Astell & Kern SP3000T evaluation: a tube amp in your pocket Leave a comment

Do you wish to hear the best-sounding moveable music participant in creation? One thing that performs your favourite songs higher than you’ve ever heard them? Do you’ve gotten an additional $3,000, one other couple grand value of headphones, and a excessive tolerance for cumbersome {hardware} and laggy software program? Should you mentioned sure to all the above, then Astell & Kern’s flagship digital audio participant — the SP3000T — is about to make your sonic goals 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 trustworthy 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 usually solely present in a lot bigger residence hi-fi gear, so integrating them into one thing that (barely) matches in your pocket is a severe 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 broad, 5.57 inches tall, and 0.7 inches deep, and it weighs greater than a pound — 17 ounces, or 18.5 ounces if you happen to use the yellow calf leather-based case that comes with it. And also you’ll wish to, as a result of these silver-plated metal edges and corners are uncomfortably sharp. I’d genuinely be afraid of it tearing by means of a pocket with out the case. Even with the case, it’s awkward, and if you happen to’re sporting sweatpants, you’d higher have the drawstring tied. Luckily, the case seems good and makes it snug to carry, although it additionally obscures the 4 facet buttons, rendering them virtually ineffective. It has slight indents to indicate the place they’re, however they’re not almost distinct sufficient to seek out by really feel. The truth that it’s leather-based can also make this a nonstarter for vegans.

The 5.5-inch, 1080p touchscreen is shiny sufficient to see on a sunny day and sharp sufficient for album artwork to look good. On the left facet of the gadget are 4 small buttons for play / pause, monitor ahead, monitor again, and amp choice. On the fitting facet is a chunky quantity knob with LED underglow that adjustments colour relying on the music bitrate. Up high, it has a normal 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 includes a glass window that reveals the tube amps, lit by a purple LED after they’re lively. As a result of, I imply, if you happen to’ve received it, flaunt it. The SP3000T even has a pair of (digital) VU meters you possibly can 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 through 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 you must 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) on your laptop when related through USB-C.

Astell & Kern has its personal music-focused working system based mostly on Android 10, which got here out in 2019. And if you happen to’re anticipating a $3,000 music participant to run at the least as easily as a $400 Android telephone, put together to be disillusioned. It stutters fairly recurrently when scrolling by means of 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: below Downloads, you possibly can select “default folder” or “chosen folder,” however there’s no method to really choose a folder. After I tried to log in to my Qobuz account utilizing Google, the entire system type of freaked out as a result of it sensed that I used to be utilizing an Android working system, however there isn’t a method 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 gained’t have entry to Google’s apps or the Play Retailer, both, although you possibly can obtain a restricted choice of streaming apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal by means of Astell & Kern’s onboard portal (and even then, they aren’t at all times updated). Should you’re hoping so as to add your favourite podcast or information app, you most likely gained’t see it there, although you could possibly 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 subject is battery life. Astell & Kern claims it will probably stand up to 10 hours below sure situations in op-only mode, however typically, you’re going to wish to at the least be in hybrid mode. I did two battery run-down assessments in hybrid mode, with two completely different units of headphones, and received 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 moveable than it must be. Sure, you can take it on the go, however not tremendous comfortably, and perhaps not for so long as you’d like. It’s moveable however not essentially made on 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 elegant. The SP3000T options fully separate programs for processing digital and analog indicators, with two of Astell & Kern’s flagship DACs for every, which permits the fitting 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 selection of skateboarding round a 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 units and each of which sound unimaginable. 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’d count on nothing in need of magnificent, and the SP3000T doesn’t disappoint. Music comes throughout full, detailed, energetic, and extremely nuanced. Should you’re coming from listening in your telephone — 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 means of. A very well-mastered album will come throughout prefer it sounded within the studio. In all my years of testing audio units, I’ve by no means had something transport with me fairly like this (with the potential exception being the quarter-hour I spent listening to the $55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus headphones).

The variations between the digital and tube amps are hanging. 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 acquire 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, nonetheless, is the very 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 inclined to desire digital, however for traditional rock like Fleetwood Mac, and particularly for stay performances, I’m going full tube amp. Listening to Jimi Hendrix stay 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 among his exhibits. That mentioned, I stored it in hybrid mode more often than not as a result of all the pieces 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 nearly growing the pattern fee. 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 the very best mixture for a given monitor, album, or style.

Probably the most 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 ft away, softly singing instantly at me whereas different singers whispered in my ears. It gave me chills. This setup brings out the very 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 Known 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 means of the balanced audio jack sounds simply nearly as good, with much more precision, and after I was on a succession of 4 five-hour flights in per week, I used to be in a position to take a look at and go to a unique sonic panorama at any time when I needed.

I additionally examined the SP3000T in opposition to the FiiO M11S, a succesful however far more inexpensive DAP that helps lossless audio and is available in round $500. In fact, 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 telephone or laptop output. However music doesn’t sound almost as energetic 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 energetic, holographic soundstage. (In fact, it’s $2,500 cheaper. It’s an incredible entry-level hi-fi gadget, but it surely actually can’t go toe-to-toe with the SP3000T.)

Finally (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 energetic, transportive tube amps, the beautiful 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 moveable as one would hope. The sound is solely spectacular, it really works flawlessly as a USB DAC, and in case 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 mates 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 seems on their faces as they received swept away.