$4,200 For A Portable Music Player? — Astell&Kern Offers Latest Audiophile Contender

Photo Credit: Astell&Kern

Astell&Kern’s latest audiophile offering comes with a premium price thanks to its 98% copper body. The SP3000T Copper Edition features the same portable audio player that creates a fusion of the best of both worlds for an analog and digital audio experience—now in copper.Astell&Kern’s SP3000T features the integration of a real vacuum tube to create an authentic analog sound, complemented by cutting-edge audio technology such as Teraton Alpha for an immersive auditory experience. This portable audio player features dual Raytheon JAN6418 Mil-Spec vintage vacuum tubes and a triple amp system to allow listeners to select the right tones for their music. The result is an audio player that features separate digital and analog signal processing.

The Copper Edition takes that one step further with a body made from 98.8% copper. Copper is known for its excellent sound transmission and resonance properties, enhancing the brightness and richness of musical tones. Astell&Kern has created a specialized multilayer coating that enhances durability to help this limited-edition audiophile accessory maintain its beautiful luster without oxidizing or requiring special maintenance.Due to differences in noise and amplification among original vacuum tubes, Astell&Kern have created a meticulous process to address minute differences in sound quality. Astell&Kern carefully measures and pairs each JAN6418 vacuum tube to minimize deviation between the left and right channels—resulting in a more natural sound reproduction.

The SP3000T features an independent modular, flexible PCB design engineered separately from the main PCB. It has a silicone module case designed to absorb primary shocks from the vacuum tube, with silicone tubing perfectly tailored to the vacuum tube to reduce shock transmission along the leads. Finally, it features silicone dampers around the vacuum tube to suspend the tube in the air from both ends—helping to eliminate microphonic noise.

Achieving these low noise levels withing the compact confines of the SP3000T body was no easy challenge. The device houses two of AKM’s latest flagship AK4499EX DACs and a separate audio circuit design with the AK4191EQ—which is applied independently to the left and right channels responsible for processing digital signals.

With this unique audio circuit configuration, the SP3000T reduces the noise of the input digital signal, while acting as a separate digital delta-sigma modulator. Only analog signals are processed within the DAC AK4499EX, ensuring digital and analog signals are processed separately.