Astell & Kern AK70

amazon Astell & Kern AK70 reviews

Design

One of the strengths of Astell & Kern is the design style of luxury, strong, throughout the product line. The AK70 is no exception to this very simple and elegant design. The machine is quite small, compact in the palm. The outer shell color is called the Misty Mint, a very light blue silver. The sturdy metal body, machined to a very precise and firm feel for heavy hand. On the right side there is a precision mechanical calibration roller for Astell & Kern machines, which are elaborately machined. The left side has two music control buttons, a play / pause button and a microSD card slot.

The handset has a power button, 3.5mm headphone jack and a 2.5mm balanced port. The bottom edge has a microUSB charging port. The back side is simple with the Astell & Kern logo and some information on the product name, machine code and place of manufacture in Korea.

The highlight is the 3.3-inch AMOLED screen on the front of the machine. This is a very beautiful screen with high resolution, wide viewing angles, bright colors and deep black color. Actually, the lineup does not usually need such a good display, but this high-end component shows that Astell & Kern is interested in the quality and aesthetics of the product, not just the focus. Sound section. At the bottom of the screen there is a touch button, similar to the Home button on the Android device.

But the AK70 also has a downside in design, similar to Astell & Kern products in particular and a lot of other players in general, the edges are slightly sharp so when holding on the hand feel the need. When you press the power button and palm of your hand against the bottom of the machine, this part of your hand will feel uncomfortable. Of course, users just pick up the machine to select music and then dropped down uninterrupted like a phone so this is not a big problem. In addition to this disadvantage, the AK70 is a product of high quality both in terms of overall and detail, components manufactured.

Specifications

The AK70 uses the Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chip, which is a single chip rather than two. This chip is capable of decoding 24-bit music with 192kHz sampling frequency. However, the company has also expanded this capability up to 32-bit / 384kHz and DSD 64/128 to PCM. Some old Astell & Kern players have also played DSD format but the processing speed is slow. AK70 along with the new generation of machines has been optimized so that when playing DSD music does not have speed problems. Only thing, the AK70 also has to convert the DSD format to 24-bit / 172kHz PCM, so if users already have good music stored in lower formats then no need to run DSD files for .. . tired.

It has 64GB of built-in memory with up to 200GB of expandable capacity via microSD card. With the average capacity of a 24-bit song is 100MB, the machine can store about 2,500 songs. If 16-bit lossless music, then this number is over 12,000. This storage capacity is enough for those who want to put the entire music store on the machine. The AK70 has built-in Wi-Fi b / g / n (unfortunately without the ac standard), along with Bluetooth support for aptX, which delivers high-definition audio for wireless listening. With a 2.200mAh battery that combines automatic shutdown when not in use, the AK70 achieves a long playing time. If used about 1 hour / day, the machine can hold a week.

User interface

The Android operating system is very custom company. No longer interfaces with applications, menus and add-ons, instead an optimized interface for listening to music. At the main screen, there are options for music by song title, album, artist or folder. You can enter the player by clicking on the image of the song currently selected from this screen. From the top down, we have an option to adjust the brightness, change the connection mode with the computer, volume lock button … It’s just a quick customization, if the main menu item of the machine will be full. More than enough options are arranged quite similar to the original Android interface. There is an Equalizer option, a Gapless feature, a 2-channel equalizer, and basic settings such as date, time, language, keyboard … All operations on the machine run smoothly, Less late. Combined with the high quality display, the AK70 impresses as well as Astell & Kern’s superior products. The downside is that although it runs Android platform, it does not allow to install external applications such as the Acoustic Reseach M20, but for those who want a simple interface, just to listen to music is not problem.

Connect ability

Astell & Kern equips the machine quite capable of connecting and using. First is the ability to output signals to a removable amp via USB port, AK70 is the first product of this company capable. This can be used with the OTG port if the amp has a microUSB input or use a wired set for use with an integrated USB port amp. It can also act as an encoder and decoder for PCs via USB, which works well with Windows devices and uses Foobar2000. Features like Wasapi, ASIO can still work very well with the AK70. However, the quality of music depends quite a lot on the quality of the conductor. If used with loose ends, the music will experience intermittent distractions, even causing hard hisses, so invest in a new wire if you want to use this feature. Sound quality is of course much better than the 3.5mm input source of most computers today. Equipped with Bluetooth, the AK70 can paired with devices supporting this connection, Bluetooth settings are no different than mobile phones as this customizable interface uses the original Android interface.

Finally, the ability to rip music from CDs via the included accessories of the AK-CD ripper as more advanced products. But perhaps few people will use this feature as the accessory is priced at 2/3 of the music player (about $500) and the ripping is performed quite easily with the computer. Transferring music from CD to PC is easy, just connect your music player to the accessory, select the music file type and listen.

