reveals it works just fine. It's not the card; it's the Kann. I will once again have to reformat and reload. What's more discouraging in this case is that there was nothing I could do to prevent the problem. Who knows when it will happen again?

I appreciate the rapid responses of the A&K rep in thread to some members' concerns. However, the fact that the rep has yet to respond to any of the concerns regarding corrupted cards is conspicuous. This is a real problem with the player's firmware, and needs to be corrected. Although I like the player, I cannot conceive of how a $1000 DAP is allowed to continue with this issue.

 

[JasonNYC]

One can hope. Unfortunately, I just experienced my first "spontaneous" corruption, not involving removal and reinsertion. When I turned on the player, it wouldn't recognize the SD card; it was like there was no card in the slot. I had not done anything to bring about this problem; I had not removed or reinserted the card, or added any data to it. It was working fine before I turned off the player, and not working when I turned it on. Since the card was not recognized, I could not "safely remove" it. I turned off the player, removed it, turned the player on, and reinserted it, hoping that would cause the player to recognize it. At that point, the player declared it corrupted. I tried a manual scan, but it did no good. Inserting the card into my PC reveals it works just fine. It's not the card; it's the Kann. I will once again have to reformat and reload. What's more discouraging in this case is that there was nothing I could do to prevent the problem. Who knows when it will happen again?

I appreciate the rapid responses of the A&K rep in thread to some members' concerns. However, the fact that the rep has yet to respond to any of the concerns regarding corrupted cards is conspicuous. This is a real problem with the player's firmware, and needs to be corrected. Although I like the player, I cannot conceive of how a $1000 DAP is allowed to continue with this issue.

Can you please tell me what file format was used to format the card? We recommend FAT32 formatting for the best result.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Can you please tell me what file format was used to format the card? We recommend FAT32 formatting for the best result.

Thanks for the reply. It was formatted in exFAT. I have reformatted in FAT32, will experiment with data loading, and see what happens. I will report back with my findings.

 

[Shetzu]

so i got the kann as a fathers day gift and have two observations, non relating to sound:

1) i took the 2 microsd cards from my onkyo that i was using and put them into kann and almost immediately they got corrupted and needed to be reformatted. i've used them for months on the onkyo with no issue. it's beyond annoying, but i'm hoping now that they've been formatted through the kann it won't complain anymore in the future

2) was playing some dsf files and the unit got extremely hot, i mean not just warm but really hot, to the point that if i was to hold it in my hand it would not be comfortable.

3) any artist that has "the" in the name is filed under T, instead of the actual name, such as being filed under B for The Beatles. this is actually a major annoyance for me, a sloppy design. i'm not sure if there's a setting somewhere that i could just turn on to account to that or if this genera AK's philosophy?


i think 1&2 have been discussed here and unfortunately are considered 'normal' behavior. i still did not get much chances for testing the sound, but i'm hoping the sound makes up for the other issues.

Hi. Yes 1 & 2 have been discussed here in details. You can always go through few initial threads. Agree the UI is a bit sloppy. Since this Kann has a huge storage capacity it takes time for the library to get cached. A&K surely needs to update the UI for more smoother song listing.

 

[Shetzu]

Thanks for the reply. It was formatted in exFAT. I have reformatted in FAT32, will experiment with data loading, and see what happens. I will report back with my findings.

You can check on how to format here
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ast...-storage-battery.843376/page-62#post-13714742

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

You can check on how to format here
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ast...-storage-battery.843376/page-62#post-13714742

Thanks. I'm not completely done trying everything out, but so far, I haven't had any issues with the SD card since formatting in FAT32. I have loaded music onto the card using my PC, put it in the KANN, listened to it, removed it, loaded more music, listened again, etc. I have also used both methods of removing the card from the KANN: "safely remove," and removing when turned off. So far, no problems. I've just reformatted the micro SD card as well (since it, too, was formatted in exFAT and also just re-corrupted), and will see how that goes.

Is it possible that all the card corruption reports in this thread are due to improper formatting? If so, how did we all miss the memo? Did I overlook it in the instructions, or is it not made clear there? (I see you posted about it earlier in the thread, but unfortunately, that's like finding a needle in a haystack.)

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Did I overlook it in the instructions, or is it not made clear there?

I reviewed the manual, and this issue is addressed on Page 12: "If the microSD/SD Card is not recognized or is not functioning properly, format the Card, preferably in FAT32 system." That's my error for overlooking that. In retrospect, I can see I overlooked it for two reasons: one is because the KANN would initially recognize and play the cards; the corruption issues didn't happen until later. I incorrectly assumed that if the cards were not formatted properly, they would not be recognized at all, and therefore did not connect the delayed "corruption" with the formatting. The second reason is because, up the page, the manual states that the maximum SD card capacity is 256 GB, which I took to be outdated information, since all information I reviewed prior to purchase - including a number of professional reviews - stated the KANN can handle SD cards up to 512 GB. Assuming the information regarding cards in the manual was outdated, I glossed over the remaining information.

