Astell & Kern SP3000T overview: a tube amp in your pocket

Do you need to hear the best-sounding transportable music participant in creation? One thing that performs your favourite songs higher than you’ve ever heard them? Do you may have an additional $3,000, one other couple grand price of headphones, and a excessive tolerance for cumbersome {hardware} and laggy software program? If you happen to stated sure to all the above, then Astell & Kern’s flagship digital audio participant — the SP3000T — is about to make your sonic desires come true. 

Analog stalwarts write love letters to the nice and cozy, pure, lifelike sound of the tube amp; proponents of solid-state digital amplifiers reward their precision and devoted copy of the supply materials. However why select? Alongside a peerless digital op amp, the SP3000T has an honest-to-goodness tube amp, full with a pair of classic Raytheon JAN6418 vacuum tubes. Tube amps are typically solely present in a lot bigger house hi-fi gear, so integrating them into one thing that (barely) suits in your pocket is a critical feat of engineering. And the SP3000T enables you to select between the digital amp, the tubes, or a hybrid mode with 5 completely different ranges of crossover. The result’s completely astonishing sound.

The SP3000T is a brick of a tool, with the left and proper edges protruding a bit in shallow pyramids. It’s 3.33 inches vast, 5.57 inches tall, and 0.7 inches deep, and it weighs greater than a pound — 17 ounces, or 18.5 ounces in case you use the yellow calf leather-based case that comes with it. And also you’ll need to, as a result of these silver-plated metal edges and corners are uncomfortably sharp. I might genuinely be afraid of it tearing by a pocket with out the case. Even with the case, it’s awkward, and in case you’re sporting sweatpants, you’d higher have the drawstring tied. Fortuitously, the case appears to be like good and makes it snug to carry, although it additionally obscures the 4 aspect buttons, rendering them nearly ineffective. It has slight indents to point out the place they’re, however they’re not almost distinct sufficient to seek out by really feel. The truth that it’s leather-based might also make this a nonstarter for vegans.

The 5.5-inch, 1080p touchscreen is vibrant sufficient to see on a sunny day and sharp sufficient for album artwork to look good. On the left aspect of the machine are 4 small buttons for play / pause, monitor ahead, monitor again, and amp choice. On the suitable aspect is a chunky quantity knob with LED underglow that modifications coloration relying on the music bitrate. Up prime, it has a typical 3.5mm unbalanced audio jack, 3.5mm optical output, and a pair of.5mm and 4.4mm balanced outputs, plus the ability button. On the underside, there’s a USB-C port and a microSD card slot. The again contains a glass window that reveals the tube amps, lit by a crimson LED after they’re lively. As a result of, I imply, in case you’ve acquired it, flaunt it. The SP3000T even has a pair of (digital) VU meters you may conjure with a faucet, giving it much more of that classic hi-fi aesthetic. It’s a pleasant contact.

The SP3000T runs on an eight-core Snapdragon 6125 processor, 8GB of DDR4 reminiscence, and 256GB of built-in storage. You may add as much as 1.5TB by way of the microSD card slot. It additionally has dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, which helps HD codecs like AptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC. It really works with Roon ARC — if it’s a must to ask, don’t fear about it — in addition to no matter casting protocols are constructed into its streaming apps. It may even be used as a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) in your laptop when related by way of USB-C.

Astell & Kern has its personal music-focused working system primarily based on Android 10, which got here out in 2019. And in case you’re anticipating a $3,000 music participant to run a minimum of as easily as a $400 Android cellphone, put together to be upset. It stutters fairly frequently when scrolling by lists, it usually drops keystrokes if you’re typing, and the interface is unintuitive and buggy. Settings take too many swipes and faucets to get to, and a few are plain damaged: underneath Downloads, you may select “default folder” or “chosen folder,” however there’s no solution to really choose a folder. After I tried to log in to my Qobuz account utilizing Google, the entire system sort of freaked out as a result of it sensed that I used to be utilizing an Android working system, however there isn’t a solution to log in to your Google account within the OS. Now I’ve an “Account motion required” message in my notification tray that I can’t eliminate. 

You received’t have entry to Google’s apps or the Play Retailer, both, although you may obtain a restricted choice of streaming apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal by Astell & Kern’s onboard portal (and even then, they aren’t all the time updated). If you happen to’re hoping so as to add your favourite podcast or information app, you most likely received’t see it there, although you might be able to sideload it. You most likely shouldn’t, although; the much less publicity this outdated OS has to the surface world, the higher.

The opposite huge challenge is battery life. Astell & Kern claims it may rise up to 10 hours underneath sure circumstances in op-only mode, however usually, you’re going to need to a minimum of be in hybrid mode. I did two battery run-down exams in hybrid mode, with two completely different units of headphones, and acquired about 4.5 hours every time. That isn’t sufficient to final a full coast-to-coast flight throughout the US with out utilizing supplemental energy.

All of that provides as much as make it really feel much less transportable than it should be. Sure, you can take it on the go, however not tremendous comfortably, and possibly not for so long as you’d like. It’s transportable however not essentially made in your pocket.

However no one’s shopping for this factor for its working system or as a result of their iPod kicked the bucket. They’re shopping for it for the sound, and the sound is classy. The SP3000T options solely separate techniques for processing digital and analog indicators, with two of Astell & Kern’s flagship DACs for every, which permits the suitable and left channels to be processed independently with out interference. That successfully eliminates any potential noise between the 2, which makes the participant silent in between the musical notes you hear. Every system is in its personal little silo. And since tube amps are delicate glass bulbs, every is housed in a number of layers of silicone to guard them from shock and dampen vibration. It appears to have labored as a result of I didn’t discover any distortion whereas I used to be making the questionable alternative of skateboarding round a car parking zone with it in my pocket.

