Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Astell&Kern A&Norma SR15 Portable High Resolution Audio Player, Dark Gray

Top positive review

Small wonder

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019

I am a user of SP1000 the big brother as well as the Sony WM1Z, this one is my mobile one. Very good sound, good interface and it has Tidal offline as well with MQA capability. There are many Chinese alternatives but non of them have the operation system and build quality of this one, no problems at all. The battery life is not 10+ but like 7-8 depending on your setup, it gets little warm while charging but nothing alarming. Sounds excellent as well. So if you want a poachable device with no problems and Tidal Offline this one is very bu very good alternative. hybi R3 also is nice but no Tidal Offline, M0 Shangling is very small with a disaster of a OS so this is the one.

13 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Amazon Customer

A great player, excellent sound reproduction, but just a little inconvenient regarding UI.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2021

You have to type everything in manually – no voice recognition.
There's too much bass response to begin with, and as you probably know, if you run it through the circuit with the graphic equalizer, you lose a lot of quality.
Other than the base response, the sound quality is absolutely impressive!

32 total ratings, 24 with reviews

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From the United States

Emre Isiklar

Small wonder

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

A great player, excellent sound reproduction, but just a little inconvenient regarding UI.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Helpful

Business Owner

Works with both Mac and PC! Amazing device!

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

First, it works with Mac!!! You just have to download the android file transfer driver. There are clear instructions in the SR15 manual. IT WORKS WITH BOTH PC AND MAC!

Great audio player. Less wider than the AK120 but slightly taller. This is my second high definition audio player. My first was Astell & Kern AK120 which was a great intro player. This unit, the SR15, has that signature Astell & Kern sound. Clear highs, mids and lows. Definitely blows away listening to music on the iphone. I also love how it’s portable and I can take it on runs and to the gym. I recommend getting the SR15 case cos it doesn’t come with one.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

c. lam

Great sound, but mine has a problem

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

The look and feel of that is fine for me. But the most important things are the sound quality and everyday usability. This is my first adventure into hi-res audio, so I decided to simply plunge into this premium brand hoping that this will be it. After charging it to full capacity and did the initial settings, I was perplexed to find that playing the internal sample tracks, there's no sound coming from my se846. I took the time to read the manual and explore the settings but none of these helped. I even have to use my ipod to make sure that my 846 is working fine. Ultimately, a System Reset -> Settings reset solved the problem. I loaded a couple of my own tracks and was truly amazed with the clarity, sound stage, details, etc. etc.

I loaded up some of my collection of flac, aiff, 320 and 128 mp3 files. Even with the lowly 128kbps mp3 files, the sr15 sounds noticeably better than my ipod which in turn is noticeably better than my phone's.

Come dinner time, and it auto powered off after half an hour. However, when I turned it back on, no sound again. This made me anxious. Turn it off and on brought back the sound. Then I deliberately tested by letting its auto power off kick in. Surely enough, same problem, and same procedure to bring it back.

I decided this maybe just a simple glitch of the firmware that may yet to mature. Who needs auto power off anyway. It can simply pause and play as long as the battery drain is acceptable. At night, I turned off auto power off setting, paused the music, and went to sleep. Six hours later, I was happy to find that total batter drain only went down from 98% to 96% which is totally okay. BUT, while the screen turn on instantly, hitting the play button produce no sound again! This time, 2 power off/on cycles had to be used to bring it back. To make a long story short, I did several more tests, and found that as long as it paused for about an hour or longer, the sound will disappear. The last straw was that I had to power cycle it four times (!) during the last test to bring the sound back.

This is surely a defect somewhere, let's just hope I am the only one getting such a problem with this premium brand. Having said that, at this time I am kind of lost some confidence in it and I decided to return it instead. And in the meantime, I will have to research again for offerings from other manufacturers. Because, there is no going back to ipod and phone after this!

Pros: Definitely noticeable amazing sound quality!!!
Cons: Something's wrong with the output to 3.5mm jack after stopping it for an extended amount of time.
Note: I didn't try the other outputs and features.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Emilio Vicci

Gorgeous and sexy looking player

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

It is simply amazing player. Sound is brilliant and its look and shape ia simply Fantastic! The only thing I dont like in this model is its screen. Fonts are small and compared AK70 II it has a way smaller text sizes. Also toch screen some times freezes. It can frustrate yes, because you have to press several times. However it is maybe one of the best looking, gorgeous shaped players. Finally, with the production of iBasso DX160, Fiio M11 and Hiby R5 and other mid range models I think the era of Astell's too expensive and heavy players are coming to and end...

