Astell&Kern’s new Bluetooth DAC is geared toward console avid gamers

So far as its common audio chops go, the HB1 is complete: due to its ESS ES9281AC PRO DAC, it helps native DSD256 and as much as 32-bit/384 kHz lossless audio, together with as much as 8x rendering of MQA tracks if you happen to join the HB1 to an MQA-decoding system/app just like the Tidal shopper operating on an iPhone or Android telephone. Talking of iPhone and Android, the HB1 comes with each USB-C-to-USB-C and a USB-C-to-Lightning adapter cables so you may work with nearly any system and any platform. There’s additionally a companion app for each iOS and Android that permits you to configure a number of of the HB1’s settings.

It’s arduous to not discover the massive devoted quantity knob on the aspect of the HB1. It’s been a stylistic cue of A&Okay’s transportable units for years. Nevertheless, we’re not totally certain if it is smart for a Bluetooth DAC that could be shoved in a pocket or different locations the place that knob could possibly be inadvertently turned. We’re additionally a bit shocked that the HB1 doesn’t include a clip so you may put on it on clothes — an particularly essential operate if you happen to’re going to make use of it with the built-in mic we talked about.

When it comes to Bluetooth, you get help for Multipoint, so the the HB1 might be linked to 2 supply units concurrently, and there’s built-in hi-res audio codec compatibility with LDAC and aptX HD. Unusually, there’s no aptX Adaptive compatibility, a weird omission on condition that A&Okay is utilizing a Qualcomm Bluetooth chipset.

Cleverly, the HB1 might be configured to provide Bluetooth precedence, so if you happen to’re linked by way of USB and the DAC senses a brand new Bluetooth session, it’s going to change robotically. There are additionally choices for a way the DAC recharges by way of USB. Talking of that, battery life on the HB1 has been pegged at six hours if you happen to use the three.5mm unbalanced port or 5.5 hours if you happen to use the 4.4mm balanced port, at 50% quantity.

Astell&Kern Kann Extremely

The newest transportable media participant within the Kann household, the Extremely will look immediately acquainted to A&Okay followers, with its sharply angled sides and outsized quantity knob. What makes the Extremely stand out is the bizarre assortment of analog outputs — you get 4 in whole: 3.5mm unbalanced and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs and combo preamp/line-out outputs.

The headphone jacks have 4 acquire presets and output that may go as excessive as 16Vrms — which ought to have the ability to drive even the very best impedance headphones effortlessly. The preamp/line-out outputs run by way of a devoted preamplifier, letting you management the quantity when in preamp mode or bypass the preamp utterly in line-out mode, with 4 mounted voltage ranges from 1.4V to 4V.

As you would possibly guess, the ESS DAC is ready to decode nearly any digital supply, as much as lossless 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512. It’s additionally a full MQA decoder.

The Kann Extremely additionally gives options that have been launched on the A&Ultima SP3000, together with:

• Digital Audio Remaster Know-how (DAR), which upsamples the pattern price of the sound supply being performed, permitting extra refined play and “analog-like authentic sound.”
• Crossfeed, which mixes elements of the unique sign from one channel and sends that sign to the alternative channel with a time distinction to heart the sound picture, like when listening with audio system. Settings similar to shelf cutoff, shelf acquire, and mixer degree, allow you to modify the extent of crossfeed.
• DAC Filter: seven DAC filters that allow you to fine-tune the sound.
• ReplayGain, which maintains a constant playback degree between tracks.

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