Astell&Kern’s current flagship player, SP3000, is an incredible digital audio player that combines engineering, craftsmanship, and premium materials to provide a sublime listening experience. While most would agree that it is among the best sounding players on the market, there were some valid criticisms of it: namely its size, weight, and price. If any of those kept you from buying the SP3000, we’ve got good news! Astell&Kern just released the SP3000M, which matches SP3000’s hardware and capabilities, but is smaller, lighter, and costs $1000 less. Can SP3000M deliver all of SP3000’s greatness without any of its flaws?
Top Level Info
- SP3000M is a smaller, lightweight version of the flagship SP3000
- The biggest downgrade is the screensize
- Both the features and sound are nearly indistinguishable from the original – for $1000 less.
Build and Design
SP3000M looks quite nondescript for an Astell&Kern player. The build and materials are as good as you would expect, but the chassis is a simple matte black, and the 4.1 inch screen is a bit smaller than most DAPs in this price range. The control buttons and volume wheel have the sort of firm, tactile feel Astell&Kern is known for, and the overall feel in your hand is solid, but it’s missing the LED light indicator under the wheel to let you know the bitrate of your audio source.
As part of the downsizing process, the 2.5mm headphone output was dropped, leaving you with 4.4mm and 3.5mm, but other than that, there’s essentially nothing missing from SP3000M’s feature list. The only other way SP3000M comes up short is that its Digital Audio Remaster (DAR) upsampling feature only goes up to DSD64, while the original SP3000 could go up to DSD256.
Using SP3000M
If there’s one thing that really sets SP3000M apart from the flagship player field, it’s the size. SP3000M is the first genuinely portable, pocketable flagship tier DAP that’s come out in a while. Between pretty much every brand I can think of – Sony, Cayin, iBasso, HiBy, and Fiio to name a few – as you move up the sound quality ladder, you invariably also increase the size. While technically you can fit many of these players in your pocket, a iBasso DX320 or Cayin N8ii isn’t really designed for it, nor will it be particularly comfortable to have in your pants pocket. SP3000M is designed for it, and is no heavier or more cumbersome than the average cell phone. SP3000M is also the smallest DAP in the current A&K lineup other than the SR35, and as much as the reduced weight feels like an improvement and improvement from the SP3000, the larger screen and more typical form factor feels like a step up from the SR35.
In terms of the user interface and performance, SP3000M’s UI is clean, and the interface is fast and responsive. If you’ve used a recent A&K player, you’ll get the same interface here. It’s still primarily designed for managing a local collection of digital music, but it also provides the option to download and use a number of streaming services like Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz, and Apple Music. The smaller size makes for a more challenging typing experience – especially if you have large hands – but the actual responsiveness of the screen is excellent.
In terms of other features, you get USB DAC mode along with AK Connect, AK File Drop, and Roon Ready functionality for file syncing and local streaming capabilities. To configure your listening experience you can use EQ, Crossfeed, adjust DAC filters, and upsample with Digital Audio Remaster. While the EQ can be a little challenging to setup, the Crossfeed remains one of the most advanced, full featured Crossfeed features available on a DAP.
Sound
SP3000M delivers immersive imaging, a pitch black background, incredible resolution, and just a hint of smoothness. Expect a wide stage, holographic presentation, and an output that squeeze every ounce of detail from the recording out into your headphones. SP3000M doesn’t have any kind of notable color to the sound, giving you a very natural timbre, and combines that with Astell&Kern’s signature treble, that balances the line perfectly between accuracy and smoothness. It tames the harsh peaks, without impacting the extension, air, and resolution in the highs.
In terms of power output, SP3000M’s low noise makes it a perfect combo with a wide range of IEMs, but it also has enough power for a decent range of over-ear headphones. It may actually be slightly quieter than the SP3000 with highly sensitive, low-impedance IEMs. For over-ear headphones, most dynamic driver headphones will sound great, and you’ll get pretty strong performance from planars up through the Meze Empyrean or HIFIMAN Arya Organic range of efficiency.
Comparison Astell&Kern SP3000 and SE300
I did some side-by-side listening with the original SP3000 and with the SE300 – which is currently the closest A&K player in price to the SP3000M. Between SP3000 and SP3000M, the audible differences are very small. The original SP3000 has a little more body to the sound, and a slightly wider stage. Of course, our SP3000 also has had hundreds of hours of use since we got it two years ago, while the SP3000M is likely still well under 100 hours of playtime, which may impact these sorts of finer points in the sound.
SP3000M generally exceeds the sound and performance of SE300. In terms of technical performance, SE300 is at its best in Class A and Oversampling mode, and it still doesn’t seem to quite match up to SP3000M’s detail retrieval and imaging performance here. SP3000M feels slightly warmer and more organic than SE300 as well.
The power output is essentially the same between the three units. SE300 might have a very small edge in Class A mode, but it’s not going to make a big difference as to which headphones you can effectively pair with each DAP. SP3000 and SP3000M are pretty much indistinguishable in terms of driving over-ear headphones.
The Bottom Line
As far as I’m concerned, SP3000M had one job: to deliver SP3000’s sound in a more lightweight, pocketable form factor, and it 100% succeeds. The trade-offs are a build that doesn’t look or feel as luxurious, and the loss of the 2.5mm output. Add in the $1000 price drop, and you’re getting what is probably the best combination of sound and function that Astell&Kern has ever put into a DAP.
