Audiophile tech brand Astell&Kern has announced that, like Apple, it has turned to titanium to make a flagship product that little more special.
The Astell&Kern A&futura SE300 Titan digital music player is constructed using a grade 5 titanium alloy, which not only improves the strength of the product, but also provides greater resistance to corrosion.
It also looks great, of course.
Apple recently switched to a titanium casing too, for its iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro max models, while Samsung is tipped to be doing the same for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra expected early next year.
The SE300 Titan arguably makes the best use of the material yet, as the casing also reduces any temperature variations or electrical interference within its DACs and analogue amplifiers to provide a distortion-free listening experience.
The sides of the player have been adorned with a wave-like pattern to give extra texture when held. The buttons and wheel have been crafted using the same precision equipment as Swiss watches, while an AF coating both protects the titanium itself while also forming additional texture.
In terms of specifications, the player comes with a dual amp mode with Class A amplification. It houses a 5.46-inch 1920 x 1080 touchscreen and is capable of playback of up to 32-bit / 384kHz music files.
Filetypes that can be played through SE300 Titan include WAV, FLAC, ALAC, and AIFF. Basically, any Hi-Res audio file will not only work, but be delivered losslessly.
The device is charged through USB-C and outputs include unbalanced out and optical (through the 3,5mm port), and balanced out (2.5mm).
802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity can be found on-board, with support for dualband (2.4 / 5GHz). There's also Bluetooth 5.0 for hook up to a separate wireless speaker. The device supports Qualcomm aptX HD and LDAC for near lossless streaming.
A quad-core processor runs the show, while 256GB of internal storage is enough for many Hi-Res albums. You can also expand this through microSD (up to an extra 1TB).
Battery life is claimed to be up to 12 hours, with charging time quoted as "about 3.5 hours" for a full charge.
The Astell&Kern A&futura SE300 Titan is available now for £2,299 – a premium price for a premium product.
