The A&ultima line’s flagship SP2000 high-end portable media player has earned South Korean digital specialist Astell&Kern a CES 2020 ‘Honoree’ award.
Launched at High End Munich 2020, the Astell&Kern premium SP2000 portable player has been recognised by the prestigious CES 2020 Awards for its design and technology excellence. The SP2000 employs high-end componentry commensurate with some of the best full-sized digital components.
For starters, packed into its luxuriously-finished stainless steel and aluminium body (available in rose gold/copper and silver) are a duo of Asahi Kasei’s (AKM) top-shelf “VELVET SOUND” VERITA high-end AK4499EQ digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) chips with playback capabilities stretching to lossless 32bit/768 kHz PCM and up to DSD512 plus MQA compatibility. The DAC chips are configured in dual-mono operation while all circuitry and general processing duties are managed via a powerful Octa-Core CPU.
The SP2000’s output circuitry has been updated from its previous-gen to improve performance, with independent channels now used for the balanced (6Vrms output) and unbalanced (3Vrms output) options. The improvements have also resulted in remarkably low Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N) specifications down to 0.0005 percent and 0.0004 percent at 1 kHz for unbalanced and balanced output respectively. Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is a high 124dB unbalanced and 125dB balanced (again at 1 kHz).
Reliable and strong music streaming capabilities are provided via Dual Band Wi-Fi (2.4/5GHz, a/b/g/n/ac) and a redesigned ‘3-dimensional’ antenna. Internal storage has also been increased to 512GB quoted as being able to store up to 8000 FLAC files. A microSD slot is provided for additional storage at up to 1TB cards. Navigation and general display information is provided via the high quality LCD 125mm 720 by 1280 screen.
The Astell&Kern A&ultima SP2000 high-end portable media player is available in Australia via select audio specialists.
Astell&Kern A&ultima SP2000 Portable Media Player
Price: AU$4999
Australian Distributor: BusiSoft AV
+61 3 9810 2900
www.busisoft.com.au
