Astell&Kern Reveals Its Smallest, Lightest And Best Digital Audio Player

Korean high-end portable audio brand Astell&Kern has announced what it is hailing as its “finest portable audio player.” The A&Ultima SP3000M is a small and lightweight device designed for playing hi-fi quality audio on the move.

The SP3000M has an innovative unbalanced and balanced, independent, dual audio circuit design. This removes the usual limitation in audio performance and offers listeners a cleaner sound without signs of lag or delay.

The SP3000M has 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 flagship AK4499EX DACs and two separate AK4191EQ chips that take care of the digital signals.

Most digital players process digital and analog signals together inside the DAC. However, the SP3000M’s HEXA structure reduces the noise of the digital signal input through the AK4191EQ, a separate digital delta-sigma modulator, while the AK4499EX DAC processes the analog signals separately for clearer sound without lag or delay, all the time keeping the digital and analog signals apart. Despite its smaller size, the SP3000M offers the same level of sound quality as its predecessor with an industry-leading 130 dB SNR.

With innovative audio technology from A&K’s Ultimate Sound Solution, TERATON ALPHA, the SP3000M is designed to produce audio playback that’s as close to the original sound as possible. TERATON ALPHA has been engineered by Astell&Kern and is designed to produce the “truest sound recreation available today through effective power noise removal, efficient power management and unwavering amplification, and a fully converted audio output interface.”

A&ultima SP3000M is powered by a Snapdragon 6125 Octa-core processor which provides a fast system response and has a redesigned user interface that moves things along comfortably and smoothly.

With its high-performance CPU and 8GB of DDR4 memory—twice the amount used in many other digital audio players—the more powerful system is stable and offers fast and fluid movement.

Pricing & Availability: The new Astell&Kern A&Ultima SP3000M digital audio player is available in the U.K. from Amazon and Selfridges, priced at £2,299. The SP3000M is also available in other parts of Europe for €2,599 and in the U.S. for $2,300.

General Specification

• Model: SP3000M.
• Color: Black.
• Material: Aluminum.
• Display: 4-inch HD 720 x 1,280 touch screen.
• Supported audio formats: WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC,
• ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF.
• Sample rate: PCM : 8kHz ~ 768kHz (8/16/24/32bits per Sample), DSD : DSD64(1bit 2.8MHz), Stereo / DSD128(1bit 5.6MHz), Stereo / DSD256(1bit 11.2MHz), Stereo.
• Output levels: [Normal] Unbalanced 3.3Vrms / Balanced 6.3Vrms (Condition No Load).
• CPU: Octa-core.
• DAC: AKM AK4191EQ x2 & AK4499EX x4.
• Decoding support up to 32-bit / 768kHz Bit-to-Bit playback.
• Input: USB Type-C input (for charging & PC & Mac).
• Outputs: Unbalanced out 3.5mm, Balanced out 4.4mm (only 5-pole supported).
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5GHz).
• Bluetooth: V5.0 (A2DP, AVRCP, Qualcomm aptX HD, LDAC, LHDC).
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 69.1 x 119.6 x 18.8mm.
• Weight: 237g.

Audio Specification

• Frequency response: ±0.020dB (Condition : 20Hz~20kHz) Unbalanced / ±0.025dB (Condition : 20Hz~20kHz) Balanced / ±0.032dB (Condition : 20Hz~70kHz) Unbalanced / ±0.025dB (Condition : 20Hz~70kHz) Balanced
• S/N: 126dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 130dB @ 1kHz, Balanced.
• Crosstalk: -140dB @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ -144dB @ 1kHz, Balanced.
• THD+N: 0.0005% @ 1kHz, Unbalanced │ 0.0003% @ 1kHz, Balanced
• IMD SMPTE: 0.0004% 800Hz 10kHz (4:1) Unbalanced │ 0.0002% 800Hz 10kHz (4:1) Balanced.
• Output Impedance: Unbalanced Out 3.5mm (0.6Ω) │ Balanced Out 4.4mm (1.2Ω)
• Clock Jitter: 25pS (Typ).
• Reference clock: 200 Femto Seconds.
• Built-in Memory: 256GB [NAND] External Memory Micro SD x1 (Max. 1.5TB).
• Battery capacity: 4,200mAh 3.8V Li-Polymer.
• Charge time: 2.5hours (5V 2A General Charging).
• Playback time: Circa 20 hours (Standard : FLAC, 16bit, 44.1kHz, Normal Gain, Unbalanced, Vol.50, LCD Off, Dual DAC Mode).
• Supported OS: Windows 10, 11 (32/64-bit) MAC OS X 10.7>.

Amended: 23 October, 2024, updated tech specs.