To the 't' – In Astell&Kern's new CA1000T [€2'599], the 't' signifies two twin-triode Korg Nutubes in a fully balanced circuit that allows operation in tube, opamp or mixed mode. One ES9038MPro chip per channel handles D/A conversion. Four frontal headphone sockets for balanced and single-ended in two sizes each face on the rear mini XLR and standard RCA outputs, 4.4mm analog in, coax/optical inputs, one USB C each for charging and data/audio respectively plus a microSD input. Another 256GB of internal flash memory stand by. 4-stage gain selection with up to 15Vrms supports efficient IEM and challenging full-size headfi loads. Battery protection mode only charges to 85% of capacity then reloads below 80%. Bluetooth 5.0 supports aptX-HD and LDAC, the internal DAC 32/768 PCM, native DSD512 and MQA.
