The new SP3000M is now smaller and lighter than its predecessor, but with the same sound quality.
Korean high-end portable audio brand Astell&Kern has announced what it’s calling the “ultimate portable audio player”. The A&Ultima SP3000M is a small and lightweight device designed to play hi-fi quality audio on the go.
The SP3000M features an innovative unbalanced and balanced, independent, dual audio circuit design. This removes the usual limitation in audio performance and offers listeners a cleaner sound with no signs of lag or delay.
The SP3000M features the same HEXA audio circuit design first used in the SP3000, but the new player is now much more compact. The system also uses four main AK4499EX DACs and two separate AK4191EQ chips that handle digital signals.
At under 200g, the SP3000M is small and light enough to fit in your pocket.
Most digital players process digital and analog signals together inside the DAC. However, the SP3000M’s HEXA structure reduces digital signal input noise through the AK4191EQ, a dedicated digital delta-sigma modulator, while the AK4499EX DAC separately processes analog signals for clearer sound without lag or delay, while maintaining both digital and signals. analog separately. Despite its smaller size, the SP3000M offers the same level of sound quality as its predecessor with an industry-leading 130 dB SNR.
Featuring innovative audio technology from A&K’s Ultimate Sound Solution, TERATON ALPHA, the SP3000M is designed to produce audio reproduction that is as close to the original sound as possible. The TERATON ALPHA is designed by Astell&Kern and is designed to produce “the truest sound recreation available today through effective power noise cancellation, efficient power management and rock-solid amplification and a fully converted audio output interface”.
The SP3000M from Astell&Kern can play almost any digital audio file in super high quality.
A&ultima SP3000M is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 6125 processor, which ensures a fast system response and has a redesigned user interface that moves things comfortably and smoothly.
With its high-performance CPU and 8GB of DDR4 memory – double the amount used in many other digital audio players – the most powerful system is stable and offers fast and fluid movement.
Price & Availability: The Astell&Kern A&Ultima SP3000M digital audio player is available in the UK from Amazon and Selfridges, priced at £2,299. The SP3000M is also available in other parts of Europe for €2,599 and in the US for $2,300.
General Specification
- Model: SR35
- Color: Charcoal Grey.
- Material: Aluminum.
- Display: 3.6-inch HD 720 x 1280 touchscreen.
- Supported audio formats: WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC,
- ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF.
- Sample rate: PCM: 8 kHz – 384 kHz (8/16/24/32-bit per sample), DSD Native: DSD64 (1-bit 2.8 MHz), stereo / DSD128 (1-bit 5.6 MHz) , stereo / DSD256 (1-bit 11.2 MHz) stereo.
- Output levels: [Normal] 2.1 Vrms Unbalanced / 4 Vrms Balanced (No Load Condition). [High] 3.1 Vrms Unbalanced / 6 Vrms Balanced (No Load Condition).
- CPU: four cores.
- DAC: Cirruss Logic CS43198 x4 (Quad-DAC).
- Support for decoding up to 32 bit / 384 kHz Bit-to-Bit playback.
- Input: USB Type-C input (for charging and PC and Mac).
- Outputs: Unbalanced Out (3.5mm), Balanced Out (2.5mm, 4-pole supported only / 4.4mm, 5-pole supported only).
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz).
- Bluetooth: V5.0 (A2DP, AVRCP, Qualcomm aptX HD, LDAC).
- Dimensions (WxHxD): 64 x 108.3 x 16.1 mm.
- Weight: 184 g.
Audio specification
- Frequency response: ±0.012 dB (Mode: 20Hz~20kHz) Unbalanced / ±0.011dB (Mode: 20Hz~20kHz) Balanced / ±0.125dB (Mode: 20Hz~70kHz/0.K z) Balanced
- S/N: 127dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 130dB @ 1kHz, Balanced.
- Interfolk: -133dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ -145dB @ 1kHz, Balanced.
- THD+N: 0.0005% @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 0.0006% @ 1kHz, Balanced
- IMD SMPTE: 0.0002% 800Hz 10kHz (4:1) Unbalanced │ 0.0002% 800Hz 10kHz (4:1) Balanced.
- Output Impedance: Unbalanced 3.5mm (1.1 ohmohm) │ Balanced 2.5mm, 4.4mm (2.7Ω)
- Clock Source: Clock Jitter 25pS (Typ).
- Reference Clock: Jitter 70 ps.
- Built-in memory: 64 GB [NAND] External memory Micro SD x1 (max 1 TB).
- Battery capacity: 3,150 mAh 3.7V Li-Polymer.
- Charging time: 2.5 hours (5V 2A General Charging).
- Playback time: About 20 hours (Standard: FLAC, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, Normal Gain, Unbalanced, Vol. 50, LCD off, Dual DAC mode).
- Supported OS: Windows 10, 11 (32/64-bit) MAC OS X 10.7>.