Activo P1 review: The DAP that's all that

This review brings back a bit of nostalgia. One of my all-time favorite MP3 players was the iRiver iFP-180T, pre-iPod, circa 2002. The Activo P1 I’ve been using for some time has iRiver roots, both owned by Korean parent company Dreamus. With that pedigree, the Activo P1 looks more like an iRiver project than something from the angular, metal builds of Astell & Kern’s luxury-priced DAP laboratory.

Despite looking more iRiver than Astell & Kern, what the Activo P1 doesn’t do is skimp on A&K quality in build or functionality. In a time where people are trying to minimize distractions, a DAP like this could fit into your life nicely as your everyday carry, wired or wireless, standalone music source, though that Google Play Store access may tempt you to add non-music apps.

You get what you pay for: A lot!

Launched on July 22, 2024, the Activo P1 is available for $430, which may seem like a lot of money for a digital audio player. That price point is “accessible” when you compare it to the cost of some of Astell & Kern’s other digital audio players — I’ll refer to them as DAPs going forward — which can cost upwards of $1,000 or more.

It should be noted that the P1 is sold as the P1 by Astell & Kern in North America, in a few other regions, and on Amazon.com. In the UK, Germany, Japan, China, and other parts of the world, it is sold as the ACTIVO P1. The body, accessories, features, and firmware are the same regardless of the name and region. The only material difference will be the packaging.

So, what exactly do you get for $430? Cracking the box open gives a hint of the refinement on offer. You’ll find the P1, a screen protector, one short and one long USB-C cable, the warranty card, and some vouchers to check out Roon. The exterior feels sturdy — a solid build that feels great in hand, with aluminum for most of the body and white plastic polycarbonate at the top and bottom.

You’ll get multiple ways to enjoy your music as the DAP plays files locally from the 64GB of built-in storage or the microSD slot, which supports up to 1.5TB microSD SDHC and SDXC cards. Then there’s the Bluetooth 5.3 connection, which supports various audio codecs such as aptX HD, LDAC, LHDC, and the lower-quality AAC and SBC formats.

Of course, it’s the wired connections that are the stars of this show, with the P1 supporting almost every “physical” file format from WAV to FLAC to ALAC and no shortage of playback and sampling rates with up to PCM 32bit/384kHz, MQA, and up to DSD256 native decoding.

All of this is powered by an octa-core CPU, an ESS SABRE ES9219Q dual DAC chip, A&K’s Teraton audio solution, and an A&K simplified version of Android. Your file streaming is powered by dual-band WiFi 5 support, so you’ll have no problems downloading larger files or streaming them over the internet or from your local network with Roon support.

A nice touch in the design department is the ability to control the player via physical buttons. You get volume controls on the left side, and play/pause on the right so if the screen is off you don’t need to wake the player to control your tunes.

Wonderful Astell&Kern sound at a "discount"

To test the sound quality of this high-end DAP, I used Sennheieser’s HD660S2, Drop’s HiFiMan HE-4XX, Campfire Audio Mammoth IEMs, Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4, and Noble’s FoKus Apollo hybrid driver over-ears (a first in over-ear design). I used the 3.5mm, 4.4mm, and Bluetooth connections for playback.

I streamed from Tidal and Amazon Music’s hi-res collection. I also played MP3 files and FLAC files with native DSD decoding. I love how the P1’s built-in music player’s folder structure identifies your MQA, PCM, and DSD files under its MQS tab so that you can get right to them. I also used the P1 as a Bluetooth DAC and USB-C DAC, connected to my 2017 10-core iMac Pro, playing ALAC files from my Apple Music library.

After listening to 24bit/96kHz “Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes” by Paul Simon, 48kHz MQA “How Long Blues” by Ray Charles and Milt Jackson, 2.8MHz DSD “Thriller” and “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson, and 11.2MHz DSF “Wicked Game” by Aisyah, I was definitely impressed with the audio quality from that SABRE Dual-DAC augmented by Astell’s Teraton Alpha solution, found in its higher-priced DAPs.