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Bluetooth sucks, WiFi doesn’t work, sound is just ok. What’s the point?

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

2/17/19 Update: Wait, there’s more...
On top of all that, the WiFi is awful! Why would they make a $700 product with such horrible hardware? I’ve been forced to use my iPhone XS for streaming, downloading and listening because I can’t get this thing to work via WiFi or Bluetooth. And AK Connect? Not even close, won’t AK Connect to anything. And since it doesn’t have cellular, I’m forced to use a device that does. I’m on a work trip, spent this amount of money thinking I’d have awesome tunes, but all I’ve done is waste my time on this probably $5 piece of garbage that AK sells for $699 plus tax!!!! I’m so mad! Seriously AK, what’s up with this hooptie?
1) Bluetooth just does not work at all and will not pair to my headphones or any devices
2) with my campfire audio Vega, sound is meh, bass is lacking, highs are sharp and clear, but shrill at times. Better on my iPhone XS.
3) battery power drops quickly even if powered on but not in use. Power has dropped from 96% to 88% in 15 mins without any use at all, except trying several times to connect via Bluetooth to my headphones without success. Charged to 100% last night, powered off, turned on today and it was 93%. Used it for 30 mins only trying to download music for a flight, but WiFi just wouldn’t connect; therefore no downloads, and now battery is at 84%. Tried Bluetooth again and it worked for a hot minute, but what’s the point if I can’t download apps or stream music? Just a pretty thing to hold in my hand? SMH...
4) for $700, this is an epic fail, Astell & Kern

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

J. Temple

Love the SR15

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

Just great. I had the AK 70 mark ii but ended up losing it on vacation. The sr15 is a very nice upgrade in pretty much every way over the 70. Sounds great, UI is better, Qobuz and just about every other service available to side load... Even AK connect works better. Awesome player!

Helpful

Vicente C.

First week - The system still under the microscope

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

Without any doubt is a high quality constructed device... Maybe, "a little" expensive. The ratio between Quality and Price is medium-low. For a $700 portable player I was expecting a trouble-free, user friendly system. It was hard to pair with my bluetooth speaker; it was difficult to turn it on the first time; if you are using a Mac is very HARD (near impossible) to transfer music to your new device and forget about having the album artwork. I try to get help from Astell's web site... and don't bother, it is a very fashion minimalistic page. I am not requesting high tech support, just how can I transfer my music (and artwork) from my Mac to my Astell SR15. I will keep working with this device and update this review later.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

GUY ROULEAU

Runs HOT when adding audio files

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

I purchased the A&Norma, bolstered by the PRODUCT OF THE YEAR award conferred upon it by HI-FI magazine. I certainly wasn't disappointed with the sound quality nor its' storage capacity (64 gb basic memory + maximum 512 gb with added memory card). Mind you, it IS traditional Astell & Kern sound: mechanically correct and precise yet falling a tad short on musicality. The battery has a standard 10-11 hours life expectancy, depending on the format you play. What throws me off, though, is the CONSIDERABLE heat generated from within the unit when adding music files to it via a USB port. It is cause for concern for those who regularly modify their playlist.

Helpful

Tot-Mama

Runs hot, but also runs Spotify and Amazon Music

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

I really love the sound coming out of this little machine. The Dual DAC sounds amazing. The balanced output has enough power to drive my Sennheiser HD 650 cans (though you will need to buy a balanced cord for them). I found I can play Spotify and Amazon Music via Wifi on it. (Go to the A&K website and search "open App Service." The instructions are there.) As a player it is great, the only things that keep it from 5 stars is the short battery life and the fact that the device can get really hot while operating. It was so hot I had to buy the case just so I could hold it.

4 people found this helpful

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Astell&Kern A&Norma SR15 Portable High Resolution Audio Player, Dark Gray

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Astell&Kern A&Norma SR15 Portable High Resolution Audio Player, Dark Gray

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