Astell&Kern PD20 Digital Audio Player

PD20 Digital Audio Player, by Astell&Kern.

Finding the sound that truly suits you is the first step toward the essence of music. PD20 is designed to guide you on that journey. The first step in this journey was to start from the very beginning. Rather than creating a successor to the PD10, A&K created an entirely new audio device that will redefine your musical experience.

Through Personal Sound, you can create a sound signature tailored to your hearing, then precisely refine it to your taste using the Sound Master Wheel. An intuitive control that allows even the amplifier driving mode to be changed with a single touch. Now, music is not just something you listen to. It is something you shape.

Quad-DAC

PD20 adopts the ESS ES9027PRO DAC in a Quad-DAC configuration. Four DACs operate independently to minimize inter-channel interference and deliver precise signal separation. As a result, even the finest nuances in sound are revealed with greater clarity, creating a natural, analog-like presentation through clean, distortion-free layering.

ESA Technology

Through its in-house developed ESA (Enhanced Signal Alignment) technology, PD20 significantly improves one of the fundamental challenges in audio reproduction—group delay. ESA precisely aligns frequency signals so they arrive more uniformly, minimizing frequency distortion and enhancing clarity and cleanliness of sound.

Teraton Alpha

To create the ultimate DAP unlike anything experienced before, A&K went beyond simply adopting the latest DACs and new specifications. They further evolved and applied TERATON ALPHA, Astell&Kern’s Ultimate Sound Solution, incorporating its advanced and innovative audio technologies.

Refined through continuous research, TERATON ALPHA represents Astell&Kern’s integrated audio engineering expertise. Through effective power noise reduction, efficient power consumption with stable amplification, and a precisely engineered audio output interface, it delivers sound that remains faithful to the original source.

Triple-Amp Architecture

PD20 features three distinct amplifier classes, allowing you to directly choose both sonic character and driving performance.

Class A mode delivers rich, high-density sound with minimal signal distortion, expressing a smooth, analog-like texture.

Class AB mode offers excellent balance and efficiency, providing stable dynamics and articulate detail. Hybrid mode combines the refined texture of Class A with the efficiency and power of Class AB, creating a new level of sonic balance.

Switching between amplifier classes is achieved through a physical slide key rather than a software menu, enabling intuitive, immediate control based on your listening situation. Choose the amplifier class that best matches your music and listening environment.

Features

• Personalised Sound via Hearing Test – Create a unique sound profile tailored to your hearing with Audiodo technology, improving clarity, balance, and overall listening accuracy.
• Quad ES9027PRO DAC Performance – Four DACs reduce interference and enhance separation, delivering highly detailed, clean, and natural sound.
• Crossfeed Listening Mode - Creates a natural, speaker-like soundstage to reduce fatigue.
• 160-Step EQ Sound Control – Precisely adjust bass, mids, and treble using the Sound Master Wheel without interrupting playback.
• Audiosphere Spatial Sound & EQ – Expand stereo into immersive sound with intuitive EQ and spatial presets.
• ESA Technology for Cleaner Audio – Aligns frequencies to reduce timing distortion, resulting in clearer and more accurate sound.

Specifications

• Model: PD20
• Body Colour: Silver
• Body Material: Aluminium
• Display: 6-inch 2160 x 1080 Touch screen
• Supported Audio Formats: WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF
• Sample Rates: PCM 8kHz ~ 768kHz (8/16/24/32bits per Sample), DSD Native: DSD64(1bit 2.8MHz), Stereo / DSD128(1bit 5.6MHz), Stereo, DSD256(1bit 11.2MHz), Stereo / DSD512(1bit 22.4MHz), Stereo
• Output Level: Unbalanced 5Vrms, Balanced 10Vrms (Condition No Load)
• CPU: Octa-Core
• DAC: ESS ES9027PRO x4 (Quad-DAC)
• Decoding Support: up to 32bit / 768kHz Bit-to-Bit playback
• Input: USB Type-C input (for Charging, PC, MAC)
• Outputs: Unbalanced Out (3.5mm), Optical Out(3.5mm), Balanced Out (4.4mm, only 5-pole supported)
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz)
• Bluetooth: V5.3 (A2DP, AVRCP, Qualcomm® aptX™ HD, LDAC, LHDC, SBC, AAC)
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 77.5 x 155.7 x 17.3 mm
• Weight: 313 g
• Feature Enhancements: Firmware upgrade supported (OTA)
• Operating Temperature: 0 - 40C
• Frequency Response:
• ±0.005dB (Condition : 20Hz~20kHz) Unbalanced │ ±0.010dB (Condition : 20Hz~20kHz) Balanced
• ±0.020dB (Condition : 20Hz~70kHz) Unbalanced │ ±0.020dB (Condition : 20Hz~70kHz) Balanced
• S/N: 124dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 127dB @ 1kHz, Balanced
• Crosstalk: -133dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ -140dB @ 1kHz, Balanced
• THD+N: 0.0003% @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 0.0004% @ 1kHz, Balanced
• IMD SMPTE: 0.0006% 800Hz 10kHz (4:1) Unbalanced │Balanced
• Output Impedance: Unbalanced Out 3.5mm (0.7ohm) │ Balanced Out 4.4mm(1.7ohm)
• Clock Jitter: 25pS (Typ.)
• Reference Clock Jitter: 250 Femto Seconds
• Built-in Memory: 256GB [NAND]
• External Memory: microSD x1 (Max. 2TB)
• Battery Capacity: 5,770mAh 3.8V Li-Polymer
• Charge Time: 4 hours (PD3.0 Charging)
• Playback Time: 14 hours (Standard: FLAC, 16bit, 44.1kHz, Vol.50, Class AB, LCD Off)
• Supported OS: Windows 8,10,11(32/64bit), MAC OS X 10.7

More Information

• PD20 DAP, by Astell&Kern