Astell & Kern A&K PD20

The Master of Sound.

PROs: 4x ES9027 Pro DACs, natural fuller body tonality, and many sound shaping options including a hearing test with a custom Personal Sound profile and various DSP sound effects, Advanced DAR, Triple AMP architecture (Class A, AB, Hybrid), AMP Current level adjustment (in Class A and Hybrid), lightweight aluminum chassis, hi-res 6” display, 3.5mm and 4.4mm PO/LO, LDAC Bluetooth (both Tx and Rx), full access to Google Play Store, ROON support.

CONs: price, no included case, rattling buttons, extra battery drain with Class A and DAR.

The product was provided to me free of charge for review purposes in exchange for my honest opinion.

The manufacturer’s website: Astell&Kern. It can be purchased from authorized retailers, such as Musicteck and Bloom.

Intro.

Back in the day, way back, many DAP manufacturers focused on entry-level, mid-fi, and summit-fi releases, with a clear separation between them in terms of price and performance. But those days are long gone. Today, entry-level DAPs are being edged out by USB-DAC dongles, connected to your smartphone as the digital wired/wireless source that drives them, with some approaching and even exceeding mid-fi DAP performance. Flagship releases are where every manufacturer is trying to shine with price-no-object designs and top performance. The remaining mid-fi category became a grey area, allowing experimenting with something different. It’s a category where you can take a risk and try to stand out from the crowd. And it’s exactly how it felt when I read the announcement of the A&K PD20 model from the PD series, and everything new it had to offer.

The unveiling of the PD20 happened early this year when I attended the CanJam NYC show, where I spent a considerable amount of time at A&K tables, playing with this new DAP to figure out its new features. It packed a lot of interesting stuff under its hood, and I felt like a kid with a cool gadget, doing a hearing test to create my own personalized sound profile in an overcrowded Broadway Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The highlight of the design was the Personalized Sound hearing test, which I was getting a bit frustrated with, doing multiple takes, even using noise-canceling passive earmuffs, because you do need a quiet environment for the best results. It goes without saying that I couldn’t wait for the review sample to become available so I could properly test it in the quiet comfort of my home. Now, after spending a month with PD20, I would like to share what I found.

Unboxing and Accessories.

The unboxing experience of PD20 is quite different from their SP series I’m more used to, or even their other DAPs I have reviewed in the past. The DAP arrived in a larger, flatter box, like a box of chocolate candies, wrapped in a silver sleeve with geometric, angled artwork on the front, featuring “A” in a circle of bass/mid/treble adjustment wheel. With the sleeve removed, this all-black, cardboard candy box flips open to reveal a secure cutout for PD20 in the section on the left, a high-quality charging/data USB-C to USB-C cable in the middle, and other accessories in the section on the right.

Among the included accessories, I found a handful of front/back film screen protectors, a quick start guide, a warranty card, a traditional microSD card slot cover (plastic insert), and a pair of IEMs required for Sound Profile testing. I know these look like a pair of cheap 3.5mm IEMs with a non-removable cable, and even though they’re asymmetrically shaped, the Left and Right earpieces were angled the same. A bit strange since, in theory, the right and left earpieces should be angled in the opposite “mirror” direction with a cable coming down; however, it wasn’t an issue with the fit. Plus, the left earpiece was marked with a faint grey “L” at the boot of the cable connection, which you have to pay attention to, since you can’t have them flipped for the test. These IEMs are very neutrally tuned single DD vented monitors, selected specifically for the hearing test. Plus, the Personal Sound test to create your personal profile can only be done using a 3.5mm jack, and you want something with a rather flat tuning. These IEMs aren’t the most exciting for listening; they are for a hearing test and do it just fine.

One thing I did miss was a case, which isn’t offered with the PD20. I do understand; this is not the SP-series flagship model, so I wasn’t expecting a fancy leather case. But even a cheap TPU-plastic case would have been great to include because the PD20 is not a small DAP, and it has rather sharp corners that dig into the palm of your hand. Googling for PD20 case only brings up the original, optional, A&K case that costs north of $165, with no other options available. I hope a cheaper aftermarket alternative will become available soon.

Design.

