If you’ve been waiting to take a punt on a dedicated portable music player for your hi-res music enjoyment, then I have good news. As part of an early Black Friday deal, the two-time What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 can be yours for £200 cheaper than its retail price.
We originally reviewed this five-star hi-res player at £799, but the price has come down to £599 at Richer Sounds and Futureshop – plus, you even get your choice of a protective case, worth £69, thrown in with this deal as well.
A dedicated portable music player is ideal if you have a whole library full of hi-res digital downloads that you want to enjoy on the move, and especially want better quality music than from your smartphone. And in terms of having pocketable hi-fi that sounds fantastic, the Astell & Kern SR35 is hands-down our favourite portable player.
Astell&Kern A&norma SR35 deal
The A&norma SR35 is Astell & Kern's entry-level portable music player, but nothing about what's on offer here feels entry-level in any way. With its geometrically quirky aluminium casework and sleek, shiny finish, it is premium yet portable, with a 3.6-inch 720 x 1280 touchscreen for controlling playback.
Unlike some of its competition though, there's a bare-bones Android operating system through which you can download a handful of crucial music apps, such as Tidal and Qobuz hi-res streaming services. But we really like this focused approach as opposed to rival players that mimic our smartphone's busy OS. The A&K player focuses all its attention on the main job of simply playing back your high-res tracks to the best of its ability, with up to 32-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD256 files supported. You get 64GB on-board storage, plus the option to add a micro-SD card to expand the storage to 1TB, which you'll need if you have a vast library of hi-res digital files. Battery life is a decent 20 hours, too.
In our full review we said: "The SR35 effortlessly flows with all music it is handed, conveying a very decent amount of dynamic expression and ultimately more detail than we’ve been previously presented by a player at this price point." We praised its finesse, power and rhythmic cohesion, and even though its tonal balance sits ever so slightly on the rich side, it's a hugely likeable presentation.
No matter what music you feed it, we found the SR35 delivers it with the utmost clarity and subtlety. Rival players from the likes of Fiio and Sony haven't been able to surpass the A&K player's ability to deliver music with such effortless dynamism and textural depth, with raw vocals coming through with beautiful nuance. It's an unbeaten performance at full price, and means it is even better value at £200 less in this early Black Friday deal. Plus, it has three different headphone socket options, so you can plug pretty much any wired headphones into it to enjoy your music.
If you're looking to buy a hi-res portable music player and have the budget to spend, you simply won't find better than the A&norma SR35. This £599 deal price may last till the new year, but in our experience it tends to sell out by the time real Black Friday starts at the end of November.
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