Due to it's subjective nature, I can't say which is better but what I hear is slightly more forward bass and midrange on the activo but the R5 sounds like it has a bit more spatial cues and extension in the highs and that makes the R5 a little better for me. I guess that would be the soundstage. I enjoy them both but aside from sq, the r5 is a full android device so more apps work on it. The Activo can only load 4 streaming services to use at a time and a list of those are on their site and they must be downloaded on apkpure and then sideloaded onto Activo. Also there is no eq available in the player app over bluetooth (although since you are asking about sq I don't know if bluetooth is important for you or not). By the way the sideloading is not difficult, but I mention it as it may be important for you if you just want use a device that requires less set up. Sorry I am so bad at describing sound, I know some of the other folks on here are great at breaking that down. You should be aware that I acquired the R5, not because I did not like the Activo sound, but because I wanted a player that could use more apps as I do have apps for some bluetooth devices (headphones) and other apps I wanted to use.