Astell & Kern Kann Ultra DAP Review

[CedarX]

I’m a DAP user, but not this kind of DAP. I think the selling points for DAP buyers are the brand (A&K is highly rated), and the dual ESS9039-Pro: a very high-end solution, even by desktop DAC standards.

Amir’s tests show once more that chasing “paper” spec and selecting high-end chips means nothing if the rest of the stuff, the implementation is botched. A good reference. Thanks Amir!

 

[TheWalkman]

As an alternative for great sound, I’ll pull my old iPhone 6 out of the junk drawer and listen to music with my AirPod Pro 2s for a far superior experience.

 

[Roland68]

Hmm, is there really a market for such a device, considering most phones are already connected to services like Tidal and Spotify?

You don't even begin to realize how many devices (mobile DAPs) are sold in the high price range.
Sales figures for high-quality, or rather high-priced, players have been rising for years, and €/$1,500 isn't even the high-price range. Unit sales figures for devices above €/$150 are in the six- to seven-digit range worldwide.
And none of these manufacturers would have continued to develop new devices in this price range for over 10 years if they didn't recoup their development and production costs, which means selling at least 1,000 units per model, but in reality, it's significantly more.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

You don't even begin to realize how many devices (mobile DAPs) are sold in the high price range.

I’ll admit I’m clearly out of the loop on this one. I’ve just never found myself needing a device like that. Back in the day, I’d load my 320 kbps MP3s onto a clip-on MP3 player and head out. Before that, it was a trusty Panasonic CD player. Digital audio players are a part of the hobby I’ve never really explored -or felt the need to, to be honest.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

As an alternative for great sound, I’ll pull my old iPhone 6 out of the junk drawer and listen to music with my AirPod Pro 2s for a far superior experience.

Those IEM's are truly remarkable, aren't they? -I absolutely love mine.

 

[CT Man]

I use my old LG G7 without a SIM card as player for Roon and for the usual streaming services. Also works fine as a remote for other Roon and Chromecast devices. Works with big SD cards if that's important to you.

There are no updates beyond Android 9, so at some point I expect that critical apps won't run on it. In the meantime, it's quite handy. Available used under $100 US. Other LG models with great DAC implementations available too.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Astrell & Kern is a HEA (High End Audio) company, as such, it features all their pretenses and poor to middle of the road objective performance. Back in the days before ASR, they could boast superiority while the HEA ecosystem, the magazines, the headphones websites, etc would sing their paeans.

No longer. ASR is here to stay, this DAP, can easily be bested by even more portable combination of a smartphone IOS or Android with a good dongle, (there exist a plethora, many were reviewed here and recommended) at perhaps 1/5 of its price in everything that matters .. including portability .... but if you have the dough and want to show your audiophile cred, this DAP, plus similarly expensive but poorly performing IEM, and cables from Synergistic Research such as this $695 (!!!!) model, would be the ticket. ...

I voted poor...

Peace.

 

[Zgrado1970]

You don't even begin to realize how many devices (mobile DAPs) are sold in the high price range.
Sales figures for high-quality, or rather high-priced, players have been rising for years, and €/$1,500 isn't even the high-price range. Unit sales figures for devices above €/$150 are in the six- to seven-digit range worldwide.
And none of these manufacturers would have continued to develop new devices in this price range for over 10 years if they didn't recoup their development and production costs, which means selling at least 1,000 units per model, but in reality, it's significantly more.

Please post links to the source for the sales figures you state above. I would be curious to look behind the curtain of some of these companies.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

A very satisfying review

 

[Mr Swing King]

Astell & Kern has always struck me as the dap world’s take on Abyss; insane prices for a unicorn-laden narrative and objectively poor performance. You basically pay for esoteric mumbojumbo.
No thanks.

 

[Herbert Shooler]

Genius! This is why the prophet speaks, great DAC but terrible headphone output kills it,this will cause a few waves. thankyou Amir another trenchant thunderbolt of truth!

 

[phoenixdogfan]

This is for one of those old guys who have a cell phone fanny pack. The kind that Uncle Rodger makes fun of.

Great review, Amir. So, it's current limited and won't drive lower impedance headphones, so I guess my LCD-X's would choke on it. Not good for $1500.

 

[Somafunk]

Hi

Astrell & Kern is a HEA (High End Audio) company, as such, it displays all their pretenses and poor to middle of the road objective performance. Back in the days before ASR, they could boast superiority while the HEA ecosystem, the mabazines, the headphones websites, etc woudl sing their paens
No longer, thanks to ASR. This DAP, can easily be bested by even more portable combination of a smartphone IOS or Android with a good dongle, (there exist a plethora, many were reviewed here and recommended) at perhaps 1/5 of its price in everything that matters .. including portability .... but if you have the dough and want to show your audiophile cred, this DAP, plus similarly expensive but poorly performing IEM, and cables from Synergistic Research such as this $695 (!!!!) model, would be the ticket. ...

I voted poor...I

Peace.

I have the great-great-great grandfather to the Astell & Kern Ultra, the iriver H340 from 2005ish (iriver employees created the A&K brand as an upmarket dap company)

I wonder how this would measure?, still sounds perfectly decent with the original Ogg Vorbis vbr MP3’s I have on it, folk get far too hung up on perfection these days.

 

[Multicore]

I wonder why this kind of product still exists.

 

[SuicideSquid]

Frustrating to see a device so close to being great, drop the ball so hard.

 

[FrantzM]

Frustrating to see a device so close to being great, drop the ball so hard.

to continue with the sports metaphors, "they took their eyes from the ball"

Peace.

 

[Marc v E]

Why would anyone buy a device like this in preference to a mid range smartphone at half the price - even if they don't want smart phone functionality?

And given that almost everyone who wants a portable player will already have a smart phone, I really struggle to find a reason for this things existence.

Especially when you consider the UI performance.

I guess they would be targeted at an audience consisting of middle aged men who are into hifi, mistrust anything looking like a smartphone and are prepared to spend the necessary cash.

 

[Roland68]

Please post links to the source for the sales figures you state above. I would be curious to look behind the curtain of some of these companies.

Access to such commercial statistics costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They're not allowed to be published anyway, so I'm only giving approximate figures.

I wonder why this kind of product still exists.

It's quite simple. Because there are between hundreds of thousands and millions of buyers for it every year and the number is increasing.
Just because it's uninteresting to you doesn't mean it's the same for others. And that certainly applies to tens of thousands of products, not just in the audio sector.

 

[Bob101]

I wonder why this kind of product still exists.

For gullable boomers. No irony or sarcasm or ill will intended. Nobody under 40 even know this brand (still) exists. The headphone amp does not hold up to many designs from a decade ago. At this price? Just sad.

 

[kemmler3D]

I think this shows the difficulty in producing and selling a niche product. DAPs were hugely popular in the pre smartphone era, now they're relatively rare.

E: or not? Per @Roland68 the volumes are at least moderate? I'm a little skeptical...

As a result you end up with low volume, high cost stuff like this, but performance in smartphones and smartphone accessories (USB DACs) is better in part because the sales volumes are much higher.

If DAPs were still a huge category I think this device might or might not perform better but it would probably cost $275 instead of $1500, so the performance might not be such an issue.