It handles difficult and detailed musical passages with a masterful hand, and live recordings are leant a degree of spaciousness and realism rarely heard. The presentation is expansive, and we're bowled over by its low-end capabilities. The Alpha also supports MQA-CD playback, by way of Astell & Kern’s CD-Ripper. It's similarly wide-ranging when it comes to wireless codec support (LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC and, naturally, SBC Bluetooth). It's still bulky, but will fit in a coat pocket, and supports most music file formats, including MQA, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV and native DSD256. And thanks to the rearrangement of various components and the use of smaller resistors and capacitors, it promises added power in a smaller and more portable chassis. It boasts a more powerful built-in headphone amplifier than the previous Kann series players it succeeds, too. The Kann Alpha is the third player in the Kann series and the first Astell & Kern player to implement Bluetooth 5.0. We gave it five stars across the board – what more do you need to know? It’s important to note that wi-fi streaming is still off the menu – so you will have to go without on-the-go streaming of Tidal, Deezer and others – but if you have the files and like the idea of pairing your portable music player either to a wireless speaker or pair of headphones for one of the smallest wireless systems you’ve seen, there’s no better shout currently on the market for the money. This is a talented player that's sonically similar in character to its older siblings, but there are small upgrades here in terms of rhythm, timing, detail and musicality. There is support for 24-bit/192kHz WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and DSD128 file compatibility too – and that support is native, so DSD files aren’t converted to PCM during playback. The Plenue D3 boasts a seriously impressive battery life of up to 45 hours if you’re playing MP3 files, or a solid 30 hours when listening to hi-res files at 'normal' volume. The cracking new volume dial on the top right of the player feels like an homage to Astell & Kern players (several of which are listed below) and makes this little machine feel much more expensive than it is. Now into its third iteration, Cowon has added Bluetooth, a volume wheel and a dual DAC to its 2021-issue bijou matchbox-sized player – and produced a What Hi-Fi? 2021 Award winner.
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