Not toucan but three can? – Kinda. The new Alpha [$1'099] is the third in Astell&Kern's KANN range of mobile players and delivers a high 12Vrms from its 2.5/4.5mm balanced outputs. Meanwhile lo/mid/hi gain accommodates headphones of varying sensitivities. A redesigned power supply suppresses noise for a claimed cross-talk spec of -141dB. A quad-core processor runs on an optimized Android 9.0 OS and there's WiFi, UPnP, DLNA, aptX HD and LDAC Bluetooth 5.0. Built-in storage of 64GB can be augmented by up to 1TB via microSD socket. The user may install Android apps for popular streaming services. D/A conversion occurs by dual-mono Sabre ES9068 chips for 384PCM, DSD256 and full MQA support. The fast-charging 5.6A battery promises up to 14½ hours of play time.
