The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion. The review was originally posted on my blog, and now I would like to share it with all my readers on head-fi.
Manufacturer website: Cowon.
Intro.
Not sure if I’m qualified to talk about Plenue 2 (P2) "change" since I never actually listened to the original Plenue 1 (P1), but I heard plenty about it and had many requests to compare P1 to other DAPs I reviewed, especially after my review of Plenue M2 (PM2). I noticed how many other people describe P1 as being smooth and organic, without lacking details or resolution. That’s how I painted P1 in my mind after reading reviews and impressions from reliable sources. Thus, when I received and started listening to P2, I expected to hear a similar sound inside of an updated chassis, just like in a recent refresh of the mid-fi PM2 or the latest releases of an entry level Plenue D (PD) and a flagship Plenue S (PS). But instead of a re-scaled exterior design featured in PD, PM2, and PS, the new P2 surprised everyone with the latest AKM AK4497EQ DAC and the all new design featuring dual wheels, one dedicated to a volume adjustment and the other one customizable with different functions.
As I mentioned in my PM2 review, Cowon has been in business since 1995, and to have this level of longevity, especially in today's competitive market, you need to put high emphasis on everything from sound quality, to design ergonomics, and the user interface. And that's exactly what Plenue line of Cowon DAPs are known for, and the reason why they continue to stay relevant. Well, that and their JefEffect which never seizes to amaze me with its natural sound quality for dsp effects. I don't want to get ahead of myself, so let's proceed to my review of the Cowon latest Plenue release.
Unboxing.
When it comes to the unboxing, Cowon takes a lot of pride in presentation of the product like it's a crown jewelry. The all black formal dressed box, which looks and opens like a jewelry box, even arrived with a ribbon surrounding it. When you lift the cover up, you see P2 in a secure form fitted cutout which can be lifted like a tray to find a gorgeous leather case underneath of it.
I do enjoy unboxing experience, though in many cases there is not much of a surprise element. Here, even after seeing many pictures of P2, I was still looking forward to take a closer look at its dual wheel design, and found the look to be quite impressive.
Accessories.
Cowon usually doesn't spoil us with too many accessories, but the one you get are top quality. You get a warranty and a manual printed on a premium paper, and if you want you can always download a detailed manual in many different languages directly from their website. The provided microUSB cable, used for charging, data transfer, and usb dac connection, is also high quality. But the star of the accessories here is the included leather case.
The new case is gorgeous, with deep burgundy rich color and high quality cowhide leather. It fits the DAP like a glove, doesn't easily slide out, and doesn’t hide the beauty of P2 design. Personally, I do prefer cut outs around HW playback buttons, but I was informed by Cowon they received several customer requests asking to cover the buttons to protect from accumulation of dust. In this new P2 case, the buttons are covered with a thinner and softer leather which is easy to press. Furthermore, to make sure no dust gets inside, the case also covers the microSD card slot. The microUSB port and both headphone ports at the bottom have a generous opening, and the top of the case is fully open as well.
Leather case.
Design.
P2 feels very solid and comfortable in my hand, has a sturdy gunmetal aluminum chassis, carbon fiber glass back panel, and a front touch screen with an assignable home button at the bottom (like in other Plenue models). The footprint of the DAP is very compact, measuring 68mm x 116.7mm x 16.5mm and only 193g in weight. It is shorter than PM2, and with an exception of LPG, also smaller than majority of my other flagship DAPs. The only drawback here if you use headphones with a straight connector plug and like to keep your DAP in the pocket, P2 should be placed with wheels facing down, making volume adjustment not very comfortable in your pocket. If you have right angle cable connector or L-shaped adapter, you can place P2 in your pocket with wheels facing up.
Upon closer examination of P2, you will find on the left side at the top a power button and below it hw transport buttons (Play/Pause in the middle and Next/Prev above and below it) – all round metal buttons with a nice tactile response when you press them. Also, on the left side at the bottom you have microSD slot which can accommodate 256GB card, in addition to 128GB of internal storage. At the bottom, you have micro-USB connector for charging, data transfer, and USB DAC connection, and 2.5mm balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced (combined with optical digital out) HO ports, reinforced with gold plating around it. At the top in the upper right corner you have 2 identical wheels with a soft click action as you turn it. While some other manufacturers implement a bar guard over the top or around the sides of their volume wheel, here Cowon used a different approach with a sort of a bridge bar guard protecting only the bottom part of the wheels.
