Astell&Kern is a South Korean audio technology company that manufactures music players, amplifiers, headphones and Hi-Fi accessories.
The brand is known for its music players being the best in the world. For proof of this, you can research the company's newly released music player, the SP3000.
The Bluetooth speaker category, on the other hand, is a new initiative for the brand, in which A&K took a step for the first time. Let's see how Astell&Kern has turned a bluetooth speaker into a masterpiece.
Astell & Kern BE100 is offered in 2 different color options, black and white.
The loudspeaker welcomes us with a premium presentation in a specially designed box. The first striking part of the cabin is surely how the front grille is lined with corners that reflect the spirit of A&K. We appreciate the cultural protective identity of A&K, which continues to reflect the design spirit framework to each of its products with sharp lines.
The cabin, covered with synthetic leather, reveals a luxurious feel. The aluminum dial, which can be pressed down and rotated horizontally to create a selection, also carries a similar character. This dial also looks very stylish especially in dark environments with its RGB LED light system. The LED light is in charge of giving you some needed feedback by taking on different color tones in different situations.
Dedicated keys at the top where you can tone over the frequency ranges responsible for bass and treble response, and
There is another keypad where you can direct your music back and forth. This mechanism is based on a capacitive sensor. Just swipe your finger on these keys.
Looking at the rear, the large bass port draws attention, which helps the 4” kevlar driver to relieve internal pressure. This is an important improvement so that the system does not degrade at loud noises.
There aren't many other exciting details down there other than the power input port.
The 4 feet placed in order to reduce the vibrations on the surface of the speaker in contact with the floor do not go unnoticed. This is one of the fine details of the quality craftsmanship here that will be reflected in the sound quality.
Although Astell & Kern music players are produced as life-long devices with their solid aluminum, copper and steel bodies, the sharp corners of their cnc machined bodies can cause us to question these companions again when we put our hands in our pockets.
Literally, everyone says the same thing. Astell & Kern products maintain their place in our collections for many years. The BE 100 is no different.
Considering the different preferences in different brands, the robust/Premium cabinet of the A&K Acro BE1000,
Its aluminum dial and seated structure put it in an unquestionable class in terms of material quality. BE100 is a Premium bluetooth speaker.
When the product in question is a speaker that offers a wireless connection option, another parameter as important as the driver quality is naturally the connection quality itself.
While BE100 is proud to be the first speaker in the world that supports both Qualcomm AptXHD and LDAC bluetooth connection codecs, it transmits this in Bluetooth 5.0 infrastructure with up-to-date technology.
When paired with the ACRO BE100's built-in 32-Bit audio decoding DAC, it's reassuring to know that whatever signal you send to this wireless speaker, it will handle it well.
When it comes to how quality you listen to your music, beyond listening to your music, brands such as Astell & Kern come into play.
Equipped with a 32-bit Hi-Fi digital-to-analog converter (DAC), the A&K Acro BE100 features a custom-built woofer and tweeter, as well as a compact Class-D amplifier that independently controls each frequency range. While this simply means that it provides a superior level of sound quality compared to popular-culture Bluetooth speakers, we'd like to unpack these concepts a bit.
The first plus is to support both aptX™-HD and LDAC codecs to achieve high quality sound at once 55W output power in a wireless data transmission system. We talked about that.
BE100 has 1 x 4” kevlar woofer and 1 pair of silk dome tweeters. While the woofer is the speaker unit responsible for producing the mid and low frequencies (bass driver), the tweeter can be defined as the treble driver responsible for producing the finest sounds. Silk dome tweeters are known for their detailed yet soft, soothing tonal colors, while bass drivers with kevlar diaphragms are renowned for their choice of hard yet lightweight materials serving the speed and firmness needed to reproduce bass frequencies.
When speaker amplifiers are not designed properly, they can cause distortion at maximum power and produce distortion. This is one of the common issues with most pop culture bluetooth speakers available to the general consumer. A&K has applied its own amp design experience to the BE100, so that the speaker can comfortably reach maximum output power and achieve a true Hi-Fi sound level without distortion. A dynamic range control circuit (DRC) is also included in the BE100, which avoids mixing of different frequency ranges by using Digital Crossover, while maintaining a clear sound, in order to protect the loudspeaker unit at maximum output power. Additionally, the bluetooth chipset has been reworked to minimize Jitter, which is unwanted deviation from the transmitted signal over time, and is equipped with a 50ps reference clock and DAC to produce incredibly accurate sound.
One of the most important parts of the BE100 that we enjoy seeing, carefully designed on sound quality, is undoubtedly the heart of the sound, the amplifier. Astell & Kern is one of the organizations that know best about designing an amplifier circuit.
Here at Hi-Fi level, the Class-D amp guarantees consistent sound quality even at maximum volume and strives to deliver crystal clear sound close to the original sound intended by the artist or producer. This is admirable.
Getting 55W of clean output from this compact speaker is the output of this amp at the end of the day.
