ACTIVO P1 High Resolution Digital Audio Player - Whisper White

At this price point the Activo P1 DAP by Astell & Kern is extraordinarily good. After many hours of listening, the so called “ burning in period” there is a discernible opening up of the tonality and clarity of the A&K tuning. The sound is neutral and has a pleasant warmth to the listening experience. However, the one caveat to achieving the best of the Activo P1 and this can be said of all DAPs is attributable to the quality of headphones/IEMs being used. I use mainly IEMs and they are of the higher end. Pairing a top quality IEM to the Activo ( and this can be said of any DAP) will open up the soundstage and affords the listener to appreciate the timbre of the player as intended by the way the DAP has been tuned. The Activo soundstage is not especially wide and is less so when compared to A & K SR35.I also own Astell & Kern SR35 which is a great deal more expensive and having compared the two ( Activo P1) the nuanced listening experience is barely discernible using the different IEMs i have. On balance, the SR35 is slightly warmer and has a marginally superior timbre. Cheap earbuds and inexpensive headphones will not do justice to the Activo P1. It is also very easy to stream music and the UI is fairly straightforward to circumnavigate.The Activo P1 is hugely capable digital music payable at this price point and superior to Sonys’ NW-A306 which i also have. Booting up the Activo P1 is a tad slow but not as terminally slow as its competitor the Sony. In conclusion the Activo P1 at £399 is a great lightweight portable player with a bright and clear screen, superior sound quality that challenges many other DAPs a few hundred £s dearer. The Activo P1 has more than enough power to drive most IEMs. It slips into your pocket without you noticing it and is one of my go to DAPs when out and about.I also own the LotooPaw Gold Touch Titanium DAP and HiBy R8 11 DAP.

I’m a long time A&K customer. My first was the AKJr DAP, A&K’s budget offering of 2015.I’ve owned several others over the years, and the ACTIVO P1 certainly carries A&K DNA.The sound is in line with A&K house tuning, and the background is quiet and dark.Bass presence is tight, mids are clear and detailed, and highs have very good micro detail, sparkle, and air. Overall a highly resolving sound signature.The P1 is lightweight and compact in size, a return to truly pocketable and portable DAP design. I’m not a Bluetooth user, but I checked it out quickly and it works well, though I cannot speak to how much range it has. WiFi works well for OTA updates, and streaming music from my NAS.Going to a more open source version of Android is a significant change in direction for A&K, and one that should attract the attention of Android device users to the brand.The only snag I ran into was the Hiby music version in Play Store wouldn’t load, but, the version in APKpure loaded without issue and is working well.Being familiar with both A&K and full Android operating systems I found the P1 very easy to navigate. It is a pretty intuitive layout and most should be able to find their way around in short order.The P1 is not a very high power DAP by today’s standards, but it drove my power hungry IEMs well (eg. FatFreq Scarlet Mini).While the display is not ideal for the purpose (small and lower res) I played back a video using VLC app and it performed flawlessly.My unit runs very cool for temperature.A great opportunity to experience A&K expertise by way of their Sub Brand ACTIVO.

Good product but far from perfect. OK for the money I guess. Sounds good enough (quite good actually) via both Sennheiser HD820 and Audeze LCD3's via a Topping A90D balanced headphone amp.Tailored EQ profiles are really good (required for the 820's to boost bottom-end).However it feels very light and not in any way substantial. I would prefer to pay more for an aluminium body with more 'heft' to it. Feels VERY plasticky. Does not feel like a quality product and frankly I can't see it lasting. My iPhone literally weighs more.

I've done 'Hifi' - Box swapped for years, ended up on the a McIntosh MA7900 and a pair of Davone Rithms. Got a Naim streamer and a pair of powered KEFs. I have 1000s of records and CDs but realistically nowadays 20% of my listening is done on the KEFs and 80% on my iPhone with Spotify through an array of headphones or the tinny onboard speaker because = convenience. I have a big family, I'm 50 and 'hi-fi' is a massive faff.I was looking for an improved convenient listening experience, one that would put me firmly in the 'hearing old albums again for the first time' zone. I had an AK sr35, sounded great but it was too clunky, took too long to navigate and had none of the immediacy of accessing a streaming service on your phone. This thing fixes all of that: Turn it on, (not as long as reviews state) Spotify of Tidal logo appears, click it, play music.Bit rates, numbers with dash signs and spec sheets are lost on me. What I know is that this sounds great with Sony 1000XM5 (wireless - I know another sin), Grado 325s, Beyerdynamic TP5s ...and not so great with Shure 425 and 535s.You can upload CDs or MP3 type files onto it and if you have time to do that I'm sure it's great, it's also an outboard? DAC or a DAP? It's priced about right, looks nice and is pretty well made, but importantly it delivers a level of transparency and vastly improved dynamic range in everything I've listened to on Spotify. Eg:Underworld - DubnobasswithmyheadmanREM - Automatic For The PeopleCodeine - The White BirchPortishead - 3Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered SoulHave all been nothing short of magical.TLDR: want something user friendly that makes Spotify or Tidal sound infinitely better (and also does other stuff)? This is it.