Leave the turntable at home with Astell & Kern’s audiophile-approved AK100 audio player

By Peter Suciu Published January 28, 2013

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check out our full review of the iRiver Astell & Kern AK100 audio player.

Portable digital music players are great for taking music on the go, but as any audiophile will attest, it comes at the cost of reduced quality. If you can accept this fact, MP3s are totally for you. For the more discerning audio connoisseur, it takes more than an iPod to get the job done.

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Astell & Kern’s AK100 portable audio system from iRiver is just such a device. The beefy high-fi music player skirts the scourge of compression with support for lossless Mastering Sound Quality files, along with Ogg, FLAC, WAV, WMA, APE and of course, ordinary MP3s.

A 2.4-inch touchscreen provides control, while a high-end Wolfson 8740 DAC handles turning bits and bytes into audio. Interestingly, it can double as an outboard DAC for computers and CD players connected via the integrated optical output or USB port. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded to 96GB via two microSD card slots. A 2,000mAH battery provides up to 16 hours of continuous audio playback.

The Astell & Kern AK100 portable audio system will retail for $700.

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Peter has spent much time plugging and unplugging various A/V equipment over the years as a reviewer, and he is always on the…

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Astell&Kern blurs the line between headphone amp and digital audio player

Astell&Kern Arco CA1000 headphone amp and digital audio player held in someone's hand.

For audiophiles, dedicated headphone amps are a key component in their personal audio arsenal, one that lets them get the most out of their preferred wired cans. But Astell&Kern (A&K) clearly believes we haven't been expecting enough from these devices, so it has launched the $2,199 A&K Acro CA1000, a so-called "carriable" headphone amp that packs its own internal rechargeable battery as well as a full-featured, hi-res audio digital audio player. The pricey but capable hybrid gadget will be available January 24 at authorized Astell&Kern dealers in the U.S. and Canada.

The Acro CA1000 ticks an enormous number of boxes for folks who want maximum flexibility for controlling and enjoying digital music. It has two sizes of balanced outputs (2.5 and 4.4mm) and two sizes of unbalanced jacks (3.5 and 6.35mm), which should work with a majority of both general use headphones as well as audiophile-grade models. The built-in digital audio player -- accessed via a multi-angle touchscreen -- pumps data through a quad set of ES9068AS digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and they'll handily crunch any file you throw at them, including WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, plus there's full rendering support for the MQA format and bit-perfect playback of up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and native DSD512 (22.4MHz) tracks.

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It’s TCL time! Save $150 when you order the TCL 65-inch S4 Series

The TCL S4 television as seen in a handout photo.

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have retired for another year, we’re back to looking for the best TV deals at some of our favorite retailers. We didn’t have to look long either before stumbling across this great offer. For a limited time, when you purchase the TCL 65-inch S4 Series 4K LED at Walmart, you’ll only pay $230. At full price, this model sells for $378. We’ve reviewed several TCL TVs here at Digital Trends, and resident TV expert Caleb Denison is often a fan of the brand’s budget-friendly pricing and (usually) excellent picture quality.

Why you should buy the TCL 65-inch S4 Series
The 65-inch S4 Series is a 4K LED running the Roku TV OS. The S4 Series delivers a bright and colorful picture that holds up well in brightly lit rooms, and thanks to top-notch HDR support, colors become all the more vivid when watching HDR movies and shows or playing HDR games. And while the TV only has a 60Hz refresh rate, TCL’s Auto Game Mode and ALLM support ensure you’ll get the best frame-to-frame performance for your favorite console and PC games.

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Shop Audien Hearing for the 12 Days of Christmas Sale

Audien Hearing ATOM OTC hearing aids

Have a little difficulty hearing in crowded spaces? Did you know you can get your hands on OTC hearing aids -- over-the-counter hearing aids? You don't need a prescription and they're not inordinately expensive, making better hearing more affordable and accessible for everyone. Just to show you I'm not crazy, Audien's most affordable pair -- the ATOM 2 -- is only $189 at full price. In comparison, the ATOM PRO 2 is just $100 more, $289 at full price. However, during the 12 Days of Christmas sale, you can sign up with your email to Audien's newsletter and get up to $200 off.
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Why shop Audien's 12 Days of Christmas Sale on OTC hearing aids?
Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush. What makes this sale so awesome is that you can save big, after sharing your email address with Audien, of course. You can get high-quality OTC earbuds for cheap, whether for yourself or someone else. They do make a really great gift for someone who has trouble hearing.

Give the gift of hearing this holiday season. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Don't forget, that Audien did appear in our guide covering the best over-the-counter hearing aids.