[vicens bosch]

good night, I have to sell a kann alpha in perfect condition with cover and official invoice for the guarantee, special offer of about 700 euros with the cover included

 

[raelamb]

...also looking to sell barely used KANN ALPHA but in U.S.

Was only using until I got my repaired SP2000 back from Korea.

PM best offer.

 

[mynamesjeff]

Hmm I didn’t realise how much this low quality screen would effect my enjoyment with this DAP.
now thinking of going to the ibasso dx300.

 

[mikaell]

Noticed quite a few wanting to let go of their Kann Alphas ... Myself included.

If I were A&K I would wonder why? I would ask these people - What can we do better? What do you like, what is it that you don't?

It's not that It's a bad DAP - on the contrary - It's a great DAP but these days a "great" sounding DAP is not enough. Support, software company customer service... Did i say software? Yes - software - Performance, UI & UX are for some as important or even more so than sound.

IMHO A&K need to do more than cutting edges (pun intended).

 

[Seld]

good night, I have to sell a kann alpha in perfect condition with cover and official invoice for the guarantee, special offer of about 700 euros with the cover included

Hi Vicens.
About this I sent you a PM some days ago... waiting for your feedback.
Thanks

 

[newworld666]

Some more feedback .. once more.

And news issues with AKConnect, I was using at the office AKconnect to read some music via Internet to my NAS, because I noticed the 15 minutes drops doesn't happen every time like at home.
Unfortunately after a week, with fine working, today many files on my server couldn't be seen on the Kann Alpha through AKConnect, though through DSaudio'apk it was fine to read all.
I decided to do once more, a new setting reset ... and now all files appear again through AkConnect. Probably the upnp info in the cache were altered and the reset allow to clear this cache infos.
With the setting reset I have to reinstall and reconnect Qobuz, DSAudio.. Luckily EQ parameters are not erased.

It's amazing how unstable is that DAP ...

 

[Vandal]

Looks like a very strong proposition and at last 4.4 bless you this is the natural evolution to go along with, it was only a matter of time

Now one thing I regret in those specs.... 1.8ohm output impedance balanced, not great.... not as bad as M15 with its 3ohms OI but... it will affect lower impedance IEMs signature (except those with FIBAE, LID, etc... tech).

Sorry, bumping an old comment. Does this mean it will hiss, or have noise with IEMs, especially sensitive IEMs? This is one of the DAPs I am considering.

 

[adityadubey]

I don't remember any issues when I tried the Moondrop Starfield which are pretty sensitive, but only used them for a very brief period. Can pull them out again and check in a bit.

Edit: I listen pretty frequently with Tin P1s and Kinera Nan-na's neither of which have any hiss, but they're not overly sensitive.

 

[Vandal]

I just came across this YT video that talks about N6ii/E02 vs Alpha. Unfortunately, it's Japanese only. The summary of his impressions are:

• Alpha has more mid & bass weight when compared to E02
• E02 has higher noise floor
• Alpha presents vocals closer

His blog says he used FAudio Major for this comparison.

higher noise floor is better?

 

[adityadubey]

So after about 20 mins of listening to the Moondrop Starfields again (Sensitivity: 122dB/Vrms(@1khz) Impedance: 32Ω±15% (@1khz)) :
- Low Gain: No discernible hiss at normal or loud volume levels
- Med Gain: Hiss detected in some quieter tracks at moderately high volume levels
- High Gain: Definite hiss in most tracks at regular volume levels

I guess you should be fine if you're on low gain, which is where you would be anyway with highly sensitive iems.

 

[FearfulSymmetry]

No hiss at all with IERZ1R

 

[Vandal]

So after about 20 mins of listening to the Moondrop Starfields again (Sensitivity: 122dB/Vrms(@1khz) Impedance: 32Ω±15% (@1khz)) :
- Low Gain: No discernible hiss at normal or loud volume levels
- Med Gain: Hiss detected in some quieter tracks at moderately high volume levels
- High Gain: Definite hiss in most tracks at regular volume levels

I guess you should be fine if you're on low gain, which is where you would be anyway with highly sensitive iems.

Thanks Aditya! Appreciated.

 

[Vandal]

No hiss at all with IERZ1R

Thanks.

Also has anyone tried the Kann Alpha with any of the JH audio IEMs, 64Audio IEMs or the Vision Ears IEMs? Curious to know about noise, and of course pairing/synergy?

I read through the entire thread and have searched for reviews, couldn't find much.

Additionally, appears to be a love/hate polar relationship with AK players, some posts were entertaining

 

[adityadubey]

There does appear to be a love-hate relationship indeed [Disclaimer: I own it and love it, have been using it for hours everyday since I got it]. What I've gathered is:

- I haven't really found anyone dis-satisfied or disappointed with the sound quality, there seems to be general agreement that it sounds great
- The different connection options and the power it offers is amazing, also makes a great line out
- AK Connect happens to be a major point of failure and is generally considered unusable due to the 15min drop out people have mentioned in this thread, so if that is a feature which is important to you, you'll end up hating it
- Side-loading apps and finding the right apk can be a little tricky, which imho is more of a one time annoyance rather than a dealbreaker, but YMMV
- The side-loaded Tidal App (which allows you to save offline) is a bit sluggish and laggy, which combined with the relatively small screen size can make typing and navigating a bit tricky sometimes. The native player for your local / sd card library is fairly smooth and doesn't have this issue - so your experience will also vary depending on your use case
For my use case, which is roughly 50-50 Tidal vs. native library, considering the fact that I also manage Tidal playlists etc. largely from my desktop or iPhone it's a minor annoyance but doesn't impact my usability that much. But I simply love the power and the sound and therefore end up loving the whole device

 

[adityadubey]

Speaking of it being a great line out, I realised that I hadn't listened to my Little Bear B4X in a while and hooked it up to the Kann Alpha for the first time. Looks like my listening set up for today is sorted