[davidmthekidd]

I´m still struggling with the lack of crossfeed in the A+K player settings of the Kann. I examined the manuals of the other A+K DAP and found no hints in any manual up to SP2000 player.
@JasonNYC:
Is there really no request from the user community for a crossfeed feature? More than 90% of my music is mixed and mastered using loudspeakers. It feels unnatural with headphones, because the channel separation with headphones blocks information from reaching the other ear. The virtual stage becomes very unnatural... With crossfeed this behavior is - at least for me - very much improved. A lot of high quality headphone gear includes therefore crossfeed. Astell+Kern is most adored DAP producer on the planet - why not implementing crossfeed in different flavors in the system-wide settings? People who like to hear bit perfect can switch off this feature.
Using Roon I'm really satisfied with Kann Alpha - top notch!!! Foobar2000 player on Kann offers crossfeed, but its implementation is faulty by cutting all music files down to 16 bit.
The code lines which have to be implemented in the A+K software would be minor....
Is there an internet link where suggestions to the Astell and Kern team are collected?

I Second to this, A lot of music from the 80s & 90s were mastered with speakers in mind, few have been remastered for headphone listening, we could use some sort of crossfeed feature like what the ifi idsd products offer.

 

[JasonNYC]

I´m still struggling with the lack of crossfeed in the A+K player settings of the Kann. I examined the manuals of the other A+K DAP and found no hints in any manual up to SP2000 player.
@JasonNYC:
Is there really no request from the user community for a crossfeed feature? More than 90% of my music is mixed and mastered using loudspeakers. It feels unnatural with headphones, because the channel separation with headphones blocks information from reaching the other ear. The virtual stage becomes very unnatural... With crossfeed this behavior is - at least for me - very much improved. A lot of high quality headphone gear includes therefore crossfeed. Astell+Kern is most adored DAP producer on the planet - why not implementing crossfeed in different flavors in the system-wide settings? People who like to hear bit perfect can switch off this feature.
Using Roon I'm really satisfied with Kann Alpha - top notch!!! Foobar2000 player on Kann offers crossfeed, but its implementation is faulty by cutting all music files down to 16 bit.
The code lines which have to be implemented in the A+K software would be minor....
Is there an internet link where suggestions to the Astell and Kern team are collected?

I did pass this suggestion onto our dev team when you first asked. I just sent another request. Cannot say if/when that feature would be implemented, but will update you if I have more information.

 

[Pezzab]

Hello all, I haven't been here for a while and aware of some of the limitations but none impinged on my own use case and I've generally enjoyed my time with the Alpha so far.

Until I hit the absurd limit of 100 favourite songs.

 

[klyaksa]

Hello Jason. I kindly ask you to contact the Astell & Kern support service regarding the self-discharge of the battery in standby mode (in pause). Is it possible to make the player do not need to be turned off at all. During the night in standby mode, the battery wasted more than 20%. Dear community, please support me on this issue. Who else noticed this problem. Friend has sp1000m, no self-discharge in standby.

 

[PoloJCP]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone is having a "sticky" and inconsistent resistance with the volume wheel? This is a new Kann out of the box, and while adjusting the volume, the wheel does not click smooth all the time, as some turns it somewhat freely rotates.

Many Thanks!

@canmoose I have not notice this with my unit, the volume wheel works as expected, with light but noticeable "clicks" and does not spin freely.

 

[Woodside 2021]

I did pass on your issues to our dev team earlier. I will reach out to them tonight my time when they are back in the office to follow up.

