[newworld666]

has anyone compared the dx300 to the alphas? would love someone's impression or comparison of the two.

Some on this thread have already sold very quickly their Kann Alpha (due to so many issues) for Dx300... and it seems they were really happy they have done it ... and they don't regret the Kann Alpha

 

[davidmthekidd]

Some on this thread have already sold very quickly their Kann Alpha (due to so many issues) for Dx300... and it seems they were really happy they have done it ... and they don't regret the Kann Alpha

ok, Thanks for the response , I am still reading through this thread, currently on page 40, the excitement days

 

[klyaksa]

I'm not going to sell Alpha, it's a great player. Mine works great

 

[davidmthekidd]

My IER Z1R is a good match to Alpha sound-wise. All my other HPs and IEMs need EQing and the existing EQ is very poor in terms of effect. There was talk about Audeze making a special EQ for A&K tailored for their HPs. I hope this materializes one day soon. I intend to but SE200 next month for its filters, and am looking forward to SP3000 (4.4 / multi-dac / one terabyte). I'm hopeful. If only we get Tidal in our country here!

I wonder how the Full size MDR-Z1R will pair with the Alpha's, thats my currently headphone of choice.

 

[291079]

I'm not going to sell Alpha, it's a great player. Mine works great

mine also works great. even the wifi. great for driving power hungry cans and iems

 

[tb303]

has anyone compared the dx300 to the alphas? would love someone's impression or comparison of the two.

It would be also interesting to see any comparison or a recommendation of Kann Cube or Kann Alpha alternatives, in terms of the ability to run power hungry cans, sound quality and battery life - planning to upgrade my Kann Cube but not sure what else is there, preferably under 2k...

 

[Newsee]

It would be also interesting to see any comparison or a recommendation of Kann Cube or Kann Alpha alternatives, in terms of the ability to run power hungry cans, sound quality and battery life - planning to upgrade my Kann Cube but not sure what else is there, preferably under 2k...

I own Kann Cube and Hiby R8. Nowdays I use the R8 for mobile home listening almost exclusively. It is much faster to get into working state. A second to wake up from standby. A second to send it to standby. Or goes automaticaly when not in use even with apps started. Works with any android app. Sounds great with any of my headphones. I have even started to appreciate how it sounds with Empyrean. Some people report hiss with sensitive IEMs, but I do not have any. Easy to pocket, no silly pointy corners, sharp edges.
If I sometimes start up the Cube I am always amazed how well it pairs with the Empyrean. Better than R8, for me.

Btw recently started to have problems with the Cube wifi connection. It took very long to connect, if possible at all. Turning off the .ax compatibility mode on the router on the 2.4 GHz band fixed it. No more connectivity problem on the Cube.

I listened to the dx300 in my favoirite hp shop recently with the Empyrean. It was purely out of couriosity, because I have some negative bias in direction iBasso, due to the tone used on the dx200 thread some time ago. And my reading impression that the ibasso players are sounding too sharp for my preferences.
I stopped listening quite quickly to avoid waking further interest, it sounded so good. No sharpness, deep clean bass. I like my Cube and the R8, I do not want to like another portable device.

The Cube serves now mostly as streamer to my Burson C3XR optical in, using the AK connect service controlled by BubbleUpnp app on my android phone.

 

[davidmthekidd]

I own Kann Cube and Hiby R8. Nowdays I use the R8 for mobile home listening almost exclusively. It is much faster to get into working state. A second to wake up from standby. A second to send it to standby. Or goes automaticaly when not in use even with apps started. Works with any android app. Sounds great with any of my headphones. I have even started to appreciate how it sounds with Empyrean. Some people report hiss with sensitive IEMs, but I do not have any. Easy to pocket, no silly pointy corners, sharp edges.
If I sometimes start up the Cube I am always amazed how well it pairs with the Empyrean. Better than R8, for me.

Btw recently started to have problems with the Cube wifi connection. It took very long to connect, if possible at all. Turning off the .ax compatibility mode on the router on the 2.4 GHz band fixed it. No more connectivity problem on the Cube.

I listened to the dx300 in my favoirite hp shop recently with the Empyrean. It was purely out of couriosity, because I have some negative bias in direction iBasso, due to the tone used on the dx200 thread some time ago. And my reading impression that the ibasso players are sounding too sharp for my preferences.
I stopped listening quite quickly to avoid waking further interest, it sounded so good. No sharpness, deep clean bass. I like my Cube and the R8, I do not want to like another portable device.

The Cube serves now mostly as streamer to my Burson C3XR optical in, using the AK connect service controlled by BubbleUpnp app on my android phone.

I tried the DX300 the other day, it sounded dead and boring to me, got the Kann Alpha today, cant wait to listen, currently charging.

 

[tb303]

I own Kann Cube and Hiby R8. Nowdays I use the R8 for mobile home listening almost exclusively. It is much faster to get into working state. A second to wake up from standby. A second to send it to standby. Or goes automaticaly when not in use even with apps started. Works with any android app. Sounds great with any of my headphones. I have even started to appreciate how it sounds with Empyrean. Some people report hiss with sensitive IEMs, but I do not have any. Easy to pocket, no silly pointy corners, sharp edges.
If I sometimes start up the Cube I am always amazed how well it pairs with the Empyrean. Better than R8, for me.

Btw recently started to have problems with the Cube wifi connection. It took very long to connect, if possible at all. Turning off the .ax compatibility mode on the router on the 2.4 GHz band fixed it. No more connectivity problem on the Cube.

