I’m in love with Astell&Kern’s crooked, beautiful, ridiculously expensive MP3 player

It could be old style, however I discover devoted MP3 gamers great little units. I’ve used tons over time (the Zune HD continues to be one of the best) and I’m glad to see they reside on in some vogue, even when it’s as an object of artwork jammed with audiophile knick-knacks and a $700 price ticket: Astell&Kern’s A&norma SR15.

Take a look at that factor! The bottom of the tech world is affected by anonymous-looking lozenges made to enchantment to as many individuals as doable. Then you might have this factor.

What a design alternative, to tilt the display like that and type the remainder of the system from prism-like complementary rectangles! The positioning even has a “design idea” web page, on which it factors out that this isn’t a purely aesthetic alternative:

The slight angle and exact, conscious alignment present the empty house and tones that fills the house.
From any angle, or both hand you maintain your system, it doesn’t hinder the show display and provides one of the best grip.

Isn’t that great? And it’s even sort of true! These areas we so rigorously keep away from with our fingers or thumbs are actually grippable.

In the meantime, the tilted display additionally makes room for the knurled quantity knob, whereas concurrently defending it from undesirable touches. And the angle of the display makes for a visible trace for the facility button.

I simply love how dangerous this design is, how eye-catching, how concurrently sensible and impractical. We want way more of that in tech. This system has extra character than each iPhone because the 6 — mixed.

Inside is the same old blast of audio jargon: Cirrus Logic Twin DAC, native direct stream digital, 24-bit 192KHz playback, balanced 2.5mm headphone out and a quad-core CPU to assist all of it. Do you want any of that? In all probability not, however a couple of folks may, and at the least you’ll be certain this factor will play just about something you throw at it and sound nice doing so.

I’ve used a couple of of A&Ok’s earlier merchandise, and may testify that they’re extraordinarily well-built and really feel nice to make use of, although the screens are a bit low-resolution and the UI might be missing. The three.3-inch display isn’t going to blow anybody away with its 800×480 decision, but it surely ought to be sharp sufficient, and the UI received a redo between the units I’ve used and the SR15. I’m desperate to see if it’s extra enjoyable to make use of now.

The A&norma SR15 is offered now for anybody with a pocket full of cash to burn.