Astell&Kern improves the sound quality of its portable hi-res player with the SR25 MKII

Astell&Kern is well-known for its hi-res digital audio players and its latest $749/£699 is the second generation of its SR25 compact portable player – known as the SR25 MKII. 

The uniquely-styled ‘Mercury Dark Silver’ player improves on the audio performance of the original. Astell & Kern claims the player offers more detail than the original SR25, with a more rounded sound overall. The player includes a few other new features such as a 4.4mm headphone jack option (there’s already 3.5mm and 2.5mm) and automatic volume adjustment up to 24-bit/192 kHz (there’s a larger volume wheel, too). As with the company’s other players you can wirelessly drag and drop files to it, while it supports tracks up to and including DSD256 and 32-bit/384KHz PCM. 

Bluetooth connectivity (LDAC and aptX HD) has been made simpler to use, in particular for connection to a phone, while there’s also extra shielding inside the SR25 MKII to protect playback from any electromagnetic interference. 

The Astell&Kern A&norma SR25 MKII will be available from early November.

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home