What do I always say, Ross?
Ross?
Astell&Kern never stops...
Not quite. And never...
Inno...
I literally say it in all of my review videos.
Bruh.
Do you now?
[cartoon eye blinks]
Astell&Kern never stops innovating.
I'm here today to tell you about yet again another series of firsts
for an Astell&Kern music player.
The A&future line always bring something new to the table with each new dAP,
always raising the bar or changing the status quo
to see what they can do with the latest iteration
or tech available that they haven't done before.
I respect them for that because even though they've released
a ton of music players over the years, no two are the same.
The SE300 is no different,
offering a number of new things to come to an Astell&Kern DAP.
Let's stop wasting time and just get to it.
So typical things right off the bat with the music player.
On the top is the power button.
Left side are the tracks, skip, and play/pause buttons.
Bottom are the USB-C charging/USB audio out
and the micro SD card slot for expandable storage.
Right side is the large tactile volume knob.
The SE300 sports a gorgeous
5.46 inch 1080p touch screen.
Colors are vibrant.
The new UX is superb and the experience is snappy.
The SE300 is made with aluminum and stainless steel.
It looks stunning, as all A&K players do.
The new thing is this right side.
Let's take a good look at this.
The design theme of the SE300 is “Stream.”
Astell&Kern has had curves before, but not like this.
It's a stunning piece of craftsmanship and a true work of art.
The beautiful curve here, juxtaposed
against some of the sharpest angles you'll find on a music player.
It's just premium all the way around.
Go ahead. Enjoy.
[seductive music plays]
Ahem.
Sorry about that, folks.
AK has finally implemented a ladder DAC and into one of their music players.
Previous iterations
have only presented us with AKM, ESS or Cirrus Logic chip options.
So this is a nice change.
Delta Sigma DACs are easier to implement in a portable music player,
but Astell&Kern was up to the challenge of figuring out how to put a ladder DAC
into their latest DAP.
The R-2R DAC, also known as a ladder DAC, arranges resistors in a ladder
form and offers natural yet dynamic hi fi sounds.
It is extremely technical and difficult to execute as it requires
complex, refined resistor units and hard-to-manage current controls.
Despite these technical challenges, and after several years of development
and a lot of trial and error, Astell&Kern successfully created a new analog
sound for their innovative DAP lineup in the A&futura series.
A&K has meticulously selected each of the 96 ultra-precision resistors
and finalized the R-2R DAC technology.
It is indeed a new sound
for an Astell&Kern player, at least from an analog perspective.
The other new feature in the SE300 that makes another
first for Astell and Kern is the dual amp mode switching.
Dual amps provide a lot more tonal variation than some
might think and also affects the overall efficiency of the device,
which can prolong or shorten battery life based on your fidelity preferences.
Let's start with Class A.
Class A amplification creates low distortion and natural sounds,
which is really great if you're wanting more
warmth and musicality without losing dynamics or resolution.
Class A is more powerful and also uses more battery,
which can shorten the amount of time you'll be away from a wall socket.
It's not going to cut your battery life in half as there are other factors like
gain settings, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and volume that can also play a role in this.
Class A is warmer than AB and can provide a level of emotion
and intimacy in your music that Class AB just can't.
Class AB, on the other hand, adds more distortion to the signal
but is much more efficient than Class
A, resulting in longer battery life for your music player.
Class AB is also more dynamic, offering fun and punchy presentations.
A lot of times people choose the amp setting based on the genre of music too.
Personally, I won't listen to rock on anything other than Class AB.
It just provides more energy
and fun to the music according to my listening preferences.
It's a nice premium feature to have, so you can A/B test out to see
how it brings out different elements in your music too.
The last thing on our list here is Astell&Kern’s exclusively developed FPGA.
With the new R-2R DAC, A&K implements their own Field
Programable Gate Array, specifically for the SE300.
They've also included OS and NOS modes,
Oversampling and No Oversampling respectively.
OS Mode offers partial digital processing that expands
the bandwidth of the original signal to offer more impressive details
with an expansive sense of space which also creates crisp and clear sounds.
In NOS mode, the player reproduces the pure original sound
without any digital processing, allowing users to enjoy the true,
unprocessed sound decoded by the R-2R DAC itself.
I didn't use OS mode on everything, but it does add a lot
to the music depending on the song, album or genre.
For example, I could not use the OS mode on The Police.
Their music is great, but I just think the recordings sound like crap.
OS Mode did offer some improvements in this regard, at least for me.
It's not a fix to make things sound magically better,
but it's a nice feature to have and try out on select music.
For my testing
session, I paired the Astell&Kern SE300 with the Meze
Liric headphones and a Black Dragon Premium Headphone Cable.
I also paired them with the new HiFiMan HE1000 V2
with Stealth Magnets, and a Black Dragon Premium Headphone Cable.
The SE300 sounds different from other A&K players, thanks to
the implementation of the R-2R DAC mostly.
It provides a clean, detailed and natural sound to the music.
I'm not hearing much coloration like some ESS and AKM chips or signal chains.
I would definitely still consider it on the forward side, which is not
that uncommon for the A&futura and A&norma line-ups of DAPs.
Detail is something Astell&Kern does best, so I would actually be surprised
if it was anything less from what I'm hearing: natural.
I'm really appreciating the timbre of the ladder DAC here.
Vocals and midrange for genres like rock and folk are ahead of the instrumentation,
but not at the expense of the impact and dynamics
of the instrumentation, if that makes sense.
Class AB, high gain, and OS mode
and some quality Rock & Roll sounds crunchy and powerful.
It's a great tone overall for distorted guitars.
Genres like Classical and Jazz are especially lovely with the SE300.
The Class A amplifier provides a more lush presentation to the music,
smoother and combined with the R-2R DAC, it's a really enjoyable
listening experience overall, even at low volume levels.
These genres are still dynamic on the SE300,
really showing off the natural and uncolored nature of the audio circuit.
I'll tell you right off the bat, though,
that the SE300 isn't going to be for bassheads.
The bass is present.
It's tight and articulate, but I think lovers of Rap, EDM
and more bass-heavy genres might find it lacking.
Pairing the music player with a warmer headphone is certainly the way
to go in this regard.
For those wanting a more balanced tone than some of the ESS or Cirrus
Logic chipsets that Astell&Kern uses the SE300 will please.
more natural timbre and balanced presentation isn't going to have the body
and warmth of some of the AKM chips, but it's a happy medium.
Like the rest of
Astell&Kern's A&futura lineup of music players,
they continue to innovate and implement firsts in their high-end DAPs.
The addition of the new R-2R ladder DAC in the new SE300 is great
for those who want more natural sound and a little coloration
to their music as it provides a rich and dynamic presentation.
The new amp switching mode is a welcome one
for those wanting more control over the efficiency of the battery life
or the amount of finesse and noise in their signal.
Oversampling mode adds an impressive amount of detail and space
over Non-oversampling,
which brings it into the feature category rather than a gimmick.
The SE300 is going to be a great DAP for lovers of detail,
Classical, Jazz, Rock, Folk and Alternative in particular.
There are enough firsts here that Astell&Kern should be very proud
of the way they've implemented
these new features and continue to bring something new to the table.
Hopefully some of these new features
will find their way
to becoming Astell&Kern music player staples for future DAPs to come as
they greatly impact the sound of the music and the value of the device,
which is giving the user more control over how they want to listen to their music.
and I don't think anyone can get upset over that.
We'll link to the full review below.
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If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment.
And as always, thanks for watching.