My use for the unit was strictly as a high-quality music player, and to be able to choose folders for different collections. I simply don't have the patience to do playlists as I have music all over the place.

I have gone through many lives (love/hate) with this unit and was ready to send it back to Bloom Audio. The sound was so crisp however it begged me to hang on and give it another shot. For reference I am 75 but can still tell the difference with the sound. The interface is not really intuitive, it is slow, and had I not had cataract surgery I would be reaching for my glasses every time to use the unit. Here is stuff you may be interested in however:

- I am a button pusher and not a manual reader and it took me a while to figure it out and it still at times doesn't seem consistent due to the slow response.
- It also took a while to get my various Bluetooth devices to talk to it, and I found I had to shut off my phone at times when pairing a new device as the phone would hijack the signal. It seems to "get used" to new devices and "finds" them easier to discover after you have used them a few times and the range might increase.
- The Bluetooth range is awful, and I am still trying different CODECs to see what works best. This is still a work in progress. Example - I have JBL earbuds for my walks. Music keeps cutting out unless I hold the unit up by my chest at which point it holds without cutting out.
- I have it maybe 8-10' from my Denon receiver but if I move the unit around it cuts out so I need to leave it still. I have not messed with the CODECs to try to figure that one out.
- PS - I could use my iPhone Bluetooth with the phone in the living room and walking to my bedroom upstairs (Bose headphones). Not with this unit though. 15' and it's gone.
- It took me a while to find my cars (Infiniti and RAM truck) but finally got the two of them online. It does not list the album on the car screen as it did my iPhone, much to my chagrin. I like to know where stuff is coming from so I can look for it later. That is a minus to me.
- I bought a 2016 Corvette a week ago and it finally found the car yesterday via Bluetooth. I was excited, but it did not play sound though the music was tracking/playing according to the unit's screen. I'll work on it but that is very upsetting. It seems I need a dedicated cable with a D/A converter to use it in iPod mode. My iPhone played fine and I found the sound was immediately better when cabled than by Bluetooth.

In the end, it is clugy to operate and I am still figuring it out. The sound was just so damn good I kept the unit. It is crisp and I can hear everything I didn't know existed before.

I'm new to hi-fi players - My first was a Surfans. I like the SR35. It looks and feels of quality. It runs my Sony MDR-V700's and Grado's just fine. The clarity and detail I hear in music is incredible. My initial impression was that it is underpowered, but no longer sure that is correct - I tend to listen with the volume around 70 which seems high to me compared to other players. The physical and onscreen buttons are smallish. It may be that most aficionados are aware that these type players (Prefer) need FAT 32 SD cards. I wasn't aware and could not get the SR35 to read my exFAT 128 GB SanDisk card until I converted the card from exFAT to FAT 32. All large SanDisk cards come preformatted as exFAT. Had to find and download a file manager to reformat the card since Windows 10-11 will not format FAT 32 cards larger than 32 GB or so. To me, a player designed to use up to 1 TB of SD card memory, should not require FAT 32 SD cards to work well. This FAT 32 requirement likely made sense when 32 GB's was considered a large memory. At least, Astell & Kern may wish to include a note to new owners to reformat their larger memory cards before use - would have saved me some (?!) moments. I like the SR35. Would buy again. Based on my pre-purchase research and my ownership to date, the SR35 strikes me as the best Hi-Fi player in it's price range. PS: Bloom's sales and service staff are responsive.

Loving the step up in audio quality over my Sony Alphabetsoup-306 with the piggybacked iFi hipDac2.

But at this price point I cannot forgive the laggy nature of the OS.

Strike 1, A&K

However, my biggest problem with this device is its supernatural gravitational force. This thing LOVES the floor. Twice during the initial unboxing process it took a tumble off of a perfectly level desk. I had no idea - nor was I provided adequate safety warnings - that the unit must be immediately placed in a protective, high-friction case upon being extracted from its cardboard cocoon. I have since returned it to its original packaging while I contemplate the necessity of outlaying another $100+ dollars on this thing or just eating the restocking fee. ::sadface::

If anyone from Bloom Audio can send this uphill to A&K, I believe a stop-sale should be placed on this product until such time as they can repackage the product with a basic case or at least put in place a safety waiver system. While I appreciate the bold-front warning on your sale page, I just don't feel that's enough.

Really enjoying learning how to use

The sound is good, but I did not expect it to be so clunky. The buttons are not very responsive and it feels like a device from the 90's. But it does what it is supposed to do and, again, it sounds good.