Astell & Kern AK380 Copper Edition

So he wants the absolute best in top of the range portable audio players on the market? Well, now Astell & Kern has launched a limited edition copper version of its flagship hi-res audio player. The AK380 is a masterpiece by the brand Astell & Kern, well known for their passion for precision audio processing. For uncompromising Hi-Fi quality, this flagship model has a dual D / A converter AKM AK4490, which support signals of up to 384 kHz / 32-bit native support, effective for playing 32 bit files without conversion or compression. Plus it has Direct Stream Digital capabilities for ensuring that the quality stays true to the original sound, eliminating downsampling. It also comes with its unique internal clock. All of this and many other technical innovations add up to the AK380 being still the most  faithful and accurate portable player in history, offering the most authentic sound from any digital music format. Its features and capabilities not only meet the expectations of the most demanding audiophile, but are also highly rated by professionals within the recording industry, working with recordings in the "raw"  format of 384 kHz / 32 bit.

Key features

• Asymmetrical output technology with two transducers AK4490
• Supports formats up to a resolution of 384 kHz / 32 bit
• Native support for DSD without any oversampling
• Touch 4 "AMOLED display
• Highly accurate parametric equalizer settings
• The reference clock pulses at 200 femtoseconds to eliminate any jitter
• Functional external sound card for the PC
• Unlocks new possibilities of streaming music over its AK Connect App
• Internal memory of 256 gigabytes
• Duralumin alloy, used in aircraft design, gives rigidity plus lightweight feel

Dual converter and new reference clock

The Astell & Kern AK380 natively manages DSD formats, eliminating the need to convert the signal to PCM. Each channel is a dedicated standalone converter chip, which in conjunction with a balanced output ensures for an unsurpassed and fulfilling stereo image. The AK380 is also the first player in the world to come equipped with an internal reference clock that pulses at 200 femtoseconds. This helps to achieve negligible degradation of periodic signals and accurate audio decoding. After installing the drivers, the AK380 can be used as an external D / A converter via the USB port to decode formats up to a resolution of 384 kHz / 32 bit or DSD 11.2 MHz.

Accurate parametric equalizer

The EQ is dedicated to enabling standalone audioprocessor parametric settings that, when compared to a conventional graphic equalizer are considerably more accurate. The Equalizer AK380 works with twenty new bands instead of the original ten, and one notch was reduced from 0.5 db to 0.1 dB. Some other notable refinements made were to the DLNA interface, which added a lot of options that now allow for streaming and to listen to music stored on a PC or NAS. Playback is also possible to control via a phone or tablet with the application AK Connect App and music files can be freely transferred between devices too. The player also has an extremely solid and durable metal body. A touchscreen control button adds pressure sensitive control. 

Additional information:

display:
4 "WVGA (480 × 800) touchscreen

sampling:
PCM 8 kHz ~ 384 kHz (8/16/24/32 bits per Sample) / DSD Native: DSD64 (2.8 MHz 1-bit), Stereo / DSD128 (1 bit 5.6 MHz), Stereo / DSD256 (1 bit 11.2 MHz), Stereo

Output level:
Unbalanced 2.2 Vrms / Symmetrical 2.3 Vrms

DAC:
AKM AK4490 x2 (Dual DAC)

Decoding:
up to 32bit / 384kHz Bit a Bit

Input:
USB Micro-B (charging and data transfer) / Mod: MTP (Media Device)

Output:
Headphones (3rd5 mm) / Optical (3rd5 mm) / Symmetric (second5 mm, 4-pin)

wifi:
802.11 b / g / n (2.4GHz)

Bluetooth:
V4.0 (A2DP, AVRCP, APTX)

Frequency range:
±0.053 db, 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz ± 0.56 db at 10 Hz ~ 70 kHz

crosstalk:
130 db @ 1 kHz, unbalanced / 135 db @ 1 kHz, symmetrical

THD + N:
0.0008% @ 1 kHz, unbalanced / 0.0007% @ 1kHz, symmetric

Output Impedance:
Symmetrical 2.5 mm (1 ohm) / 3.5 mm headphones (2 ohms)

Jitter hours:
30 ps (Type)

Reference Clock:
200 femto seconds

Battery:
3400 mAh 3.7 V Li-Polymer

Memory:
256 gigabytes (NAND) + microSD (Max 128 gigabytes)

Supported OS:
Windows XP, Windows 7,8,10 (32 / 64bit), Mac OS X 10.7 or later