Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000T

REVIEW
Simon Lucas
Apr 08, 2025

Another day, another wildly expensive Astell&Kern portable music player. And, what’s more, another wildly expensive Astell & Kern portable music player that supposedly improves on what the company claimed, less than 18 months ago, to be ‘the ultimate sound solution’. Say ‘hello’ to the A&ultima SP3000T, just the latest evidence that Astell & Kern is a complete stranger to the concept of overstatement.

Anyone familiar with the company’s work over the last few years will not be surprised to learn that with the A&ultima SP3000T, Astell&Kern has refused to compromise where specification, materials, build quality or standard of finish are concerned. The news that this results in a digital audio player that retails for comfortably over three grand will be equally predictable.

‘Refusal to compromise’ in this instance results in a machine that’s groaning under the weight of its own lavish specification. For instance, the SP3000T features a pair of AKM AK4499EX DACs as well as a couple of AK4191EQ DACs on a separate audio circuit. The AK4191EQ are applied independently to the left and right channels and are deployed to reduce the noise of the input digital signal in the manner of a digital delta-sigma modulator – so only analogue signals are processed by the AK4499EXs.

Snapdragon

Then there’s the Snapdragon 6125 octa-core processor with 8GB of DDR4 memory. It’s deployed in a drive to deliver rapid system response and a stable, smooth user interface – and the CPU, memory and wireless communication components are all grouped together as a single SoC (System on Chip) for maximum efficiency and minimal digital noise or heat. And ‘the ultimate sound solution’ that was deployed in last year’s SP3000, the combination of power noise reduction, amplification and DAC-borne noise reduction called ‘Teraton X’ has now become ‘Teraton Alpha’. And it’s billed as – hey! – ‘the ultimate sound solution’.

Broadly speaking, ‘Teraton Alpha’ is a refinement of, rather than a reinvention of, ‘Teraton X’ – but with one major difference. The SP3000T deploys a couple of Raytheon JAN6418 miniature vacuum tubes in its amplification stage – these are military-grade tubes and form part of what Astell&Kern calls a ‘triple amp system’. After carefully matching and pairing the tubes, they’re suspended in a complex silicone PCB arrangement to minimise the possibility of microphonic noise derived from minor shocks or vibrations.

And the result is the option to choose between ‘OP AMP’ mode (for ‘crystal-clear resolution and expansive soundstage’), ‘TUBE AMP’ mode (for ‘the natural warmth of a vacuum tube amplifier’) or ‘HYBRID AMP’ mode (for an ‘expert blend of the richness of analogue with high-resolution clarity’). Which sounds all well and good, of course – but what’s equally compelling is the fact that when ‘TUBE’ or ‘HYBRID’ mode is selected, the pair of Raytheon JAN6418s can be seen glowing through the rear of the machine. For some reason it puts me in mind of Uncle Monty’s “both bars on” monologue from the eminently quotable Withnail and I.

Six filters

There’s plenty more, of course. Other highlights include a choice of six different DAC filters, for those who want to exert as much influence over the sound they hear as possible. Or there’s ‘DAR’ (digital audio remaster) technology, increasing the sample rate of your digital audio file in an effort to deliver optimal sound quality – 44.1kHz PCM, for instance, is upsampled to 352.8kHz and sub-96kHz content can be converted to DSD128.

Should you want to make a wireless connection to your SP3000T there’s dual-band wi-fi and Bluetooth 5.0m with SBC, AAC, aptX HD and LDAC codec compatibility. The 256GB of internal memory can be expanded by up to 1TB using a microSD card. Sample rates of up to 31bot/768kHz and DSD512 are supported, the player is Roon Ready, and can handle any digital audio file type around.

Things are just as comprehensive on the outside, too. The A&ultima SP3000T is a considerable 142 x 85 x 18mm (HxWxD) and 483g, and its 316L stainless steel chassis is plated in 99.9% pure silver. The pointily angular Astell & Kern design language is present and correct, and overall the SP3000T is a handsomely purposeful looker – it would be a shame, for any number of reasons, to slide it into the supplied goatskin case. At some point Astell&Kern is going to realise that very credible alternatives are available that won’t alienate vegans, but today is not that day.

The top edge of the chassis features a power on/off button and three outputs: 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced sockets, and a hybrid 3.5mm output that can be either an unbalanced analogue output or a digital optical alternative. On the left side (as you look at the 5.5in 1080 x 1920 touch-screen) there are four playback controls, and on the right is a jewel-like volume control. It sits in an over-designed recess, ahead of a light that glows in one of a number of colours (depending on the size of the digital audio file that’s playing). On the bottom there’s a USB-C slot for charging the 5050mAh battery – a single charge is good for 10 hours (if you’re listening to unremarkably sized files at unremarkable volume levels – up the ante and you can eat into battery life quite significantly).