The stock sound is beautiful, entertaining, and engaging. It has tight reproduction at the bottom and restrained clarity at the top, so you’re not met with sibilance or shrill horns on tracks rendered with those qualities from more analytical DACs mated to equally analytical headphones or IEMs.

Despite the restraint in the high frequencies, the vocal mids don’t feel cramped at all, and voices that register into those higher frequencies, like that of Aisyah’s in “Wicked Game,” are delightfully airy and ethereal.

Listening to hip-hop tracks from The Roots, Kendrick Lamar, and the Beastie Boys, the bass attack with the Boom Bap should satisfy any bassheads reading this. That 808 resonance is delicious, but if the stock sound’s bass isn’t boomy enough for you, there’s a 20-band PEQ with Q-factor bandwidth adjustments to fix that.

USB and Bluetooth DAC modes don’t allow you to use the 20-band parametric EQ. Still, your wired or Bluetooth connection directly to headphones or IEMs does, and it’s a glorious playground for tailoring the sound curve to your “sonic palette.”

In one instance, I was listening to a pair of headphones that appeared to have some issues with the lows being super aggressive and masking higher-frequency sounds.

I used the Q factor to adjust the bandwidth in the 45Hz and 60Hz bands and was able to mitigate most of that bass bleeding into the mids and masking the highs. This may not work well with a single-driver unit, but this pair utilizes a hybrid driver design, combining dynamic and planar drivers.

Just like anything, the P1 isn’t a magic bullet for sound. Listening to it via crappy headphones or IEMs isn’t going to give you the best results, considering what you’re paying for the DAP. With any setup, spend the most on your IEMs or headphones first. Then, buy a DAC or DAP with what’s left in your budget.

Battery life

This is definitely a DAP you can listen to for hours without it being fatiguing, and the 2,700mAh battery supports that. I have the battery saver turned on so that the Activo P1 stops charging at 85%. With the music set to 75% max volume and mixed-use, playing from local storage, and utilizing Wi-Fi to stream Tidal tracks, I drained that battery by 60% in seven hours.

If you drain the P1, it is PD 3.0-compatible for fast charging speeds. Using a 65-watt PD charger, I charged the unit to 85% from dead in one hour.

Improvements for the next-gen Activo P1

Even though the addition of Android to the Activo P1 makes the interface a bit faster and smoother than A&K’s in-house DAP OS, it can be a bit slow to boot, taking around 40 seconds most of the time. Once booted, the automatic scan of your local and microSD folders is lightning-fast.

With all of the headphones I used, I had to crank the volume, so you’re likely to run the battery down a bit quicker than the 20 hours of continuous playback that Astell & Kern advertises on its Activo website. Even with the most sensitive IEMs that I’ve used with multiple DACs and have to keep the volume quite low, I had to listen at 80% to 90% of max. The P1 has 150 steps of volume adjustment, and I regularly listened at 100-125 with closed-back and open-back headphones, respectively.

It's not something that necessarily needs improving, but it is worth noting that the P1 does get warm to the touch after a while—not uncomfortably so, but it is noticeable.

Should you buy the Activo P1?

Unlike some of Astell & Kern’s pricier options, the Activo P1 is aimed at those looking for an everyday carry device that you won’t feel like you have to “white glove.” It has no water-resistance rating, so be mindful of that if you live in wetter climates. In wet or dry climates, I’d pick up a case, which can be difficult to find. Activo sells a white silicone case, and I’ve found a couple of PU leather cases on Amazon.

The Activo P1 is an excellent choice for a “do-everything” DAP that can also augment your computer or laptop-based listening sessions as a DAC if the price tag isn't an issue for you. For a “budget” Astell & Kern digital audio player, the Activo P1 doesn’t feel cheap or compromised.