Want to step up to audiophile sound for less? This 5-star hi-res audio player has a huge Prime Day deal – and comes with perfectly paired earbuds

There’s a really good Prime Day deal on one of our favourite music players: the Activo P1 hi-res audio player is now just £299 at Amazon. At its full price of £399, I thought it was a five-star buy, so with £100 off it’s even more attractive.

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This is one of the best Amazon Prime Day deals that we’ve seen this year, and if you’re also looking for quality wired in-ear monitors to pair with it, there’s also a big discount on the P1 starter pack, which combines the P1 player with Activo’s Volcano in-ears and a protective case. The P1 starter bundle is down to £399.

If you’re not familiar with Activo, it’s the more affordable lifestyle brand of elite hi-fi brand Astell & Kern – and there’s a superb discount on one of its top hi-res audio players, the desktop CA1000T. That has a recommended retail price of £2,299, but right now the Astell & Kern CA1000T is down to an incredibly low £759. That’s a saving of 67%.

Amazon Prime Day deal: Activo P1 hi-res audio player

These are great Prime Day Activo deals

The best hi-res audio players tend to come with frightening price tags attached, but the P1 player from Astell & Kern’s more affordable lifestyle brand delivers the goods for a lot less cash – that’s why we rate it as the best hi-res audio player for most people right now.

It has the same amplification as more expensive players, and is built around an ESS ES9219Q SABRE Dual-DAC. There are multiple connections including aptX HD and LDAC on supported hardware, and while the built-in storage isn’t enough for tons of hi-res audio, you can add SD cards with capacities up to 1.5TB. And with a good pair of headphones, the P1 sounds sensational.

Did someone say “a good pair of headphones”? Yes, us, just there – and we’ve also tested Activo’s in-ears that are available in that bundle, and found them very impressive indeed. Their dynamic drivers deliver a big sound with a detailed, wide soundstage, and we found them useful for casual listening and for more critical stuff such as mixing music, where it’s important to hear all the fine details.

More of today’s best Amazon Prime Day deals