Astell & Kern AK240 Mastering Quality Sound Dual DAC (Gun Metal)
After successfully launching the AK100 and the AK120 models, we asked ourselves, "What is the ultimate sound quality?" After much consideration, A&K decided to move a step further with their goal, which is to deliver the sound "exactly as the artist had intended" for all to hear. Moving from the AK100 to AK120, A&K decided to provide a Dual DAC setup to create better left and right channel separation with clearer sound quality. A&K thought that the Dual DAC setup would be enough, but while developing the AK240, A&K felt the need to further improve sound quality in order to accurately reproduce the original sound recording. After countless hours of research and testing, A&K was able to find the answer. The answer was to create both a balanced output and native DSD playback through the Dual DAC setup. Now with the AK240, A&K can dare say that they have gotten "that much closer" to the sound quality of the original recording.DSD (Direct Stream Digital) is a digital audio file format originally developed for SACDs (Super Audio CD). Regular digital audio file formats such as PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is separated into 65,000(16bit) to 16,700,000(24bit) of information on the Y axis, and 44,100(44.1kHz) to 192,000(192kHz) across the X axis for digital signals. DSD files have 1bit (0s or 1s) for Y axis and is separated into 2,800,000(2.8MHz) to 5,600,000(5.6MHz) of information for X axis. Compared to regular audio CDs with 16bit/44.1kHz PCM format, SACD's r