*edit 15/07: Cowon have updated their website to reflect the firmware 1.10 updates - the product info now includes support for DSD, DFF and SACD file formats, and images show the updated black/orange UI theme which is similar to the UI found on the higher end Plenues.

Right... let’s just get this out of the way to start with: who the hell would buy this player? 3.5mm audio only, no balanced out, no USB DAC function, no Bluetooth, no wireless, in 2018!? And the look – you’re either going to love it or hate it, but it looks a bit like a spaceship. Well, curiosity got the better of me and the Plenue V made me think of that saying when someone screws something up and an onlooker says “you only had one job”. In this case, the Plenue V has one job, and I started to wonder just how good it would be at that job. That curiosity was added to by the profound lack of any reviews in English on the interwebs.

So, thank me later interwebs, but I spent my hard-earned cash on one of these crazy DAPs just to find out what it’s like. That, and I figured my interest in the player came down to three things:

1. maybe single-ended output is all I want; balanced is good if it improves the sound quality, but there’s all the extra expense of aftermarket cables. Perhaps Rob Watts from Chord is onto something when he says that a well-done single-ended (SE) output is all you need.
2. the combined DAC/AMP chip has some great specs
3. it would be paired with Cowon’s JetEffects, familiar OS (I’ve owned a few Plenue’s already) and flawless gapless playback

The DAC/AMP:
One thing that intrigued me about the Plenue V is that it contains the CS43131 chip which is both a DAC and amp. A lot is made of a player’s DAC chip here on head-fi, but the tide seems to be turning a bit where people are paying more attention to other components such as the amp and power supply, which color the sound and are important determinants of the overall sonic characteristics of a player. I think it’s an interesting, and perhaps risky, move for a DAP manufacturer to use a combined off-the-shelf DAC+amp combo – it leaves them less room to claim that they’ve added their own “secret sauce” to the sound or painstakingly trialled various amp pairings to hunt out the best one for you. On the other hand, Cirrus Logic chips have been used in a lot of well-received players in the last few years and I’m more than comfortable leaving the amp component decisions in the hands of the engineers at Cirrus Logic as well, who in my books clearly know their stuff.

So far the CS43131 and its predecessor the CS43130 have mainly been used in mobile phones – the Samsung S8 and S9 Exynos editions, Meizu Pro 7 and Nexum AQUA+ wireless headphone DAC/amp.

Why buy a dedicated DAP using a chip mainly used in cell phones? You can see right on Cirrus Logic’s site that the CS43131 has the highest specs on paper of any of their range, equal to the CS43198, now used in players such as Opus #1S and A&norma SR15: https://www.cirrus.com/solutions/playback/hifi/#psearch. Plus, this is actually the first time Cowon have used a Cirrus Logic chip in their players, as far as I’m aware. Reviews on Cowon’s Korean language site (plenue.cowon.com; which are embedded as images so not easily google-translatable), include measurement graphs which are universal in any language, and pointed to some great specs on paper for this DAP. Plus, one of the main drawcards (for me at least) of the Cowon players is their incorporation of JetEffect DSP – so here I think is where Cowon can claim they do have their own secret sauce added to the mix. A Cirrus Logic DAC/amp chip with great specs on paper + JetEffect? Count me intrigued.

Comparisons:
I’m a minimalist and prefer to only own a few audio items that I use heavily, so typically sell off my previous DAPs/DACs/headphones when I get additional gear. So at present the only DAP I have to do direct comparisons is the Plenue R. But I’ve owned various others and will provide some indirect comparisons and thoughts in the conclusion below.

I have a ZX300 on order from Joybuy, which is taking ages to get here, so will update this review once that has arrived and I have it burned in. There’s approximately 40 hours of burn in on the Plenue V at writing, perhaps 80 on the Plenue R single-ended and 30 on the Plenue R balanced out.

Headphones:

• B&W P7s
• Meze 99 classics with Meze silver upgrade cable

The B&W P7s can do 3.5mm SE only, so I’ve only used these with the SE outputs on the Plenue V & R. With the 99 classics, the silver upgrade cable is 2.5mm terminated, but comes with a 2.5mm balanced to 3.5mm SE adaptor, so the comparisons made with the 99 classics are:

• 99 classics + silver cable into Plenue R 2.5mm balanced
• 99 classics + silver cable + Meze 3.5mm adaptor into SE outputs on both players

Obviously the adaptor may change the sound slightly, but any comparison of balanced & single-ended outputs will suffer the same limitation.

