Astell&Kern Introduces Its New A&ultima SP4000 Digital Audio Player
Korean audio brand Astell&Kern has unveiled a new digital audio player. The A&ultima SP4000 is the company's newest flagship digital audio player and follows three years of research and innovation and is built with an advanced Octa circuit architecture and a High Driving Mode.
This is the first DAP from Astell&Kern to run the full Android OS, enabling users to directly download and run their favorite streaming apps while sidestepping Android's sampling limitations using Astell&Kern's Direct Path technology.
The SP4000 is crafted from 904L stainless steel, which is the same grade used by luxury watch manufacturers, including Rolex. It has a PVD-coated ceramic back and ships with a Perlinger calf-leather case.
The Astell&Kern SP4000 has a six-inch display with 2K resolution and touch control.
Most digital players process digital and analog signals together inside their DAC. However, the SP4000 reduces the noise of the digital signal input by using the AK4191EQ, a separate digital delta-sigma modulator and then the AK4499EX DAC to process the analog signals separately.
The SP4000 has two OPAMPs arranged in parallel for a richer and more detailed sound. This results in increased dynamic range and enhanced sound detail. High Driving Mode provides powerful and stable output and is designed to reproduce even the most delicate sonic details with precision, allowing you to enjoy deeper, clearer, and more immersive music.
Using proprietary ESA technology, the SP4000 significantly improves group delay, which is the time difference it takes for various frequencies to pass through an internal system. Each frequency reaches the output device at slightly different times, resulting in slight delays.
If group delay varies too much across frequencies, it can affect clarity, imaging and timing. The proprietary ESA technology used in the SP4000 aligns frequency signals so they arrive more uniformly, minimizing frequency distortion and enhancing sound clarity and purity.
The new Astell&Kern SP4000 Digital Audio Player is the Korean brand's flagship portable music ... More device.
A newly implemented Low Dropout Regulator is used in the SP4000's power supply, which reduces noise by up to 97% compared to previous models. LDO Regulators are high-performance components typically used in medical devices and 5G communication equipment. They help stabilize battery voltage and effectively suppress noise, resulting in cleaner, purer sound.
In response to the growing shift toward streaming-based music consumption, Astell&Kern has integrated full Android OS support in the SP4000, including the ability to install any app via the Google Play Store. To overcome Android OS's sampling limitation, Astell & Kern's ADP proprietary customization technology provides bit-perfect, lossless playback even in streaming environments.
The upgraded UI in the SP4000 displays on the player's 6-inch touch screen with an immersive animation where artwork appears to slide in and out as the user swipes through albums. The interface retains Astell&Kern's signature Crimson Theme for usability and intuitiveness.
The SP4000 is packaged with a premium leather case crafted from Shrunken Calf by Perlinger, Germany's world-renowned leather house. The leather used in the case is made from the soft, delicate hide of calves under one year old. It is processed using a chrome tanning method to preserve its natural texture, then shrunk using special agents instead of heat to retain the organic grain and wrinkles. Perlinger adds proprietary pigments for a deep and vibrant color.
The SP4000 from Astell&Kern is made from the same grade of stainless-steel used in luxury watches ... More from companies like Rolex.
The new player has 256GB of internal memory with support for microSD cards up to 1.5TB capacities. There is support for dual-band 2.4/5GHz a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, DLNA networking, USB digital audio output, USB-C for data transfer and charging. The SP4000 can be used as a USB DAC for a Mac or Windows-based PC. It also supports native playback of high-res PCM music up to 32-bit, 768kHz and DSD512.
The SP4000 supports both aptX Adaptive and LDAC codecs to provide audiophiles with multiple options for 24-bit audio playback over Bluetooth. BT Sink enables the SP4000 to connect to an external device via Bluetooth and to function as a Bluetooth DAC. Music from an external device, such as a smartphone, can now be played back in high-quality, taking full advantage of the SP4000's digital processing power.
Qualcomm QC 3.0 fast charging enables the SP4000 to be charged faster and more efficiently than previous models, reaching a full charge in about 4 hours, providing a continuous playback time of around 10 hours. The SP4000 will add Roon Ready support pending completion of testing and final certification by Roon Labs.
Pricing & Availability:
Astell & Kern's new flagship SP4000 DAP will go on sale this summer, with pricing to be confirmed.
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