Astell & Kern KANN

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Wolvebain

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Last night I finally got to unwrap and use my my A&K KANN DAP that was delivered to my home earlier this week, when I was in the Cape for work.


On initially listening, I could tell it is not a reference DAP... but oh, so musical!
From the reviews of others, I knew this, and it was a selling point for me and my use case: using it at client sites, out-and-about.  Definitely not situations that I can do critical listening or pure music focused listening.

Next aspect I tested was the interoperability of it within my setup.  Roon doesn't do DLNA, but my LMS server plays well with it.  Making the envisioned next use case possible; The KANN as my BT source to the pair of Sony SRS-XB20 speakers at my CPT apartment, driven my LMS on my Pi.
 

Now, for the sound...
The Kann is not perfect.. I'm a reference person.. and as I mentioned earlier, I could tell from first listening it's definitely not ref...  It is, however, very musical :)
Since I still need to re-wire my 2.5mm TRRS to 4-pin female XLR adapter for the A&K pin-outs, the impressions given below (from my whatsapp chat) are from the single-ended output only, and via my Shure SE846 and Sennheiser  HD650.

Very impressed with the Kann.. smooth, detailed, great stereo imaging.. Case and point, playing R.E.M's Tongue from their Monster album, to single-ended HD650 headies...
The song's initially starts with light tambourine, then melodic piano intro that spans and sweeps between the left and right channel...  The Kann does this so very well!
The song then builds, adding more instruments... ,  soft singing of Stipe, then drums, bass, guitar, bongo drums, synth/organ.. and some harmonizing backing vocals sweeping in at times... all whilst the piano melody continues...

The Kann plays it so very well, with all the layered timbre of the song... and that's on my HD650...

BTW.. listening to the DSD version of Satriani's 'Strange Beautiful Music' album...
DAP does a good job here too... There is a noticeable slowness in the HF, that works well with songs like Sleep Walk and You Saved My Life... but removes the edge in certain fast paced sections of songs like Chords Of Life.. still very musical tho, north of 'warm'.. but that could also be the HD650 and the single-ended connection...

I'll update this thread when I'm wired for the HD800S, LCD-4, etc. and when my 512Gb SD card and 2.5mm MMCX cable from Amazon arrives.
 

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