Everything we know about the A&norma SR15 hi-res music player

ANYTHING BUT NORMAL

The A&norma SR15 seems anything but normal. Despite being one of Astell & Kern’s more affordable premium music players, it’s by far the company’s boldest in terms of design – and the on-paper specs suggest it should sound just as remarkable…

WONKY-TONK WOMEN

The SR15’s skewed screen is a trouser-twisting breath of fresh air. The 3.3in 800×480 display looks like it’s been rotated a few degrees, and that hasn’t been done simply to confuse you – it actually gives the user’s fingers more places to grip on the chunky aluminium body without blocking off any of the screen.

JUMPIN’ DAC FLASH

Of course, a hi-res music player truly lives and dies on its audio performance, and on that front the SR15 looks well-served. Inside are not one but two Cirrus Logic CS43918 DACs – a high-end variety you’re more likely to find in full-size hi-i components than in pocket-sized players or smartphones. These DACs do the bulk of the legwork in making those obscure Neil Young B-sides sound studio-fresh though your headphones.

GET OFF YOUR CLOUD

Alternatively, the SR15 can output its pristine digital sounds via USB. There’s a reasonable 64GB of built-in storage, and once you’ve stuffed that full of lossless Venezuelan folk music, you can slot in a microSD card for up to 400GB of additional space.

PAINT IT FLAC

With integrated Tidal streaming and Wi-Fi, you’ve got millions of lossless tunes on tap, but those who prefer to buy and download music will find the SR15 able to play just about anything, including 24-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD64 hi-res files.