CT10 High Resolution Portable Music Player: Small, Stylish Design, MP3/Lossless Formats, Wi-Fi, Music Streaming Apps, 10 Hours of Playback (Cool White)

I never considered using a subscription streaming/download music service before I heard how different - and better - tunes sound compared with the MP3 versions I had been buying. Not talking about any particular service, but rather about how much sound and nuance I'd been missing - especially easy to hear with music you know well, it's rather astounding to me. I'm not at all an 'audiophile'; I am a device-lover. This is a really nicely designed and produced one and that the software gets updates pleases me a lot. The ACTIVO easily replaces the Sony MP3 player I was using, though there was nothing wrong with that unit. Just the difference in sound. (I don't like loading up my phone with music anyway, largely because incoming calls annoyingly interrupt listening, and my particular phone does not have removable storage.) But the difference in sound quality is a serious step up. This is the only player I've seen with such ability to play many of the 'better' music file types than MP3 (although it plays those, too) that doesn't cost two arms and a leg (A&K). Solid-feeling device with cool navigation (swipe in from the left for settings, from the top for connections (wifi, bluetooth, EQ, and wheel lock, (option to prevent volume control knob from operating when screen is off. useful.), from right for playlist, from bottom for track info, etc. The volume knob has very precise increments. The unit is smaller than a pack of cards and is very pocket-able. (It comes with a nice sleeve, but I'm looking for a case because I like them.)I had no trouble pairing it with any of my Bluetooth speakers or headphones/buds.If you are someone looking at buying a music player, this one costs more than some of them but to my mind is worth it completely. Cool factor, solid construction and sleek design, and way higher music quality than you might be used to with MP3 music files. I don't know anything about 'lossless' or FLAC or whatever. I just know it sounds great. And I love the device itself! All Pros, no Cons with this player for me. (And I did subscribe to Tidal and have since found lots of great new music (and oldies...) and really weird but cool stuff. I hadn't been exploring music for a while, and it's been fun and rewarding.) Five stars for the entire package from me.

I've been using this player for three weeks. In the first two weeks, the first one I ordered overheated (as several other reviewers have alluded to) and the battery life was very poor. I was sent a replacement this past week, which functions much better. Still, the battery life is an issue. I'll lay out the positives and negatives below:POSTIVES+sound quality is great (the DAC that is used is really good) and the CT10 plays many different types of high-fidelity files+connectivity options are plentiful; Bluetooth, which kind of defeats the purpose of the DAC, works well nevertheless and WiFi is reliable and quick+the apps that you can add-on via the Activo website (it takes a little bit of work but it's fairly straightforward) make it a really diverse player... highly recommend Qobuz if you're looking for high-fi quality (though it's not cheap)+the screen looks great; the resolution is crisp and bright and the menus are pretty intuitive+the ability to add on storage is a nice touch (though it's not totally clear how to use this with other apps--or if other apps' downloads can even be downloaded to a storage card)+there's a fair amount of customization available, especially with sound quality (EQs, etc)NEGATIVES-as can be seen in photos, the screen size is very small and it's a bit odd; there is quite a bit of real estate to the right of the screen that essentially goes wasted to due this design flaw... because of this, people with larger fingers will have a tough time maneuvering some of the menus--they can be tiny-another design oddity is the cumbersome volume wheel, which seems unnecessarily intrusive. (The >>, <<, and play/pause buttons on the other side of the casing don't seem to function with apps not native to the player.)-the build, as a whole, feels fairly flimsy; the plastic casing isn't very protective-by far, my biggest issue is with the battery life, which is mediocre at best. I recognize that this device does quite a few things (WiFi, Bluetooth, high fidelity audio playback...), but it's still not the kind of charge I'd expect to get for a device that is nearly $300. My recommendation is to turn off both Bluetooth and WiFi whenever possible to get more out of a charge.Overall, when coupled with a strong pair of headphones, this is certainly a step up from using a smart phone as your go-to device for music. It's a little pricy for what you're getting; I wish the build, some of the design aspects, and battery life were better, but I'm pretty happy with it. (*Will continue to update this review as needed.)

I consider myself to have a pretty discerning ear and am very picky about sound quality. Was looking for a lossless player for a while but simply couldn’t stomach some of the $2K+ prices on a lot of the more well known models. But at $300 with pretty good reviews this was sort of a “why not?” purchase.This thing sounds pretty dang good. Nice fat, warm sound, lots of detail. Can feel a bit incurabley mid-rangey sometimes, but not too much trouble and sort of song-dependent. You will need to tweak the overall EQ a bit to your taste, but that’s not too hard to do.I use Westone W40 quad driver in ears, which is likely part of the good sound... don’t expect this to make cheapo headphones sound good. In fact, if you have to choose between spending cash on better headphones vs a lossless player, get the headphones: great headphones through your smartphone will probably sound better than crappy headphones through a lossless player. But I digress.Also super light device, which is kind of nice. Easy to stick in your pocket real quick at the airport or coffee shop without any annoyance.The weaknesses are battery life and interface, but I am willing to forgive these with such an excellent sound and price point. I also typically use these at work, so I can just plug them in for a quick or constant charge.

