Astell&Kern Launches KANN ALPHA Digital Audio Player

[Kiats]

Did A&K Fix your KA or sent a replacement?

Hey Onik! Just nice timing that you asked. I got my KA back last week. What they did was to replace the socket. I think the round trip took around 7/8 weeks. Big shout out to Jeremy and the boys at AVOne in Singapore for taking care of it. My settings etc were still there. Hence, I know they just replaced the socket.

On another note, on that same round trip was my SP2000Cu which had refused to complete boot up and kept switching itself off. A battery replacement seems to have done the trick. However, the memory was wiped and so I had to set it up again from scratch. But that is fine. Besides, most times, I now use it only for BA driver IEMS in any event, because I am not crazy about the grip they have in the context of DD IEMs. But I do use the SP2000Cu as endpoint for Roon playback into either the C9 or one of my Luxury & Precision DAPs.

 

[NewEve]

Quick one as I couldn't find information on this specific pairing.

I recently bought a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Classic.

'Loved them right out of the box using an A&K SR25 in line-out via a Schiit Vali2.

In fact, I loved them so much I wanted to move with them (couch, etc.) so I got an A&K Kann Alpha.

I was afraid I'll loose dynamics and the overall tuning I fell in love with but... nope, in fact it's even better!

Write up coming up

 

[ShoeGame21]

Quick one as I couldn't find information on this specific pairing.

I recently bought a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Classic.

'Loved them right out of the box using an A&K SR25 in line-out via a Schiit Vali2.

In fact, I loved them so much I wanted to move with them (couch, etc.) so I got an A&K Kann Alpha.

I was afraid I'll loose dynamics and the overall tuning I fell in love with but... nope, in fact it's even better!

Write up coming up

Very interested to read your write up. I’ve only ever used the Shanling Q1 and UP4 with my IEMs and headphones. I recently bought the Kann Alpha on here, figured I wanted the battery life and all the Kann had to offer so I went with it.
mat first my music sounded different but in a great way. I then had to try each set I had, and found new joy in some and could tell the weakens in others. I am now in search of the best pairing for my taste.
Using IEM ThieAudio Excalibur and headphones DT 1990s with the Kann Alpha, Roon.

 

[NewEve]

Quick one as I couldn't find information on this specific pairing.

I recently bought a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Classic.

'Loved them right out of the box using an A&K SR25 in line-out via a Schiit Vali2.

In fact, I loved them so much I wanted to move with them (couch, etc.) so I got an A&K Kann Alpha.

I was afraid I'll loose dynamics and the overall tuning I fell in love with but... nope, in fact it's even better!

Write up coming up

As promised, the write-up is live! Enjoy the read.

Edit: now also on Head-Pie!

—

 

[newworld666]

Basically, it's a long time I am not hoping anything anymore from A&K, but I had a time to spend this afternoon and, as I was testing some Amazon Music HD streaming, I am wondering if I'm missing something here too to listen to some Ultra HD tracks
Amazon info is telling for a track with the Kann Alpha:
-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 48 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /48 khz

When I stream same file with the old and cheap FIIO M11 I can see on Amazon UltraHD info :
-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 192 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /96 khz

I use same Amazon streaming parameters with both devices.

Is it one more limitation of the Kann Alpha ? or is there something to download somewhere (I download the last version from Apkpure)

 

[rlw6534]

Basically, it's a long time I am not hoping anything anymore from A&K, but I had a time to spend this afternoon and, as I was testing some Amazon Music HD streaming, I am wondering if I'm missing something here too to listen to some Ultra HD tracks
Amazon info is telling for a track with the Kann Alpha:
-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 48 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /48 khz

When I stream same file with the old and cheap FIIO M11 I can see on Amazon UltraHD info :
-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 192 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /96 khz

I use same Amazon streaming parameters with both devices.

Is it one more limitation of the Kann Alpha ? or is there something to download somewhere (I download the last version from Apkpure)

Sometimes a reboot or manually playing a 24/192 track before starting Amazon Music will get it to report 24/192 as the device capability for A&K devices. What it actually does, who knows?

 

[newworld666]

I did a reboot .. still 24/48 capability ..
Ok I will try some 24/192 file on a SD before starting Amazon ... and see what happens, but, even if capabilities are actualized, it won't be a really "convenient" way.
With Qobuz, I can easily control that 24/192 is active through an external DAC via the toslink connector.

