Astell&Kern Launches KANN ALPHA Digital Audio Player
Feb 9, 2021 at 6:17 PM Post #1,051 of 2,082
I bought where I could find it ... on Aliexpress "Iriver Official Store" and I am using it in France
The issue is not concerned with internet, as the wifi drops comes with accessing a synology DS Audio in my home through AK Connect without any internet access.
These guys are not listed as authorized dealers in our authorized dealer list and I am pretty certain this is the gray market dealer we keep getting shut down. As per warranty terms, warranties are void when purchasing from a non-authorized dealer or importing from outside of your region.

If this is the same store, which I am pretty sure it is, we ordered a player to the US to see if they would ship here last year before we had them taken down. Player arrived from Singapore, but with Chinese firmware, not the global firmware for players sold in the Singapore market and was from a batch of players that were originally sent to China distributor. It was also not the original shrink wrap, we could tell it was previously opened and resealed with other shrink wrap. We have seen in the past some of these companies, especially from Aliexpress, open players, pull out some of the internal components and replace them with inferior components.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS buy any electronic device from an authorized dealer in your region. Having worked for both Sony and Samsung in the past, I have seen this often and unfortunately seen a lot of angry owners when their warranty claims were denied because they were purchased outside of the region or from non-authorized/gray market dealers. Most companies list their authorized dealers on their site.

Global: https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/whereToBuy/list.asp

North America: https://us.astellnkern.com/apps/store-locator/

I reached out to our sales team to confirm.

Any one else who is having the Wi-Fi drop-out issue purchase a player from a dealer outside of their country?
 
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Feb 10, 2021 at 3:52 AM Post #1,053 of 2,082
It's definitely not the player as it is affecting other Android based devices. It is on Tidal's end. I would assume they would fix it fairly quickly.

The embedded Tidal app works without issue as it uses a different authentication method than the stock Android app, you will just not have offline mode using the embedded app.
I have submitted a request with Tidal about this issue, once I get a reply I will post it on here, so hopefully we will have a rough estimate on when this will be resolved
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 4:58 AM Post #1,054 of 2,082
These guys are not listed as authorized dealers in our authorized dealer list and I am pretty certain this is the gray market dealer we keep getting shut down. As per warranty terms, warranties are void when purchasing from a non-authorized dealer or importing from outside of your region.

If this is the same store, which I am pretty sure it is, we ordered a player to the US to see if they would ship here last year before we had them taken down. Player arrived from Singapore, but with Chinese firmware, not the global firmware for players sold in the Singapore market and was from a batch of players that were originally sent to China distributor. It was also not the original shrink wrap, we could tell it was previously opened and resealed with other shrink wrap. We have seen in the past some of these companies, especially from Aliexpress, open players, pull out some of the internal components and replace them with inferior components.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS buy any electronic device from an authorized dealer in your region. Having worked for both Sony and Samsung in the past, I have seen this often and unfortunately seen a lot of angry owners when their warranty claims were denied because they were purchased outside of the region or from non-authorized/gray market dealers. Most companies list their authorized dealers on their site.

Global: https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/whereToBuy/list.asp

North America: https://us.astellnkern.com/apps/store-locator/

I reached out to our sales team to confirm.

Any one else who is having the Wi-Fi drop-out issue purchase a player from a dealer outside of their country?

Interesting !!
I was also not really impressed by the real power of the Kann Alpha (Grey Market) and found some high distortion going up in volume => I wonder if this is can be caused by the change of some components of the Chinese Dealer.

I only bought last November on this Iriver Official Store as I couldn't find anywhere to buy in Europe. So I am a bit surprised that those Chinese could so fast sell a totally new item on the market and already change some components.

Even with your global dealers List => I tried half of the shops indicated .. almost none were selling A&K ????
I finally found one seller through amazon where the dealer itself is clearly in your global A&K list (Name and Address).

So, as I feel the situation interesting, I just ordered to this dealer a new A&K Kann Alpha !
I will test it straight away and see if there is still some issue and return it if this item has the same problem (I will by the way control the firmware to see if it is a global firmware or still the 1.01CN)....

