If you've ever looked at headphone amplifiers and wished they could be more versatile, Astell&Kern's Acro CA1000 will leave you breathless.
For audiophiles, dedicated headphone amps are a key component in their personal audio arsenal, one that lets them get the most out of their preferred wired cans. But Astell&Kern clearly believes we haven’t been expecting enough from these devices, so it has launched the $2,199 A&K Acro CA1000, a so-called “carriable” headphone amp that packs its own internal rechargeable battery as well as a full-featured, hi-res audio digital audio player.
As with A&K’s other hi-res digital audio players like the SR25, you can stream from a wide variety of streaming music services via Wi-Fi, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud, Qobuz, SiriusXM, Tune-In, myTuner, Bandcamp, and Deezer. Given that Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz all offer lossless and hi-res tracks, the Acro should let you get the most out of these services.
That internal battery is good for about 10.5 hours of playback in low-gain mode, but you can also keep the unit plugged in via a USB-C charging cable and use it as a hard-wired device. Speaking of gain, A&K claims that the amp supports four levels of gain settings so you’ll be able to drive even high-impedance headphones without any loss of sound quality.