Around the base of the wheels under the guard, you have a white led surrounding the volume wheel and a red led surrounding the multi-function wheel. Both LEDs could be disabled, but when enabled you either see a white led pulsating when screen is off or white/red LEDs lit up when corresponding wheel is being turned. Also, red LED lit up during charging. As I mentioned before, even so both wheels turn with a controlled click action, they do feel a bit loose to enable easy operation with one finger.
Under the hood.
Stepping away from Burr-Brown PCM series DACs, where in the past PCM1792A was used in P1/PS and PCM1795 was used in PM/PM2, the new P2 design now features AKM DAC where Cowon leapfrogged over other DAP manufacturers who still use AK4490 and introduced the latest AK4497EQ. Also, like in other Plenue DAPs, you have a low jitter dual clock precision TXCO oscillator. And in the heart of the DAP you still have ARM Cortex A9 1.2GHz dual-core processor since we are not running a demanding environment requiring high level of processing power. But you still have plenty of power to easily decode and process any lossless or lossy audio formats, such as DXD, DSD (DFF, DSF), FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE, MP3, WMA, OGG, WV, TTA, and DCF. Just keep in mind, it only supports up to DSD128.
Display has 3.7" AMOLED touch screen with 480x800 resolution and deep rich colors. As I mentioned before, P2 has 128GB of built-in memory and microSD card expansion to add up to 256GB. In addition to 3.5mm single ended HO which doubles as optical digital output, P2 also adds 2.5mm balanced HO. Per spec, each port is rated at 2Vrms with output impedance of 0.6 ohm (3.5mm) and 1.2 ohm (2.5mm). On a paper, they should sound close and for majority of today’s multi-BA iems, 0.6ohm vs 1.2ohm output impedance shouldn't make a big difference in sound. I will cover more about it in sound analysis section of the review.
The rechargeable battery is a nicely sized 3,050 mAh li-po @ 3.7V which you can charge in under 4hrs using 5V/2A charger. In my testing with occasional screen on, I found hi-res file playback to be 8hrs and 40min, while mp3 file playback was around 9hrs and 20min. This is a typical average battery performance, not exactly stellar but still good for a touch screen DAP.
Of course, the biggest difference here is a new DAC as well as the volume and the multi-function wheels. I like being able to use the wheel to adjust the volume, and as you start turning it, the touch screen also gives you an option to swipe volume up/down. With multi-function wheel, it’s a great idea to be able to assign different functions, but for now the only one that makes sense to me is using it as a 2nd volume control knob which has a coarse tuning – faster volume change using 2 steps at a time vs regular volume wheel being one step at a time. There are other functions you can assign to this wheel, like for example DAC filter roll-off, JefEffect selection, PREV/NEXT, REW/FF, and Brightness, but I found those to be less practical.
Also, as part of AKM DAC architecture, now you have access to 6 filters (short delay sharp - acoustic sound, short delay slow - acoustic tone, sharp - traditional sound, slow - traditional tone, low dispersion short delay - harmonic sound, and super slow - natural tone), which can also be assigned under multi-function wheel to be switched on the fly. I do need to spend more time analyzing every filter, but so far, the changes are subtle to my ears. Usually with AKM DACs I prefer a sharp roll off to have a crisper sound, though sometimes switching to “slow” can smooth things out while taking the edge of a digital tonality.
GUI.
One thing you can find in common with many Plenue DAPs is the graphic user interface which doesn't vary too much between Cowon models. I guess it's one of the advantages of the closed OS where you can keep consistency in interface between different models and put more focus into the actual sound tuning and exterior design. Of course, there will be variations driven by features of a newly introduced DAC or the additional functionality due to a second control wheel, but overall the interface is very similar to PM2, thus a reason I was able to re-use parts of that review here.
Before getting into the User Interface, let me first bring up the quality of the display. I know some might find 480x800 resolution to be not the greatest, but for displaying artwork and other elements of the GUI it was just perfect. It’s not the highest resolution but, for example, the analog needle of level meter display wasn’t choppy and looked pretty convincing. P2 AMOLED display is probably one of the best DAP screens I have seen in awhile, with vibrant deep colors and very responsive touch screen on a level of my smartphone. I personally never put too much emphasis into the display quality unless I’m planning to watch videos, movies, or play games, but even for a basic operation a lag in touch screen response can ruin the experience. In my opinion, P2 got it right!