 

[rlw6534]

I did a reboot .. still 24/48 capability ..
Ok I will try some 24/192 file on a SD before starting Amazon ... and see what happens, but, even if capabilities are actualized, it won't be a really "convenient" way.
With Qobuz, I can easily control that 24/192 is active through an external DAC via the toslink connector.

It's definitely not convenient and I wish it would be fixed. It's just something that I discovered sometimes works on my SR15 and SP1000M. Maybe it's the same on the Alpha...

 

[newworld666]

Ok .. I tried to play a 24/192 file before loading Amazon Music ..

-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 192 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /48 khz

But .. on the Kann Alpha toslink ouput to a SMSL M500 DAC, I get a link with 24bit /192 khz ?????

When I reboot and restart directly, Amazon Music with the same streamed file .. the Smsl M500 shows this time 16/44.1...
I played again a 24/192 file with AK/connect and the file played by Amazon Music to the SMSL M500 is again 24/192..

Let's say like with AK Connect, the Kann Alpha is almost unable to stream correctly Amazon Music HD.

 

[rlw6534]

Ok .. I tried to play a 24/192 file before loading Amazon Music ..

-> Track Quality 24 bit / 96 Khz
-> Device Capability 24 bit / 192 khz
-> Currently playing at 24bit /48 khz

But .. on the Kann Alpha toslink ouput to a SMSL M500 DAC, I get a link with 24bit /192 khz ?????

When I reboot and restart directly, Amazon Music with the same streamed file .. the Smsl M500 shows this time 16/44.1...
I played again a 24/192 file with AK/connect and the file played by Amazon Music to the SMSL M500 is again 24/192..

Let's say like with AK Connect, the Kann Alpha is almost unable to stream correctly Amazon Music HD.

Yeah, when I went through this previously, I came to the conclusion that Amazon Music upsamples everything to the detected "Device Capability". I guess that is better than downsampling... but it's not bitperfect..

There have been discussions about this in other threads as well. I suspect the "Currently playing at 24bit /48 khz" was just Amazon adaptive streaming. If you start the track over, it might jump to 24/192. I have seen this before also.

 

[Progisus]

Should have my KA by Friday. I have an SP1000 but wanted a dap with more power for headphones. This will be my first time with ESS rather than AKM since my Oppo HA-1.

 

[NewEve]

As promised, the write-up is live! Enjoy the read.

Edit: now also on Head-Pie!

—

Wifi cuts / drops / interruptions while streaming unfortunately confirmed on my end. Stand-by for more — I'll keep the thread updated.

I hope I'll somehow manage to get a working unit though — I love this DAP

 

[ShoeGame21]

Wifi cuts / drops / interruptions while streaming unfortunately confirmed on my end. Stand-by for more — I'll keep the thread updated.

I hope I'll somehow manage to get a working unit though — I love this DAP

I lave experienced the same with my unit. When using it with Roon. It seems as though it’s playing the song as it’s streaming at the same time, instead of pulling the song to the unit then playing the file.

 

[NewEve]

Wifi cuts / drops / interruptions while streaming unfortunately confirmed on my end. Stand-by for more — I'll keep the thread updated.

I hope I'll somehow manage to get a working unit though — I love this DAP

Small update after some further testing.

Wifi drops every 5 minutes, right on the money.

If I deactivate the mesh on my wifi network, the connection drops every 15 minutes, right on the money.

If I set up my wifi network to 2.4 GHz instead of 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz, same problem, the connection drops every 15 minutes.

---

@JasonNYC I hope the above might help troubleshoot this issue on A&K's side.

In the meantime, I'll be returning my unit in order to get a new one, hoping the new unit won't be affected by this problem but I fear it is wishful thinking.

While I don't mind that the Kann Alpha's is 2.4 Ghz only, the fact that such a modern product shows connectivity issues is obviously not acceptable for such a premium brand and product and I sincerely hope A&K will formally communicate and address this issue as it is otherwise, a very, very, good DAP.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.

 

[klyaksa]

Really all who write you defective devices. My Alpha is second-hand and I don't have such problems. tidal, apple music, Spotify hassle-free. Home wi-fi works, does not fall off, the router is set to 2.4 GHz. I distribute from the phone perfectly. The only thing I don't like is that you need to turn off the player completely, otherwise the battery is quickly discharged. And the sad thing is that you cannot install any application, only from the white list. The player is great, the sound is great, there is no noise with CA Solaris, I get high. I also really want to order sash tres headphones from Sasha from Kharkov. I sincerely regret guys that you have such problems with your alphas.