One of the best Hi-Res Audio systems on the planet has £1,300 slashed off in Amazon's spring sale

(Image credit: Astell&Kern / Future)

published 4 days ago

Astell&Kern makes superb Hi-Res Audio players, but they can also be equally as expensive. So this Amazon deal on the CA1000T player is music to my ears.

There's a whopping 57% off the list price as part of Amazon's current Spring Deal Days event. That brings it down from £2,299 to a much more affordable £999.

This isn't the first time the CA1000T has been reduced, but discounts this big are very rare, so if you've been thinking about a Hi-Res player, now is a good time.

I haven't tested this particular player but A&K makes great audio hardware. The CA1000T has been well reviewed by the audiophile press and online, with its usual retail price being the only caveat. Now even that's been dramatically improved.

Astell & Kern CA1000T: why buy?

The CA1000T has Astell&Kern's triple-amp configuration, which features dual Triode KORG Nantube tubes to give you a choice of direct, tube or blended audio. It features ESS ES9039MPRO Dual-DACs and supports Hi-Res Audio, including native DSD512 and 32-bit/768kHz.

Although it's clearly been made for desktop use, this is a portable player too, with a promised 11-hour battery.

The player has 3.5mm, 6.35mm unbalanced, and 2.5mm 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs to handle a wide variety of over- and in-ears. And for high impedance headphones, it offers 4-step gain levels with a maximum 15Vrms output.

There are XLR and RCA outs, and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. For wireless listening there's aptX HD and LDAC.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).