Measuring 155.7mm x 77.5mm x 17.3mm (including the height of the knobs) and weighing 313g, PD20 is a bit taller than SP4k; however, it is also thinner and a little narrower, and weighs half as much. Due to a bigger 6” display, the overall footprint gets scaled up in size, but not in weight, especially considering the use of a lightweight aluminum chassis and glass back panel. From the front, the design focus is on a 6″ HD touchscreen. The chassis is symmetric, with perfectly squared edges, and even at the top, you have two symmetrically placed wheels surrounded by an edge guard. This is not your typical asymmetric, signature A&K design look, making it different for sure.

SP4000 vs PD20 vs SP3000M

The right side has a single playback button, with operation of a single click to Play/Pause, double-click to skip forward, and triple-click to skip back. This is a familiar playback sequence operation for those who use TWS earbuds, and I recall A&K implemented this before in one of their other mid-fi models. At first, I thought to myself, what a bummer, there are no dedicated skip buttons, and you can’t fast-forward/back. Then, as I continued using PD20, I quickly realized that I never fast-forward/back with physical buttons anyway, and I always have a bit of a hard time finding the play button, wedged between two other skip buttons. After a short while, I actually preferred this playback control with a single physical button, making it easy to find blind and control the play/pause and skip-forward operation, my most common tasks.

On the left side, you have 3 physical slider buttons: AMP Current (high, mid, low), AMP Class (A, AB, or Hybrid), and Lock for external operation lock. AMP Current and Class are only accessible from these physical buttons, and Current level is only adjustable in Class A or Hybrid, not AB. The Volume wheel, Sound Master wheel, and Playback control can be individually selected under the Control Lock menu in Settings. When Lock is set, you can still switch AMP current, change AMP Class, push the Volume wheel to turn the display on and off, and have full access to the touch screen. At the bottom, you have the spring-loaded microSD card slot to expand your storage with a flash card up to 2TB, and a USB-C charging/data port. USB-C port also supports a dedicated optional Cradle, which was introduced with PD10.

One thing I do want to mention: both the AMP Current and Class selection sliders and the Playback buttons do rattle. I found this to be rather odd as well. Perhaps it was meant by the design of those specific sliders and buttons, but when you shake PD20, you will hear the rattle, whether you care about it or not.

Next, we are going to the top of the PD20, where most of the exciting action happens. As already mentioned, there are two symmetrically placed wheels at the corners of the DAP, with two different functionalities. Between them, in the middle, you have a 3.5 mm port output used for single-ended PO and LO, as well as an Optical output and a 4.4mm port output used for balanced PO and LO. The wheel on the right is a power/volume wheel, which you can use as a power button: long-press to turn the device on or off, with a confirmation to shut down, or short-press to toggle the screen on or off. As always, I prefer double-tap to wake up the screen, which is also available as an option in PD20. My only comment here is that both wheels do stick out a bit outside the edge guard, and I had a few accidental presses on the power/volume wheel inside of a loosely fit storage case, turning the PD20 on unexpectedly while transporting it.

The volume wheel is shaped like a dial knob used in pro audio studio equipment. It is easy to turn with a thumb, though it’s not loose and has some resistance, with a click action felt with every 150-volume step rotation. A multi-function LED under the wheel is also implemented to indicate charging status or bit depth, depending on the source file (16bit – red, 24bit – green, 32bit – blue, DSD – purple). LED light could be disabled in Settings.

The last, and most important, key design element of the PD20 is the Sound Master Wheel, located in the left corner at the top, opposite the Power/Volume wheel, and with the same pro-audio equipment design. Short-pressing this wheel in sequence brings up Sound Master EQ control, which stays up for 3s and disappears if you don’t take any further action. If you continue pressing it, it will cycle through Bass, Low Mid, Mid, Upper Mid, and Treble bands, which you can adjust from -8dB to +8dB across 160 steps (0.1dB each step) by turning the wheel. Turning the wheel by itself won’t do anything unless you press and bring up a corresponding EQ band. Also, pressing and holding the Sound Master Wheel for 3s brings up the Sound Studio setting page.

Next to the Sound Master Wheel, there are 3 LEDs with corresponding Bass, Mid, and Treble labels. Before the fw 1.02 update, only 3 EQ bands were available. After the recent 1.02 update, A&K expanded Mid to Low Mid, Mid, and Upper Mid, where the “Mid” LED is lit up when either of these 3 bands is selected. Also worth mentioning, each of these 5 EQ bands can be adjusted under the Sound Studio settings page in the Equalizer section, where you can drag the red dot of the corresponding band across a limited frequency range.