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Do you travel? Commute, perhaps? Just like to listen to music privately around the house? No matter—the Astell&Kern AK240 is the luxury choice in high-resolution portable music players (footnote 1). It even comes with a lovely leather case that beautifully cradles its angular beauty. The AK240 can play all of your PCM files, up to a resolution of 24-bit/192kHz, as well as DXD and single- and double-rate DSD, natively, and can do so from its internal storage, from a microSD card, or from your computer via WiFi or a wired connection. It can also function as a DAC or USB-to-TosLink converter…
The AK240 came preloaded with a bunch of music, including Led Zeppelin's II in 24/192, and the flipping and fading from one channel to the other in "Whole Lotta Love" was pure head-spinning pleasure. While I've heard more lush, ripe presentations, the AK240-Viso combination delivered every last ounce of detail and nuance. Upper frequencies were finely detailed, yet never edgy or too sharp. Engaging the preloaded Pro EQ setting helped fill out the midrange with a bit more body, which I found preferable to the flat, default EQ setting. You can also create custom equalizations by entering EQ…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Portable media player. Supported formats WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE (Normal, High, Fast), AIFF, ALAC, AAC, DSF, DFF. Compatible sample rates: 44.1–192kHz, and DSD64 (1 bit, 2.8MHz), DSD128 (1 bit, 5.6MHz). DSD. Compatible PCM bit depths: 16–24. Frequency response" 20Hz–20kHz ±0.023dB, 10Hz–70kHz±0.3dB. Maximum output level: 2.1V RMS (unbalanced), 2.3V RMS (balanced). Output impedance: 1 ohm.S/N ratio at 1kHz: 116dB unbalanced, 117dB balanced. Channel separation at 1kHz: 130dB unbalanced, 135dB balanced. THD+N at 1kHz: 0.0007%, unbalanced, 0.0005%…
For famously civilized and jaded New York City, the crowd at the resplendent Beacon Theatre is uncommonly involved. Loud requests, many in tangled liquor dialects, boom from the balcony:
"'REDNECK FRIEND'!"
Onstage, Jackson Browne smiles and shakes his head.
"'COCAINE'!"
"I could do that, but it would have to be the rehab version." [crowd roars]
"'FOR A DANCER'!"
Oh, wait—I'm yelling that.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Browne laughs and bows deeply as the crowd serenades him with an impromptu version of "Happy Birthday," to mark his 66th.…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
"Is it wrong to love the AK240 for its physical beauty?" asked Michael Lavorgna when, last November, he reviewed this $2500, cost-no-object portable player from Astell&Kern, owned by Korean company iriver Inc. Fortunately, he decided that the question was irrelevant—the AK240's combined strengths of "superb resolution and clean, clear, fatigue-free reproduction made it a joy to listen to." As I had purchased a sample of the less expensive but still superb-sounding AK100 player, following my review of it in August 2013, I asked Michael to ship me the AK240…
Always aware and involved in issues of sound quality throughout his recording and performing career, Browne said he understands and sometimes even enjoys the process.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. Sound has always been important to me, but I've never known very much. I had a great conversation with Glyn Johns once, and I was saying, 'I don't really know about the bass. I don't know how to get, or even what, a great bass sound is.' And he says, 'You know.' I said, 'No, I really don't know,' and he says, 'You know—of course you know.' And that's all he would say. He was wonderfully, eloquently…
If you want to complain that young rock bands have no sense of the past; no melodies; no hooks; no hope then what do you call a young band with the sense and taste to take a freaky masterpiece like Zep III as a model for their debut? Weak? Lazy? Unworthy of a listen?
The clangy, folk rock debut of Portland trio Greylag caught my ear in a record store the other day. At the time my eyes were fixed upon a female employee with a bad attitude, tight clothes, cool sneakers and such determined gum chewing that I was sure she was packing heat. Working in record stores was always about admiring/…
It’s always been easy to bash the record business because, let’s face it, they deserve it. Too many broken dreams. Too many people cheated out of money. Too much emotional wreck and ruin, and I say this knowing that most musicians come to it fully aware that the intersection of art meets commerce is, by its very definition, a cruel and dangerous place.
Yet, there’s a recent recording project that I have to say exemplifies that there are still human hearts beating in the biz.
Tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, a solid, productive player on the New York scene, lost his daughter Ana…
Readers of Stereophile need no introduction to Bryston, a venerable Canadian electronics manufacturer known for the quality and reliability of its amplifiers and preamplifiers, and for its unique 20-year warranty. In the past few years, Bryston has ventured into digital audio with notable success, producing D/A converters, multichannel preamplifier-processors, and music-file players. While an evolution from analog into digital audio would seem logical, their most recent expansion, into loudspeakers, is more surprising. Apparently, James Tanner, Bryston's vice president, designed a speaker…
With the Middle Ts (and no DEQX or other processing), large ensembles of all types and well-recorded operas were presented in large, holographic soundstages that approached what I enjoy with my multichannel system. Take, for example, the 24-bit/96kHz remastering of the 1963 recording of Britten's War Requiem, with the composer leading the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (BD, Decca 478 5433)—a towering performance that has not yet been supplanted by newer ones made with more modern recording technologies. With just a pair of Middle Ts to handle the massive forces and familiar acoustic of…