Astell & Kern SR35 Review

In this review we will take a closer look on the Astell & Kern SR35 digital audio player. It is in AK’s entry level range and costs $799 USD.

Disclaimer: Astell & Kern supplied the SR35 on loan for this review. I only covered import fees for the product. The SR35 will go back to Korea.

Astell & Kern

Astell & Kern (AK) is a renowned company from South Korea, which is known for their high end products of digital audio players. They have brought us many famous products like the AK240 or the SP1000.

AK has started out as a department of iRiver, the company that released the world’s first MP3 Player back in 2003. Ten years later AK was launched to reach into the highest possible segment of digital audio reproduction. In 2013 the AK100 was introduced to the market. Which was the first ever premium DAP.

Since then AK has been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a portable format. Now, in 2023, we have a lot of different high end options to chose from, but AK still is a driving force and inspiration to many.

Here on Headfonia, we have covered almost all of their DAPs over the years. From their entry A&norma level to their sublime A&ultima range of super expensive DAPs.

Astell & Kern is also in the market for In Ear Monitors, although they don’t produce any of them themselves. They rather go into collaborations with renowned manufacturers such as Empire Ears, JH Audio or even Campfire Audio.

SR35

The SR35 is Astell & Kern’s most recent digital audio player from their A&norma range. It’s a very pocket-friendly product in terms of size and prize (in regards to how much the other AK products cost).

With a 3.6” display it is a rather compact audio player nowadays, where phones and flagship DAPs get bigger and bigger. The AK SR35 weighs only 184g in total, so it won’t pull down your pants when your using it on the go.

It supports bit-rates up to 32bits and 384kHz, while using a setup of four CS43198 DAC chips. You can easily switch to a dual-DAC mode to consume less power. AK states that in dual DAC mode the battery will last up to 20 hours. Which is very welcome to me, although I hardly ever used the SR35 in dual DAC mode.

The AK SR35 offers three different analog outputs. One single-ended 3.5mm output and two balanced outputs (2.5mm and 4.4mm). To me it’s a great decision to cover all bases with this set of outputs.

The body of the SR35 is made of aluminum and held in a charcoal gray tone. It’s classy and elegant. When you’ve followed Astell & Kern’s products, you know that they have a specific design language of light and shadow. Which means a lot of corners and shapes. The SR35 is no different and I am still unsure why they chose a tilted screen.

The 3.6” screen is rather small by today’s smartphone standards. While I absolutely applaud the portability and form-factor per se, it did take some getting used to the small fonts and button sizes. Using the keyboard when typing in an artist in Tidal often became a hit and miss for my thumbs and caused some frustration. Other than that I think the UI is very well thought out and responsive.

More about the SR35 on page two!