Astell & Kern AK500N Network Player & Ripping Station
Astell & Kern had a presentation for their latest product, the AK500N at 10 a.m. before the start of the festival that was open to the media and reviewers. It was conducted entirely in Japanese naturally and therefore was somewhat of a struggle for me to catch up on everything. Luckily they gave out a presentation handout (in Japanese but at least I can read numbers).
The AK500N is a network player with CD ripping capability. There's an internal storage of 1TB SSD (max 4TB SSD) with a 7" 1280x800 touch screen display. One can also interact with the AK500N though remote control players off their smartphones/tablets. It supports all the usual formats (WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF) of sampling rates from 8kHz -> 192kHz (6/16/24 bit) & DSD (2.8 & 5.6MHz). Since it can be controlled remotely from smartphones, there's naturally WiFi support but also 100BaseT network for the local LAN. Naturally with WiFi & LAN capability, DLNA is also supported.
The CD is front slot loading as per the pictures. There's further AES/EBU, SPDIF, Coax, Optical, Type A & Type B USB digital inputs. It also has Internet Radio, and supports streaming like the AK240's (and in in Korea with Groovers+, I'm uncertain about Europe/US). The USB is also for file transfer from the PC to the device, and if I understood the presentation correctly, Android File Transfer. Gracenote DB on the other hand is leveraged on for CD rips.
Support outputs on the other hand include AES/EBU, SPDIF, Coax, & Optical for digital, whilst balanced and unbalanced for analogue line out. The whole device weighs a hefty 15 kg.
Astell & Kern had a presentation for their latest product, the AK500N at 10 a.m. before the start of the festival that was open to the media and reviewers. It was conducted entirely in Japanese naturally and therefore was somewhat of a struggle for me to catch up on everything. Luckily they gave out a presentation handout (in Japanese but at least I can read numbers).
The AK500N is a network player with CD ripping capability. There's an internal storage of 1TB SSD (max 4TB SSD) with a 7" 1280x800 touch screen display. One can also interact with the AK500N though remote control players off their smartphones/tablets. It supports all the usual formats (WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF) of sampling rates from 8kHz -> 192kHz (6/16/24 bit) & DSD (2.8 & 5.6MHz). Since it can be controlled remotely from smartphones, there's naturally WiFi support but also 100BaseT network for the local LAN. Naturally with WiFi & LAN capability, DLNA is also supported.
The CD is front slot loading as per the pictures. There's further AES/EBU, SPDIF, Coax, Optical, Type A & Type B USB digital inputs. It also has Internet Radio, and supports streaming like the AK240's (and in in Korea with Groovers+, I'm uncertain about Europe/US). The USB is also for file transfer from the PC to the device, and if I understood the presentation correctly, Android File Transfer. Gracenote DB on the other hand is leveraged on for CD rips.
Support outputs on the other hand include AES/EBU, SPDIF, Coax, & Optical for digital, whilst balanced and unbalanced for analogue line out. The whole device weighs a hefty 15 kg.