When you turn the power on (boot up was 7sec, though I only have 20GB of songs loaded), the DAP starts in the main playback screen where you will find a clear layout with a very efficient interface. Starting with notification bar, upper left corner will show you icons corresponding to playback modes and selected dsp effects, in the middle there will be a current time (I forgot the last time I’ve seen a time displayed on non-Android device), and upper right corner will have a volume level, gain setting (IEM – low, headphone – high), "B" indicator when balanced HO is connected, and a battery indicator, though I wish it would show a numerical value of the remaining capacity.
Right below notification bar there is an icon which takes you to Music Selection screen. In there you can navigate up to the top level to select between Folders, Favorites, list of All songs, sort by Artist, Album, Genre, view Cue/SACD, and New. Under each selection, you have another icon which brings up either Add to favorites (a song or a folder) or Search using a touch-keyboard with a full alphanumeric search. Next to Music Selection screen icon, you have the area for artist and song name with a scrolling text. To the right is Playback Setting icon which I will talk about separately. I know, it sounds like a lot, but everything is very intuitive and easy to figure out without a need for a manual.
The main screen with an album artwork occupies upper half of the screen, and if there is available lyrics, you will notice a corresponding icon in the upper right corner. Clicking on the album/song art will zoom in to provide you with a more detailed info view about the song format, and while scrolling down from there you will see all the corresponding tags. Underneath the album/song art, you have quick shortcut icons to enable/disable Looping, enable/disable Shuffling, and a choice to play a Single track or tracks from a current Folder or to play All tracks. Below it is a playback control Play/Pause and Next/Prev touch buttons to skip or forward through the track. Also, you have a scrub bar to fast forward/back through the track to a desired point by swiping through it, and this scroll bar will be either below or above playback buttons depending on the selected skin. All the way at the bottom, you have L/R channel level meter in either analog needle dial or digital bar displays.
There are quite a few customization options to change the skin of the GUI where you can switch between analog or digital level meter, including turning it off, as well as 6 different skins which affect the layout and graphics of the touch controls. Going back to Playback Setting you will find a plethora of other shortcut options, such as Setting, Adding current track to favorites, selecting JetEffect DSP effects, Replay a selection of the track (lets you select start/stop marker), Activate auto rotation (normal view in a portrait mode, tile view in a landscape mode), show time elapsed or remaining, set the track skip interval, set Rewind/FFWD speed, Remember and Resume playback of the last track, Skip the silent part of the beginning and the end of the track, Select a level meter, and Select a skin. Last, but not least, you can select Headphone mode On (high gain) or Off (low gain). Skip the silent part actually activates a flawless Gapless playback.
In Setting you have access to select a specific JetEffect preset or to modify your own user preset, Music setting with many options already described in the shortcut Setting menu above. The only addition here is a DAC filter roll-off where you have a choice of Short delay sharp, Short delay slow, Sharp, Slow, Low dispersion short delay, and Super slow. Display setting has a selection of Language, Brightness, and a number of User Presets (from 4 to 16), and option to show the song change. Timer for a sleep timer, auto off, auto display off, and to set the actual time in notification bar. System setting with selection of multi-function button assignment (music play screen, browser, settings, or volume), button lock, lock screen (on/off), Multi wheel, L/R Balance, LED (on/off), USB mode (MSC or MSC/DAC), database update, loading defaults, formatting internal memory, and Info. As I mentioned already, there are 6 functions you can assign to multi-wheel, but the only one that made sense to me was Volume (at double step adjustment).
In my opinion, JetEffect 7 DSP effects is the crown jewel of Plenue DAPs. You get a total of 66 presets with 50 pre-defined ones and 16 user-defined. Furthermore, you have access to 10 Band EQ where each band has 3 selectable values: 63/76/92, 112/135/164, 200/240/290, 350/430/520, 620/750/910, 1.1k/1.3k/1.6k, 2k/2.4k/2.9k, 3.5k/4.2k/5.1k, 6.2k/7.5k/9k, 10.9k/13.2k/16k. You can adjust every band by +/- 12 steps and select bandwidth (Q) of each frequency as normal, wide, or narrow – turning this EQ into Parametric EQ.
