Before I begin with my review, I would like to Thank Luxury & Precision for providing me with a review sample in exchange for my honest opinion.
Manufacturer website: http://luxuryprecision.net
Currently, L5 Pro is available for purchase from
Penon Audio.
While so many audiophiles and regular audio enthusiasts are familiar with ColorFly DAPs and their popular C4 model with a "warm" wooden back, not too many are aware that ColorFly team is responsible for another exclusive line of luxury DAPs, appropriately named as Luxury & Precision. In the past I had an opportunity to review their LP5 Gold and found it to stand out from the crowd with a sound tuning at the top of the food chain (relative to everything I heard prior to that review). But one of the things where it felt short was a rather primitive user interface. I actually felt a bit frustrated knowing how many other DAPs out there have a slicker design with a more polished interface and nowhere near the sound quality and the power of LP5. At that point my wishful thinking got the best of me imagining what Luxury & Precision could do to improve their DAP experience, but not in my wildest dreams did I envision that L&P will take it up to a whole new level and actually challenge the almighty A&K.
While a lot of us, myself including, can question the value of A&K DAPs, there is no denial they have a very solid design and one heck of interface with very intuitive touch and hardware controls. What Luxury & Precision managed to achieve with L5Pro is to take the best of their sound design and to scale it up to a new hardware level with both touch and physical controls while still retaining their signature "wood" details. Actually L&P had an intermediate L5 release, teasing everybody with a new footprint and touch screen ergonomics (though no wood details), but L5Pro is the one which embraced all the final improved design changes including a new capacitive touch screen and a signature wooden back panel. Here is more about Luxury & Precision new L5Pro flagship.
It became almost mandatory for mid-fi and summit-fi DAPs to be packaged in a premium box, so I wasn't expecting anything less from L&P but they still managed to surprise me. Arrived packaged in a black matte sleeve with a glossy black "Luxury & Precision" elegant print, inside you will find two equal dimension premium boxes with a black textured finish. One box was similarly labeled with a glossy black "Luxury & Precision" print and contained L5Pro inside of a velvet covered foam cutout and an envelope with screen protector and manual. The other box had a glossy black "Accessories" label and contained one small box with a glossy "USB Cable" print and another bigger box with a glossy "Leather Case" print. I was very impressed with such attention to packaging details, and it definitely made my unboxing experience more enjoyable.
Unboxing.
I already mentioned about accessories while following each individual packaging box and its label printed on the top. In more details, you will find a high quality usb to micro-usb cable with RFI filtering ferrite choke, a bit of an over-kill in my opinion. The envelope had a manual, sadly in Chinese only, and a screen protector. Obviously, I would have loved to see instructions in both Chinese and English and to include a spare screen protector in case if you mess one up. No other cable was included and with an exception of a leather case, that was it for accessories.
Though typically a DAP doesn't require too many accessories, considering premium packaging and its flagship status, I would have loved to see maybe a LO interconnect cable with wooden connectors or something like a gift pen with wooden housing and a capacitive tip for L5Pro touch screen. Any accessory to capture the "wooden" essence of L&P design would have been welcome. Maybe L&P can consider that in a future?
Accessories.
Similar to A&K, L&P includes a premium form fitted leather case with L5Pro. The case is made out of what appears to be soft suede cowhide leather (tan color). The back of the case has a neat stitching, the right side (for control buttons) and the bottom have precise port cutouts, and the front with a big display cutout opening has a sturdy reinforcement around the edges and at the top. At first I was a bit surprised they didn't use a traditional black leather, but later realized how great it compliments the design with a nice contrast that makes it stand out from all of my other DAPs (most of which use silicone gray or black cases). Plus, this leather case has a unique finish like in moccasin shoes where even if you leave a mark, you can brush it off in the opposite direction to make it disappear. The only thing I found slightly inconvenient was related to L5Pro power button which is actually Play/Pause on the right side, and while sliding the case in or out you brush against it which powers up/down the DAP. It's not the end of the world unless if you frequently exchange your micro-SD cards (that port is covered at the bottom and requires case to be removed). I can also imagine a lot of people won't even use the case because L5Pro looks and feels awesome without it.
