Astell&Kern is a South Korean audio technology company that produces music players, amplifiers, headphones and Hi-Fi accessories.

The brand is known for having the best music players in the world. For proof of this, you can check out the company's new music player, the SP3000.

The Bluetooth speaker category is a new venture for the brand, which A&K has stepped into for the first time. Astell&Kern, which has never compromised on its perfectionist approach and superior quality approach in even one product, let's see how it has transformed a Bluetooth speaker into a masterpiece...

Design

Astell & Kern BE100 is available in two different color options: black and white.

The speaker welcomes us with a Premium presentation in a specially designed box. As soon as we look at the cabinet, the first thing that catches our attention is how the front grille section is drawn with corners that reflect the A&K spirit. We appreciate A&K's identity as a culture protector, which continues to reflect the design spirit frame with sharp lines in each of its products.

The cabin covered with synthetic leather gives a luxurious feel. The aluminum dial, which can be pressed down and rotated horizontally to create a selection, has a similar character. This dial also looks very stylish, especially in dark environments, with its RGB LED light system. The LED light is responsible for providing you with some feedback you need by taking on different color tones in different situations.

On the top side, there are dedicated keys where you can make tones on the frequency ranges responsible for bass and treble response.
There is another keypad where you can navigate your music forward and backward. This mechanism is based on a capacitive sensor. All you have to do is lightly touch these keys with your finger.

Looking at the rear, the large bass port that helps the 4” Kevlar driver release internal pressure draws attention. This is an important development so that the system does not distort at high volumes.

There's not much exciting detail below, apart from the power input port.

We also noticed the four feet placed to reduce vibrations on the surface of the speaker that touches the ground. This is again one of the fine details of quality workmanship that will be reflected in the sound quality.

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Material 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.

Link Quality

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.

Sound Quality

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 that we enjoyed seeing in BE100, carefully designed for sound quality, is definitely the heart of the sound, the amplifier. Astell & Kern is one of the formations that knows how to design an amplifier circuit best.

The Hi-Fi level Class-D amplifier here 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.

At the end of the day, getting 55W of pure output power from this compact speaker is the output of this amplifier.