Astell & Kern is a South Korean consumer electronics company founded in October 2013, and is wholly owned by Dreamus. The company manufactures media players, CD players, headphones, and home cinema products. It was launched as a premium successor to iriver products.
History
Roots and founding In January 2013, iriver debuted the AK100 media player at CES 2013, to polarizing reception from critics at release. In July, a pair of in-ear monitors dubbed the AKR01 were released to complement the media players. In August, the AK100's successor, the AK120, was released with minor design enhancements but notoriously the addition of two Wolfson WM8740 DAC chipsets, and was released to better reception. In October, Astell & Kern was founded by iRiver to develop the in-brand products. A limited edition called the AK120 Titan was released shortly in December.
Growth, icons and debuts On 9 January 2014, the company debuted the AK240 for CES 2014, with it debuting Wi-FI connectivity, and an operating system based upon Android instead of Linux directly. Following the acquisition of Wolfson by Cirrus Logic, the company replaced the Wolfson DAC duo with Logic 4398 chipsets. At CES, the AKR02, the successor to the AKR01, debuted in February; Astell & Kern also revealed Home cinema products, such as a valve amplifier and cylindrical speaker, as well. In May, collaborating with Jerry Harvey Audio, the company released the AKR03 monitors, successing the AKR02, as well as the AK120II and AK100II players, the second-generation of the AK120 and AK100 players respectively. In honor of the 75th anniversary of Blue Note Records, the AK240 announced a "Blue Note Special Limited Edition" on 17 October.
In January 2015, the "AK T5p" headphones, which were co-produced with Beyerdynamic, were released. In February, the company debuted the stainless steel model of the AK240, the AK240SS, and the AK500N, a Network Audio System which can store 1TB of files in a solid-state drive, can stream lossless from PCs and NAS devices, and is noiseless when plugged in. In April, the AK Jr. was released. Unlike other models, Jr. is an entry-level and much smaller media player than other models.
Expansion and product debuts In August, the all-in-one system AK T1 was released, along with the Super Junior x AK Jr collaboration and the Beyerdynamic-produced AK T8iE monitors. In November, Hyundai Card collaborated with Astell & Kern to create the AK100II x HCC model, as well as the AK320's debut and Beyerdynamic-produced AK T1p. In 2015, Astell & Kern collaborated with Japanese voice actress Kana Hanazawa to create the limited AK100II Kana Hanazawa edition, which would include a special song titled "Tadoritsuku Basho" (A Place to Reach) pre-installed in the player.
On 21 January 2016, the company released a Copper Edition of the AK380. In February, the company released four sets of monitors co-produced with Jerry Harvey Audio: Layla II, Roxanne II, Angie II, and Rosie. In July, the company developed a new media player: the AK70.
Products Mastering Quality Sound (MQS)
Astell & Kern markets 24-bit audio with a 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz sampling rate under the name Mastering Quality Sound (MQS). Music sold with this tag comes in both the lossless formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE as well as lossy formats: MP3, AAC, WMA and OGG.
Hardware YearModelTypeSpecCapacityInputBattery2013AK100Media playermicroSDmicro USB16 hoursAKR01In-ear monitorsPhone jackAK120Media player64GB 64GB microUSB 2x microSD16 hoursAK120 Titan128GB 64GB 14 hoursAK10USB DAC/AMPmicro USB11 hours2014AK240Media player256GB 128GB microUSB microSD10 hoursAKR02In-ear monitors rowspan="2" Phone jack rowspan="2" AKR03AK100IIMedia player64GB 128GB microUSB microSDAK120II128GB AK240 256GB 128GB 2015AK T5pHeadphonesPhone jackAK240SSMedia player256GB 128GB microUSB microSDAK500NNetwork Audio System1TBAES/EBU BNC
Coaxial
Optical7 hoursAK JrMedia player64GB microUSB microSD6–8 hoursAK380256GB 128GB 10 hoursAK T1Sound systemAuxiliary Optical
microUSB
microSDSuper Junior x AK Jr.Media player64GB microUSB
microSD6–8 hoursAK T8iEIn-ear monitorsPhone jack rowspan="3" Layla rowspan="2" AngieAK100II x HCCMedia player64GB
128GB microUSB
microSDAK320128GB AK T1pHeadphonesPhone jack2016AK70Media playerAK300AK380 Copper256GB
128GB microUSB
microSD10 hoursAK T8iE MkIIIn-ear monitorsAngie II rowspan="4" Phone jack rowspan="4" Layla IIMichelleRosieRoxanne II2017KANNMedia player64GB USB-C SD + microSD15 hoursAK70 MKII64GB Internal
256GB
microSDmicro-USB microSDA&ultima SP1000 (SS/CU/BK)256GB Internal
256GB
MicroSDUSB-C microSD12 hoursMichelle LimitedIn-ear monitorsAK CD-Ripper MKIICD ripper2018A&norma SR15Media player64GB 400GB USB-C microSDA&futura SE100A&ultima SP1000M128GB Internal
400GB
microSD10 hoursBillie JeanIn-ear monitorsDianaAK T5p 2nd GenerationHeadphones2019A&ultima SP1000M GoldMedia playerA&ultima SP2000KANN CubeSA700SP1000 AMPAmplifierAK T9iEIn-ear monitorsLayla Aion2020A&futura SE200 Media player256GB Internal 1TB microSDUSB-C
microSD10 hours (AK4499EQ)
14 hours (ES9068AS)A&norma SR2564GB 1TB USB-C
microSD21 hoursKANN Alpha64GB Internal
1TB microSDUSB-C
microSD14.5 hours2021A&ultima SP2000TMedia player256GB Internal 1TB microSDUSB-C microSDAbout 9 hours (Standard : FLAC, 16bit/44.1 kHz, Unbalance, Volume 50, LCD Off, LED On, OP AMP Mode)A&futura SE180256GB Internal 1TB microSDUSB-C microSDAbout 10.5 hours (SEM 1: ES9038PRO x 1)
About 10.5 hours (SEM 2: AK4497EQ x 2)
About 13 hours (SEM 3: ES9038Q2M x 4)
About 14 hours (SEM 4: AK4493SEQ x 2)
(FLAC, 16bit, 44.1 kHz, Vol.50, LCD Off)A&norma SR25 MKII64GB Internal 1TB microSDUSB-C microSDUp to 20 hours (based on MUSIC: FLAC, 16bit, 44.1 kHz, Unbalance, Volume 50, EQ Off, LCD Off)AK Solaris XIn-ear monitorsAK ZERO 12022A&ultima SP3000Media player256GB Internal 1TB microSDUSB-C microSDAbout 10 hours (Standard: FLAC, 16-bit/44.1 kHz, Vol. 80, LCD off)
References