Kann Alpha certainly has its flaws but there’s no denying that it has great sound quality. Apple Music is working perfectly for me with Lossless streaming, and it sounds excellent 
Astell&Kern Launches KANN ALPHA Digital Audio Player
- Thread starter JasonNYC
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All UK/EU repairs are done by AK's EU repair center. You can get more info here, along with the online RMA form - https://www.iriver.com/support/RMA_001.asp
I would also suggest contacting the AK UK team directly. You can find their support and contact info for UK owners on their website - https://www.astellkern.co.uk/
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I’ve had the KANN almost a week now and really like it as a stand-alone player. I don't use wifi or bluetooth, or balanced output which may mean I dodge a lot of issues that the player has.
There's some really weird UI decisions though. In the "MQS" section, songs and albums are split, but when I click on albums, it displays a specific song from the album instead of the whole thing. It's really easy to touch the side of the screen when scrolling, which triggers the scroll bar jumping. The "volume limit" section doesn't allow you to specify a specific volume limit. You'd expect to use the back feature by swiping left on the screen, but it brings up the menu when listening to music, leaving the user with a tiny back arrow to go back to the album view. AK have relied on the floating back button to go back in steps for the user rather than straight back to the menu, but honestly the button is intrusive and clutters the UI - it's the first thing I turned off. There's no real way to get to the album from the song that the user is listening to, instead you'd have to click the path link to where the music is stored, leading you away from the music section and in to the filesystem. It would be awesome not to be forced to use the whole "Notification Panel" space just for the sake of aesthetics, as a lot of the options there aren't always applicable and can confuse the overall experience. It would be great to have a "now playing" section on the top menu bar when sliding down, as it's just habit from other devices. It just feels overall that the UI hasn't been polished much since the AK100II, and that AK recently have been focusing on exterior build quality for looks, as well as sound quality, instead of providing a full package especially for the premium price tag.
I don't regret my purchase overall, and the DAP market is literally "pick the best of the worst" since the market caters for such a small range of people, the market has and always has had issues, but it doesn't mean these issues can't be fixed
There's some really weird UI decisions though. In the "MQS" section, songs and albums are split, but when I click on albums, it displays a specific song from the album instead of the whole thing. It's really easy to touch the side of the screen when scrolling, which triggers the scroll bar jumping. The "volume limit" section doesn't allow you to specify a specific volume limit. You'd expect to use the back feature by swiping left on the screen, but it brings up the menu when listening to music, leaving the user with a tiny back arrow to go back to the album view. AK have relied on the floating back button to go back in steps for the user rather than straight back to the menu, but honestly the button is intrusive and clutters the UI - it's the first thing I turned off. There's no real way to get to the album from the song that the user is listening to, instead you'd have to click the path link to where the music is stored, leading you away from the music section and in to the filesystem. It would be awesome not to be forced to use the whole "Notification Panel" space just for the sake of aesthetics, as a lot of the options there aren't always applicable and can confuse the overall experience. It would be great to have a "now playing" section on the top menu bar when sliding down, as it's just habit from other devices. It just feels overall that the UI hasn't been polished much since the AK100II, and that AK recently have been focusing on exterior build quality for looks, as well as sound quality, instead of providing a full package especially for the premium price tag.
I don't regret my purchase overall, and the DAP market is literally "pick the best of the worst" since the market caters for such a small range of people, the market has and always has had issues, but it doesn't mean these issues can't be fixed
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Maybe I am doing something wrong, but does Qobuz not stream hi res through the AK device? I have a Kann Alpha and the light stays red regardless of what I play.
newworld666
Headphoneus Supremus
Light ... like many things with A&K, is useless ... just working with the internal player.
Qobuz, luckily, is working in hires.. You can easily control the output through the Toskink connector (and I think through USB-C too) the bitrate is correct as Qobuz is streaming it.
Awesome. I missed that, but it makes sense.
I have another one for you. Sometime since the last update, the Kann Alpha is not going to sleep due to inactivity. I tried changing the time out from 30 to 10 to 30, but it still stays on. This is without music playing through the device, but I do have it available as a Roon endpoint. Anything to be done?
If Roon Ready is turned on in the settings menu, it will not go into sleep since the player announces itself over the network as a Roon Ready endpoint at regular intervals. If you turn Roon Ready off, it should sleep normally. This was also discussed a few pages back in this thread.
Got it. Thank you!!!
sharkz88
New Head-Fier
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End game for now...
Got mine from amazon for full price and still have 1 week left to decide if it's a keeper or not. Use it as a standalone player with 1TB card to pair it with JH16v2 and BD T1v2. So, need wifi for ota updates only. Of course, those messages regarding one channel issue make me think twice.
As for sound and build quality it's really good.
The only one issue I really don't understand, is why not to add a gain switch to the quick menu? Isn't that one of main feature for Hi-End dap to jump between high ohm headphones and low ohm iems? This is most annoying issue I found so far to go to the menue to change it. Please let me know guys if I'm missing something. I went through over 100 pages but found only one brief mention about that.
As for sound and build quality it's really good.
The only one issue I really don't understand, is why not to add a gain switch to the quick menu? Isn't that one of main feature for Hi-End dap to jump between high ohm headphones and low ohm iems? This is most annoying issue I found so far to go to the menue to change it. Please let me know guys if I'm missing something. I went through over 100 pages but found only one brief mention about that.
Keep it, and take a Meze Empyrean in addition. That is where the fun starts
They pair exremely well.Regarding the quick menu: it is 5 seconds instead of 2. How many times do you switch per day?
This is a feature that is being looked into adding in a future firmware update. I do not have an ETA on when/if it will happen. I will share more info when I have it.
Thank you Jason! Glad that AK is working on it it.
Those headphones look absolutely amazing! However, I've never been a fan of planars for some reason even at that price rangeKeep it, and take a Meze Empyrean in addition. That is where the fun starts
Regarding the quick menu: it is 5 seconds instead of 2. How many times do you switch per day?
Anyway, thanks for recommendation, I'll probably keep DAP since Jason stated they are working on that. I really want to believe in AK as a brand and support them in that competition.I don't think it should be a matter of how often you change it but common sense. These days most of us have full size cans and iems at the same time and thing like: "Ak Connect, Car mode, EQ, Gapless playback"... could be sacrificed from quick menu for gain level which is huge.
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