Is this Cyber Monday the moment I become an audiophile? This surprise deal says yes

Audiophile tech is one of the more obvious slippery slopes out there – it starts with a desire to hear your favourite albums as they really deserve to sound, and pretty soon you're remortgaging your home to buy a new speaker.

Cyber Monday is upon us though, and it's brought with it a deal that makes it more affordable than usual to get the simplest thing you can pick up for a huge upgrade to your sound. The superb Astell&Kern SR35 hi-res player is nearly £200 off!

Astell&Kern SR35: was £784.50 now £599 at Amazon

This is a brilliant high-resolution music player. You might have to do some setup to find a source of hi-res files, but once you get going with some good wired headphones, you'll probably never look back.

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The move to pick up a proper audio player has long been tempting for me personally – I actually don't listen to music throughout my working day, but every so often I love nothing more than to sit for an evening and get a couple of albums in my ears with no distractions. That sort of listening seems primed for better sound quality, after all.

Astell&Kern are one of a few names putting out media players in this space, and its devices range from the more affordable end, like the SR35, to others that cost multiple thousands of pounds. I'm nowhere near being able to afford that, but having just forked out for a PS5 Pro, I can't pretend this sort of outlay is too crazy.

Of course, you might think they're not the same, since the SR35 would require an immediate purchase of some wired headphones to make it really work (although it does of course have Bluetooth if you don't mind the risk of some loss). Given I had to buy a disc drive for the PS5 Pro, I see similarities nonetheless.

I'm going to stew on whether I'm buying an SR35 for a little while longer but I know I don't have days left to decide. Cyber Monday starts tomorrow morning, and once it hits you can basically start counting down until deals disappear.