The name already gives it away: the new Astell & Kern SP4000 Copper is housed in a chassis made of nearly pure copper.
The Astell & Kern SP4000 Copper is designed to deliver slightly better sound still. Not that the “regular” duralumin-bodied model was bad — quite the opposite. But according to the Korean manufacturer, copper’s excellent shielding lifts the audio performance another notch. Under the hood everything remains unchanged. At the core you’ll find the A&K quad-DAC, paired with an octa-circuit architecture. Together this allows for maximum PCM playback up to 32-bit/768 kHz, as well as DSD up to DSD512.
According to the manufacturer, the 99.98% copper chassis guarantees deep, well-defined bass and a rich, expressive midrange, plus a treble range that sounds more natural than ever. The Copper version of the SP4000 costs €4699 and is released in a limited edition. If that feels just a bit too steep, there’s the standard version, priced at €4499.