Next you have BBE+ effects with BBE exciter/enhancer in 10step adjustment, Mach3Bass 10step bass adjustment, 3D Surround 10step adjustment, and MP on/off harmonic-compression restoration effect. There is also Chorus effect which you adjust in 10steps and can select between 3 chorus, 2 unison, and 3 flange types, and Reverb effect adjustable in 10steps where you can select Chamber, Room, Club, Hall, Auditorium, Cathedral, Stadium, Canyon, or Long reverb types.
Some people might not be familiar with Chorus and Reverb effects, but anybody who ever dabbed into a music production, mixer decks, PA system or even Karaoke machines will know that these effects make music sound more Live, add an expanded dimension, make sound less dry. Of course, you are welcome to experiment, but usually the sound engineer who mixed and mastered the song already applied these effects, so you can skip it. But precise EQ adjustment or surround sound tweaking or adding bass are all very useful. BBE enhancement is derived from a popular hardware sound processing equipment to add more sparkle and excitement to the sound, and MP really opens up the dynamics by restoring the sound envelope, especially the transient of the attack.
Bottom line, aside from PM2 I never tested another DAP with such high level of Setting and Customization options, and never came across another DAP with such high level of quality DSP effects that sound natural and realistic. You can tweak it yourself, but many will probably jump right into the provided 50 presets, though I have to admit that I enjoyed P2 sound enough to keep JetEffect off versus PM2 where in some pair-ups it was a necessity. I know that audiophile purists might not like the idea of DSP effects, but the quality of JetEffect 7 and how they transform even average quality headphones into TOTL sound quality can’t be dismissed. It’s a real deal.
Sound Analysis.
As I already mentioned, I didn’t hear the original P1 and only familiar with PM2, but based on everything I have read about the original P1, my experience with PM2, and many listening hours I spent with P2 (after 150hrs of burn in), I can draw a conclusion that Cowon decided to take advantage of the new AKM AK4497EQ DAC and move to a more neutral revealing signature with a natural reference quality tonality. And I don't mean "reference" as in thinner, harsher, or analytical, but rather a more revealing sound which can reach a micro-detail level when it comes to retrieval of details.
In my opinion, the ideal signature of any DAP is to be as neutral as possible so you can evaluate and enjoy the true sound signature of your headphones without additional coloring of the sound. But nothing is perfect, and you have variations of sound being skewed either toward the more revealing or smoother/warmer side of neutral. To my ears, P2 has a tonality which keeps the balance between these two worlds. Also, it has a very impressive technical performance with a sound being layered, transparent, and resolving. The sound is dynamically expanded, doesn’t feel compressed at all, and has a fast-transient response of the notes, and black background, especially when you compare SE (3.5mm) to BAL (2.5mm) HO where I hear a little improvement with higher res files. And it also nicely expanded in terms of the soundstage where the width and the height are only limited by the tuning of your headphones/earphones.
In a few discussions with the original P1 owners who asked me about the sound of P2, I sensed a bit of a disappointment from some who had expectations of a warmer, thicker, musical type of sound they got used to with the original line up of Plenue DAPs. I guess everybody has a different sound preference, but in my opinion the P2 is a very noticeable upgrade from PM2 which I’m quite familiar with, where PM2 is smoother, warmer, not as layered and not as revealing. If you don’t take JetEffect into consideration, PM2 would make a great pair up with a more revealing or neutral IEMs, but P2 neutral-revealing signature is more versatile to pair up with headphones/earphone of any sound signature and without a need for JetEffect.
That’s a reason why lately P2 became my go-to DAP (and I’m aware I said that in the past about other daps) where I don’t have to think if I’m using balanced or single ended cable, or to worry if IEMs needs more driving power due to lower sensitivity, or to worry about hissing due to high sensitivity or low impedance. As a matter of fact, the hissing level when paired up with Zeus XRA is very mild - impressive, considering I usually keep P2 in high gain (headphone setting). The dynamic volume range of high gain covers everything I currently have, from sensitive IEMs to more demanding planar magnetics and high impedance open back full size cans.
Pair up.
