AV INFO
PRODUCT: Portable, balanced hi-res music player
POSITION: Middle model in the three-strong KANN series
PEERS: Astell&Kern KANN Cube; FiiO M11 Plus
THE DEDICATED PORTABLE audio player market is not a massive one, and Korean brand Astell&Kern is the biggest fish in a relatively small pond. Its KANN series of players overlaps the more conventional A&Norma and A&Futura ranges, and is designed to be able to drive even very demanding headphones from a smallscale device.
This means the KANN Alpha (£1,100) can pump out 6V from its unbalanced 3.5mm connection, and no less than 12V from its two balanced outputs – one a 2.5mm connection historically preferred by Astell&Kern, the other the newer 4.4mm type. If you don’t want to use a cable at all, Bluetooth 5.0, supporting aptX and LDAC, is integrated.
The KANN Alpha's internal circuitry is fully balanced, facilitated by a pair of ESS Sabre DACs running in dual mono. PCM sampling rate is 32-bit/384kHz and format handling is extensive, extending from lossy MP3 to DSD256 and MQA. If you want to store a lot of large music files, however, you will have to spring for a microSD card as the internal memory is a rather paltry 64GB. Cards of up to 1TB are supported.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2021 من Home Cinema Choice.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2021 من Home Cinema Choice.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
AV Avenger
You should think twice before accepting an invitation to play Resident Evil 4 with spatial audio in a haunted prison, warns Steve May
Catalogue classic Star Wars: Ep. VI - Return of the Jedi → Ultra HD Blu-ray, Disney
Forty years on from the movie's cinema release, Anton van Beek ponders what might have been if things had gone a little diff erently during the making of Return of the Jedi…
Feedback
Got an axe to grind? Need to comment on current tech? Want to share your knowledge with our readers? Team HCC is here to help
M&K Sound V12
TIME ON TEST: Three years REVIEWER: Steve Withers
Sony 'bar demands to be upgraded
This well-specified Dolby Atmos soundbar may have a mid-range price tag, but you'll soon want to spend more, cautions Steve May
Short and sweet
Marantz's compact AV receiver returns with a new look and boosted features – Jamie Biesemans slips it into his AV rig
Discreet delivery
A slim, stylish Scandinavian on-wall system impresses Mark Craven with its handling of the sweet stuff
One project, two rooms
Dan Sait reports on a custom install where a JVC PJ/ Atmos system is joined by a stylish media den
THE KING OF B RDA HOLLYWOOD
Three of his movies have taken over $2billon at the global box office, he's pioneered SFX and 3D technologies, and he's been to the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean. That's James Cameron by the way, not Anton van Beek
System selector!
Given three similar budgets, Mark Craven, Steve May and John Archer assemble three different AV setups focused on movies, streaming and gaming