The ability to combine headphones

Astell & Kern does not recommend using the AK70 with the best type of headphones, but with a portable music player, one can speculate that it will fit in an earphone, an earbud and some types One-ar small. But that’s not the case, the AK70 is quite powerful enough to work with some formidable headphones. Try Earsonics Velvet or Oriolus v2 pair, just set the volume level to 85/150 is enough to hear. With on-ear types such as AKG K420 or Thinksound On2, this level increased to about 90-100 / 150. Try with a pretty hard-to-pull AKG designed for use with the K612 pro / home theater Amplifier / DAC, and the AK70 delivers enough volume at 125/150. The sound of this product must say is quite inferior to the Acoustic Research M20. The bass, although not comparable to the desk set, but not much loss, medium sonic to keep the high sound with good detail. The AK70 is a portable player, but it does not have a good headphone jack, enough to play small headsets and some easy-to-use headsets. With hard-to-remove headsets, it is better to add a removable amp to the USB port.

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Astell&Kern AK70 Portable 64GB High-Resolution Audio Player in Red: Buy it now

Sound quality

– Equipment used: Astell & Kern AK70 and Astell & Kern AK100

– Headphones: Earsonics Velvet, Oriolus v2

Each Astell & Kern player model has its own DAC, and their sound quality is not exactly the same. The AK70 was designed with a fairly regular sound quality in strips, with a generally smooth and comfortable overall feel. Unlike balanced sound, there is a lot of energy in AR M20. The two pairs of headphones used in the song, one of which is a balance of equilibrium, but when used with the AK70, they are soothing and easy listening. The sound of the AK70 is pretty clean even with headphones susceptible to hiss. In general, the AK70 has midrange, no light / dark distortion, all the sound is smooth and smooth throughout the band, so it is quite easy to mix the headphones. The AK70 has slow sounding tones and feels as powerful as the M20 from Acoustic Research.

With each stripe, the AK70 gives a fairly neat and clean bass. It is a bit less than the AR M20 and far outperforms the AK100 with a particularly high bass. The AK70, as well as the recently released music players, has been tuned by the manufacturer for a more neater and bass-oriented. The drum is played just right, thick enough to lay out clearly. The drum does not bounce up and occupies a lot of music space like the AK100, so the middle and the upper parts get stuck, which makes the acoustic field as well as the brightness of the AK70 better. Use with Oriolus v2, when listening to Sister Rosetta’s Goes Before Us from Alison Krauss, the drumhead is lightweight, but with good detail. The AK70 is not a DAP for the bass-head, especially for anyone looking for a deep, warm and substance that will suit anyone who likes a balanced, clean bass for easy ear coordination. Hear what they like. This direction is quite right, because the AK100 sometimes makes the earphones in full volume, which is very “high” in detail, but sometimes the overall sound is unbalanced and uncomfortable.

With the midrange range, the AK70 reproduces vocalists and instrumentalities in a neutral way, almost preserving the nature of the headphones. This sound when compared to the AK100 is somewhat thinner and clearer, better than the sound and acoustic ratio, but thinner but still retain the natural. Of the two test cases, the ES Velvet has a somewhat slim and unnatural middle part, so the AK100 is more suitable, but the AK70 is a little bit more detailed. Oriolus v2 is very well suited to the AK70, which combines a very natural sound, can be called laid back, velvety smooth, worth the price for those who like the sound quality and want to listen to music for hours without fatigue. The AK70 plays with a forward band slightly forward, close to the listener. The AK70’s midrange range is not as fast and full of energy as the AR M20, which naturally performs at a slower rate. This gameplay makes the AK70 easy to use with the headphones and helps them to optimize the singer’s voice, providing good detail and clean background. Tried with Baby Mine from Alison Krauss, the vocalist reached clarity and brightness, the details are quite audible but not in the style of show, reference.

The high pitched AK70 plays smooth, light and easy listening. The hi-hat, crash, dice of the machine when trying both the headphones are good enough and honest. Like the bass and treble strings, the treble sounds neutral, but does not refer to the laid back nature. High tones do not have peak points, of course, do not create sibalance for two pair of headphones used for pairing. However, it should be added that ES Velvet and Oriolus v2 are not susceptible to this phenomenon. On the other hand, the modern type of earplugs also have high sound control, so when combined with the AK70 will produce the same results.

On the acoustics, the AK70 has unobtrusive bands that are far apart so the music space is spacious and comfortable. Livingston’s two-syllables are not large enough to take the guitar off the ears. The sound is placed in their place in the stage, so the background sound is good, but not very impressive. The AK70 beat its predecessor with its open-air style with far broader horizontal sound, everything is clear and has enough room to express. Anyway, the AK100 still has a thick and heavy overall sound quality that feels a little better, richer and lighter than before.

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