Sonido excepcional, se merece las cinco estrellitas. Ahora viene un pero: en principio no permite escuchar Tidal Offline, toca tirar de youtube (tutorial) para poder descargar la musica.

J'avais pas mal hésité avant d'acheter ce baladeur mais comme le Fiio M6 était indisponible partout, j'ai pris celui-ci avec quelques craintes par rapport à l'aspect, l'ergonomie et la qualité. Au final, c'est un excellent produit pour un prix défiant toute concurrence: l'écran est fluide et tout est intuitif. Le baladeur tient bien en main. Je craignais que le bouton de volume soit une protubérance inesthétique et que le plastique blanc fasse cheap: il n'en est rien, on se rapproche plus d'un design à la Apple que d'un objet sans âme en marque blanche. Effectivement, le fait que l'écran ne soit pas centré et laisse une bande blanche inutilisée est un peu dommage mais on s'y habitue. Le seul point gênant est la taille de l'écran qui fait que la frappe de mots sur le clavier virtuel est un peu compliquée (et pourtant j'ai des doigts fins). D'un autre côté, le fait même de pouvoir taper sur un clavier virtuel est un vrai plus pour faire des recherches d'albums ou d'artistes sans avoir à passer dans les arborescences. La qualité audio est au RV. Les connexions Bluetooth et Wifi se font sans problème. Mais le gros plus est que je peux utiliser mon abonnement Deezer: j'ai installé l'apk (un peu galéré pour trouver le bon) et tout Deezer est disponible y compris en mode déconnecté.

Il titolo riassume tutto, cercherò di spiegare brevemente perchè sono giunto a questa conclusione.Premetto che, da appassionato di musica di lunga data, sono in possesso di una libreria smisurata di files digitali, in qualità più o meno elevata.Cercavo, molti anni dopo aver perso il mio fidato iPod classic da 160gb, un altro lettore portatile, magari più al passo con i tempi (bluetooth) ma che mi permettesse di navigare agevolmente tra molti file, che avesse una buona capienza e pochi orpelli, che facesse il suo lavoro senza distrazioni multimediali, ma mi gratificasse con comandi touch e copertine degli album.La faccio breve, questo le fa tutte, e molte di più. Inutile che le elenchi, leggete le specifiche, sono clamorosamente reali. Rende concettualmente imbarazzante un iPod, fa tutto quello che desideravo ma MOLTO MEGLIO di quanto desideravo. Legge tutti i formati, lo riempi di musica attraverso una semplice microSD (che ho preso da 400gb) e non ha bisogno di nessun sofware o competenza specifica.La qualità audio è ottima, la navigazione è veloce e fluida (con 240gb caricati), il bluetooth non mi ha dato alcun problema, la percezione di qualità generale è più che buona. C’è anche una presa minijack che ormai non è da dare per scontata.Che dire di più? A questo prezzo non mi pare ci sia niente di avvicinabile, se resiste alla prova del tempo questo gadget è semplicemente meraviglioso. Da verificare la durata delle batterie che in bluetooth mi sembra scarsa, ma mi pare il minimo, nonchè un problema aggirabile. Lo consiglierei senza riserve a chiuque.

I bought this in white as it was half price, and a total bargain. Screen is quick and responsive, it's just Android so you can add apps to it. I added the BBC sounds and Spotify to mine. WiFi works a treat, and it plays DSD and Hi-Res FLAC a treat. Does however run really quite warm, I wouldn't recommend stuffing it in a deep pocket. Line out works perfectly, just select it in the menu and Bluetooth linked to everything just fine. On wired headphones with WiFi and bluetooth off I get a good 6 hours playtime and it's still showing a quarter battery charge at least. With DSD being up to 12Gb an hour and Hi-Res Flac around 1.2Gb buy a big SD card to go with it.

Neben dem ASTELL & Kern Futura SE100 habe ich den Astell & Kern Activo CT10 2x als Geschenk erworben. Im Vergleich zum ASTELL & Kern Futura SE100 ist der kleine Player ein Schnäppchen. Mit einem guten Kopfhörer oder als Musikquelle einer Musikanlage über den schaltbaren Line-Ausgang ist auch der kleine Player eine wahre Freude. Mit jeweils einer SanDisk Extreme microSDXC 400GB ausgestattet (ca. 500 unkomprimierte CD's), steht dem Musikgenuss auf hohem Niveau nichts mehr im Weg. Dass der Astell & Kern Activo CT10 nur ein stabiles Kunststoffgehäuse hat, ist bei diesem Preis / dieser Leistung akzeptabel. Schade ist, dass ich bislang für den Astell & Kern Activo CT10 noch keine preislich und optisch attraktive Schutzhülle gefunden habe.