Do you wish to hear the best-sounding transportable music participant in creation? One thing that performs your favourite songs higher than you’ve ever heard them? Do you’ve an additional $3,000, one other couple grand value of headphones, and a excessive tolerance for cumbersome {hardware} and laggy software program? For those who mentioned sure to the entire above, then Astell & Kern’s flagship digital audio participant — the SP3000T — is about to make your sonic desires come true.
Analog stalwarts write love letters to the nice and cozy, pure, lifelike sound of the tube amp; proponents of solid-state digital amplifiers reward their precision and trustworthy copy of the supply materials. However why select? Alongside a peerless digital op amp, the SP3000T has an honest-to-goodness tube amp, full with a pair of classic Raytheon JAN6418 vacuum tubes. Tube amps are usually solely present in a lot bigger house hi-fi gear, so integrating them into one thing that (barely) suits in your pocket is a severe feat of engineering. And the SP3000T permits you to select between the digital amp, the tubes, or a hybrid mode with 5 completely different ranges of crossover. The result’s completely astonishing sound.
The SP3000T is a brick of a tool, with the left and proper edges protruding a bit in shallow pyramids. It’s 3.33 inches vast, 5.57 inches tall, and 0.7 inches deep, and it weighs greater than a pound — 17 ounces, or 18.5 ounces when you use the yellow calf leather-based case that comes with it. And also you’ll wish to, as a result of these silver-plated metal edges and corners are uncomfortably sharp. I’d genuinely be afraid of it tearing by means of a pocket with out the case. Even with the case, it’s awkward, and when you’re carrying sweatpants, you’d higher have the drawstring tied. Luckily, the case seems to be good and makes it comfy to carry, although it additionally obscures the 4 aspect buttons, rendering them virtually ineffective. It has slight indents to indicate the place they’re, however they’re not almost distinct sufficient to search out by really feel. The truth that it’s leather-based may additionally make this a nonstarter for vegans.
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The 5.5-inch, 1080p touchscreen is vibrant sufficient to see on a sunny day and sharp sufficient for album artwork to look good. On the left aspect of the machine are 4 small buttons for play / pause, monitor ahead, monitor again, and amp choice. On the precise aspect is a chunky quantity knob with LED underglow that adjustments colour relying on the music bitrate. Up prime, it has an ordinary 3.5mm unbalanced audio jack, 3.5mm optical output, and a pair of.5mm and 4.4mm balanced outputs, plus the facility button. On the underside, there’s a USB-C port and a microSD card slot. The again contains a glass window that reveals the tube amps, lit by a purple LED after they’re energetic. As a result of, I imply, when you’ve obtained it, flaunt it. The SP3000T even has a pair of (digital) VU meters you’ll be able to conjure with a faucet, giving it much more of that classic hi-fi aesthetic. It’s a pleasant contact.
The SP3000T runs on an eight-core Snapdragon 6125 processor, 8GB of DDR4 reminiscence, and 256GB of built-in storage. You’ll be able to add as much as 1.5TB through the microSD card slot. It additionally has dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, which helps HD codecs like AptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC. It really works with Roon ARC — if you must ask, don’t fear about it — in addition to no matter casting protocols are constructed into its streaming apps. It could actually even be used as a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) on your laptop when related through USB-C.
Astell & Kern has its personal music-focused working system primarily based on Android 10, which got here out in 2019. And when you’re anticipating a $3,000 music participant to run at the very least as easily as a $400 Android telephone, put together to be disillusioned. It stutters fairly usually when scrolling by means of lists, it typically drops keystrokes whenever you’re typing, and the interface is unintuitive and buggy. Settings take too many swipes and faucets to get to, and a few are plain damaged: underneath Downloads, you’ll be able to select “default folder” or “chosen folder,” however there’s no strategy to truly choose a folder. Once I tried to log in to my Qobuz account utilizing Google, the entire system sort of freaked out as a result of it sensed that I used to be utilizing an Android working system, however there isn’t a strategy to log in to your Google account within the OS. Now I’ve an “Account motion required” message in my notification tray that I can’t do away with.
You received’t have entry to Google’s apps or the Play Retailer, both, although you’ll be able to obtain a restricted choice of streaming apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal by means of Astell & Kern’s onboard portal (and even then, they aren’t at all times updated). For those who’re hoping so as to add your favourite podcast or information app, you most likely received’t see it there, although you might be able to sideload it. You most likely shouldn’t, although; the much less publicity this outdated OS has to the surface world, the higher.
The opposite huge difficulty is battery life. Astell & Kern claims it may possibly stand up to 10 hours underneath sure circumstances in op-only mode, however generally, you’re going to wish to at the very least be in hybrid mode. I did two battery run-down checks in hybrid mode, with two completely different units of headphones, and obtained about 4.5 hours every time. That isn’t sufficient to final a full coast-to-coast flight throughout the US with out utilizing supplemental energy.
All of that provides as much as make it really feel much less transportable than it must be. Sure, you can take it on the go, however not tremendous comfortably, and perhaps not for so long as you’d like. It’s transportable however not essentially made on your pocket.
However no one’s shopping for this factor for its working system or as a result of their iPod kicked the bucket. They’re shopping for it for the sound, and the sound is elegant. The SP3000T options totally separate techniques for processing digital and analog indicators, with two of Astell & Kern’s flagship DACs for every, which permits the precise and left channels to be processed independently with out interference. That successfully eliminates any potential noise between the 2, which makes the participant silent in between the musical notes you hear. Every system is in its personal little silo. And since tube amps are delicate glass bulbs, every is housed in a number of layers of silicone to guard them from shock and dampen vibration. It appears to have labored as a result of I didn’t discover any distortion whereas I used to be making the questionable alternative of skateboarding round a car parking zone with it in my pocket.
