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The P1 by Astell and Kern is a digital audio player at an affordable price
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Astell&Kern has been known to release a pricey personal music player every so often, and even the cheapest player has been inching up in price. So it’s great to see it announce a new option aimed at the cheaper market.
It’s created a new sub-brand that focuses on promoting “an active lifestyle with music”, and the P1 is the first product to emerge from it.
It’s designed to be held in one hand, its 4.1-inch HD touchscreen allows users to scroll through tracks and dive into its menus to change settings. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, while storage is 64GB of internal memory with microSD support providing an extra 1.5TB for those that need the space. File support is up to native DSD256, 32-bit/384kHz audio.
The player features two ESS ES9219Q SABRE DACs in a dual-mono configuration, which enables a dedicated DAC chip to serve right and left output channels. The AMP circuit is based on Astell&Kern’s Teraton Alpha sound solution, which aims to ensure that listeners “can catch the faintest sounds of instruments that they previously couldn’t hear”.
You’re not just limited to the default sound of the P1’s output, with personalisation and sound profile options available such as a 20 band EQ, adjustable gain and setting the Q value for the precise frequency range you like.
What about wireless?
There’s Wi-Fi support along with,Bluetooth 5.3(LDAC, aptX HD), fullMQAdecoding, and PD 3.0 fast charging, with Roon Ready support waiting in the wings.
In the UK the P1 by Astell&Kern is priced at £399 / €499, which is a lot less expensive than the £799SR35player. You can purchase it right now either directly from Astell&Kern or via Amazon.
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Kob began his career at What Hi-Fi?, starting in the dusty stockroom before rising up the ranks to join the editorial and production team as the Buyer’s Guide editor. Experienced in both magazine and …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
