Although Astell & Kern may not be a household name like the Apple iPod or Sony Walkman, the high resolution audio player is a force that should be reckoned with in the portable music player industry.
Almost dominating the high end market, its main strength is the lossless playback that most other players do not offer. Unlike other digital music players like the iPod or even your smartphone, the defining feature of the Astell & Kern AK Jr Portable MQS Music Player is that it can support uncompressed FLAC files so you do not lose any of the small details of the song. It’s as if your MP3 player has been short changing you on quality for a smaller file size. Technically, the quality of the compressed music should not be noticeable to the human year, but many audiophiles swear that they can tell the difference, so maybe their ears are more sensitive than science suggests.
As you may have already deduced from the name, the AK Jr is a more smaller version of the AK line of high resolution players. This means that the AK Jr is more portable than the significantly hefty devices that high end lossless players have become known to be, offering a good entry point for those unfamiliar with high resolution players.