logo
welcome
Wired

Wired

Astell & Kern’s Activo P1 is an eloquent, insightful audio player that’s at its most impressive when playing big, information-rich content

Wired
Summary
Nutrition label

58% Informative

Astell & Kern has developed Activo , a subbrand of its high-end digital audio players.

The Activo P1 is specified in excess of what you might be expecting at the asking price.

Sixty-four gigabytes of internal memory is low, but the SD card slot can expand that by as much as 1.5 TB .

There are 3.5-mm unbalanced and 4.4-mm balanced headphone sockets.

Activo P1 is an eloquent, insightful audio player that balances analysis against entertainment in the most confident and satisfying manner.

It digs deep into the frequency range and shapes bass information convincingly.

Big chances in attack or intensity in a recording are articulated pretty well, and even those more minor dynamics of harmonic variation aren’t overlooked.

There’s not a huge amount of three -dimensionality to the soundstage the Activo can generate, though.