Comparisons were made with both Plenues set to fast, low latency DAC filters, since both players have these options and I haven’t really noticed much difference between filters on the R.


Sound:
My first impressions were that the detail retrieval on the V is fantastic, and that impression has not changed at all with use. I get that clichéd hi-fi experience of noticing extra details in music I know well, and it’s been some time since I had experience. I’m sure most people on head-fi are sick of hearing that impression, since it truly is a cliché, but I can’t deny that’s what my ears hear. Pity I no longer have a Chord Mojo to compare, but I feel like the detail retrieval of the V would be right up there.

The V has a good spread of energy across the whole bass, mid, treble spectrum, and keeps the separation between instruments nicely spaced in busy sections – the emotion and intensity of the track can pick up, but the player doesn’t feel like it struggles.

With the R, I feel like the energy and focus of the sound is more on the upper mids and treble; in that sense, the R is reminiscent of the IFi sound –bright and with a mid-treble centric sound. Personally, I was hoping the R would be my go-to player when I bought it earlier this year, and I don’t want to bad mouth it as it’s a great player and certainly no slouch. I preferred it over the Plenue M I previously had, which sounded veiled in comparison. The R offered more detail and a more neutral sound and I concluded I preferred the R to the M after direct comparisons. But, the R definitely has a different presentation in the low end to the M – the bass is there, but it doesn’t have quite the same solidity and impact as I’d like. That improves to some extent with the balanced out, and I feel that the R reaches its full potential from the balanced rather than single-ended out.

The V has a bass presence more like the M, there’s an extra weight to it that I don’t get with the R, and the V to my ears sounds weightier than the balanced out of the R. I can’t be certain, but I think this sound impression may reflect the output power of the respective players– the M is 2.0 Vrms, the R 1.4 Vrms on single-ended, with 1.6 Vrms on the balanced, while the V has 1.7 Vrms output.

All in all, the stereo imaging on the V is great, there’s balance across the bass, mid and treble spectrum, it keeps control in complicated passages, and detail retrieval is excellent. The V presents a very immersive sound, and I find myself with a stupid grin on my face where it feels like everything just comes together as it should and you connect with the music rather than thinking about the player and its pros and cons.

Headphone pairings: Personally, I find the combination with the B&W P7s is more to my liking with the V than the Meze 99 classics. Both sound great, but JetEffect settings like BBE or incremental adjustments to Mach3Bass give a deeper bass response on the P7s, compared to a more mid-bass elevation on the 99 classics, and I do likes me some deep rumbles…mmmm….

Burn in: I should note that straight out of the box and during the first 10 hours or so of use, I did note some prominent vocal “S”s, depending on the track being played - like sibilance but without any glare on cymbals that can occur with sibilant sources. It was present with both headphone pairings of B&W P7s and 99 classics. But, that has eased with use. I’m not sure how far into burn-in it disappeared but I haven’t noticed any S’s jumping out at me for some time.

DSD: Interestingly, I had been thinking when I bought the V that the CS43131 product page on the Cirrus Logic website says it can handle DSD256 playback, but there wasn’t any mention of DSD support on the Plenue V documentation. That has changed with the 1.10 firmware update just released – Cowon added DSD support up to DSD 64/128 (but no mention of DSD256) as well as extra FLAC file support (it isn’t stated exactly on the firmware release what extra is supported, but I presume higher res options given DSD support was also added). Cowon should really update the product marketing info on their websites to match. After downloading a DSD sample file (from https://www.oppodigital.com/hra/dsd-by-davidelias.aspx) I can confirm DSD playback works too, with a little DSD icon appearing at the top of the screen (see photo) where the equaliser icon typically sits. JetEffect settings aren’t applied to DSD playback.


DAC filters: The CS43131 has five filter settings:

• Fast, low latency
• Fast, phase-comp
• Slow, low latency
• Slow, phase comp
• Non-oversampling

Typically I haven’t noticed much difference with using DAC filters in the past – apart from treble roll-off filters. With the Plenue V the DAC filters make quite a noticeable difference. Switching from fast to slow filters changes the decay, resulting in a fuller, more resonating sound on the slow filter - but it might have downsides with busier music where rapid, quick fire presentation is needed; the low latency filters have a touch more attack. The switch to phase comp settings is more difficult to put into words – some aspect of the stereo imaging and depth or placement of instruments in the soundstage is altered. All of these four filters sound good to my ears, and if I picked up the player without A-B comparisons, I think “brain burn in” would mean I’d be happy to listen to any of them.