To understand the capabilities of a high-end digital audio participant (DAP) like this, you want high-quality music sources in addition to top-notch headphones. I used the SP3000T with each the Grado GS3000x over-ear headphones ($2,000) and the Final Ears Premier customized in-ear displays ($3,000), each of which I’ve used for testing different audio units and each of which sound unbelievable. I listened to a mixture of downloaded FLAC, PCM, and DSD information, plus HD and Extremely HD music streamed or downloaded from Qobuz and Amazon Music.
For a listening system as costly as both of these setups, you’d count on nothing wanting magnificent, and the SP3000T doesn’t disappoint. Music comes throughout full, detailed, full of life, and extremely nuanced. For those who’re coming from listening in your telephone — even with good headphones — you’re going to listen to issues in your favourite songs that you just’ve most likely by no means observed earlier than. The scrape of a guitar choose, the refined breath on the finish of a sung line, almost undetectable harmonics shining by means of. A very well-mastered album will come throughout prefer it sounded within the studio. In all my years of testing audio units, I’ve by no means had something transport with me fairly like this (with the potential exception being the quarter-hour I spent listening to the $55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus headphones).
The variations between the digital and tube amps are placing. The digital amp is remarkably exact, with element on the forefront. It’s as clear as copy will get. In full tube mode, what you lose in precision (and it isn’t a lot), you acquire in liveliness. It feels prefer it strikes extra air, so bass, snares, and vocal plosives have extra presence, and it has an inviting, heat sound. The hybrid mode, nevertheless, is the most effective of each worlds. You get digital accuracy married with that classic tube sound, and it carries you away. The soundstage is broad and three-dimensional, and the emotion of the music actually hits you.
For classical music, I are inclined to desire digital, however for traditional rock like Fleetwood Mac, and particularly for reside performances, I am going full tube amp. Listening to Jimi Hendrix reside in tube mode with the Grado headphones is as shut as I’ll ever get to listening to what it was wish to be within the viewers for considered one of his reveals. That mentioned, I saved it in hybrid mode more often than not as a result of the whole lot simply sounds so good in it.
There are different methods to customise the sound, too. There’s an EQ (which I barely touched) and a proprietary Digital Audio Remaster choice that successfully upscales lower-resolution music into both a PCM file as much as 384kHz or a DSD as much as 12.2MHz. That makes older recordings come to life with out introducing any digital weirdness by analyzing and nearly growing the pattern fee. It’s surprisingly seamless. There are additionally six completely different choices for DAC filters, which change the quantity of roll-off and echo, and three completely different present ranges for the vacuum tubes. Half the enjoyable is tinkering with these settings as you’re listening to search out the most effective mixture for a given monitor, album, or style.
Probably the most jaw-dropping experiences was listening to Lemonade on the Grado GS3000x with the SP3000T turned to Hybrid 3 and the digital remaster turning it to a DSD. It seemed like Beyoncé was standing just some ft away, softly singing instantly at me whereas different singers whispered in my ears. It gave me chills. This setup brings out the most effective in something you throw at it: Jeff Buckley singing “Hallelujah,” Prince’s “Purple Rain” soundtrack, Yo-Yo Ma’s cello suites, Miles Davis, A Tribe Known as Quest, Radiohead, Lizzo, Jazmine Sullivan, Led Zeppelin, just about any Björk or Sigur Rós, the listing goes on. These artists soar over you and engulf you within the music. Utilizing the UE Premier in-ear displays by means of the balanced audio jack sounds simply pretty much as good, with much more precision, and after I was on a succession of 4 five-hour flights in per week, I used to be ready to take a look at and go to a special sonic panorama every time I needed.
I additionally examined the SP3000T towards the FiiO M11S, a succesful however rather more inexpensive DAP that helps lossless audio and is available in round $500. After all, music sounds fantastic on the FiiO participant when listening with these Grado and Final Ear headphones. It’s leagues higher than when plugging these headphones into my telephone or laptop output. However music doesn’t sound almost as full of life because it does with the Astell & Kern SP3000T. The FiiO’s OP amp simply doesn’t have fairly the identical element or readability, and there’s no tube amp, so it doesn’t have that full of life, holographic soundstage. (After all, it’s $2,500 cheaper. It’s a fantastic entry-level hi-fi machine, but it surely actually can’t go toe-to-toe with the SP3000T.)
In the end (and clearly), the SP3000T is for audiophiles who’re comfy spending a hefty amount of cash for the incomparable expertise of getting a hybrid digital / tube amp of their pocket. It brings best-in-class sound that’s extra customizable than any participant on the market. The magic is within the full of life, transportive tube amps, the gorgeous precision of the digital amps, and the completely fantastic hybrid modes that convey them collectively. Phonic purists most likely don’t care all that a lot about my UI gripes, the archaic working system, and even that it’s not as transportable as one would hope. The sound is solely spectacular, it really works flawlessly as a USB DAC, and when you have killer headphones, all of these little annoyances don’t quantity to a lot. It’s liable to open up your music in methods you’ve by no means skilled. It’s enchanting.
I discovered myself wanting to take a seat my associates down, stick the Grados on their heads, and placed on their favourite songs — then crank up the voltage on the tubes, simply so I might see the seems to be on their faces as they obtained swept away.