I listened to the dx300 in my favoirite hp shop recently with the Empyrean. It was purely out of couriosity, because I have some negative bias in direction iBasso, due to the tone used on the dx200 thread some time ago. And my reading impression that the ibasso players are sounding too sharp for my preferences.
I stopped listening quite quickly to avoid waking further interest, it sounded so good. No sharpness, deep clean bass. I like my Cube and the R8, I do not want to like another portable device.

The Cube serves now mostly as streamer to my Burson C3XR optical in, using the AK connect service controlled by BubbleUpnp app on my android phone.

Thanks for all the precious info - when you have a sec, could you please let me know whether you would consider H8 as worthy Kann Cube successor or an upgrade path in terms of:
- dimensions (I'm assuming YES)
- sound quality (micro/macro details, separation, layering and so on)
- sound signature (not too bright, not too warm, neutral but melodic would be my target)
- battery life
- ability to drive power hungry cans
- or forget about both and just try dx300?

 

[davidmthekidd]

Just joined the Alpha club , loving them with my Z1R never heard the Z1R sound this good, medium Gain sounds perfect. Only problem is some of my albums dont show up under the album section, I wonder if anyone else is having this issue; if I navigate via the folders page, I can see them and play the songs, weird.

 

[Tomm11]

^^^ Strange. Maybe a tagging issue? My Kann Alpha hasn't been fiddly in that way at all. Can't say the same for my other players.

 

[Laue]

Hello everybody,
I followed this thread for some weeks and decided to buy a KANN alpha. As the head-fi community is very active I also decided to join the club.
My decision to buy the Kann was triggered by the addition of Roon ready status to the player. After upgrading to the newest firmware 1.20 the connection to the Roon core was an easy task. I'm really satisfied with the power of the amp section and the musicality of the player. But after playing around with the software and the device I have some remaining questions.
Concerning Roon ready functionality:
1. When pressing the physical forward or back button the player jumps more than one song forward or back (only during Roon playback). This is not the case when I use the graphical user interface. Can anybody confirm this behavior?
2. There is the possibility to lock the volume wheel in the settings. With Roon ready being active there seems to be no locking possible. Is this an expected behavior?
Concerning overall functionality:
3. In the manual is written that it is possible to check a box in the settings for double tap to wake the screen. But in the Firmware 1.2 I don't find. Can anybody confirm this?
4. This is my first A+K Player. My older DAPs had the possibility to choose the player software. So I mainly run neutron player. In neutron there is a feature called crossfeed. I did not found it in the Kann settings. Am I right that there is no crossfeed?? That would be a bummer... I know it is integrated in Roon software, but when I´m out and about I have to stick to the A+K software. Is there any workaround?

Lots of questions for the first post

 

[Bodspella]

Hello everybody,
I followed this thread for some weeks and decided to buy a KANN alpha. As the head-fi community is very active I also decided to join the club.
My decision to buy the Kann was triggered by the addition of Roon ready status to the player. After upgrading to the newest firmware 1.20 the connection to the Roon core was an easy task. I'm really satisfied with the power of the amp section and the musicality of the player. But after playing around with the software and the device I have some remaining questions.
Concerning Roon ready functionality:
1. When pressing the physical forward or back button the player jumps more than one song forward or back (only during Roon playback). This is not the case when I use the graphical user interface. Can anybody confirm this behavior?
2. There is the possibility to lock the volume wheel in the settings. With Roon ready being active there seems to be no locking possible. Is this an expected behavior?
Concerning overall functionality:
3. In the manual is written that it is possible to check a box in the settings for double tap to wake the screen. But in the Firmware 1.2 I don't find. Can anybody confirm this?
4. This is my first A+K Player. My older DAPs had the possibility to choose the player software. So I mainly run neutron player. In neutron there is a feature called crossfeed. I did not found it in the Kann settings. Am I right that there is no crossfeed?? That would be a bummer... I know it is integrated in Roon software, but when I´m out and about I have to stick to the A+K software. Is there any workaround?

Lots of questions for the first post

Mine jumps when using the buttons, they seem to have made up for their tiny size by being extra sensitive, it also jumps when using my Bluetooth remote.

 

[Laue]

Mine jumps when using the buttons, they seem to have made up for their tiny size by being extra sensitive, it also jumps when using my Bluetooth remote.

Thanks for your test: I have checked again: its a bit weird - during playback of Roon the physical forward button stops Roon and starts A+K player. So physical buttons switch to A+K player - means do not touch physical buttons during Roon playback…..

 

[JasonNYC]

1. When pressing the physical forward or back button the player jumps more than one song forward or back (only during Roon playback). This is not the case when I use the graphical user interface. Can anybody confirm this behavior?

Just tested with my KANN ALPHA and previous track/next track physical buttons only move one song. I will open a ticket and have our support team test further. Are you using a case with the KA?

2. There is the possibility to lock the volume wheel in the settings. With Roon ready being active there seems to be no locking possible. Is this an expected behavior?

I believe this is expected in Roon as it is a requirement for Roon Ready products that the Roon remote interface have the ability to adjust volume on Roon Ready devices. Wheel lock I believe prevents this. I will confirm.

3. In the manual is written that it is possible to check a box in the settings for double tap to wake the screen. But in the Firmware 1.2 I don't find. Can anybody confirm this?

This is a mistake in the manual. There is no tap to wake on the KANN ALPHA.

4. This is my first A+K Player. My older DAPs had the possibility to choose the player software. So I mainly run neutron player. In neutron there is a feature called crossfeed. I did not found it in the Kann settings. Am I right that there is no crossfeed?? That would be a bummer... I know it is integrated in Roon software, but when I´m out and about I have to stick to the A+K software. Is there any workaround?

There currently is no crossfade option or the ability to install alternative playback software. Foobar2000 is the only alternative app that is currently supported.