Which leads to a couple of conclusions: lots of our valued readers are putting a portable audio player on their bucket list and, if Santa swings by your pad this Christmas we’d be pleased if he popped the new Astell & Kern AK300 in your Chrissie stocking.

Pleased because A&K have an enviable track record building desirable portable audio players and doubly pleased because we can tell you the AK300 won’t disappoint.

According to the staff beavering away at the Australian distributors HQ in Melbourne, who’ve compared the AK300 with previous models, it’s as good as the marketing hype says it is.

They point to the evolved on-board DAC that they say, builds and exceeds those on prior models. Scalability is even better than ever and this means the AK320 will be accessible to a much broader audience.

Portable players that don’t survive in our great and rugged Aussie outdoors are a bit of an oxymoron. No need to bother on this core since the AK320 is housed and delivered in a sturdy aluminium chassis.

The AK300 is also flexible thanks to a number of options. We like the idea of the Astell&Kern AMP to beef up the sound and the optional Cradle is dandy for balanced audio functionality. Hugely appealing also is the CD-RIPPER to rip the silver discs even if you’re travelling out and about.

But the AK300 is importantly a dab hand providing portable hi-res music. Tracks can be stored on its 64GB of memory. And as for headphones, your high-impedance models will have plenty of output used with the AK300.

Portable audio players succeed or fail via the apps that provide the interface between man and machine. The Busisoft people say the AK320 used with its AK Connect App to stream music easily and seamlessly from a PC, Mac or network player, tablet or pesky smartphone, is a doddle to use.

A Parametric EQ (PEQ) on-board the AK300 allows sonic adjustments while an audio Digital Signal Processor (DSP) assists the process. This, say Astell&Kern, frees up CPU cycles previously required for calculating graphic equalisers which makes for a more detailed, more accurate sound.

You can tell Santa the AK300 comes in a metallic black finish and has a price tag of $1399 RRP.

Astell&Kern is distributed by Busisoft AV.