Buyer's Guide
Astell&Kern guide you through the world of portable digital music players and high-resolution audio.
Why buy a portable digital audio player?
As we spend more time listening to music on-the-move, we rely heavily on using our smartphone and tablet devices as our portable music player. However, if you want to experience your favourite music in the best quality possible – in high-resolution - then these devices are unable to deliver this level of performance. This is because the on board digital-to-analogue converters (DAC), the system that converts a digital signal to an analogue signal so we can hear the music, are not of sufficient enough quality. A dedicated portable digital player’s sole purpose is to playback music and Astell&Kern models feature the highest-grade DACs to deliver a high-resolution audio experience on-the-go.
Why choose Astell&Kern?
Astell&Kern is dedicated to delivering best-in class high resolution audio devices for the playback of studio-quality audio. Combining design and engineering excellence, craftsmanship and high-quality materials with state-of-the-art audio technology, Astell&Kern’s range of award-winning portable music players and headphones deliver the ultimate music listening experiences on-the-move.
High resolution audio explained?
High resolution audio offers the best possible digital music experience, reproducing audio as the music artist intended. ‘Lossless’ audio, as it is sometimes known, is defined as any digital format sampled above CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), while 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution audio is considered studio quality and also referred to as Mastering Quality Sound (MQS). Users will need compatible devices, such as Astell&Kern digital music players and headphones, to experience high resolution audio but the result is music that is more realistic, richer in detail and closer to the original sound.