The non-oversampling filter is different again to the others. I’d heard talk of non-oversampling DAC filters on head-fi but had never heard a non-oversampling source before. The change is quite interesting, bringing a sound that can seem more lifelike and organic, like hearing a live performance. The balance of bass, mid and treble is altered; the emphasis seems to shift higher towards the mids with less thickness in the bass register, although bass can still go quite deep when called for, and the overall sound can seem a bit airier. Even though it may seem contradictory – given I’ve just described it as more organic – at times I feel like the presentation on non-oversampling can come across a bit more digital, depending on the track being played. Which of these is “best” no doubt depends on the track and the sound you’d like.

Other non-sound stuff

Unboxing: comes in a black box, minimalist, like all other Plenue boxes, you open it, there’s your Plenue V inside, a Cowon-branded micro-USB cable, warranty card & quick start guide.


Memory: the Plenue V has 64 GB of built-in memory. That also houses the system files etc. so out of the box there’s 59 GB of usable memory (the player does come with four free files in FLAC format and multiple language options of the manual pre-loaded, which could be deleted). The microSD slot takes cards up to 128 GB; sorry, I haven’t got any larger capacity cards to try out and see if they’d work too. But the Cowon manual states the built-in memory can handle 8000 files and 4000 folders, and the microSD card 16000 files and 8000 folders. So there may be a firmware limit to the amount of microSD memory the player can handle anyway due to this file limit. microSD cards above 64 GB have to be FAT32 formatted.

UI: I group the Cowon players in two tiers:

• Upper tier - Plenue R, M, M2, 1, 2 and S: bigger screen + matching big screen UI, JetEffect 7 with 10-band EQ
• Lower tier - Plenue D, J & V: smaller screen, different UI, JetEffect 5 with 5-band EQ

I don’t have an inside ear to Cowon or anything, so this is my personal speculation, but I suspect a key determinant here is the processor used. On the upper tier product pages Cowon proudly announce they have an ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor. On the lower tier pages, no mention is made of the processor which makes me think it isn’t something they want to draw attention to. I suspect the A9 processor can handle the digital conversions required for JetEffect 7 and the 10-band EQ, as well as the graphics requirements for the larger screen + better UI on the top tier players. The lower processor probably can’t handle those effects and video output, so goes hand in hand with a simpler display quality, 5-band EQ and slight stutter in the UI fluidity. Perhaps that is also why the top tier players can function as USB DACs but the lower tier can’t. But the bonus for the lower tier is the less intensive processor and smaller screen make for better battery life.

I was going to start this review saying the Plenue V has the same UI design as the Plenue D and J. If you haven’t used any of these lower-tier models, I’ll say that personally I find the UI pretty intuitive and easy to use and think most people won’t have any problems. I say “was going to” as with the 1.10 firmware upgrade the UI has changed somewhat – the V now has the same “database update” graphic on start-up, and UI theme designed to match the black & orange menus of the higher tier players. The orange highlighting in menu items is an orange pixellation (see photo - visible on "Dawn of Ashes" menu item), but the emulation of the higher tier players is there. In addition, there’s a new skin for the “Now playing” screen which matches the A skin on the higher tier players. The other skins on the V include the typical brown themed skins used on the D and J. One thing I didn’t realise until comparing the A skins on the V and R side-by-side, is that the V shows the actual time elapsed and total track time at the bottom (see photo) – the R includes various options for time display, but shows a count of elapsed seconds, which isn’t as intuitive. The A skin on the V also drops off the bottom line options of “Folder/track boundary”, “Repeat all” etc. – personally I think it’s better without and had been wondering how to drop those on the R and my previous Plenue M, as I would accidentally hit shuffle or set the boundary as one track only, then be confused why tracks weren’t playing in the expected order. So in all, the firmware 1.10 update is quite a step up in the UI usability.



UI lag: the Plenue D had a laggy interface. It’s still a well-loved player and when I owned one didn’t find it too much hassle – I tend to find an album I want to listen to, hit play and listen through, so a UI that had a slight delay didn’t bother me. I haven’t tried the J, but from reviews I’ve read and videos I’ve seen it doesn’t have the same extent of lag as the D. It seems it’s still not as snappy as the upper tier players, but not as slow as the D. The V is probably the same as the J – it’s slightly slower than the UI on the R, but in all honesty it’s not too bad, and I think was improved somewhat with the 1.10 firmware release. Scrolling through lists isn’t as smooth on the V, due to a touch of lag and that fewer items in a list are visible on the smaller screen. Probably the most laggy function is when you switch to the “now playing” screen, which is when the player needs to load the album artwork. At first I would hit the “now playing” icon twice, wondering why the screen wasn’t changing, but now I’ve got used to it and remember that there’s a small delay, it’s not really a problem.