At any rate, so far, reformatting in FAT32 appears to have taken care of the issue. Given how many people seem to be affected by this problem, I wonder if it might have been a good idea for A&K to make the formatting requirement more prominent in the user guide. Since Windows 10 does not even offer FAT32 as a formatting option (I had to use a third-party program to format), I think a number of people may be formatting in exFAT by default and not even realizing that's the root of the problem.

 

[Silvertouran]

That’s correct. Windows won’t let you format a card greater than 32Gb in fat 32. I use a fat 32 format program i got on the Verbatim website.

 

[m8o]

Anyone using this and its EQ with an iSine 10/20 or i4? Is it true it has 12 parametric bands. I believe I saw in the documentation that Q is adjustable. That correct? Is center frequency adjustable too? This DAP really seems like it would be the best yet at eq'ing the iSine/i4. True?

 

[SoundSquare]

Last week the warranty for my Kann expired, yesterday the jack SE output and the line output failed, they both doesn't work anymore, i can only use the kann through balanced. I feel cursed.

 

[iridium7777]

i don't think the EQ works. when i turn the EQ tab on, absolutely nothing happens, i get no options to move anything around.

Anyone using this and its EQ with an iSine 10/20 or i4? Is it true it has 12 parametric bands. I believe I saw in the documentation that Q is adjustable. That correct? Is center frequency adjustable too? This DAP really seems like it would be the best yet at eq'ing the iSine/i4. True?

 

[JasonNYC]

i don't think the EQ works. when i turn the EQ tab on, absolutely nothing happens, i get no options to move anything around.

Settings, EQ. on the drop down menu hit the "+" to set custom EQ. Next screen, name the EQ setting and hit add. You can then adjust the individual bands.

 

[JasonNYC]

I reviewed the manual, and this issue is addressed on Page 12: "If the microSD/SD Card is not recognized or is not functioning properly, format the Card, preferably in FAT32 system." That's my error for overlooking that. In retrospect, I can see I overlooked it for two reasons: one is because the KANN would initially recognize and play the cards; the corruption issues didn't happen until later. I incorrectly assumed that if the cards were not formatted properly, they would not be recognized at all, and therefore did not connect the delayed "corruption" with the formatting. The second reason is because, up the page, the manual states that the maximum SD card capacity is 256 GB, which I took to be outdated information, since all information I reviewed prior to purchase - including a number of professional reviews - stated the KANN can handle SD cards up to 512 GB. Assuming the information regarding cards in the manual was outdated, I glossed over the remaining information.

At any rate, so far, reformatting in FAT32 appears to have taken care of the issue. Given how many people seem to be affected by this problem, I wonder if it might have been a good idea for A&K to make the formatting requirement more prominent in the user guide. Since Windows 10 does not even offer FAT32 as a formatting option (I had to use a third-party program to format), I think a number of people may be formatting in exFAT by default and not even realizing that's the root of the problem.

Sorry @GiacomoHoldini been on vacation until this morning and was trying to get some responses in when I had some free time. Here is a bit more detailed explanation regarding FAT32 vs. ExFAT on our players.

FAT32 supports storage devices up to 2TB, so not a problem formatting the 400GB microSD cards and 512GB full sized SD cards. Android natively supports FAT32, which is why it is recommended to use cards formatted as FAT32. ExFAT is developed and licensed by Microsoft, and supposed to be compatible and built upon FAT32. Some Android phone manufacturers are licensing from Microsoft and supporting ExFAT, but it is through third-party libraries added into Android, which always can add in a layer of issues since it is not natively a part of Android.

There have been a number of requests from uses to add official ExFAT support and it is something our software development team is looking into. Of course, there are always possible issues or potential problems that can arise from adding in third-party libraries that are not natively supported in Android that could affect playback or operation so it is something that we look at closely.

 

[tienbasse]

That’s correct. Windows won’t let you format a card greater than 32Gb in fat 32. I use a fat 32 format program i got on the Verbatim website.

Because this is what the microsd standards actually say. Anything from 64Gb SHOULD be formatted in exFAT which brings additional benefit in terms of file size (gone is the 2Gb file size limit) and indexing, among other things.

Blame the DAP manufacturers for not respecting the standards because they go cheap with card readers and don't use the models with full exFAT compatibility. Because you have to pay Microsoft the dime to use exFAT, which manufacturers are too greedy to do.