Astell & Kern are reportedly planning to launch a high-end, pocket-sized media player with two separate digital audio converters, support for 192 KHz, 24-bit audio, 256GB of built-in storage and an “aircraft grade” aluminum case.
The Android-powered AK240 will also support a wide range of audio formats including DSD, WAV, AIFF and FLAC, as well as compressed files such as MP3, WMA and OGG.
Additional key specs include a 3.3 inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display, WiFi, Bluetooth, microSDXC card slot (up to 128GB) and a 3250mAh battery.
Plus, the device can be plugged into a PC with a USB cable and used as a high quality digital audio converter to stream music to headphones or speakers.
Although an official price tag has yet to be announced, one seller is already taking orders for the upcoming device for a cool $3200.
As Liliputing’s Brad Linder notes, the high-end Astell & Kern media player is targeted primarily at serious audio enthusiasts, rather than the masses.
”It’s the high-end audio gear that really makes this device stand out from a typical phone or media player. It has 2 Cirrus Logic CS4398 digital audio converters, one for each audio channel,” he explained. “It also has an XMOS chip for native DD audio processing and balanced audio output.”