Volume: The Plenue V has a volume dial which goes up to 140, like the higher tier players, compared to 100 for the D and J. Also, the V remembers the volume setting from the last session – so comes back at the same volume when you power it up again. The 1.10 firmware also added “Hearing protection” which I think means if you really want, you can purposely turn on the volume limitation for the EU if you’re in a non-EU region – how thoughtful of them!

Database update on start-up: The Plenue UI updates the database on start-up (for all Plenue models). When I first loaded music on the V it took a good few minutes to update the music database, with around 100 GB of files on the microSD card. With subsequent start-ups it seems that the update function just scans for new/changed files, because when I turn the player on/off now it’s about 14-15 seconds from hitting the power button until it’s ready to go (without any tracks being changed). On the R it’s slightly shorter at 11-12 seconds with the same microSD card. So yeah, some people hate the database update but it’s over quick and doesn’t bother me.

Battery life: Cowon claim 27 hours of playback with FLAC files on their website. My whole music collection is FLAC, either 16 or 24 bit. In normal use I haven’t actually managed to run the battery down yet – I’ve reconnected the player to the computer to load new music or update the firmware before the battery has run out. So for regular use, that means the battery life is great and doesn’t leave me high and dry.

Power button/LED: unlike the other Plenues which have the power button on the top right of the player, the Plenue logo LED on the back is actually the power button on the Plenue V. So that means you have to press your finger around the back and hold it to turn the DAP on/off, and tap it to turn the screen off. Once you’re used to it, it’s quite intuitive. Also if you hold the player in one hand, and use the other to navigate using the screen, the way your hand cradles the player means it’s actually quite simple to use your index finger to hit the P button. Like other Plenues the light glows red when the battery is low or while charging, and green when fully charged. In the menu settings you can set whether the LED is on or off during playback to save batter life - when on, it flashes blue intermittently to indicate that the player is on when the screen is off (see photo).


Miscellaneous: In the UI settings you can also change the L/R balance, and the 1.10 firmware also added playback speed adjustment – something that was previously on the J3 (and I think S9) but so far I haven’t seen on any other Plenue model.

Ergonomics/Usability: Damn this thing is small. I’d read the dimensions beforehand and knew it would be, but somehow the stand-alone photos on the Cowon website make it look bigger – perhaps it’s the unusual shape. But when you get it in person it’s not much bigger than the D. The specs on the Cowon website show it’s the same width as the D and J, and the length in between the D and J. It’s 6 g heavier than the D, and about 50-90 g lighter than the bigger Plenues like the R, M, 1 and 2. So it’s highly portable.

Lay the V on its back and it sits slightly on an angle, like in the photo below. It means the screen is angled towards your line of sight. But - due to the player being so light, and sitting the way it does on its back, it doesn’t take much force to spin it around when you have it sitting on a desk. So, for example, the headphone cable dangling off the side of desktop can spin the player around so it doesn’t face you anymore. Then you have to re-right it when you want to use the menus again etc. The black rubbery material on the back is slightly grippy, and so far I haven’t had a headphone cable or anything actually pull it off the desk, but depending on the surface and size of a long, heavy cable I think that could be a possibility. But well, that’s the physics of a small and light player.

Overall, the player is nice and portable, and although the shape may seem off-putting, it actually sits quite nicely in the hand and slides into a pocket well.


Conclusions:
The V does one job and damn it does it well. There isn’t really anything I feel is missing from the sound signature, nothing I would wish to add or think needs to be taken away.