I will give some feedback here in ten days (I should receive the new item before next Wednesday).
 
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Feb 10, 2021 at 5:14 AM Post #1,055 of 2,082
That case looks great, I'm going to get it. What cables are those on your 660s's? How do they sound compared to the stock sennheiser cable?

They're custom cables by this guy in the UK who sells on ebay under skyaudiocables. There is a thread for them here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sky-audio-cables.916261/
I haven't detected any change in sound by changing cables in my (perhaps limited) experience and gear. I got these more for the form and the length, the balanced cable the HD 660s come with is too long. And welll, when you present me with colour options, I'll use em.
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 6:22 AM Post #1,056 of 2,082
I think I'm going to return my player and get a replacement. My built in tidal app is un usable. If the screen is off it skips to the next song everytime. It's like it stops downloading the song and skips when it hits that point. If I keep the screen on it does not happen. I don't think the built in app can be fixed by firmware and you can't fix a problem that not everyone has. My sr25 had none of these issues. I hope the next one works because I'm going to have to waste two weeks to do the swap. This player is unusable in its current state. I use it with albums purchased from hd tracks and streaming master quality from tidal. It sounds great but these problems are frustrating and I don't see a fix except hoping to get a player that works.
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 9:11 AM Post #1,057 of 2,082
i bought from official dealer... i have this firmware 1..01CM.... in Switzerland... is that correct
It is for me not WIFI dropout... the AK Connect seems to shut down although settings are correct.
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 3:06 PM Post #1,060 of 2,082
I set up a return for my player and placed an order for a new one. I should have it in a few days. I really hope it works properly. If it does not I will be returning it as well and moving on to another brand. I feel bad for anybody who's built in tidal skips songs and malfunctions because I do not think you will get a fix. How would you fix something that only affects certain players and not others? Correct me if I wrong but is the built in tidal able to be updated?
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 3:12 PM Post #1,061 of 2,082
One more thing. Can anybody who is having the song skipping issue try streaming an album with the screen off. When I tried using my player last night the song skipping only happened when the screen was off. If I held the player in my hand and kept the screen on it did not happen at all. If you allow the song streaming to finish downloading as indicated by the progress bar at the bottom, then turn off the screen that song will play to the end and then the skip will occur on the next song if the screen remains off. Try this out and let me know if your players are the same. If my new player does this I'm really going to lose it.
 
Feb 10, 2021 at 5:16 PM Post #1,062 of 2,082
Quick update on the wi-fi dropout issues.

Our dev and QA teams in Korea tested 20 players with different wi-fi access points - in the office, at home and using public wi-fi spots and were unable to duplicate the drop-out issues. We have tested two players here in the US and also have not been able to replicate the issues. As of 8:36 am ET, there have been no reports in North America or Asia regarding wi-fi dropouts that are described here as confirmed by our HQ team and our North America support.

Looking at the previous posts, it looks like most of you having issues are located in the UK/EU, is that correct? Anyone outside of Europe having the same issue? As all countries except China use the "CM" firmware, if it is just happening in a specific region and not others using the same firmware version, most likely may be a hardware issue with a few select players. I have a team call late tonight my time to discuss the issue and troubleshoot. II will share additional information in the morning Pacific time and next steps.

I will post updates here in the thread, but if you would like me to personally follow up with you via PM, please send me a message and if you could please include what country you are located in. Thank you.
I’m in Australia and experiencing the wifi dropout issue.
 
Feb 11, 2021 at 8:10 AM Post #1,064 of 2,082
It really stinks hearing about these problems. Are these isolated to the kann alpha? Mabey making a player totally encased in metal is not a good idea. Im starting to think tidal might be crap as well. All I know until I get refunded for my first kann I have well over 2 grand tied up in this player. I don't have a lot of hope for the one that is on the way.
 
Feb 11, 2021 at 11:20 AM Post #1,065 of 2,082
I agree.... and very surprising the Devs cannot reproduce it. If this is not resolved in the next weeks i am going to sell mine.
It will be my first and last AK DAP.
 

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