In my pair up test I had P2 set in high (headphone) gain, and noted volume level in every case.
UERR (v73) - nicely expanded (soundstage) neutral detailed sound with a natural revealing tonality; the signature is very well balanced with a neutral extended bass (nice rumble), layered detailed mids with a plenty of revealing details, and a crisp well defined treble.
VEGA (v56) - expanded soundstage, warm upfront sound with w-shaped signature where I hear emphasis in all 3 bands, yet it's not exactly balanced but w-shaped. Powerful, fast, well controlled bass, organic revealing mids, and a crisp airy treble.
Xelento (v59) - very nicely expanded soundstage, balanced detailed signature with a natural tonality, deep sub-bass rumble with a fast, punchy articulate mid-bass, layered revealing mids with a natural detailed tonality, and well defined crisp airy treble.
W80 (v54) - nicely expanded soundstage, balanced signature with a natural detailed tonality, nicely extended sub-bass rumble perfectly balanced with a moderate-speed mid-bass, smooth organic mids with a nice retrieval of details, well defined moderately crisp treble with a little bit of airiness.
Zeus XRA (v49) - very nicely expanded soundstage, balanced revealing signature with a slightly bright tonality, great sub-bass extension and punchy mid-bass, layered revealing mids, slightly forward in presentation with a brighter tonality, crisp airy treble with plenty of sparkle, a touch of sibilance. Very mild hissing!
Zen earbuds (v100) - expanded soundstage, natural organic tonality with a nicely balanced signature, neutral extended bass with a nice mid-bass punch, natural smooth detailed mids, well defined crisp treble with a natural sense of airiness.
W900 (v65) - expanded soundstage, balanced smooth signature with a natural detailed tonality, deep extended sub-bass rumble and fast mid-bass punch, full body natural mids with a great retrieval of details, and well defined crisp extended treble.
U18 (v60) - very nicely expanded soundstage, natural revealing tonality with a perfectly balanced signature, great bass extension with a layered sub-bass rumble and fast articulate mid-bass punch, neutral revealing layered mids with a natural detailed tonality, well defined crisp treble with plenty of airiness and well controlled sparkle.
T5p2 (v82) - nicely expanded soundstage, natural smooth tonality with a balanced signature through leaning a little more toward v-shaped due to mids being pushed a little back, warm extended bass with a slower mid-bass punch, spilling a little into full body lower-mids, organic natural upper mids, a bit nasal vocals, and a well-defined crisp treble.
EL8C (v98) - expanded soundstage, revealing balanced signature with a brighter more analytical tonality, neutral extended bass, lean lower mids and analytical revealing upper mids that has a little metallic sheen but no sibilance, treble is very crisp and airy, a bit too much sparkle.
PM-3 (v87) - nicely expanded soundstage, smooth balanced signature with a warmer tonality, good low end extension with a nice mid-bass punch, full body clear detailed organic mids (a bit too smooth), well defined crisp treble.
R70x (v107) - very nicely expanded soundstage, smooth balanced signature with a natural warm tonality, extended neutral low end with a nice sub-bass rumble and good mid-bass punch, neutral organic mids with great retrieval of details, and well defined extended treble with a natural sense of airiness.
Comparison.
In this comparison, I used multiple pairs of IEMs (U18, Zeus XRA, W900, and UERR), volume matched, in order to have a more accurate comparison without a bias of one specific headphone tuning.
P2 vs LPG - soundstage is very similar, though between 3.5mm ports LPG is a little wider, while P2 balanced matches it perfectly. Tonality is nearly identical, very similar transparency as well, though LPG has a touch better layering and maybe a bit stronger mid-bass. But overall these are very similar, and if you add to the equation touch screen and JetEffect, P2 has an upper hand in this comparison.
P2 vs Opus#2 - a very similar soundstage expansion and a similar tonality, though #2 is a touch smoother in comparison. Both have an excellent dynamic sound, with a good layering and separation. Maybe #2 has a little more transparency, but P2 comes very close. The only thing I noticed that P2 has a slightly faster and tighter mid-bass which in case of #2 is a bit more relaxed in comparison.
