Astell & Kern has just announced a duo of new products, and true to the company's form, they're both indulgent in the best way.
If you're a music fan who wants the best of both worlds, the latest hi-res audio player promises to deliver the precision of hi-res digital audio with the warmth of tube amplification. The Astell & Kern SP3000T features the firm's Triple Amp system, which enables you to customize your sound via tube amplification, a digital op-amp, or a mix of the two. And you can use those modes across all three outputs: 2.5mm, 3.5mm and 4.4mm.
The tubes are are Raytheon JAN6418 MIL-SPEC Vintage Vacuum Tubes, which Astell & Kern says deliver a "uniquely warm and soothing tone" of the kind you get from the nicest vintage tube amps. And the op-amp is A&K's tried and tested one that we've seen in multiple hi-res audio players from the firm, delivering high clarity and low noise.
Like the Astell & Kern SP3000 it's based on (and which features among our list of the best portable music player), the SP3000T has an AKM AK4499EX DAC with an AK4191EQ digital delta-sigma modulator that takes care of the digital signals while the DAC processes the analog signals separately. And it's all powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 6125 which, with 8GB of RAM, comes with significantly more RAM than most digital audio players.
It's all very impressive, but what are you going to listen to it with? Astell & Kern has a plan for that too, and it involves more drivers than you thought you'd ever need in a set of earbuds.
Astell & Kern Novus: a baker's dozen of drivers
The new Novus headphones are the latest collaboration between Astell & Kern and Empire Ears, and the specification is quite something. There are 13 drivers in total: dual W9+ Empire Ears drivers, five balanced armature drivers (one Sonion and four by Knowles), quad Sonion electrostatic drivers, and dual Sonion bone conductors. The body is aluminum with a diamond-like carbon finish, 24K wet gold-plated faceplates, and sapphire glass.
The price? A mere $4,999 (approx. £4,000 / AU$7,700) – though, honestly, I might have guessed higher from the paragraph above.
The Novus in-ear-monitors will be a limited edition (so probably won't be a staple of our best wired headphones guide) and will go on sale in May. Meanwhile the SP3000T will also go on sale in May for $2,999 (approx. £2,400 / AU$4,600). If you can't wait that long and you happen to be in or near New York, both products will be available for demos at CanJam NYC 2024, which takes place on March 9 and 10 at the New York Marriott Marquis.
That's not all. Astell & Kern is also teasing a "more user-accessible" A&ultimata product for launch later this year, which it says will give audio enthusiasts "an additional option for high-end, flagship music playback."
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