Free Standard Shipping in the US on orders over $99

Astell&Kern AK240 Blue Note DAP

overview

specs

reviews1

photos0

discussions191

01 / 07

ALL PRODUCTS / AUDIOPHILE / ASTELL AND KERN

Astell&Kern AK240 Blue Note DAP

Name: Astell&Kern AK240 Blue Note DAP
Brand: Astell and Kern
SKU: astell-and-kern-ak240-blue-note-dap
Price: 1199 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Where's the price?

To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.

1.2K requests

51 Sold

Product Description

To commemorate Blue Note Records’ 75-year anniversary, the record company has teamed up with Astell & Kern to release the highly regarded AK240 music player in an exclusive blue color. Its appointed with the Blue Note logo and preloaded with 75 Blue Note albums remastered as high-fidelity 24-bit/96-kHz files Read More

discussions191

Sort by: Newest

1koochykoo2

Jan 5, 2020

bookmark_border I'm interested in acquiring a copy of the 75 Blue Note jazz files for the AK240 DAP. Can you help?

Vote

GKeim

Jan 28, 2020

1koochykoo2How can i help?

Vote

1koochykoo2

May 25, 2020

GKeimHi, would you be willing 😊 to sell your music files and if so, how much?

Vote

koochykoo52

Nov 4, 2019

I'm interested in acquiring a copy of the 75 Blue Note jazz files for the AK240 DAP. Can you help?

Vote

1koochykoo2

Dec 27, 2019

No, not yet. Can you help me out? I run Linux OS and don't think it's compatible with the A&K download system. Do you have a suggestion? Best, Lorne

Vote

Whitedragem

185

Sep 30, 2019

“The leather case for the AK240 Bluenote was made from a process called “Full Vegetable Tanning”. This traditional method has been used in Italy for over 200 years. The process brings out the special characteristic of leather while creating a natural tanning look. A variety of trees and plants are involved in this tanning process which takes about 40 days to complete and only the most experienced professionals in Italy possess the skills to do it. This special leather material has a lot of oil in it that will allow the leather to shine the more it is used.” from A&K... from whitedragem... the albums included with this player is what a budding hi-res listener needs. (a big collection!) whilst I do not have anything like this playback unit in my past or present kit catalogue, I have a parallel to share- HDCDs! ... In the late nineties HDCD was launched onto the world. at the time I had been trying to buy a better CD player. A Denon 5-disc carousel unit, carousels generally offering vastly better aspects of sound over cheap single disc units, really impressed me. The Denons strength, the feature that made me sit up and go ‘wow’, was any HDCD formatted disc. when the HDCD light illuminated I knew I was in for a treat... Now in fairness this is true of HDCDs on any entry level kit (they sound amazing and are a night/day difference to ‘regular CDs’). My pursuit then had me settle on a higher pricepoint single tray HDCD player (which still serves me).. the parallels with ‘hi-res’? HDCD was our first taste of ‘hi-res’ (a twenty bit format essentially on CDs typically 16bit ‘redbook standard’.)... as soon as a user had to put a ‘non hi-res’ file on? well it equalled frowny face moments. :-( I had to spend double my budget on a CD player, forgoing multidisc transport capabilities just to wind up with a player that made all music sound good... The Astell&Kern AK240 makes ALL files sound exceptional. Their gift with this piece? —A large hi-res catalogue is the ‘right way to do it’. being able to enjoy every piece of music, for hours or days at a time. Not having to land back in the reality of lesser recordings, if one doesn’t want to, until the listening session is well and truly complete. Trust me, only owning one or two HDCDs made me waste months /years curating a large collection to enjoy. That being said, a player of this class/tier makes even low bitrate mp3s sound phenominal (just don’t mix them into a hi res playlist). the silly thing for ‘spec sheet warriors of DAC chips’; my lowly FiiO has the same DACs (4490) as the newer AK unit after this one..(that doubled the price again I believe)... Many people dont understand that it is the way these units are configured; the ‘total circuit’ that matters. the higher end 4490 DACs in my device will sound lame compared to this A&K, and couldn’t touch the AK fitted with the same DAC chips with even a 10ft pole. AK put so much thought into clock timings and jitter reduction/ accurate playback, that lesser DAPs (like my FiiO X5) kinda just gloss over the sound file, spitting out the best they can. truth is the best mp3 sound I have ever heard was through my ‘dual DAC’ FiiO- and I hadn’t believed mp3s would sound that good’. My device is a couple of tiers below this Drop, and so I would certainly consider this part a piece of HiFi to keep; it will continue to please for ten-twenty years... (battery replacement worthwhile) A player like this A/K 240 makes music from a small portable box that kills well regarded $1500 priced point CD transports from a time when CD players ruled the markets and that money got a top tier mass market unit. (most DAPs wouldn’t) having that sound, anywhere, with a full library onboard is wonderful. having a DigitalAudioPlayer of this tier that makes any soundfile better than good home separates can muster, and then having it loaded with a large library of hi-res quality recordings (I took a look, and it doubled my interest!!); this is the hi-fi transport in-your-pocket that allows never being stuck with average music anywhere ever again.... feed it into the car, the workplace stereo, and your mates backyard bbq, no one will ever complain. and take the pepsi challenge; load your friends/workmates music onboard and play it back, dynamically, soundspaciously so.... every layer, every nuance, all the ‘hidden details’ all played back from a ‘pack of cards’. anyone saying that flagship parts get ‘outdated’; flagships never become outdated. other flagships may come along, but the best are still the best available. audio is by tiers. a ‘bad’ DAP in a high tier will still eat for breakfast the best rated mid and hi-fi parts. for the record -This part is considered an excellent DAP, then and now, only ‘now for half the price’; unique to BlueNotes 75years, a birthday gift TO US. It like buying a great music collection and getting a top tier DAP as the storage box. Brilliant. safe buy, happy reflections always for nabbing one of these limited edition pieces.

