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Surprised by how much I use and with so many other products
Before this, I was mainly using mobile phones on the go or loaded SD cards and CDs in the car. Since I purchased it, I have not listened to music off my phone again. The sound is smooth, detailed and even when I ripped some of my CDs in to uncompressed FLAC, it was like listening to a completely different album. The separation and clarity between L/R channels and the size increase of the soundstage were the most noticeable differences for me when compared to something like an iPhone X. Everyone I have let listen to the unit, with my headphones or theirs, has been blown away by how much high quality sound comes out of such a small package.As I bought it, I was a little worried I was only going to use this for critical listening on my days off from work and then eventually turn in to a dust collector. Since I got it, I have found myself using it on days off, using the line out to my home stereo and car stereo. I even connect it to my PC in DAC mode so my PC sees it as a sound card and sends all the audio to the AK70 (really amazing for gaming). More recently I discovered that when I connect my Nintendo Switch and the AK70 through the USB ports, I can also activate DAC mode and process the switch’s audio through this unit.A couple of things to know before hand: when I first got it, I found it almost frustrating to get used to how to properly catalog albums so that they are named properly, show the album artwork and don’t combine with another album that might have a couple of key overlapping pieces of information (i.e. “various artists” for artist name and “best of” for album name). Once you get over the first learning curve, everything smooths out and becomes quick and easy. Some people have complained about the user interface lagging and I don’t exactly agree, there is a touch of delay here and there but if you have ever used an android phone, it feels exactly like that (it runs android in the background). The last item of concern for some is that the body is a machined piece of aluminum and has some fairly sharp edges. I picked up the leather case and it is much more comfy in the hand. Regardless, the AK70 feels extremely well built and is a pleasure to hold on to while listening to music.I would highly recommend picking up a huge memory card (I choose the 200gb since it was half the price of the 256gb). I would also recommend a TIDAL HiFi subscription since you can stream CD quality to this unit over WiFi on the go and when you use it as a sound card on a home PC, you can listen to the MASTER quality content through the TIDAL PC app (proper HiFi content).As a whole, I am extremely happy I purchased this product. On the minor items I mentioned, I feel you can tell it is more of an entry level item (on A&K standards) but it only pulls me more in to the HiFi genre and already has me dreaming of buying one of A&K’s higher end units.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2019
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Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2019
WORST BRAND EVER, EXPENSIVE, NOT WORTH IT.
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2019
TERRRIBLE PLAYER, NO BUG CORRECTION, NO UPDATES, NO MQA SUPPORT FOR A $500 DOLLAR DEVICE, NO TIDAL DOWNLOAD SUPPORT, IT JUST SUCKS IN EVERY TERM! EVERY SINGLE ASTELL & KERN PLAYER IS COMPLETELY FORGOTEN AFTER A YEAR OR SO, NO UPDATES, NO SUPPORT. BATTERY IS WORST THAN THE FIRST IPHONE, IT IS THAT RIDICULOUS..... STAY AWAY FROM ASTELL & KERN PRODUCTS, EXPENSIVE CRAP IM RETURNING THIS CRAP, SOFTWARE IS A JOKE, PURCHASING A FiiO WITH MORE CAPABILITIES AND BETTER PRICE
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2019
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josep maria cura
muy buen producto, con algun pero.....
Reviewed in Spain on June 25, 2018J L.
It's only as good as you allow it to be!.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2018
J L.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2018
It's been a learning curve which began with an upgrade via a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 2 in ear phones, plugged into my phone they produced a pretty good sound, but highlighted/teased you into knowing that there was better clarity and sound staging to be had. Next step was (still believing that my phone played good music) an investment in a pair of Sennheiser IE80S in ear phones. The musicality, vibrancy, clarity and sound staging was a leap forward and I for a short moment was happy, but, again after a few days I felt they were under performing/not playing to their best ability.
So, after a little more reading (& Tequila) I took the plunge on an AK70 MK11. WOW!!! every other positive review is correct, it was like comparing night with day, I was over the moon, as close as you can get to having a 'good' hi-fi set up in your pocket. The only niggle was that WMP isn't as A&K friendly that it automatically adds album art to your rip to the player. So again, having a little too much time on my hands I looked at options and for the lazy type of person I am 'JRiver' media centre (other options are available) seemed to tick all the boxes. Trial version downloaded, I ripped a couple of CD's (FLAC) onto the AK70 which did show album art on the player. My mistake was to then listen to the tracks, I was blown away by how improved the sound was compared to the WMP earlier rip, I'm talking D&B, HardHouse, Jazz, Classical, Indie.... so much so that I've deleteted my WMP library & am now re-ripping every CD I own via JRiver.
It's an amazing DAP and worth every penny of the price, but to enjoy it don't just stop good headphones
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