To understand the capabilities of a high-end digital audio participant (DAP) like this, you want high-quality music sources in addition to top-notch headphones. I used the SP3000T with each the Grado GS3000x over-ear headphones ($2,000) and the Final Ears Premier customized in-ear screens ($3,000), each of which I’ve used for testing different audio gadgets and each of which sound unbelievable. I listened to a mixture of downloaded FLAC, PCM, and DSD recordsdata, plus HD and Extremely HD music streamed or downloaded from Qobuz and Amazon Music. 

For a listening system as costly as both of these setups, you’ll anticipate nothing in need of magnificent, and the SP3000T doesn’t disappoint. Music comes throughout full, detailed, full of life, and extremely nuanced. If you happen to’re coming from listening in your cellphone — even with good headphones — you’re going to listen to issues in your favourite songs that you just’ve most likely by no means seen earlier than. The scrape of a guitar decide, the delicate breath on the finish of a sung line, almost undetectable harmonics shining by. A extremely well-mastered album will come throughout prefer it sounded within the studio. In all my years of testing audio gadgets, I’ve by no means had something transport with me fairly like this (with the doable exception being the quarter-hour I spent listening to the $55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus headphones).

The variations between the digital and tube amps are putting. The digital amp is remarkably exact, with element on the forefront. It’s as clear as copy will get. In full tube mode, what you lose in precision (and it isn’t a lot), you achieve in liveliness. It feels prefer it strikes extra air, so bass, snares, and vocal plosives have extra presence, and it has an inviting, heat sound. The hybrid mode, nevertheless, is one of the best of each worlds. You get digital accuracy married with that classic tube sound, and it carries you away. The soundstage is broad and three-dimensional, and the emotion of the music actually hits you. 

For classical music, I are likely to want digital, however for traditional rock like Fleetwood Mac, and particularly for reside performances, I’m going full tube amp. Listening to Jimi Hendrix reside in tube mode with the Grado headphones is as shut as I’ll ever get to listening to what it was prefer to be within the viewers for one in all his reveals. That stated, I stored it in hybrid mode more often than not as a result of the whole lot simply sounds so good in it.

There are different methods to customise the sound, too. There’s an EQ (which I barely touched) and a proprietary Digital Audio Remaster possibility that successfully upscales lower-resolution music into both a PCM file as much as 384kHz or a DSD as much as 12.2MHz. That makes older recordings come to life with out introducing any digital weirdness by analyzing and just about growing the pattern price. It’s surprisingly seamless. There are additionally six completely different choices for DAC filters, which change the quantity of roll-off and echo, and three completely different present ranges for the vacuum tubes. Half the enjoyable is tinkering with these settings as you’re listening to seek out one of the best mixture for a given monitor, album, or style.

One of the jaw-dropping experiences was listening to Lemonade on the Grado GS3000x with the SP3000T turned to Hybrid 3 and the digital remaster turning it to a DSD. It appeared like Beyoncé was standing just some toes away, softly singing immediately at me whereas different singers whispered in my ears. It gave me chills. This setup brings out one of the best in something you throw at it: Jeff Buckley singing “Hallelujah,” Prince’s “Purple Rain” soundtrack, Yo-Yo Ma’s cello suites, Miles Davis, A Tribe Referred to as Quest, Radiohead, Lizzo, Jazmine Sullivan, Led Zeppelin, just about any Björk or Sigur Rós, the record goes on. These artists soar over you and engulf you within the music. Utilizing the UE Premier in-ear screens by the balanced audio jack sounds simply nearly as good, with much more precision, and once I was on a succession of 4 five-hour flights in every week, I used to be in a position to take a look at and go to a special sonic panorama every time I needed.

I additionally examined the SP3000T towards the FiiO M11S, a succesful however far more inexpensive DAP that helps lossless audio and is available in round $500. After all, music sounds fantastic on the FiiO participant when listening with these Grado and Final Ear headphones. It’s leagues higher than when plugging these headphones into my cellphone or laptop output. However music doesn’t sound almost as full of life because it does with the Astell & Kern SP3000T. The FiiO’s OP amp simply doesn’t have fairly the identical element or readability, and there’s no tube amp, so it doesn’t have that full of life, holographic soundstage. (After all, it’s $2,500 cheaper. It’s an awesome entry-level hi-fi machine, however it actually can’t go toe-to-toe with the SP3000T.)

In the end (and clearly), the SP3000T is for audiophiles who’re snug spending a hefty sum of money for the incomparable expertise of getting a hybrid digital / tube amp of their pocket. It brings best-in-class sound that’s extra customizable than any participant on the market. The magic is within the full of life, transportive tube amps, the gorgeous precision of the digital amps, and the completely fantastic hybrid modes that deliver them collectively. Phonic purists most likely don’t care all that a lot about my UI gripes, the archaic working system, and even that it’s not as transportable as one would hope. The sound is solely spectacular, it really works flawlessly as a USB DAC, and when you have killer headphones, all of these little annoyances don’t quantity to a lot. It’s liable to open up your music in methods you’ve by no means skilled. It’s enchanting. 

I discovered myself wanting to take a seat my associates down, stick the Grados on their heads, and placed on their favourite songs — then crank up the voltage on the tubes, simply so I may see the appears to be like on their faces as they acquired swept away.

Pictures by Brent Rose / The Verge