Astell and Kern’s Activo P1 is a digital audio player at an affordable price

Astell&Kern has been known to release a pricey personal music player every so often, and even the cheapest player has been inching up in price. So it’s great to see it announce a new option aimed at the cheaper market.

Activo is a new sub-brand from the company focused on promoting “an active lifestyle with music”, the Activo P1 is the first product from that sub-brand.

It’s designed to be held in one hand, its 4.1-inch HD touchscreen allows users to scroll through tracks and dive into its menus to change settings. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, while storage is 64GB of internal memory with microSD support providing an extra 1.5TB for those that need the space. File support is up to native DSD256, 32-bit/384kHz audio.

The player features two ESS ES9219Q SABRE DACs in a dual-mono configuration, which enables a dedicated DAC chip to serve right and left output channels. The AMP circuit is based on Astell&Kern’s Teraton Alpha sound solution, which aims to ensure that listeners “can catch the faintest sounds of instruments that they previously couldn’t hear”.

You’re not just limited to the default sound of the Activo P1’s output, with personalisation and sound profile options available such as a 20 band EQ, adjustable gain and setting the Q value for the precise frequency range you like.

What about wireless?

There’s Wi-Fi support along with, Bluetooth 5.3 (LDAC, aptX HD), full MQA decoding, and PD 3.0 fast charging, with Roon Ready support waiting in the wings.

In the UK the Activo P1 is priced at £399 / €499, which is a lot less expensive than the £799 SR35 player. You can purchase it right now either directly from Astell&Kern or via Amazon.