It's active. I use them for my android devices. They'll also work as a soundcard on any laptop/desktop with usb-c ports. Durability sucks but if it lasts 6 months I'm ok with picking up a new one from Walmart for $7. Both my phones and my IEM's cost around 100x more. When measured against that, it's a good value.
There's a quirk that requires a script to uncap the volume on Android but it's the best IEM DAC I've heard under $200. I don't think they subsidize it. It's just economies of scale at work. Here's a Head-Fi review and analysis of it: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/apple-usb-c-to-3-5-mm-headp...
Edit: More context on 'fixing' the Android volume capping issue for it (quirks are common for devs to add at usb-audio driver level in kernel, but this is something different with Android's defaults): https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-magisk-apple-usb-c-...
There's a quirk that requires a script to uncap the volume on Android but it's the best IEM DAC I've heard under $200. I don't think they subsidize it. It's just economies of scale at work. Here's a Head-Fi review and analysis of it: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/apple-usb-c-to-3-5-mm-headp...
Edit: More context on 'fixing' the Android volume capping issue for it (quirks are common for devs to add at usb-audio driver level in kernel, but this is something different with Android's defaults): https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-magisk-apple-usb-c-...