Astell & kern a&norma sr25 mkii

Portable music player | £699 | whf.cm/SR25MkII

Astell & Kern’s entry-level portable music player isn’t quite as convincingly ‘entry-level’ as it once was. Its asking price has slowly crept up over the past few generations, in line with the general price hikes we are seeing across the hi-fi industry – yet without making way for a more affordable model to surface beneath it. This absence is somewhat surprising considering the recent demise of the iPod Touch and seemingly scatty availability of budget Sony Walkmans, though perhaps this suggests the smartphone has squashed that part of the market.

The A&norma SR25 MKII is, as its name suggests, the sequel to the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning SR25, which in itself is the successor to the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning SR15. So the SR25 MKII comes from a solid pedigree – one that the South Korean company has evolved with every generation to stay at the top of its class.

Considering that class is ever-shrinking, it probably needn’t try so hard, but if we can assume anything about Astell & Kern’s engineers, it’s that they are tinkerers by nature. If they find an opportunity to squeeze more out of a player, they will. And have.

This latest entry-level player retains all the features that made its predecessor such a pleasing music companion: 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 file compatibility, two-way Bluetooth with LDAC and aptX HD support, the ability to use the player strictly as a DAC, and built-in access to streaming services plus a full MQA decoder.

The built-in 64GB storage will accommodate roughly 200 CD-quality FLAC albums or about one fifth as many in 24-bit/192kHz quality, so avid collectors of hi-res albums may need to fork out for a microSD card (of up to 1TB).

A balanced Pentaconn 4.4mm headphone jack now joins the existing 3.5mm and balanced 2.5mm outputs. The addition of internal silver-plated shielding to protect the player from electromagnetic interference, in the name of improved performance, joins a new optional Replay Gain setting, designed to maintain uniform volume playback across files up to 24-bit/192kHz. AK File Drop makes it easier to transfer files to/from the player wirelessly, while BT Sink allows the MKII to play music from, say, a phone.

You’ll also want decent performing headphones to plug into the Astell & Kern to justify your purchase. This is a revealing little music player, so we would partner it with something at least as good as the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X.

Natural upgrade

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