Previously, I had a J3 for about 5 years, and about 3 years ago moved on from it. Since then, I’ve gone on something of a tour of various audio products – partly as I caught the hi-fi bug and was curious what’s out there, partly because each option left me hungry for more. I upgraded to the D and did a side-by-side comparison on this review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ibasso-audio-dx80-high-resolution-audio-player.21124/reviews (see DX80 Vs Cowon Plenue D Vs J3 Vs S9). The D was a small, but noticeable improvement in sound to the J3, but left me wanting a bigger change. The DX80 sounded fantastic, but switch on the EQ and the beautiful soundstage was lost. I had a Plenue 1 for a while and somehow it didn’t gel with me. I saw one person in a head-fi thread call it “stuffy” and while I wouldn’t necessarily use that phrase myself I appreciated the inventiveness of it – the Plenue sounded good, but throw on something busy and I felt like the sound didn’t come together right. I had a Chord Mojo for about a year, loved the sound and do occasionally wish I hadn’t sold it. But I moved on as I often found myself thinking “this sounds great, if only I could switch off that smooth treble roll-off!”. The DX90 had sabre-glare and a slightly awkward UI, the X3 2nd gen was a trusty player and I kept it for about a year; it was good, but not great. I found a Plenue M going second hand in the forums and couldn’t resist trying it out; it has a nice weighty sound, but seemed a bit veiled and distant for my liking. The R fixed that problem – a Plenue with a brighter, more detailed sound than the M, but I did find the lower end of the presentation on the R doesn’t have the same weight and impact.

With the V I feel like I’ve hit the sound I’m after and can stop looking. There’s a quote on Cirrus Logic’s Master Hi-Fi product page saying that they deliver “a very pure, natural audio quality with exceptional fidelity” and I feel like that’s how the V sounds. I wouldn’t really describe the sound as warm, but certainly not cold or harsh – it just sounds good, there’s excellent detail retrieval and the pieces all feel like they come together to produce an enjoyable, immersive sound. It’s likely to be my go-to player for years and take its place in my black little heart like the J3 before it

I recently picked up an iBasso DX80 and decided to do a bit of a test with the available DAPs/DACs that I have at my disposal. I’m not exactly a collector but have ended up with a few, so this was a way for me to test the DX80 and decide about whether to sell some of the others, and I’d thought I’d post my impressions here in case it’s of use to anyone considering picking up one of these DAPs. So we have:

1. iBasso DX80. Only about 5 hours burn in time (because I’m inpatient like that)
2. Cowon Plenue D
3. Cowon J3
4. Cowon S9

 

 

DAC test:

1. DX80 DAC function and Fiio Olympus 2-E10K for comparison

Previous DAPs/DAC I’ve owned:
I’ve previously had a Fiio X3II, which I ran through a Fiio E17K DAC/Amp, and an Audioquest Dragonfly Black, but I wasn’t really sold on the sound. Pity I didn’t keep the Fiio E17K for a bit of a test with these though. I also had a Cowon iAudio E2 – great sound from a little highly portable menu-less piece.

Testing:
All testing was done without EQ, with the Sharp Roll-off setting and low gain on the DX80, and with low gain and bass switch off for the Fiio Olympus 2-E10K. Latest firmware versions for all DAPs.
Headphones used in this comparison:

1. Sennheiser HD380Pro
2. Sennheiser Momentum 2 over-ears
3. Sennheiser Momentum 1 on-ears

The Sennheiser 380Pros were the main headphones used for comparisons, as I think overall these have the flattest presentation of these sets. The Momentum 2’s are my go-to headphone, so later I used these and the Momentum 1’s for comparing the DX80 and Plenue D in more detail and with EQ options.

Level matching was done using an iPhone with a decibel meter and placing the 380s near the mic, then switching the jack between players while playing the same A-B section of one song, to get a solid 85-86 dB from each. Maybe a little crude, but the only technique for level matching I have, and I think is a realistic comparison of how you actually use a player anyway.

For this test I chose a range of styles, but all the kind of music that I’m actually going to play on a regular basis, and all in 44 KHz FLAC format. I’m a huge metal fan and really want a player to be able to respond well to busy, flat out music that needs precision and clarity:

1. Clavicula Salomonis, Darkend: https://darkend.bandcamp.com/track/clavicula-salomonis. Black metal. Heavy, with some real flat out double bass drumming; precisely the kind of thing that just sounds ‘loud’ and fatiguing with some players
2. In Yumen - Xibalba, Rotting Christ: https://rottingchrist.bandcamp.com/track/in-yumen-xibalba. If you’ve never heard of Rotting Christ they play kind of esoteric, tribal-ish metal, but with a real rocky vibe. This song has multiple sections, starting slow, going through tremolo picked verse sections and into a half time rocky chorus, plus guitar solo. A good varied test.
3. Disembodiment – Shade Empire: https://candlelightrecordsuk.bandcamp.com/track/disembodiment. At 13:00 this is a miniature symphony. Orchestral metal with multiple changing sections from light, detailed mellow parts to heavy with a steady solid beat, plus electronica thrown in for good measure.
4. Corrosion Juncture – Stömb: https://stomb.bandcamp.com/track/corrosion-juncture. A really well recorded album, great black background, guitar tone and drum details. A “djent” band for lack of a better word. So this song has deep crunchy guitars, but also a high pitched guitar line in the “chorus” that could be grating or overwhelming through a player with poor presentation of treble, so this was a “potentially annoying treble” test.
5. Wardruna – Solringen: https://youtu.be/KuwpQc6Diqs. Nordic folk, very earthy with plenty of organic sounding instruments and both male and female vocals.
6. Others: Neoclassical, dubstep, orchestral metal: Truth Will Prevail, Chaostar: https://chaostar.bandcamp.com/track/truth-will-prevail; I Am.. The Assassin of the Gods, Chaostar: https://youtu.be/cKCw4rRcNCA; The Vampire from Nazareth, Septic Flesh: https://septicflesh.bandcamp.com/track/the-vampire-from-nazareth.

Gapless playback test: Uneven Structure, Februus album: http://music.basickrecords.com/album/februus. Basically an album-length piece of music divided intro tracks, where one track flows seamlessly into another.

Impressions:

Hard-hitting, busy metal songs/sections:
S9 vs J3:
The J3 is slightly more resolving than the S9. Weirdly, depending on the track the J3 would seem like it had more bass, e.g. Clavicula Salomonis, but at other times the S9 would, e.g. In Yumen – Xibalba. Similarly, the solo in In Yumen – Xibalba felt ‘tinnier’ on the J3 than S9, but in other parts of the song the J3 was notably clearer in presentation than the S9. Overall they’re very similar and there’s not much difference between them apart from a bit of extra separation with the J3.

J3/S9 vs Plenue D:
Surprisingly, there’s not as much separating the J3 from the Plenue D here as I expected. Overall the Plenue D definitely has a greater feeling of space and more separation between instruments than the J3, but the J3 holds up well.

 

Cowons vs DX80:
The DX80 has even more separation between instruments than any of the Cowon players (a finding across all the songs, below), and greater clarity of little details like drum rolls.

 

Bass presentation:
The DX80 seems more bottom heavy than the Plenue D/J3/S9 but there’s something missing; sometimes it felt like the bass didn’t extend as deep down, at other times it felt like the bass went even deeper than the Plenue D. Perhaps the bass just doesn’t quite hit you as much, or it may depend on song context, e.g. the difference between a busy section and something like Corrosion Junction where the guitars are a touch slower. The Cowons seem to have a slightly more controlled punchy bass, where the DX80 can come across as more bottom heavy in places, but – for me at least – seemed to be lacking the same driving power in the more flat out sections. The bass is “there”, you can hear it, but it doesn’t drive into you the same way you might want it if you want heavy to really hit you as heavy.

Treble:
On Corrosion Juncture – my “potentially annoying treble” test – the DX80 was less trebly than the others in a good way. The Plenue D has less prominent/irritating treble than the S9 or J3 and I think would be less fatiguing over long durations.

Other aspects of presentation:
One thing I noticed with the DX80 in sections where music would “pull back”, i.e. coming off the end of a busy, heavy section into a quieter segment, is that the sound would “feel” like there was a greater drop-off. I had this feeling at multiple points and couldn’t quite pinpoint it – it certainly didn’t seem to be an artifact where the DX80 was set louder, so the drop off was a greater “real” difference in decibels; more that the pull-back felt like a greater drop and therefore had more impact. It made these sections seem more dynamic and musical - and therefore also more dynamic when things picked up again.

Slower sections, orchestral pieces:
There’s definite gradient in the ability of the players to resolve and present the individual details of the instruments, where DX80 tops them, then DX80 > Plenue D > J3 > S9. Particularly where there are multiple instruments or harmonised vocals with the DX80 you can make out the individual singers or details in the instruments with a clarity that isn’t the same on the Cowons, as well as small details. The Plenue D does do well, but across multiple tracks I consistently felt more space with the DX80. There’s also this feeling that the DX80 presents the detail as being right there in your head without so much, I don’t know, “effort” required from the listener. In the long term this seems like the kind of presentation that will be perfect for long listening sessions with little fatigue.

