Does it seriously still have a MicroUSB port? In late 2016? 

@BartSimpson1976 : just like 99% of all other DAP in 2016   Anybody else beside i5 and M1 have usb-c?

True, but if bringing a new DAP on the market now isn't that the best opportunity to leave the sinking ship MicroUSB?

I'd imagine they left out wifi and bluetooth to avoid impacting on the not great battery life!

Excellent review Twister. I second the comment on MicroUSB port

Great Review @twister6 as always! I owned the P1 for a time and really enjoyed the effects, to the point where I found myself fiddling with them more than just enjoying music and had to train myself to stop!
 
@BartSimpson1976 - While I agree, the way forward is USB-C, I am actually glad audio companies for the large part are still using Micro-USB.  I know USB-C has been around a while now, but all of my half decent cables are still either USB-B or Micro USB etc.  Eventually I will update with USB-C, but I am just not there yet.  But that's just me being selfish

Great review as always! I'm very glad that you finally got the chance to try a Cowon DAP as I am a Cowon P1 user. As compared to those DAPs that you've mentioned (AK120ii,Opus#1,L5Pro,X7 and LPG), where will you place the PM2 in overall SQ (with DSP effects added)? I'm very curious to try the LPG someday but the difference in SQ might just be trivial so I would want to get your personal verdict on the Cowon's standing against the other DAPs. If you would choose 1 DAP in terms of pure SQ (again with DSP for PM2), which will you choose? Thanks.

@jrazmar : it will be hard to choose just one DAP.  In my book at the current moment Opus#2 and LPG have the top sound quality, but it doesn't make them the best value.  X7 offers full android support so you can have streaming and BT wireless, if that's at the top of your priority list.  Opus#1 has dual microSD and optical out to use as transport and it also has a decent sound quality, on par with PM2.  L5Pro is very powerful.  But what I find very unique about PM2, I can tailor its sound with dsp effects to pair up with many IEMs and full size and make them shine with this DAP.  And in many cases the resulting sound comes close to Opus#2 and LPG.

If only Cowon would update and release a newer version of the j3....

Thanks for the review, pretty good detail. Seems like a very capable device. My only concern would be is that in 2016 a DAP should allow for me to hold my library of tracks but also allow for a discovery of new music ( streaming or offline content) from Spotify, Tidal,etc. If I am going to invest a want that flexibility.
 
My listening has evolved since having a phone as DAP , originally an LG V10 moving to an HTC 10 to now a ZTE Axon 7 and hopefully to a LG V20. The portability, capacity and flexibility to listen to my old high quality files vi Neutron or Jet Audio to using Tidal and Spotify to find new music is just great. But also have owned the Onkyo , Pioneer DAP's and coming up a I5 or X7. 
 
I travel a lot and I take advantage for example to offline music content so I can experience and decide which ones I will purchase in some cases and some of the best DAP's are still like living within a prison
 
Twister6 Thanks again for the detail you put into these reviews they are helpful to a lot of us to understand a product and also how to evaluate if it meets our needs or not

Great review (and photos!). Thank you.
Is there Playlist capabilities and if so, is it possible to create the playlists on a Windows 10 machine and import (drag and drop)?
 
Thanks

@shane55 : yes, you can make multiple playlists under "favorite" by tagging songs, and name each favorite list accordingly.  But I haven't tried copying any playlist files from my laptop (don't even run Win10).  Sorry.

As always the review effort is greatly appreciated.  DAP market continues to bring out solid new examples.  Been itching to try some balanced DAP's for a myriad of reasons (and curiosities) but this Cowon offering looks interesting.  I am definitely a bit of a fan boy as a J3 and some TF10's showed me that portable audio could be quite enjoyable (both still kicking by the way).  Never was much of an EQ/DSP guy but I agree the Jef Effect can produce some pretty solid results with out creating clipping/distortion issues.

Thanks for the excellent review!
 
I just have  quick question. According to the Cowon website, "Maximize volume in earphone mode to use earphone audio output as LINE-OUT. " Have you tried pairing this with an external amp this way? If so, how's the sound quality? (I assume the DSP effects would come through this way.)

@phthora : hmm, never tried it.  Wondering how they can disable head-amp.  A true LO goes straight from the DAC, don't think they bypass headphone amp when volume is to the max, but you never know...

After reading some reviews of the P1 on Amazon (which has the same method of providing line-out), I am not convinced that it would pair well with an external amp. Lots of reports of distortion and clipping. Bummer.