Astell&KernKANN Portable Audio Player - Astro Silver

Ok so this is just one of the most impressive players I have listened to. Sound quality? Excellent; battery life? I tried it all day at work and in the gym and it didn't require a recharge. Brilliant when compared to A&K's small sized players. Don't let it's size fool you. It fits in the pocket quite well (well just about. I wear slim/snug fit trousers).The most impressive part for me is the amp under the hood. This is the ONLY portable music player that I have found to drive my HifiMan HE560 to reach excessive high volumes. Granted it takes turning it up to the max volume with amp set to high to get this but it is nice not to need an external amp or extra weight to enjoy this. If you have difficult to drive headphones and you want a portable solution that won't need an extra brick strapped to it, look no further than the KANN.

Love this for the sound, style [yes it's a big one!] and the large screen .. but, the play, forward, backwards are buttons as opposed to touchscreen which can be fiddly. In terms of the file formats it will play just about anything you can throw at it and the overall sound I find is a little warmer than the AK70. Can't comment on other models as I haven't tried them. For me the sound is very pleasant and at this price point it should be however, if you want something lightweight and easy to carry around I would say this might not be the one for you! I am happy with this and it does drive some top end headphones well [Sennheiser HD800S] so no need for a separate amp.

Astell&Kern KANN sounds just as great as the review in the magazine "What HiFi?" says it will. Open and detailed lovely sound. I could even hear a clear improvement in sound image compared to my old Apple iPod 160 GB using mp3 as source for comparison. The possibility to add huge amount of memory capacity means you should aim for flac instead. Only drawback is that microSD and SD cards have to be formatted using FAT32 and not exFAT being default for large memory cards. Windows 10 will not offer FAT32 as an option so you will need external software for reformatting. So you will need some computer skill to fix this.

The best features of the Kann are its capacity and sound quality. The main drawback is its lack of a functionality, particularly the fact that a fairly basic feature of mp3 players, namely playlists, does not work. There are plenty of threads about the failed playlist feature and the lack of customer service online. Also, there is only a limited list of streaming services from which to choose, and it does not include Spotify. If I had known about the lack of a functioning playlist capability, I would not have bought this player.

Very good sound quality but the unit was bricked by an OTA firmware update, rendering it completely useless. Support from A & K completely non-existent but fortunately Amazon’s refund process made it quite straightforward to get my money back.

Quick question to Astell & Kern. i have placed 2 SDs in the KANN ,previously used in other AK devises, and both crash and need reformatted. Can you help?. not sure what i am doing wrong

Be warned the UI is pretty basic and clunky and the device is so so IMO for instance no covered SD slot no case included several other minor disappointments BUT After a few days of the SHURE SE846 (VIA BALANCED) AND SENN IE800S (VIA BALANCED) I worked out I simply couldnt care less about anything OTHER THAN THE INCREDIBLE MUSICAL AUDIO BLISS PUMPING ENDLESSLY INTO MY EARS it is SIMPLY FANTASTIC TO LISTEN TOThe biggest suprise was the EXTRA DETAIL that the Chord and Sony PHA3 simply fail to deliver along with sheer power and CONTROLI know my Sony EX1000'S are good but they now the SOAR and SOUND SIMPLY EPIC (UNBALANCED)What this does is make you feel very satisfied

Amazing is not enough to explain the emotion to feel deep down in the music... after years of iphone also supported by a Teac Dac amplifier... a short try of a borrowed Fioo X5... now I can touch the paradise with the Astell&Kern Kann... every song of every author I listen to is like being teleported in the middle of a new live concert... I use my P7 Bowers & Wilkins and they match perfectly!!!!! The Kann price is quite high... but now that I have been brave enough to invest those money on it, I can truly say that this is one of my best tech purchases ever... just a little problem with the SD compatibility: I had to format it on my Mac to the oldest of the formatting typologies that is MS-DOS (FAT) (=the Mac equivalent of a Fat32)… the only one compatible formatting standard with the KANN... but now my scandisk SD works perfectly and I am flying in the sky of an almost realistic live music! Thank you Astell&Kern: you allowed me to reach the music paradise! :-)))