Exceptional sound quality, meticulous customization, and personalized audio tuning come together in the PD20 High-Resolution Digital Audio Player from Astell & Kern to deliver mobile music that's truly your own. Through a hearing test, a Personal Sound profile is created for a signature sound tailored to your own hearing. You can further refine this with the physical Sound Master Wheel, real-time switching between three amps, and a host of advanced processing and customization options. It's all powered by an ES9027PRO quad-DAC configuration and Astell & Kern's TERATON ALPHA octa-core processor.
Personal Sound
The Personal Sound profile precisely analyzes your hearing characteristics, and the left and right ears are compensated for independently. Regardless of the music genre, volume level, or the earphones you choose, this profile is designed to dramatically improve your music's clarity and balance.
Sound Master Wheel
With your Personal Sound profile created, reach for the physical wheel opposite the volume knob to change the EQ with incredible nuance. Change bass, mid, and treble bands from -8.0 to +8.0 dB with a finely granular 160-step EQ for each.
Triple AMP Switching
You can switch between three AMP modes with immediate results via the physical slider, in real time. Pick the one that matches the music being played and the environment you're playing it in:
- Class A: Rich, high-density sound with minimal distortion and an analog-like texture
- Class AB: For articulated detail with stable dynamics and balanced sound
- Hybrid: This combines the analog-like texture of Class A with the efficiency of Class AB
Class A Current Control
Working in conjunction with triple AMP switching and both the Class A and Hybrid modes, this feature helps to match your earphones' characteristics with the precise fine-tuning of the Class A driving behavior. With High, Mid, and Low modes, you can maximize power delivery, preserve vocal texture, or suppress background noise when using sensitive IEMs.
Advanced DAR
PD20 offers the second generation of the Advanced DAR technology, which is geared to deliver a more natural and refined sound. It does this by running the audio through a VSE (Virtual Sound Extender) pass to restore lost harmonics, then it goes through DAR processing for sophisticated up-sampling to achieve an immersive track that's more faithful to the original recording.
Audiodo Audiosphere
Use Audiosphere to digitally transform stereo into a 3D spatial experience. You can select from four presets: Subtle, Balanced, Immersive, and Echoic.
Audiodo Equalizer
This equalizer works with your Personal Sound profile, offering intuitive bass, mid, and treble control. It also has a tilting function for naturally adjusting the overall tonal balance of the music toward either low or high frequencies, while still preserving the original sound's character.
Seven DAC Filters
- Minimum Phase (Default): Low latency with minimized ringing and reduced ripple in the passband.
- Linear Phase Apodizing: Prevents aliasing and offers improved overall imaging and a natural roll-off beyond the 20 kHz range.
- Linear Phase Fast Roll-Off: Delivers clean transient response and high resolution, which is suitable for music with strong transients. Also provides a bright and clear high-frequency range.
- Linear Phase Slow Roll-Off: Low group delay and symmetrical impulse response with minimal ringing. Compared to LPFR, it offers a gentler roll-off and a cleaner high-frequency presentation.
- Minimum Phase Fast Roll-Off: Minimizes pre-ringing, which is suited for video and studio use. Free from aliasing within the audible range, delivering a more powerful low-frequency response and clean highs compared to Linear Phase filters.
- Minimum Phase Slow Roll-Off: Eliminates symmetrical filtering to further reduce pre-ringing. Provides a low-frequency range with strong extension and excellent transient response.
- Minimum Phase Slow Roll-Off Low Dispersion: Combines low latency of minimum phase filtering with reduced dispersion of linear phase filters. Minimizes pre-ringing to achieve a well-balanced response and low dispersion across the audio band.
Crossfeed Mixing
Sound from one channel is sent to the other with a timing difference that works to center the sound image. You have the option of selecting Shelf Cutoff, Shelf Gain, or Mixer Level to customize your level of crossfeed.
ReplayGain
A uniform volume is now possible with ReplayGain, which automatically adjusts the audio sources with varying volume levels to achieve uniformity. The feature works on personalized playlists and supports up to 192 kHz/24-bit sources.
Wireless Hi-Fi with BT Sink
Use the BT Sink function to wirelessly send audio from an external device through the PD20 via Bluetooth to utilize its processing for Hi-Fi results.
Additional Details
- Supports Native DSD512 and 32-bit/768 kHz playback
- Proprietary ESA (Enhanced Signal Alignment) minimizes group delay via frequency signal alignment
- Unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs
- LED power button light ring changes color to visually indicate a track's bit depth
- 6" 1080p touchscreen
- USB PD 3.0 recharges the PD20 in approximately 4 hours
- 256GB of built-in storage
- microSD slot supports cards up to 2TB
- Up to 14 hours of playback
- Dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
- Supports OTA firmware upgrades
UPC: 810194100253