Dear all,
I have recently bought a Kann Alpha, and am experiencing same connection problems off a BT Hub 2 router (full fibre). Tidal plays a song for about 5 minutes or so, then the music stops, and I get an error message; there was a connection problem, retry. The Alpha works ok off my iPhone 7 hotspot. I have tried soft reset, changed sleep settings but still the same problem. I contacted A&K and the only response I got was them wanting details of my router. after that no comms at all. Anyone with ideas to help please? I am in the UK

 

[newworld666]

Dear all,
I have recently bought a Kann Alpha, and am experiencing same connection problems off a BT Hub 2 router (full fibre). Tidal plays a song for about 5 minutes or so, then the music stops, and I get an error message; there was a connection problem, retry. The Alpha works ok off my iPhone 7 hotspot. I have tried soft reset, changed sleep settings but still the same problem. I contacted A&K and the only response I got was them wanting details of my router. after that no comms at all. Anyone with ideas to help please? I am in the UK

Welcome ... nobody found a way to override such issue with any type of routers when it happens.
The only thing I noticed, is that it is probably not concerned with the router itself but much more with some item on your LAN which is probably broadcasting something which disturbs the Kann Alpha behavior.
You are at least lucky, that you can find a way with using your smartphone as Accesspoint. You can't expect anything from A&K as they use obsolete hardware and a non-standard android version, such issue is concerning some other of their daps than Kann Alpha.

 

[MikeW9788]

Hello Jason. I kindly ask you to contact the Astell & Kern support service regarding the self-discharge of the battery in standby mode (in pause). Is it possible to make the player do not need to be turned off at all. During the night in standby mode, the battery wasted more than 20%. Dear community, please support me on this issue. Who else noticed this problem. Friend has sp1000m, no self-discharge in standby.

Mine just did this yesterday. I forgot to power down the unit. In the morning it would not turn on. I thought it might be broken. I hooked up the charger and after a long time it finally started charging and working again. This will happen if you don't power off the unit manually. My friends sr 25 does the same thing. I do have the auto power off set to 30 min. There is a glitch with this particular feature. I thought the unit was totally broken and this deep discharge cannot be good for the battery.

 

[klyaksa]

Mine just did this yesterday. I forgot to power down the unit. In the morning it would not turn on. I thought it might be broken. I hooked up the charger and after a long time it finally started charging and working again. This will happen if you don't power off the unit manually. My friends sr 25 does the same thing. I do have the auto power off set to 30 min. There is a glitch with this particular feature. I thought the unit was totally broken and this deep discharge cannot be good for the battery.

But you must admit that this should not be so. I had players from hiby, ibasso. And the standby charge loss was 5-10% per night (8 hours) I think this problem can be solved programmatically, but why don't Astell & Kern react?

 

[klyaksa]

Jason, please reassure me that there is nothing you can do about the standby battery self-discharge problem. Contact technical support if it's not difficult for you. Explain this problem to them, maybe something can still be done. Please.

 

[klyaksa]

It's not difficult for me to turn off the player. I use sleep tamers. But, I really want the player to be always ready to immediately delight me with its magnificent sound.

 

[Newsee]

Mine just did this yesterday. I forgot to power down the unit. In the morning it would not turn on. I thought it might be broken. I hooked up the charger and after a long time it finally started charging and working again. This will happen if you don't power off the unit manually. My friends sr 25 does the same thing. I do have the auto power off set to 30 min. There is a glitch with this particular feature. I thought the unit was totally broken and this deep discharge cannot be good for the battery.

If you have AK Connect, or some sideloaded app (tidal, Qobuz) running, they might prevent the auto power off to kick in.

 

[Tomm11]

I turn my player off but I don't think this is an exclusive to A&K. I think my Cowon Plenue R2 burns through the battery while in sleep mode too. I'm not saying that it's acceptable. Just that the KA isn't an anomaly in that regard. Regardless, it shouldn't happen.

 

[MikeW9788]

I'm pretty good at powering down the unit when I'm done but this happens when it auto powers down, not in standby.

 

[Woodside 2021]

That kinda makes sense as BT broadcasts on the same 2.4 GHz frequency. It's a shame the device doesn't have modern 5 GHz wifi. Also keep in mind that you may have other BT devices broadcasting as well (phones, TV boxes, etc.), not just the Kann.

My bluetooth is not turned on and I still experience wifi drop outs. I have set the Alpha to sleep after 1 hour, that has not really helped.