John Darko
How do we optimise the sound quality of our favourite wired headphones or IEMs when out of the house? For anyone not yet ready to go full-time with Bluetooth headphones (whose sound lacks musical purity) or a dongle DAC strapped to a smartphone (which can be fiddly to pocket), the answer is singular: a digital audio player (DAP); a second device whose sole job is to store and play music. DAPs tend to be built with audiophile sensitivities that make little economic sense for inclusion in smartphones made by the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung. (Oh, how we miss LG). Never mind that only Sony, Asus and the little-known Moondrop still put a headphone socket on a smartphone.
The problem with many DAPs is threefold: size, weight and price. Only the most dedicated listener will drop several thousand dollars on a DAP that has the dimensions of three smartphones glued together to weigh close to half a kilo. The battery runtime on these beefy-boys often struggles to break the 10-hour barrier. Some only play files stored on microSD cards. Streaming services need not apply. Some allow users to install streaming service apps from a white list.
Case in point: Astell&Kern’s flagship DAP, the SP3000, sells for close to €4000, puts 493g on the scales and offers limited streaming service support via a white list that sits atop a custom OS. Its mainstream appeal is close to zero. I know because I have one.
This week brings news that Astell&Kern is trying to reach a more mainstream tech buyer with a new, smaller and more affordable DAP: the P1 Activo. Activo? A sub-branded product aimed at wired headphone listeners leading more active lifestyles but retaining the audiophile non-negotiable of 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs.
I have reservations about how much the mainstream buyer will care about the P1’s support for PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD256 – especially when no major streaming service offers DSD or PCM above 24bit/192kHz. And how many shoots will the man in the street give about the P1’s DAC circuit being built around a pair of ESS ES9219Q SABRE DAC chips arranged in a dual-mono configuration and subtly tweakable via seven user-selectable filters?
Ditto the P1’s dedicated amplifier circuit. It’s based on Astell&Kern’s TERATON ALPHA sound solution and promises (according to the press release), “sound clarity and broad spatial resonance”. That said, I reckon many mainstreamers will understand what Astell&Kern is driving at when it asserts that the TERATON ALPHA amplifier “can catch the faintest sounds of instruments you could not hear before.”
The P1’s Android operating system is run by an octa-core processor, providing full access to the Google Play Store. That means the P1 will behave like a smartphone, allowing users to install any streaming app of their choosing. I emphasise ‘any’ as I am confident that the more mainstream listener would be horrified by the SP3000’s limited selection of installable streaming apps. There’s no Google Play Store, only a short white list that includes Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz, Amazon Music HD and Tidal — but not Plexamp. And seasoned Roon users might be disappointed by how laggy the SP3000’s version of ARC is. These limitations take the shine off the SP3000’s – and I don’t say this lightly – stunning audible performance. I can’t know if it’s the best-sounding DAP on the market in 2024 but it’s the best I’ve heard to date — and by some margin. The SP3000 sounds significantly more musically alive than Sony’s Xperia 1 V smartphone and NW-A306 Walkman.
Back to the P1 which can also play music from its 64Gb internal memory and a microSD card (max 1.5TB) clicked into its side. This isn’t only useful for delivering drag-and-dropped files to the P1’s software player: it’s where content offlined from streaming services (via the P1’s Dual-Band wifi) must live.
The P1’s chassis is made from a combination of aluminium and polycarbonate. Astell&Kern has yet to specify its weight but asserts that the P1 is small/light enough to be used with one hand. I can’t say that about the SP3000 and my hands are bigger than average. And even when it is possible, it’s not comfortable.
Like the SP3000, the P1 can be added to a PC, Mac or CD transport as a USB DAC (with sample rate display) and will – once certified – work as a Roon Ready streaming endpoint. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, almost double that of the flagship SP3000.
The press release also tells us that the P1 has “a 4.1” HD touchscreen, Bluetooth 5.3 with support for 24-bit wireless playback using LDAC or aptX HD, PD 3.0 fast charging, full MQA decoding and crossfeed settings”.
I think it highly unlikely that the P1 will equal the SP3000’s audible performance but it’ll be lighter, easier to pocket and will sell for almost one-tenth the price. That’s not nuthin’. Stickered at US$430, the P1 will offer a price-comparable alternative to Sony’s NW-A306 and Shanling’s ET3 (that both run full-fat Android) when it begins shipping in August. Colour me interested.
Further information: Activo