Gapless test:
DX80: Slight break between “Awe” and “Quittance” that breaks the flow for just that vital split second. Detail is fantastic, but without the true gapless there’s a real loss in the music. The second to last song in the album builds towards the last track “Finale”, and there’s a seamless transition in the songwriting, but the DX80 has a little jump of maybe 0.3-0.5 seconds that just manages to spoil the moment. I check again to see if “Gapless” is on – it is. I try with Gapless off to see what happens, and sure the Gapless off has a slightly longer space in between tracks, maybe 0.8 seconds, but there’s no doubt it isn’t a smooth transition even with it on. The difference between Gapless on or off is really minimal here.

J3: The transition to “Finale” is flawless - at least for the first few seconds of the track, then there’s a break which I notice coincides with the artwork refreshing, so I try playing it back again with the screen off. Now it’s perfect.

S9: The S9 manages gapless even with the screen on.

Plenue D: True gapless, even with screen on and artwork showing.

DAC test:
DX80 DAC function vs Fiio Olympus 2-E10K
In all honesty both of these good DACs, I’ve listened to plenty of music and movies via the Fiio. Voices are a bit more balanced and natural with the DX80 – the Fiio has an overall bassier presentation, even with the bass off. The same with music: the Fiio is bassier, but does have a nice smooth sound. Both have excellent black backgrounds. I got the Fiio for only $100 NZD and it’s a great buy. The DX80 does have more resolution and detail, but it’s five times that price. Overall the DX80 sounds and operates just as well as a DAC as it does a DAP from my testing. One thing is you have to turn on the DX80 first and then select USB settings and put it on DAC mode before connecting (shown in picture below), or it will default to opening up the SD card memory as a USB connection. (Maybe there’s a way to change this, but I haven’t found it).

Headphone comparison:
The above comparisons were all done with the 380 Pros. I’ve heard everyone in Hi Fi forums etc talk about needing to find a good match between DAP and Headphones. In all honesty in my experience thus far I’ve generally found that the better the headphone, the better it sounds regardless of the DAP. But here things got a little interesting: the Momentum 2’s have always been my go-to headphone with the Cowon players and also my previous Fiio X3II. But here I felt at times that the 380 Pros seemed a better match with the DX80, at least without EQ. The Momentum 1 on-ear’s I’d had sitting around for a while without using them, so was really surprised at just how much punch the bass had, even compared to the Momentum 2 over-ears. They even brought the bass out punchier and more intense in the DX80. Pity is I’d just sold these headphones and posted them off the next day (that’ll learn me, selling my audio gear just when it could be handy!). But of course, on-ear headphones just don’t have the same space and a more in-your-face presentation of music. Once I got into EQing the music, the Momentum 2 over-ears came alive a bit more with the DX80.

 

Summary:

S9 & J3:
Overall I was really impressed with how well the S9 and J3 held out, especially since were both released some time ago now (the S9 in 2008 and J3 in 2010 I think). Both also have Bluetooth, which the Plenue D and DX80 don’t, and both have the ability to alter playback speed (and pitch correct so it doesn’t sound too low when slowed down, etc). I’m a drummer and this is a very handy feature for figuring out what someone’s playing in fast drum lines. Sure you can do that on a computer, but really handy while you’re sitting at a kit to pick up the S9 or J3 and play something slow so you can figure it out right there and then.

Funnily going into this I had this impression that the S9 had a slightly warmer, more organic sound, than the J3. But now I’m thinking maybe I had this feeling because the J3 has slightly more space and separation between instruments, which could maybe make it feel more "clinical". After playing A-B sections of tracks I’m not hearing the warmer/colder impression I had any more. I think after this I’ll be keeping the J3, as it has an SD card slot (my S9 is only 4 GB) and longer battery life.

Battery life:
The S9, J3 and Plenue D have the famous battery life Cowon is/was famous for – approx. 55 hours or so for the J3 and approx. 100 hours for the Plenue D. The only time I’ve run the battery down on the Plenue D was when I first got it and had ‘Sleep’ mode turned on – it doesn’t fully turn off and slowly drains the battery, so I went back a few weeks later, tried to start it up and nothing. Now with it off I don’t even know how long the battery lasts: I’ve connected it to a PC to transfer newly purchased music without it ever running out. Sadly, the more expensive Plenue’s (M2, 1, etc.) are lacking this and have battery lives approximately the same as most other Hi-Fi DAPs out there.