P2 vs DX200 w/AMP2 - soundstage is very similar, and with AMP2 now DX200 doesn't sound as reference which gets it closer to the tonality of P2. DX200 is still a little bit brighter and has a bit crisper upper frequencies, while in comparison P2 has a touch more body and a bit smoother. But other than that, they have a similar bass impact, neutral revealing mids, and crisp well defined treble. DX200 w/AMP1 had a more reference, closer to analytical sound, while AMP2 brings it closer to P2 performance.
P2 vs X7 w/AM3 - soundstage has a lot of similarities. P2 tonality has a little fuller body in comparison to a slightly thinner sound of X7, where P2 is actually a little more musical. Both have a similar sound transparency and dynamics, while X7 has a touch better layering of the sound due to more airiness between the layers.
P2 vs AK120ii - P2 soundstage is a little wider, and in comparison, P2 sound is more dynamic, with better layering and separation, and a little more revealing tonality, while AK is smoother and sounds less dynamic and has not as clear layering and separation between layers of sounds in comparison to P2.
Next to PM2.
DX200, Opus#2, P2, LPG.
Other connections.
USB DAC.
I'm not a big fan of using a dedicated DAP as USB DAC because I usually look at a DAP as a portable standalone source. If you are not happy with an audio output of your computer, there are plenty of dedicated USB DAC choices. But in some cases, when you are traveling and don’t want to bring multiple pieces of equipment, using DAP as USB DAC has its advantage.
Here I found P2 to pair up flawlessly with my laptop, and improved a sound quality of my aging T430s Thinkpad. The drivers were installed automatically, no need for a manual installation of any 3rd party files. One very useful feature is when you connect P2 to your computer, when connection is detected you have a choice from the touch screen to either select USB DAC or USB MSC (for a file transfer). Once you select USB DAC, my laptop volume was set to the max and I was able to adjust the volume from P2. The only negative here, DSP effects are disabled when in USB DAC mode. When connected, red led light indicated that P2 was charging while being used as USB DAC.
Optical Out.
P2 vs P2 + Micro iDSD (optical) w/T5p2 - a great pair up where you get just a little more transparency with Micro iDSD, but otherwise a very similar sound. It's a great option to be able to use P2 as a digital touch screen transport to drive external DAC/amp supporting optical input since P2 3.5mm HO port is shared with optical digital output. In my previous tests, I always found optical link to be superior in sound quality to electrical coax cable.
Line out.
Plenue DAPs don't have a dedicated Line Out port, and instead they suggest to set volume to the max in high gain where the HO acts as LO. I tried that and to my surprise found no distortion when paired up with E12A external portable amp. As a matter of fact, P2 vs P2 + E12A w/T5p2 was a great pair up, actually with a very similar sound, maybe having a touch more neutral transparency which indicates to me that P2 internal head-amp doesn't color sound too much.
Conclusion.
When I started to write P2 impressions, my original intention was to post a few lines and pictures describing some initial thoughts about Plenue 2 DAP. As I started to type, it became a mini review where a few lines turned into a few paragraphs, and then a few pages which I published a couple of months ago. In there I mentioned that I do need to spend more time listening and testing P2, but “can tell you with certainty that my final opinion will not change too far from my initial impression which is very positive.” Now, with a full review finished, I can honestly say that I’m still very impressed with this new Plenue DAP. From my experience, earphones/headphones have more longevity when it comes to being considered as "favorite", while due to a frequency of new releases, DAPs often become a flavor of the month. But I have been using P2 for a few months already and still can’t put it down, though I do have to admit I prefer it more with IEMs rather than more demanding full size headphones.
I use a handful of DAPs in my daily rotation, each one with some unique sound signature suited for different IEMs. To my ears P2 almost combines the best of them into one very compact design. I really like the sound signature of P2, the design ergonomics, the performance of the new DAC, and the addition of balanced output which has a rather subtle improvement with a bonus of me being able to use balanced cables without an adaptor. Plus, you still have access to JetEffect which I find to sound very natural. Furthermore, it has a great touch screen interface with a customizable GUI, can be used as USB DAC, and turns into a digital transport with optical output. I do like a wheel-driven volume control and find the second multi-function wheel to be an interesting concept, though for now I don't find it as practical. And of course, like other Plenue DAPs, you shouldn't expect wifi or BT wireless connections - this is a pure audio player. Having the focus on audio performance is great, but I’m still hoping that one day Cowon will surprise us with Android based dap and wifi streaming.