Occasionally, we have a fair idea of what a product is like before it has even entered our test rooms – not because of any particular clairvoyant ability on our part, but due to it being descended from a line of very fine predecessors.
The Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 is the latest in what has been a procession of excellent, What Hi-Fi? Award-winning, ‘entry-level’ portable music players, with each new generation invariably proving more talented than the past. The SR25 doesn’t let us down, propelling its lineage forward from the A&norma SR15, which was introduced in 2018, to set a new performance benchmark.
It pushes the price along too, with £649 now the minimum you can pay for a current A&K player. That has now opened up a clear gap for a truly budget player in the line-up, which makes you wonder why the company hasn’t gone after the Apple iPod Touch or budget Sony Walkmans in the music player world. For now, at least, A&K is focused on delivering top-end specification and sound quality for middle-market money, which it does brilliantly.
The A&norma SR25 marks more of an evolution than a revolution of the brand’s entry-level player, but the strides it takes are nevertheless significant.
Whereas the A&norma SR15 downsamples 32-bit files for 24-bit playback and converts DSD128 files to PCM 24-bit/176kHz, the SR25 supports native DSD256 and 32-bit/384kHz audio. This is more or less where file support in digital hardware tops out, and is beyond what most people will actually need.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von What Hi-Fi.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von What Hi-Fi.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The missing Link
\"Battery life on the Sony LinkBuds Open is excellent\"
Old school charmer...
\"It is sonically regimented, particularly through the low end where we expected issues\"
Home-theatre hero
\"Impressive is the way in which it manages to sound clean and o decongested, even during the most complex of passages.\"
Audiovector Trapeze Reimagined
\"The Trapeze Ri may resemble their famed ancestors, but in every other respect they are thoroughly modem\"
Linn Majik LP12 MC
\"We are having fun and encouraged to take a holistic view of the music rather than focus on the details\"
The playlist
Here are our carefully curated recommendations of the best music streaming service for those who value sound quality above all. Form an orderly queue...
MATCH FIT
Our ten recommended hi-fi systems are guaranteed to play together beautifully
THE TRUE PRO
Audio Pro's Director of EMEA Sales talks sustainability, Indian markets and the future of Audio Pro in India
Q Acoustics M40
A pair of powered baby floorstanders that have big shoes to fill
YG Acoustics Carmel 3
On paper, the Carmel 3 from Colorado-based speaker specialist YG Acoustics has a credibility problem. They cost a huge amount of money but are small, rather plain-looking two-way floorstanders.