phila58

Sep 29, 2019

Does this come with the leather case?

Vote

ShaunLee

Sep 29, 2019

ak official website has it on sale for USD 1299. I think it has been 1099 before (but I could be wrong). and you DONT get the hard copy of these albums, only digital files I think. personally i dont think it is a good deal.

Vote

Whitedragem

185

Sep 29, 2019

blue note! a&k! sold (now I just have to be nice enough to little old laddies who need to cross street. c’mon grandma, let me help you with your shopping. i wouldn’t care, it could be the hottest day, black asphalt car park, and Id be the koolest kat with blue notes’ historic jazz ringing in my ears. reckon with the a&k headphones drops’ done, I’d be in blue note horn heaven...) any box that comes (pre)loaded with norah, yeah baby. with 75 albums all in a quality Ive never heard, I don’t think I’d have reason to hook this up to a pc. this hitech masterpiece wouldn’t look out of place in bladerunner/minority report- and inception 2 can’t be far away when audio kit looks like this. you build the bullet train around it! reckon this would be on some CEOs desk, and anyone unknowing would probably think it is a heart monitor or something medical... the blue is to lower blood pressure, something jazz and blue note have been doing for 75 years.

Evshrug

4130

Keyboard Club Member

Sep 29, 2019

WhitedragemEnjoyed your write up! Blue Note does have a fantastic catalogue, I do recommend connecting and backing up the music to your computer at some point. Two is one and one is none, backup for peace of mind!

Whitedragem

185

Sep 29, 2019

EvshrugYes the IT creed is ‘if you haven’t got two copies of it; it isn’t important to you’. I used to work in a camera shop and the boss lived by the simple creed that a photo didn’t exist until it was printed out. Having had an uncle give away four WD Book back up drives (two only existed to keep copies of the other two) I lost over 300,000 photos-gone forever. A handful had gone up on relatives facebook pages and I am ‘welcome to have them back’ they say.. Anyhow, cheers Evshrug- you are completely correct in how important it is to copy the master files found on this player (worth the cost of the unit alone) to any other device. For anyone into audio; the fact that the hi res music files are worth the entry price pretty much does mean we are getting a flagship audio device for ‘postage’... This unit out specs well regarded CD players from bygone days. Not many DigitalAudioPlayers do... The attention to clock accuracy that A&K are known for is ONE of a few metrics that this ‘flagship’ hit into the stratosphere. Anyone saying ‘outdated android/outdated processor’; I’d like to welcome them to my ‘90s CD player that only spins at 1x speed. Still sounds like it was meant to. (acutally it doesn’t -needs a laser realignment as jitter is too high for my taste.. but the analogy stands) DAPs with older OSs (generally customised for audio) and functional buttons are in no way held back for most end users requirements. People seeking MQA support to be in the pile of ‘haves’ receiving streaming audio as it was meant to be (and probably was prior to MQA support) just don’t understand- but then they would run a mile from a mono recording from decades past. No worries; cause the music lives on. Happy birthday BlueNote.

Rotorooter

Sep 29, 2019

This is just my 2 cents. I think it's a bargain for several reasons. I saw the version that included the discs get down to $1500 from AK. What they are worth being sold to a collector is unknown to me. I would think that they would be worth at least over $300. The first reason I think it's a bargain is because it's a darn nice Dap. I've got the AK 100mk2 running through a mojo. Now as a Dap it's too large for me. If I'm going out in public I take my phone and Audeze ISine 20s with a cypher lightning cable. Now heres where this Dap shows its value. First, you have a very cable Dac that is implemented very well. This is able to function as a stand alone sac. Second, you have the ability to load music or use Tidal Hifi and run through your amp or receiver. I do this with the AK100 and mojo. Now were talking a different use. Could I buy a comparable Dac and Music server for the same price. No. Then you add the music collection and it shines even more. I would have to listen to the album's to see what I thought. I guess my main point here is that this is able to fit into a home system perfectly well. To buy a Dac and home player would cost you as much or more and not give you the flexibility of use that this does. People say there are better Dacs for the price but that is their opinion. what I hear and like is maybe different then what you like and how well you can hear. When you look at Daps, the pieces inside really do make a difference. Dual amps really do sound better. A dac on each channel really does help. The implementation is everything. A great Dac I'm pigmented badly sounds no better then a decent Dac that is implemented correctly. A&K has done a beautiful job on this Dap.

Vote