Astell & Kern AKHC4: a very successful cocktail.
The Astell & Kern dongle presents itself in a very clean way, two buttons for the volume (software) and a selector for the maximum sampling (DAR) which at least for now does not add anything unmissable to the sound... on the contrary. Quite large and solid, it makes a good impression, but let's find out the most important thing... how it sounds. At first it sounded a little strange when it was turned on... it sounded like a mix of various dongles that I own and listen to very often. The sound seemed to consist of very noticeable features found in some of my best dongles. Let's start with the bass... they seem to be those of the M15 in terms of power (really very deep as well as very powerful) and in terms of tone and speed close to those of the RU7... so everything is ok. The mids resemble in every way the splendid mids of the PAW S2... the sound is dense but not heavy, the tonality is very refined and the study of the Astell & Kern engineers in creating a thickness in the notes can be heard in a very distinguishable way which however does not affect its smoothness and naturalness. The highs closely resemble those of the W4, very extended, crystal clear, never offensive but very rich in truly convincing details. However, all of this seemed a bit disjointed... not organic and at times artificial, but after a bit of running in (most likely also my brain) it all became incredibly cohesive and integrated. What I had read about Astell & Kern daps (especially for those with a few years behind them) is absolutely not reflected in this dongle. The very technical sound, bordering on sterility, with little musicality and many technicalities is not at all the sound of this dongle which on the contrary makes musicality and body clearly its main characteristics. Not having listened to other Astell & Kern I can't know if the engineers have changed their priorities in terms of sound, but if they have done so they have chosen exactly the right path. The bass makes the scene very engaging but never overlaps with the other frequencies, the mids give softness and the right amount of warmth and the highs are a magnet for details. A truly excellent dongle, which will surely make those who purchase it happy especially considering that among the top dongles it is perhaps the cheapest one as well as being one of the ones that sounds best. The only weak point is in the amplification which is not at the level of everything else... it will certainly make all your IEMs sound (even the not easy IER-Z1R) but certainly if helped by external amplification it will become completely another thing, I'm not saying it's a bad amplification but it doesn't allow the dongle to shine as it deserves and should. Listened to the RA2BFE it reaches very high levels of performance, doing full justice to the work of the A&K technicians who truly endowed it with a spectacular sound. The comparison with the iBasso DC-Elite can easily be made and not like other dongles where it is absolutely impossible as well as useless. The AKHC4 has a much more prominent bass than the Elite and with comparable extension and quality but the real difference is in the mids and highs. The Astell & Kern has fuller mids with heavier notes, while the Elite moves towards a lighter, thinner, more agile representation and therefore faster and attentive to details and nuances (not that these are lacking in the HC4). The highs, on the other hand, are more evident on the A&K with a comparable recovery of details and an extension of the same level. The difference here is in the greater integration of the highs within the sound spectrum by the Elite which is much less on the HC4. The HC4's soundstage is slightly smaller in width than the Elite, but it is greater in depth, translating the discussion to video level it is as if with the Elite you are watching a film on a 16:9 screen while with the HC4 the screen has a ratio of 4:3. The amplification is certainly to the advantage of the Elite, as is the richness of the sound stage and the synergy compared to the various IEMs is certainly more extensive due to its better balance. Having said this, I consider the Elite superior, but I wouldn't be surprised if out of a group of ten blindfolded listeners at least three (with the right IEMs and their favorite music) might prefer the HC4. This dongle from Astell & Kern is truly a beautiful discovery, unfairly overlooked and not reviewed except by sites that sell it (so reviews so to speak), it certainly deserves a place alongside the best dongles around and very often much more expensive than it and being like a cocktail of their best sonic characteristics mixed by the expert hands of A&K engineers. Well done Astell & Kern!!!