File Drop

It’s simple and quick to download your favourite music streaming service apps, and the ‘AK File Drop’ feature means an Android smartphone or a PC on a common network can wirelessly transfer content rapidly too. If you’re more the iOS type, you’ll need a hard-wired connection and some Android File Transfer-type software – but that’s hardly difficult to come by.

To test the A&ultima SP3000T, I mostly use Austrian Audio The Composer via the 4.4mm output, Sennheiser IE900 via the 2.5mm output, and Cambridge Audio M100 via Bluetooth (because I like the Matt Berry voice confirmations). And what seems most obviously apparent is that while there are sonic and qualitative differences depending on the headphones I use, they are far from pronounced. The character and the flavour of the Astell & Kern is always apparent.

So no matter of it’s a 16bit/44.1kHz MP3 of Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock [Verve], a 24bit/192kHz FLAC file of Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night [Reprise] or a DSD64 copy of Make It Big by Wham! [Epic], the SP3000T plays no favourites. It’s an indulgently open, spacious and well-organised listen, capable of creating a soundstage that sounds larger and more defined than seems likely. Even recordings as complex as the Talk Talk album are laid out coherently, the spaces between individual elements just as apparent as their interaction and togetherness – the unity of the SP3000T’s presentation is so confident it seems almost casual.

And even though there are amplification and DAC filter options to be investigated, the tonal balance of the player doesn’t undergo any dramatic overhauls. It’s nicely and convincingly neutral, allowing the wholly organic, ‘live in the studio’ feel of the Neil Young recording full expression. The bottom of the frequency range is substantial, punchy to just the right degree, and – just like the rest of the frequency range – absolutely alive with detail both broad and fine. Control of the attack of bass sounds is absolute, and as a consequence rhythms are expressed in the most natural manner. The top end is equally substantial, which goes a long way towards balancing out the bite and crunch the SP3000T can generate when dealing with treble information. In between, the midrange is articulate and revealing, able to put you fully in the picture both when it comes to George Michael’s peerless technique and to Neil Young’s scandalous lack thereof.

Stack of dynamics

There’s an absolute stack of dynamic headroom available, so when the Talk Talk recording shifts up from ‘whispered vocal with tentative guitar accompaniment’ to ‘numerous individuals all having at their instruments as if their lives depended on it’, the Astell&Kern is able to describe the changes in volume and intensity with absolute positivity. It’s equally alive to the more monitor, but no less significant, harmonic variations apparent in that single guitar, and gives proper context and weighting to each and every transient occurrence sound the rear and sides of the Talk Talk stage.

Best of all, though, is that for all its fearsome powers of analysis and insight, the SP3000T doesn’t indulge in them as a technical exercise. It is first and foremost an entertaining and engaging listen, ‘musical’ in a way that not every alternative product (including, it must be said, some Astell&Kern models) is inclined to be.

So while I don’t doubt there will be another Astell&Kern ‘ultimate sound solution’ along soon enough, the A&ultima SP3000T is more than good enough to be getting on with.

Technical specifications

Type: Hybrid portable music player with expandable storage
Storage: 256GB integrated, expandable by up to 1TB via microSD
Analogue inputs: n/a
Digital inputs: USB-C (charging only)
DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: PCM: 8kHz – 384kHz (8/16/24/32bit); DSD Native: DSD64 (1bit/2.8MHz) / DSD128 (1bit/5.6MHz) / DSD256 (1bit/11.2MHz) / DSD512 (1bit/22.4MHz); WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, MQA
Analogue outputs: Unbalanced out (3.5mm) / Balanced out (2.5mm, only 4-pole supported) Balanced out (4.4m, only 5-pole supported)
Digital outputs: Optical out (3.5mm)
Frequency Response: ±0.005dB (Condition: 20Hz~20kHz) Unbalanced / ±0.003dB (Condition: 20Hz~20kHz) Balanced ±0.006dB (Condition: 20Hz~70kHz) Unbalanced / ±0.024dB (Condition: 20Hz~70kHz) Balanced
Distortion (THD + Noise): 0.0005% @ 1kHz, Unbalanced / 0.0004% @ 1kHz, Balanced
User Interface: 5.5in 1920 x 1080 touch display
Other Features: Bluetooth V5.0 (A2DP, AVRCP, Qualcomm® aptX™ HD, LDAC)
Dimensions (HxWxD): 142 x 85 x 18mm
Weight: 483g
Price: £3,199, $2,999, €3,599