Astell&kern Ak70 Mk11 Vs Fiio X7 Mk11 Review
Verdict
Yes, it's expensive. Yep, it's relatively bulky and heavy. Simply as far as unadulterated sound excitement goes, you go what you pay for (and subsequently carry around)
Pros
- Endlessly revealing, utterly musical sound
- All-encompassing specification
- Nicely made, finished and presented
Cons
- Punishingly expensive
- Big and heavy by 'portable' standards
- Battery life is nada special
Key Features
- 4x ESS Sabre ES9068AS DACs Two DACs per channel for defended decoding
- Counterbalanced and unbalanced headphone outputs Selection of outputs for your headphone set up-upwards
- aptX-Hd and LDAC Bluetooth Supports how-do-you-do-res audio over a Bluetooth connexion
Introduction
Astell & Kern is far from a stranger to the thought of the lavishly specified, witheringly expensive portable music thespian. But with the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP2000T (I know, I know… but I didn't name it then you can't blame me), the company may just almost have outdone itself.
Yep, the SP2000T is a portable digital audio actor – only it has quite a few points of deviation. Its amplification options are remarkably numerous, as are its DAC chipsets and its headphone outputs. There isn't a digital audio file type it can't handle, nor a Bluetooth codec worthy of the clarification.
Then it'south not like Astell & Kern has just slapped an optimistic price-tag on ane of its players and hoped for the best. Just when a portable music histrion costs two grand, merely how adept can listeners look 'the best' to exist?
Availability
- UK RRP: £1999
- Usa RRP: $2399
- Australia RRP: AU$3599
The Astell & Kern A&ultima SP2000T sells for a not-inconsiderable £1999. Over in the United States this translates to $2399, while Australian customers should await to fork over a chunky AU$3599.
That makes the SP2000T a pricey product, no ii ways about it. Of the portable music players Trusted Reviews has enjoyed lately, nothing comes shut in terms of asking price – and that includes products both from Astell & Kern itself and its parent visitor, iRiver.
Design
- Quite elaborately sculpted
If you've encountered an Astell & Kern product – whatever Astell & Kern product – before now, you lot'll know what to look. The company invested in some mightily complex car-tools some time agone, and as a effect in that location's a very specific A&K aesthetic. It's edgy and asymmetric, featuring a lot of quite complex angles – and here, merely as on every other Astell & Kern device, it's striking to look at and not especially comfortable to hold.
A glance at the weight and the dimensions of the SP2000T will tell you lot information technology's big and heavy enough to a) feel similar a deeply premium product and b) not be perhaps as portable as is ideal. Merely it's difficult to freight a production like this with existent perceived value – but weight is one way to do it, and so I guess it'south understandable.
Features
- Many amplifiers
- Many DACs
- Many headphone outputs
There'southward specification, there's extensive specification and then there'southward the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP2000T. It may be on the large side, simply that could conceivably exist because A&K had to detect room for all the things it wanted to include.
Almost notably, the SP2000T is a tri-amp device. This means that likewise equally Atell & Kern'south usual OP AMP amplification circuitry, it'south too fitted with dual-triode KORG Nutube distension (in case you desire a fleck of the archetype vacuum tube lushness to your digital audio sound). Select one or the other, depending (says A&K) on the sound you lot prefer and the music you're listening to. Or become with ane of the five (count 'em!) hybrid positions between OP AMP and Tube. Choices, choices.
Wireless connectivity is available via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The latter option features AAC, aptX-HD and LDAC codecs, so (again) you've options. There isn't a digital file worth mentioning the SP2000T can't deal with, and once the info is onboard it'due south dealt with by four ESS Sabre ES9068AS DACs. That's four DACs, ii per channel – and they tin handle file sizes from a few kbps to 32bit or DSD512. The counterpart indicate is then fed to your choice of three headphone outputs: the 2.5mm or 4.4mm balanced socket, or the 3.5mm unbalanced culling.
The 5-inch, 1920 x 1080p capacitive display is as clear and responsive as anything A&Thou has ever turned out, and battery life is a fairly decent ix hours (with a leisurely three hours needed to get from 'flat' to 'full'). The internal memory of 256GB can be additional past up to 1TB using a microSD card.
I could go along. There are more plenty more than big numbers attached to this device. But you get the movie.
Sound quality
- Extraordinarily detailed and refined sound
- Informative, dynamic and musical
- Some latent treble issues may go apparent
What if, after all that, the A&ultima SP200T wasn't much cop to listen to? What if it was a permit-down? That would be quite something, right?
Happily (and, let's exist fair, predictably) plenty, though, the SP2000T is far from a permit-down. In fact, it's a brilliantly achieved player, and an exciting and engrossing listen. Ix hours of battery life suddenly looks a flake iffy, given how hands the Astell & Kern can steal your fourth dimension away.
Information technology's immediately impressive on nigh every level. Listen to a bog-standard 16bit/44.1kHz file of Burial'south Trounce of Light or a huge DSD64 re-create of Herbie Hancock'south Headhunters and the effect is but the same. Extraordinary powers of analysis, the ability to reveal the most transient details in total (without overstating them), a soundstage that's expansive and organised, and the sort of tonal fidelity that can make the listener quite giddy. All the stuff, in fact, that can make a muso weak at the knees.
At the bottom of the frequency range there's weight, momentum and real solidity. Along with that fanatical level of detail apropos texture and timbre, there's genuine pace and impeccably direct edges at the entry into bass sounds.
At the opposite cease of the frequency range there are similarly extensive levels of item revealed, plus admittedly as much bite and crunch to treble sounds as is permissible – pair the A&K with unsympathetic headphones and there'southward no doubt the SP2000T might sound a fleck hard and unforgiving. In between, the amount of data that's fabricated available through the midrange makes every singer audio characterful, and every recording sound like an consequence.
Dynamic headroom is never in doubt, and it doesn't matter if the Astell & Kern is describing a big output switch from 'unaccompanied vocalization' to 'full-on orchestral assault' or making the differences between 'guitar strum A' and 'guitar strum B' obvious. This player only hands over the data, in full and in the most organised, natural-sounding manner imaginable.
Downsides are very few indeed, and none of them intrinsic. As already mentioned, y'all'd be sensible to make certain your favourite headphones aren't too treble-happy. And although the SP2000T sounds very good indeed with 'ordinary' file sizes, it actually shines when given some properly high-resolution stuff to deal with.
Other than that, you only need to justify the outlay to yourself and you're in business.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You desire truly high-terminate portable audio Just add truly high-end headphones and away yous go
You mostly listen to Spotify's gratis tier Fifty-fifty the SP2000T can't brand a silk pocketbook out of those digital files
Terminal Thoughts
Judged purely on a pound-per-cm² basis, the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP2000T doesn't make an awful lot of sense.Merely as a portable (ish) source of extremely high-quality sound, it'due south hard to fence with. Just make sure your headphones are up to information technology…
How we examination
We test every portable music player we review thoroughly over an extended menses of time. We use manufacture standard tests to compare features properly. Nosotros'll e'er tell yous what nosotros notice. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Observe out more than about how we test in our ideals policy.
Tested with a variety of audio formats
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FAQs
Does the SP2000T support expandable storage?
Yeah it does. A microSD upwards to 1TB tin can be slotted in.
Full specs
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U.k. RRP
USA RRP
AUD RRP
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USB DAC Manner
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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/astell-and-kern-aultima-sp2000t
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