ASTELL&KERN A&ULTIMA SP2000 GOLD

Although externally the A&ultima SP2000 Gold looks very similar to many previous portables from Astell&Kern—except for that premium gold-coated stainless steel finish—internally it has circuitry never before used in any Astell&Kern product.

One of the most important of the circuit changes is the use of two Asahi Kasei AK4499EQ DACs—premium devices that use AK’s ‘Current Output Architecture’ technology. The SP2000 is also the first Astell&Kern player that has separate, independent audio outputs – one unbalanced and the balanced.

The SP2000 Gold is also the first Astell&Kern model to support 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512 (22.4MHz) playback natively without compression or loss and, thanks to 512GB of on-board memory, it can store more than 8,000 tracks in FLAC format. And if you have more music than that, you can plug in a 512GB microSD card to take storage space up to 1TB. It also supports MQA.

Astell&Kern also claims to have improved the design of the dual band Wi-Fi (2.4/5Ghz, b/g/n/ac) antenna on the SP2000 Gold which it says delivers stronger wi-fi signals and faster speeds to improve music streaming from the most popular services, for which it provides Open APP support. ‘The combination of the SP2000 and AK4499EQ chips provide mind-blowing audio quality,’ said George Poutakidis of BusiSoft, which distributes Astell&Kern in Australia, ‘and the new octa-core CPU not only allows the player to produce the exact details present in the original recording without distortion, but also provides quick, lag-free operation including faster booting times, speedier file transfers, lag-free processing and an intuitive user interface for the ultimate player experience.’

Although the SP2000 model has been available for some time, this is the first time it’s been available in gold, and the company is claiming that it’s a one-off, small batch ‘Limited Edition’ offering. Available now, the A&ultima SP2000 Gold retails for $4,999 (RRP).

For more information, contact BusiSoft AV on 1800 888 602 or (03) 9810 2900 or visit www.busisoft.com.au