Astell & Kern Kann Alpha

Audio Gear Talk
21

Hi, CrystalGipsy!

I have both roon and AK Kanna Alpha and just wanted to let you know that I am loving the combination. I may be lucky, but my connection to the Kann is rock-solid. It doesn’t drop roon at all.
I am currently upsampling on the roon nucleus to DSD, and find the sound improvement small, but audible (plus it’s fun to tinker a little). I find that i am around the 10-30 range on the volume wheel, but I have very sensitive headphones (Sony MDR-Z7 mark 1) and use the 4.4 mm output.

For me, I enjoyed the DAP quality with microsd card, but now having roon endpoint functionality (and you can skip tracks right on the Kann) really takes it to the next level.

I have compared the DAC to my reference (marantz-SA14S1 SACD player) and the dac inside the Denon PMA110 anniversary edition, and found it to be of equal performance. Perhaps it is the battery usage or just the other parts that are making the Kann alpha perform so well (IMO).

I really hope you are having a good time with the Kann Alpha. For me, I would only buy an AK DAP going forward (as long as it has roon integration).
Cheers,
Travis

22

I sent mine back, wasn’t worth the money or hassle. Being in a very busy 2.4ghz wireless environment it just didn’t work well at all for me. Good that your enjoying yours.

23

Agree with @CrystalGipsy about the WiFi. Mine is very flaky and only supports 2.4ghz as mentioned. Strangely stable on the onboard Tidal app but as soon as you got to Roon it will drop out every 20 to 30 minutes.
Quite poor and I won’t buy Astell and Kern again as for the price you would expect later and better components used.
Also surprised that Roon certified it as lots of issues on the WiFi looking at various forums.

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