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Astell & Kern gives details of problems with the embedded TIDAL app

Astell & Kern announces that they will offer firmware updates for selected digital audio players so that the streaming service TIDAL can be accessed via the embedded TIDAL App in the future. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all DAP models from Astell & Kern.

A few weeks ago, iRiver Ltd., the specialist for portable hi-res audio players, had to admit that problems with the streaming service TIDAL can occur with the digital audio players of the Astell & Kern brand – sempre-audio.at reported.

Due to a change in the user authentication of the TIDAL service, users can no longer register in the usual way on their portable hi-res audio players and thus access the contents of the service.

Embedded TIDAL App by Astell & Kern Cause of the problem.

The crucial point is that Astell & Kern decided to allow only selected apps to be installed on the players, which are in principle based on Google Android. This means that the user cannot install any apps from the Google PLAY Store, as is the case with many other solutions of this kind. Instead, the DAP models from Astell & Kern are limited to selected apps that the manufacturer offers via the so-called Astell & Kern Open App Service.

This includes the embedded TIDAL app, and it is precisely this app that no longer complies with the new authentication specified by TIDAL.

iRiver Ltd. announces firmware updates

Already at the end of April 2021, iRiver Ltd. announced that it would work on firmware updates for a number of DAP models. Now this can be concretised.

Astell & Kern’s engineering and software development teams have been working hard to implement updates for the embedded Tidal app, the company said.

Since this is third-party software that has to be integrated into more than a dozen different players, it took some time to finalise and test the updated firmware, it said.

The new firmware is now in the final stages of review by the company’s partners and, once validated, should be available within the next week or two.

Rolling out the new firmware on a model-by-model basis

Astell & Kern will soon start rolling out the updated firmware on a model-by-model basis, so customers are asked to be patient.

Firmware updates for the models Astell & Kern SP2000, Astell & Kern SP1000, Astell & Kern SP1000M, Astell & Kern SE200, Astell & Kern SE100, Astell & Kern KANN Alpha, Astell & Kern SR25, Astell & Kern SA700, Astell & Kern KANN CUBE, Astell & Kern SR15, Astell & Kern CT15 and Astell & Kern CT10 will gradually be made available in the coming weeks.

Starting at the end of May 2021 until the end of June 2021, the company plans to successively offer the new firmware versions for all these models.

So much for the good news…

So far so good, if there weren’t a number of models that have been on the market for some time, but are still running smoothly for many users. As feared, there will be no updates for all the DAP models of the Astell & Kern brand now mentioned.

The products affected are the Astell & Kern AK380, Astell & Kern AK320, Astell & Kern AK300, Astell & Kern AK70 MKII, Astell & Kern KANN, Astell & Kern AK240, Astell & Kern AK120 II, Astell & Kern AK100 II, Astell & Kern AK70, Astell & Kern AK500N and Astell & Kern T1.

Once again, the manufacturer cites that TIDAL is a for older Google Android models, this means that TIDAL can no longer be supported on the players just listed due to the new authentication requirements, according to iRiver Ltd.

Light on the horizon?

However, iRiver Ltd. once again assures that it is currently looking for ways to continue to support the TIDAL app on these players through the use of the AK Connect app via smartphones and tablets. Further information will be made available in June 2021.

Getting to the point

Already in April 2021, iRiver Ltd. had to admit that it is no longer possible to access the TIDAL service in the usual way for many models of the Astell & Kern brand. The problem lies with the embedded TIDAL app of the DAP models, which is no longer supported by TIDAL due to a new authentication process. Firmware updates will be available for a number of players in the course of June, but a large number of older models will be left out. A work-around is supposed to help here, but is still being worked on.

Manufacturer:iRiver Ltd.
Distribution:Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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