Astell&Kern KANN-JH Audio Rosie IEM ( A ear opening experience )

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Freo-1

My portable music setup was getting a bit long in the tooth.   The player (Cowan IAudio 7) is eight plus years old, and the IEM's (Polk Audio NC units) are almost as old.  It still sounds OK for travel, but decided to look into what advancements have been made over the years. My interest was piqued when a workmate demonstrated his Cowan Pleune player.  It sounded much better than the IAudio 7, so started to look into new players/IEM's. 


Did a lot of reading on the various DAP's, and man, had not realized that many of them went high end.  Was going to get a Questyle unit, but as luck would have it, Headamp had a great sale on a AK KANN and JH Audio Rosie IEM's if bought together.  The deal was too good to pass up.


The KANN is great sounding unit, and it's very flexible.  It sports the latest 32 bit DAC, a huge battery, and can drive regular as well as IEM headphones.  It has 64 GB of internal memory, and has both a SD and micro SD card slot.  It supports both regular and balanced headphones, and has a built in amp to drive more demanding headphones.  It also supports native DSD format as well.  The unit also can output USB data which I can connect directly into my Mac D150 preamp. 


I initially tried the KANN with the Polk Audio IEM's and a pair of Sony 7506 cans.  Both headphones sounded very good with the KANN. It (the KANN) definitely holds it own against standalone headphone amps. 


However, when I listened to the KANN with the Rosie's with the balanced cables connected, I was absolutely floored.  This setup is among the very best I have heard for headphone playback systems.  The balanced armature setup in the Rosie's are amazing sounding.  It takes a bit of experimentation with tips to get the IEM's to fit correctly, where the full frequency spectrum is heard with comfort.  The bass is adjustable, wound up leaving it at zero for most recordings.  On a few recordings, bumping up bass to +3 db fill out the sound quite nicely.  The clarity form this setup is truly remarkable.  I enjoy this setup as much as my home Stax SR-007 system.


Going forward, will likely stick with balanced armature phones, and players that support them.  This is great way to get high end audio for reasonable cost.   

charmerci

This is great way to get high end audio for reasonable cost.

$700 for IE's??? We have much differing definitions of reasonable cost!

Freo-1

Actually, the KANN and the Rosie combination was 1299.00  The KANN goes for 999.00, so the IEM's were 300.00. 


That is a reasonable cost for high quality balanced IEM's. 

Freo-1

I continue to be very impressed with this combination.  Who knew a portable system could sound this good?  This combo sounds better to me than most home setups I've heard.  Amazing detail, clarity, dynamics, and a very good sound-stage for a headphone setup.   This is a good way to get real high end sound on a limited budget.   


The fact that it also can be used as a music server is icing on the cake. 

OzarkTom

Three Astell&Kern Portable High-Resolution Audio Players Receive CES 2018 Innovation Awards

https://us.astellnkern.com/blogs/news/three-astell-kern-players-receive-ces-2018-innovation-awards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOMgb1EOPE

KAWN is included.