- Active Scoop are IEMs with five drivers for $80 (around £60 / AU$120)
- …although official availability has not yet been announced
- Why should you care? Activo is Astell & Kern’s most affordable sub-brand
I know a real bargain when I see one, and Black Friday is long gone. What happened is that Activo, the affordable (and increasingly popular) offshoot of Astell & Kern, released its third IEM, priced at $80.
The only downside to the exciting new Activo launch is that sub-brand Astell & Kern has yet to announce pricing or global availability of its new Scoop IEMs, so if, like me, you’re thinking, ‘Great, that’s a neat Christmas present!’ I’m afraid we’ll have to be a little more cautious.
But what we do know is that in the United States they will cost $80 when they hit online (and real) retailers. And given how much we love the Active P1 player they’d look gorgeous with, and the more expensive dual-driver Active Q1 they’ll sit alongside, in the Activo line of headphones, there’s a lot to get excited about on paper.
First: that controller array. Active says the Scoop includes “a refined combination of three dynamic drivers (1 8mm, 2 6mm) and two balanced armature drivers” in a new driver housing with no sharp edges that is designed to “represent the smooth, polished shape of a pebble shaped by flowing water.”
The overall goal? Deliver a “natural, resonant signature with real authority in the bass and crisp detail in the treble.” Wow!
The new Active IEMs: the scoop
See what I did there? (Sorry.) Okay, so to ensure that the various sound signatures of those five drivers integrate well and blend seamlessly, Activo has also developed an all-new proprietary internal acoustic port structure.
Furthermore, the cable terminal features a dedicated and integrated circuit in an attempt to deliver even more stable and clean sound. The cable itself is two-prong silver-plated copper and oxygen-free copper, and interchangeable 3.5mm, 4.4mm, and USB-C connectors are included in the box.
we shouldn’t get also still excited. Activo’s Volcano IEMs, which also cost $80 and launched in March 2025, didn’t wow us overall, but those wired headphones arrived with a triple-driver array; the dynamic triple driver configuration of 1x 8mm, 2x 6mm, without the two BA drivers.
Active lists a nominal impedance of 10 ohms, a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and a sensitivity of 105 dB/mW for Scoop, so I predict the new five-driver array will make a difference. Because? Because the P1 player that these IEMs are clearly designed for is currently considered the best MP3 player we’ve tested in terms of price, and because curious audiophile listeners are willing to invest in corresponding IEMs that cost no more than $100.
Will they join the ranks of the best wired headphones we’ve tested, which also includes the more expensive Activo Q1 (but not the similarly priced Volcano)? Time will tell. However, given the impressive number of drivers, I personally can’t wait to find out.
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