Astell & Kern Kann Ultra DAP Review

[ErinPraline]

I'm not surprised at the performance of this device. IMO DAPs are basically toys. Honestly I think you're better off buying an old iPod off ebay or something and modding it.

 

[Chr1]

Think it is a bit of a stretch to call all DAPs toys...
Then again you could say all the bits of our audio hobby are toys.

PS Isn't an old Ipod a DAP anyway?

 

[JDS]

Less data charges?

People still pay data charges?

 

[M.C. Logan]

People still pay data charges?

In the UK at least most tariffs have data caps, your monthly tariff gives you a fixed data amount, over which the per GB charges are, shall we say, extortionate. So if you want to listen with hi-res you either pay through the nose for a high data package, which some months you may not use, or avoid it entirely and use a DAP, which you can of course also plug straight into your car hifi and dedicate your phone to Sat-Nav duties.

 

[Somafunk]

In the UK at least most tariffs have data caps, your monthly tariff gives you a fixed data amount, over which the per GB charges are, shall we say, extortionate. So if you want to listen with hi-res you either pay through the nose for a high data package, which some months you may not use, or avoid it entirely and use a DAP, which you can of course also plug straight into your car hifi and dedicate your phone to Sat-Nav duties.

Are you sure?, for £10/month you can get unlimited calls/messages/data as this is what a mates kid is using, if you're paying for data then I think it's time to change your provider/network.

 

[Roland68]

Are you sure?, for £10/month you can get unlimited calls/messages/data as this is what a mates kid is using, if you're paying for data then I think it's time to change your provider/network.

Then read the fine print. Many providers throttle data to 32 or 64 kbps once you reach a certain usage level.

This happened to a friend of mine recently.

 

[Somafunk]

Not for me here in the UK - I have all i can eat , and not for my mates kid account either.

 

[M.C. Logan]

Are you sure?, for £10/month you can get unlimited calls/messages/data as this is what a mates kid is using, if you're paying for data then I think it's time to change your provider/network.

Who's doing unlimited data for £10/month? Calls and texts, yup, data, no way.
E.g. £36/month on Vodafone
Only cheap ones are fly by night VMNO's, no thanks, no antispam, no guarantees, no customer service, no conf calling, no esims/clones for smart watches.

 

[Somafunk]

Who's doing unlimited data for £10/month? Calls and texts, yup, data, no way.
E.g. £36/month on Vodafone
Only cheap ones are fly by night VMNO's, no thanks, no antispam, no guarantees, no customer service, no conf calling, no esims/clones for smart watches.

EE for myself, think I pay £8/month but I never leave the house so the data add on is pretty pointless for myself, been with them for 15 years since they started as well as using their unlimited EE broadband at 40Mbps for £12/month

 

[M.C. Logan]

EE for myself, think I pay £8/month but I never leave the house so the data add on is pretty pointless for myself, been with them for 15 years since they started as well as using their unlimited EE broadband at 40Mbps for £12/month

So, you don't use mobile data, because you don't leave the house and use Wi-Fi. The point is that, for people *who use data* out of the house, data caps are a thing as are data charges.

 

[Somafunk]

So, you don't use mobile data, because you don't leave the house and use Wi-Fi. The point is that, for people *who use data* out of the house, data caps are a thing as are data charges.

Yes data caps can be a “thing” as you say but totally unlimited data without caps is also a “thing” and is available for very little money, I have it, a mates kid has it.

Anyway this “pedantry” is polluting the thread, I’m out

 

[M.C. Logan]

Yes data caps can be a “thing” as you say but totally unlimited data without caps is also a “thing” and is available for very little money, I have it, a mates kid has it.

Anyway this “pedantry” is polluting the thread, I’m out

"Your mates kid" doesn't appear to have told you who the network provider is or how much they are paying. For *most* people a VMNO PAYG SIM is not something they want as it doesn't have the range of features most people want. Not forgetting that huge numbers of people want to get their handset on their contract. For *most* people Data Limits and Caps are the norm. *Most* people are customers of the 'Big Three' and aren't going to change their provider simply to be able to listen to high quality streaming, a DAP is a simple and effective alternative. It also works when you are out of range of a 4/5g signal.

 

[DrZingo]

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.

I agree. I suppose an appropriate name for these devices today would be "Sauropods". It's strange to see that they are still around.

 

[M.C. Logan]

I agree. I suppose an appropriate name for these devices today would be "Sauropods". It's strange to see that they are still around.

Maybe you don't live where there is spotty to poor 4/5g coverage? Maybe you don't have a personally curated library of several thousand albums? Maybe you are well off enough to not care about data charges? Maybe you don't use the camera in your phone while listening to music on wired headphones? There are dozens of reasons not to use a phone for music playback. Google AI suggests that the portable media player market, including MP3 players, is projected to grow from $26.42 billion in 2024 to $28.3 billion in 2025, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1%

 

[Somafunk]

"Your mates kid" doesn't appear to have told you who the network provider is or how much they are paying. For

Just asked him, he’s on smarty with unlimited data etc for £13 month, thinks it’s meant to £15 month but he gets a £2 discount for some reason.

End<

 

[M.C. Logan]

"Smarty" a MVNO which only offers PAYG, shit support, no phone+SIM contracts, no fixed term contract, no smartwatch support, crap antispam (3 has a bad antispam platform), and it runs on 3's network, which has the worst coverage, speeds, and customer service.
Nope, I'll use a proper network and a DAP, better phone service, better audio.

 

[Somafunk]

…….

 

[M.C. Logan]

…….

Some adults need a reliable phone network with full support, coverage, and services, children not so much.

 

[DrZingo]

Maybe you don't live where there is spotty to poor 4/5g coverage? Maybe you don't have a personally curated library of several thousand albums? Maybe you are well off enough to not care about data charges? Maybe you don't use the camera in your phone while listening to music on wired headphones? There are dozens of reasons not to use a phone for music playback. Google AI suggests that the portable media player market, including MP3 players, is projected to grow from $26.42 billion in 2024 to $28.3 billion in 2025, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1%

Yes, maybe. But I just don't see the point of an expensive dedicated device, when a phone (with perhaps a dongle) can do the same job, and most people have the phone already anyway. If you live in a remote area you can just store music files on the phone or use the "download to device" function of your music streaming service. And frankly, buying a $1500 player because you are wary of data charges seems insane. (I could possibly see the point of getting a dirt cheap device to use when going to the beach or exercising and you don't want to risk your phone getting destroyed or stolen.)

 

[M.C. Logan]

Whoa fella. I never once suggested that this particular overpriced, underperforming bauble was the solution.
Now, phones have limited storage as they no longer have SD card slots, so carrying a decent sized HiRes library is not viable. A small $/£150-200 DAP can have up to 2TB micros SD installed with an unconverted 24/96 and/or DSD collection of a thousand or more LPs. So one doesn't need to guess in advance what one wishes to listen to as one does if downloading to a phone. One doesn't have to faff around plugging the phone into the PC or waiting for Tidal/Qobuz to download before leaving the house (having first deleted the stuff one doesn't want because the phone is full from the previous outing). I don't have to stress the Type C connector by having a dongle plugged in all the time, I can take photos/videos (when I don't have my camera with me) without being constrained by a cable hanging out of my phone, I don't run the battery down on my phone driving my high impedance headphones through a current draining dongle. These are some of the reasons that it's a multi billion dollar business. You may not have a use for a DAP but millions of us do.