Astell&Kern

A&ultima SP3000T Audio Player

£3,199 RRP

The arms war that Astell & Kern appears to be waging with itself shows no signs of abating. The company is on a mission to create The Ultimate Portable Music Player, one with the most lavish specification, the most upmarket finish and the most ear-pleasing sound. It has been on this journey for over a decade, and there's no denying the success it has had.

So if you're prepared to spend 'nice second-hand German executive car' money on a digital audio player, then the company has a product for you, and the latest one is the A&ultima SP3000T. It is big (relatively speaking), it's shiny (in anyone's language) and is specified to an almost comically high degree. But is it, you know, any good?

UP CLOSE

There are limits when creating a product that's supposed to be portable, but there's no doubt that the A&ultima SP3000T looks and feels like an expensive piece of kit. At 142x85x18mm [HxWxD] and 483g, you'll probably need a backpack or an overcoat pocket if you intend to use it while out and about. But it feels good in the hand, whether or not you've slipped it into its calfskin case – so long vegans, it was nice while it lasted.

The chassis is of 316L stainless steel, plated with 99.9% pure silver – or at least it is around the angular edges. The front of the device is almost entirely touchscreen – it's a 5.5 inch 1,080x1,920 number that's bright, crisp and responsive, thanks in no small part to the Snapdragon 6125 octa-core processor. The rear panel features a little window into the SP3000T's soul – which is to say, it lets you see a couple of miniature Raytheon JAN6418 vacuum tubes glowing. This is because Astell & Kern – never knowingly understated – has fitted a pair of military-grade valves in the player's amplification stage.

The analogue output has three modes. 'Tube amp' relies on the valves to serve up some thermionic warmth, while the 'OP amp' setting delivers modern solid-state precision and openness. The third mode is 'Hybrid amp', which, you won't be staggered to learn, combines the two in what Astell & Kern describes as an 'expert blend of the richness of analogue with high-resolution clarity', no less.

Of course, there are plenty more specification highlights. The audio circuit configuration utilises two AKM 4191EQ DACs acting as digital delta-sigma modulators to reduce noise from the input stage on the left and right channels independently before a pair of AKM AK4499EX DAC chips do the final number crunching. The SP3000T features a choice of six individual digital filter settings to let you further tweak the sound to your taste.

Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.0, and codec compatibility extends to SBC, AAC, aptX HD and LDAC. Dual-band Wi-Fi allows the SP3000T to be Roon Ready, and the alacrity of the user interface means adding your favourite music streaming services is as painless as can be. There's support for every worthwhile digital audio file format and files up to DSD512 and 32-bit/768kHz resolution are catered for. If you're not constantly listening to top-of-the-shop stuff, then Astell & Kern's Digital Audio Remaster technology can convert sub-96kHz content to DSD128 and upscale 44.1kHz PCM to 352.8kHz should you so wish.

Battery life is a best-case scenario of 10 hours, but if you listen to large files at high volumes, the SP3000T can't get close to that figure. The chunky 5050mAh battery takes around 3.5 hours to fully charge from empty. Listening to big files will inevitably eat into the player's 256GB internal memory, but its microSD slot will accept cards of up to 1TB.

There's also a USB-C port on the bottom of the player, which is purely for charging the battery. On the left side of the frame, there are four little playback controls, and on the right, you'll find the customary Astell & Kern elaborate and tactile volume control. It's set into a shaped recess, and there's a light behind it that shines in one of a variety of colours to indicate the file type and size being played. On the player's top surface is a power on/off button and three outputs, comprising 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced and a 3.5mm unbalanced alternative. The 3.5mm socket is a hybrid type that can also function as a digital optical output.

THE LISTENING

The Astell & Kern A&ultima SP3000T is an endlessly rewarding listen. Listening to some properly hi-res content – a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC file of Loveless by My Bloody Valentine – using Austrian Audio's The Composer headphones via the 4.4mm connection, and the sound is remarkably composed and consistent. The various digital filter and amplification settings do make subtle differences, but the big picture is always of a balanced, natural and thoroughly engaging device.

This exotic digital audio portable peers deep into the densest of mixes and delivers all sorts of pertinent information that you may previously have been unaware of. And it does so without being dry or analytical. The sound of the SP3000T has proper brio, a sense of energy and entertainment that makes every piece of music a special event.

It strikes a clever balance where tonality is concerned, thanks to its deft, convincing touch from the top of the frequency range to the bottom. This player hits hard in the bass, displaying absolute control, so it's never less than positive and propulsive. Attack is straight-edged and confident, and the transition up into the higher frequencies is so seamless as to be imperceptible.

The midrange itself is similarly detailed, vigorous and revealing. The My Bloody Valentine recording is a notorious pea-souper, but the Astell & Kern can see into the fog and give you a whole stack of detail. It's the same story at the top of the frequency range – treble detail attacks briskly, but there's substance to go along with the lustre, and the overall presentation is very well-balanced as a result.

Dynamic headroom is considerable, which is just as well where Loveless is concerned because it indulges in huge fluctuations in volume and intensity as often as it thinks it can get away with. The SP3000T can describe these variations with complete confidence and is also alive to the harmonic variations apparent in the layered guitar lines that less capable players simply ignore.

This player serves up a spacious and properly defined soundstage, making Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein) a suitably expansive affair that is opened up and examined in full. There's something about the way this player describes the recorded acoustic that makes every strand of the performance easy to isolate and examine. Yet this is not at the expense of unity or togetherness, as there's a sensation of singularity to the sound of the Astell & Kern that shows it's always up for fun.

In fact, it's hard to identify an area of music-making where the A&Ultima SP3000T is meaningfully deficient. Those who are turned on by the idea of properly euphonic tube-driven warmth to their sound may be underwhelmed by the lack of outright toastiness that results from switching to 'tube amp' mode, but I am reaching now. This is a fully accomplished digital audio player by any realistic measure.

THE VERDICT

Astell & Kern's new A&ultima SP3000T is wildly expensive in any real-world context and not as portable as it should be. And yet, if you consider it as a luxury accessory like a watch or some other piece of jewellery, it starts to make slightly more sense. Then, when you consider its prodigious audio performance, it suddenly seems possible to justify – at least for some customers. So, if you want what is unarguably one of the finest sounding and most lavishly specified and finished portable music players around, then here it is.

Visit Astell&Kern for more information