If you’ve been havering over buying a great hi-res audio player, Astell & Kern’s junior brand Activo has got some very tempting bundles right now. The five-star Activo P1 with a set of Activo Q1 earphones is now down to just £399, a massive saving of £309.
I’ve reviewed both the player and the in-ear headphones and I think they’re superb: when I tested them across a wide range of music from electronic pop to dense hip-hop, delicate singer-songwriters and a fair bit of Slipknot I felt that they punched way above their price tags. And now, said prices are even lower!
Activo is also doing a good deal on the P1 player with the more affordable Volcano headphones. The P1/Volcano bundle’s down £209 to just £299.
Why I think this Activo deal is pretty awesome
Some music fans have got lots of cash to throw at their audio equipment, and I am absolutely not one of those people – so while I drool over Astell & Kern’s high-end hardware, the company’s more affordable Activo brand is where my budget takes me. And I think that Activo is doing a really great job of bringing high-end audio to those of us with more modest budgets. At full price, I reckoned the P1 player and Q1 headphones were excellent value; with 44% off the combined asking fee, they’re a steal.
When I reviewed the Activo P1 player I said it was “beautifully musical” and at £399 – the launch price without headphones – it was excellent value for money.
And it sounds great. “The P1 really sings with well separated recordings, whether that’s the rainy songs of The Blue Nile, Pet Shop Boys’ sad bangers, The Cult’s knowing AC/DC homage or Peter Gabriel’s live work,” I wrote. “Classic remasters such as The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want are grin-inducingly good, and Peter Buck’s Rickenbacker really chimes on early REM tracks.”
The Q1 headphones are a collaboration between Activo and DITA Audio, and they’re built around a modified version of the very impressive PM1+ driver from DITA’s own Project M IEMs as well as a Knowles balanced armature driver. I really enjoyed listening to them; my only niggle was that I turned the bass up a bit on the P1 because I like a bit more low-end thump than the default EQ delivers.
I haven’t tested the Volcano headphones personally but my colleague Harry Padoan has, and he says that they “go hard in ways I didn’t expect”: you get “surprisingly hefty bass”, high build quality and good connection options.
