Silly name, great product. While that's true of most of Astell & Kern's devices, it's particularly apt in the case of the A&norma SR35, which has the twin plaudits of winning a What Hi-Fi? Award and being impossible to pronounce. Which makes it the quintessential Astell & Kern product.
If you like the look of it – good news. It's still at its rock-bottom price of £599 at Richer Sounds. That's £200 cheaper than its launch price, and the same as you would have paid during Prime Day last month. Bargain.
Astell&Kern A&norma SR35 deal
The A&norma SR35 is Astell&Kern's entry-level music player, but that doesn't mean it's made on the cheap. Far from it. With its geometrically quirky aluminium casework and sleek, shiny finish, it's premium yet portable, with a 3.6-inch 720 x 1280 touchscreen for controlling playback.
Unlike some of its competition, there's no Android operating system here, and therefore no apps – but we really like that focused approach. Instead, you've got everything you need for simply playing back your high-res tracks, and plenty of them too.
You get 64GB on-board storage for around 625 (at 24-bit/96kHz), plus the option to add a micro-SD card for up to 1TB if you need.
In our Astell & Kern A&normal SR35 review we praised its "very likeable presentation", and while we noted a tonal balance that sits ever so slightly on the rich side, we said there's a "combination of power and finesse that feels very mature for a source at this level".
No matter what music you feed it, we found the SR35 handles it with top-notch dynamic expression and more detail than we've heard on any other player at its original price point. Even better, now it's £200 less.
Plus it's a source we think that almost any headphones will get on with, so there's no pairing worries to consider either.
If you're looking to buy a portable music player and have this budget to spend, you simply won't find better than the A&norma SR35, especially as it's just £599 at Richer Sounds.
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