All
ACTIVO
Website:https://www.activostyle.com/
ACTIVO is a South Korean portable audio brand run from Seoul by the same company that owns Astell&Kern, and it exists to offer that company's player technology at lower prices and in a more casual form. It first appeared in 2018 with the CT10 player and was relaunched in 2024 at the Munich High End show with the P1, since joined by a small family of wired earphones. The catalog is short, with two players, three earphones and a few accessories.
Range & what it's known for
The P1 is the core product. It runs a custom Android build on an octa-core processor, uses two ESS ES9219Q DAC chips with a separate amplifier stage that Astell&Kern calls Teraton Alpha, and offers 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm outputs, 64 GB of storage, a microSD slot, dual-band Wi-Fi for streaming apps with bit-perfect playback, Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC and aptX HD, and around 20 hours of battery life from a 155 g aluminium and polycarbonate body. It sells for about USD 430. The earlier CT10, built on the Cirrus Logic CS4398 based Teraton module, has a 3.3-inch screen, 16 GB of memory, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and about 10 hours of playback in a 112 g case, and was launched at USD 299. The earphones are the Volcano with three dynamic drivers, the Scoop with three dynamic and two balanced armature drivers, and the Q1, all supplied with 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm and USB-C cable terminations.
Who owns it and where it's made
The brand belongs to the audio business that started life as iriver, became Dreamus Company in 2019 and created Astell&Kern in 2013. Its products are developed in Seoul, where the company is based in the Seocho district, and the P1's sound tuning and DAC and amplifier design were carried out by the Astell&Kern engineering team. Firmware and streaming support come from the same software platform used by the parent brand's players.
The lineup in this catalog
One ACTIVO model is listed, priced in the low hundreds of USD, in line with the brand's position below the Astell&Kern range.
Who it's for
ACTIVO is for someone who wants a dedicated player instead of a phone for lossless streaming and local files but does not want to pay for a full-size Astell&Kern. The P1 is the obvious entry point, its physical buttons and small size suit pocket use and sport, and a Volcano or Scoop earphone with a 4.4 mm balanced cable makes a complete set. Listeners who later want more power, more storage or a larger screen have a direct route into the parent brand's players, since the file formats, apps and balanced output standard are shared.
Range & what it's known for
The P1 is the core product. It runs a custom Android build on an octa-core processor, uses two ESS ES9219Q DAC chips with a separate amplifier stage that Astell&Kern calls Teraton Alpha, and offers 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm outputs, 64 GB of storage, a microSD slot, dual-band Wi-Fi for streaming apps with bit-perfect playback, Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC and aptX HD, and around 20 hours of battery life from a 155 g aluminium and polycarbonate body. It sells for about USD 430. The earlier CT10, built on the Cirrus Logic CS4398 based Teraton module, has a 3.3-inch screen, 16 GB of memory, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and about 10 hours of playback in a 112 g case, and was launched at USD 299. The earphones are the Volcano with three dynamic drivers, the Scoop with three dynamic and two balanced armature drivers, and the Q1, all supplied with 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm and USB-C cable terminations.
Who owns it and where it's made
The brand belongs to the audio business that started life as iriver, became Dreamus Company in 2019 and created Astell&Kern in 2013. Its products are developed in Seoul, where the company is based in the Seocho district, and the P1's sound tuning and DAC and amplifier design were carried out by the Astell&Kern engineering team. Firmware and streaming support come from the same software platform used by the parent brand's players.
The lineup in this catalog
One ACTIVO model is listed, priced in the low hundreds of USD, in line with the brand's position below the Astell&Kern range.
Who it's for
ACTIVO is for someone who wants a dedicated player instead of a phone for lossless streaming and local files but does not want to pay for a full-size Astell&Kern. The P1 is the obvious entry point, its physical buttons and small size suit pocket use and sport, and a Volcano or Scoop earphone with a 4.4 mm balanced cable makes a complete set. Listeners who later want more power, more storage or a larger screen have a direct route into the parent brand's players, since the file formats, apps and balanced output standard are shared.