DX80:
The DX80 definitely has a greater resolution, noticeably a step up from the Plenue D. But the DX80 doesn’t seem to have any way to lock the buttons – with the Plenue D, J3 and S9 you can lock controls, throw it in your pocket and not worry. But the DX80 can suddenly stop if you accidentally hit the play/pause button while walking around. On the other hand as a mark against the Plenue D one thing I realized while testing is that there’s no real way to set the Plenue D to permanently on. After listening to a song on the other DAPs, I’d switch back and have to start the Plenue D up again, wait for it to go through a database update (which you also can’t turn off) and then play. With the DX80 it would just sit there with a black screen, look completely turned off: hit play and it’s straight into action. In real life use probably means that if you’re interrupted for a while, going straight back to where you left off is so much easier.

Considering the perfect gapless with the J3 and S9 (and Plenue D) it’s annoying the DX80 can’t do true gapless – it’s always disappointing when new technology goes backwards. I seem to remember this was also one of the reasons I sold off the Fiio X3II.

What now?
So, after all this I’m a bit torn. I was thinking the DX80 would be an upgrade from the Plenue D. In many ways it is: clarity and resolution, and has a great DAC function which the Plenue D doesn’t. I like the simple interface of the DX80 and “no extra crap you don’t need” approach to the design and UI (which you also have with the Plenue D). But the bass might take a bit of getting used to – don’t get me wrong it’s heavy and goes very deep, but just doesn’t quite hit me the same as the Cowons. That is one benefit of Cowon players – with JetEffect you can push things way beyond the limit. Some people hate EQ, but for me, when the music goes heavy I want it to be *heavy*. Plus, EQ means you’re less at the mercy of the particular headphone/IEM you have and can have greater control over the extent of bass. With Cowon you’re never left wanting for more EQ as it can go above and beyond what you’d ever be comfortable with. I can see how people had described the Plenue D as an upgrade to the J3; it’s got a similar but more resolved sound, and great portability and battery life.
 
But I’m thinking I may hold onto the DX80 and J3; simply because it would be handy to have at least one player with Bluetooth - the J3 - which also has the playback speed alteration I find handy, and if I really want to listen to an album requiring true gapless I’ll have a suitable DAP on hand.

I’m kicking myself a little for selling my previous Fiio E17K headphone amp last year as I’d love to hear how the DX80 sounds with a bit extra, or simply a different, bass filter than the EQ built into the DX80. I’d be keen to hear from anyone who’s paired a DX80 with a Headstage as I only ever hear good things about the sound from those amps. I’d also be keen to hear how a DX80 stacks up to an Astell & Kern player like the AK70 or AK300 if anyone has done directly comparisons.
 
Right, hope this is handy for someone out there, I'm off to listen some more

I just got one of these last night. Unfortunately where I live there's no possibility of hearing one of these before buying one (or really any other DAPs apart from mainstream, iPod, etc.). So after a bunch of research and reading reviews online this seemed like it'd be a great player.
 
I've previously had a few Cowons - iAudioE2, S9 and J3. My J3 is supposedly gapless playback, but it seems like it can't handle gapless with FLAC files, so I've been looking for an upgrade.
 
The Fiio X3 definitely has a smaller soundstage than my J3 - the music sounds more cramped. This was my first thoughts, so I did a side by side comparison (with the same Sennheiser Momentum 2 headphones) and sure enough it's a muddier, less distinct sound on the X3. Bass range definitely extends lower on the J3, giving it more punch and I think helps contribute to a wider more spacious sound than the X3.
 
Don't get me wrong, the X3 2nd gen is a nice player and has a very simple no-frills, high functionality UI. Sound isn't bad, just okay to my ears. But I think I'll be sticking with my J3 for daily listening - not to mention the battery life on the J3 is crazy, I can't even remember when I last charged it. My X3 might end up living in my car or as a handy music library to connect to my stereo - I find most DAPs, etc. are too quiet when connecting up to the car stereo through the headphone jack, but here the line out on the X3 might come in handy and give a bit more volume, so I can use the X3 without having to switch CDs all the time.
 
Overall I'm a little disappointed as I was hoping for more, but I guess I've been spoiled by great sound and maybe I've inadvertently become a snob. Wait, I'm posting a review about my new DAP - probably a snob
 
PS. Purchase price indicated is NZD with courier delivery
 
Re: Uberclocked. For some reason I can't post a comment below, so will just add here: I volume matched the units using a decibel meter on my phone placed between the headphones. Not exact, I know, but is about the most I can do without more equipment. I don't mean for my review to come off too negative - in all honesty they both have a decent sound. I'll probably warm to it a bit more with extra listening, and playing around with the EQ a little.