Astell & Kern - Zero Customer service. Beware | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

sperandeo · May 3, 2021 at 12:23 PM

I have tried to contact AK for the past 3 weeks regarding my concern about 2 players that I have ($6000). I have not received a single reply to any of these emails. I have also received other AK emails to send my concerns to from various members of this group. Again I have not received a single reply.
My initial email from a month ago had to do with my 2 players not being able to work with Tidal. AK’s response at that time was “they are no longer supported”. The reply’s to their email is what they have been ignoring over the past 3 weeks.
How can Astell & Kern expect anyone to spend thousands of dollars on their players and then ignore you when you have a concern? This is just bad business.

Palpatine79 · May 4, 2021 at 4:33 AM

This may be their new policy and new quality. I have been asking for a reply regarding SA700 for several months and also silence. It looks like they stopped supporting two-year DAP because much lower-ranked devices get regular updates.

chef8489 · May 4, 2021 at 4:44 AM

This again. It's not aksfault tildle is no longer supported on those devices. It's tidal. choice to stop supportinghardware and software. titles. Been pointed out to you many times why this is the case and AK can't do anything about it. Your players still work with the other streaming apps so put the blame on tidal where it belongs.
@JasonNYC

Palpatine79 · May 4, 2021 at 5:59 AM

@chef8489 I'm sure you are wrong. We bought a device with some functionality and you can't just leave people without support. It should be up to the company to solve the problem no matter what. They can always update their devices to newer versions of Android.
But hole case with Tidal is just on of many problems with AK devices, and customers are without support. I ask about my problems with AK few times since november.

chef8489 · May 4, 2021 at 6:03 AM

Anytime I have had an issue I have asked @JasonNYC and he helped.. have you guys called? Maybe your emails are winding up in spam. How about contacting Jason?

goodvibes · May 4, 2021 at 8:34 AM

No idea if this is a fix but https://www.moon-audio.com/blog/astellkern-support-open-app-services

Also, if they support Qobuz, just switch. It's clearly better.

monsieurfromag3 · May 4, 2021 at 8:42 AM

goodvibes said:
No idea if this is a fix but https://www.moon-audio.com/blog/astellkern-support-open-app-services

Also, if they support Qobuz, just switch. It's clearly better.

Except for the catalogue - I mean, it’s good, features plenty of stuff that’s not on Tidal or is better presented on Qobuz, but many cornerstones of my library aren’t on Qobuz (they’re niche, but as I say - cornerstones for me).

I’m confused as to the whole A&K Tidal business. Is it plain incompatible from now on, or is it accessible but only through an alternative version, via APKpure or something? With restrictions for offline playback maybe...

goodvibes · May 4, 2021 at 8:50 AM

Beats me but it's possible that Tidal/Andriod have made it difficult to support without the google play store. Try sideloading and see what happens.

Musak60 · May 4, 2021 at 9:54 AM

From the Tidal website,

“Astell&Kern is a global leader in portable high-resolution audio players and accessories. All Wi-Fi enabled Astell&Kern players feature TIDAL music service built-in. Current generation players add MQA decoding and support 24-bit streaming via TIDAL Masters.”

Misleading, in my opinion. All wi-fi enabled devices feature Tidal but not all are able to connect now. This needs to be stated on their site.

On the other hand, A&K states that some of their devices will be given a firmware update and will be able to connect in May sometime. Why are some devices being updated and some are not? An impossibility? A&K doesn’t have the time nor money to put into solving the issue? I think all of us who own the non-supported devices deserve an honest answer.

From both sides.

chef8489 · May 4, 2021 at 9:58 AM

Musak60 said:
From the Tidal website,

“Astell&Kern is a global leader in portable high-resolution audio players and accessories. All Wi-Fi enabled Astell&Kern players feature TIDAL music service built-in. Current generation players add MQA decoding and support 24-bit streaming via TIDAL Masters.”
Misleading, in my opinion. All wi-fi enabled devices feature Tidal but not all are able to connect now. This needs to be stated on their site.

On the other hand, A&K states that some of their devices will be given a firmware update and will be able to connect in May sometime. Why are some devices being updated and some are not? An impossibility? A&K doesn’t have the time nor money to put into solving the issue? I think all of us who own the non-supported devices deserve an honest answer.

From both sides.

Because either the software, hardware, or both are not supported by tidal.

Palpatine79 · May 4, 2021 at 1:01 PM

chef8489 said:
Because either the software, hardware, or both are not supported by tidal.

even if it is true, it does not matter. Customers have paid thousands of dollars for dap with promised functionality that doesn't exist. AK has its own developers and they should fix this problem before Tidal did what they did.

chef8489 · May 4, 2021

Palpatine79 said:
even if it is true, it does not matter. Customers have paid thousands of dollars for dap with promised functionality that doesn't exist. AK has its own developers and they should fix this problem before Tidal did what they did.

Where does ak guarantee tidal will always work? You can't stop a software developer from stoping support. They don't own tidal or even have any influence over tidal. The players work with offline content as well as the other streaming apps. Again put the blame where it goes and blame tidal. A lot of you people have no clue how the tech world works.

And this wasn't an issue till tidal decided to stop support and functionality.

Palpatine79 · May 4, 2021 at 1:15 PM

Astell&Kern players feature TIDAL music service built-in.

chef8489 said:
Where does ak guarantee tidal will always work? You can't stop a software developer from stoping support

Realy? My Dap is not even two years after the premiere.

chef8489 · May 4, 2021 at 1:20 PM

Palpatine79 said:
Astell&Kern players feature TIDAL music service built-in.

Realy? My Dap is not even two years after the premiere.

And the sa700 will be updated. It takes time to fix issues especially when you are waiting on tidal to release it to hardware manufacturers. While you wait sideload tidal. Again you are blaming AK when they are not at fault. The issue will be fixed once tidal releases it to them and they send an update.

Palpatine79 · May 4, 2021 at 1:30 PM

chef8489 said:
And the sa700 will be updated. It takes time to fix issues especially when you are waiting on tidal

This DAP Has more bugs than Tidal, and they did not fix them since 2 years. Last update was st september - 9 months ago.

chef8489 said:
Again you are blaming AK when they are not at fault.

How do you know?[QUOTE="chef8489]The issue will be fixed once tidal releases it to them and they send an update.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe. Wll see.

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