Iriver Announces the Launch of the Astell&Kern AK120 Professional High-End Portable MQS Player
II Hwan Park, CEO and President of iriver, has announced the launch of the second model from the Astell&Kern line of MQS portable players, the AK120 today at High End 2013 in Munich, Germany. Astell&Kern was first launched in 2012 as the high-end brand of iriver and as the first MQS (Mastering Quality Sound) portable player. The newest player, the AK120 was developed to target professional users and audiophiles who demand the very best sound available.
The AK120 consists of two (2) DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) that output audio signals independently to each channel, making the AK120 a true dual mono (dual monaural) setup like those found in expensive hi-fi equipment. The dual Wolfson WM8740 DAC chips found in the AK120 dedicates each DAC chip to a completely separate left and right channel. In result, the AK120 provides far superior depth, clarity, and spaciousness to the audio. By providing a much clearer sound with lower distortion, the AK120 truly replicates how the original music was recorded.
Enjoy high-resolution music from genres such as classical, opera, and live music with the Gapless playback feature and professional preset EQ (equalizer) settings of the AK120. With 64GB of built-in memory and the two MicroSD card slots each supporting 64GB cards in each slot, storage is expandable up to 192GB.
The overall design of the AK120 retains the look and feel of the previously released AK100 MQS player, including the brushed black metal and similarly styled volume knob. The body size of the AK120 is slightly larger when compared to the AK100.
The AK120 is bundled with the finest handmade Italian-designed leather case and has a retail price of $1300.
