ActivoP1 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'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.

Convenient size and plenty of storage with 1.5tb micro sd card. A bit slow on start up and seems to want to re-read sd card every time powered up.USB dac function not working! Does not like my Windows 10 PC.

Got this and it's physically bigger than expected, seems well built but the screen is small and it runs an antique version of android.Never got to sample the sound quality as I couldn't work out how to get the audio on the SD card to play. Sent it back for a refund.Beware the reviews online are basically company puff, doesn't appear anyone has used one past the trade show.No support online through social media channels or the company website. Software didn't work for transferring songs from PC.Got the Sony A306 instead. Much smaller, good build and you can actually get music on to it.