Leather case.
When it comes to a design, it's hard to ignore the fact it was probably inspired by A&K DAPs, though I wouldn't call it a copycat but rather L&P own interpretation of it. L5Pro has a solid aluminum-magnesium alloy construction which utilizes CNC integrated molding process with anodized surface and sand blasted finish. This process is applied both to the metal frame and all 6 buttons which have corresponding functionality etched on their surface. L5Pro feels SOLID and PREMIUM in your hand; there is no other way to describe it. Even with a wooden veneer panel on the back (most likely covering a metal back) and a large 3.5" touch screen on the front (completely flush with a surface), frame is 100% flex free. All the buttons have a round shape, slightly raised off the surface, with a nice tactile response when pressed, and nearly undetected rattle (just a slight bit). Volume pot has a matching finish with a nice resistance and a slight click action when turned which gives you a good level of control.
The size of L5Pro is about 123mm x 63mm x 17mm, and it feels not too heavy but still with a nice heft of about 200 grams. It definitely has a very good ergonomics and comfortable fitment, making access to touch screen and playback control buttons comfortable with one hand. The right side has 3 transport buttons, Play/Pause, Skip/Fast Forward, and Skip/Rewind Back. The buttons are accessible to control playback when screen is off and also when you are in the main "now playing" screen. When you are in Setup or browsing files, the forward/back buttons double as hardware navigation buttons to go up or down the list and play button is used to select/enter. This comes very handy when you are scrolling through a long list of songs since touch swipe scrolling hasn't been implemented yet, and you either use up/down touch buttons or use these hardware buttons which I found to be faster.
The top of the DAP has volume pot in the right corner, accessible from the front and the back, with a guard piece over the corner and the top to protect from accidental bumps when in your pocket, and with a nice textured surface enhancing the grip. To the left of it you have 3 buttons along a beveled corner edge, a rather cool design element. One button is to lock a screen and the other two are C1/C2 custom shortcut buttons. Yes, you have two custom buttons which you can use to assign shortcuts for a quick access to various DAP functions (brilliant!!!). The bottom of the DAP has 3.5mm gold plated Headphone Output (finally, don’t have to deal with 1/4” adapter), 3.5mm shared Line Out and coaxial digital SPDIF outputs, micro-usb charging port (fast charging up to 2A) which also doubles as USB DAC input (in a future firmware update, but NOT enabled yet), and micro-SD card expansion (up to 128GB) in addition to L5Pro internal 32GB flash memory. There is nothing on the left side, and I already discussed about the back graced with a wooden veneer featuring a carved L&P logo at the top and "Luxury & Precision Classic" etched toward the bottom. Also worth mentioning on the front underneath a display there is Luxury & Precision name etched into the metal.
Design details.
From the hardware perspective there is no question about it - you are dealing with a pure class premium product. But how does it translate into the interface (GUI)? Looks could be deceiving, and I've seen it firsthand when reviewed LP5 Gold. To power up L5Pro you have to press and hold Play/Pause button and within 3 seconds DAP boots up and ready to go. Interface is not too complicated and has a rather logical partitioning. Touch interface is very responsive and fast, but touch-swiping hasn't been implemented yet. Thus in the main play screen you have to use either touch transport buttons or hardware buttons since you can't fast forward by swiping the playback progress bar. The same with Setting menu or Song list menu, you have up/down touch buttons at the bottom or can use hardware buttons for a faster navigation.
The GUI interface is split into 3 main categories: File Explorer, Playback Screen, and Settings Menu. File Explore gives you different ways to view songs: by Directory (with a list of sub-directory folders and files in the root path), All Music (listing all the files alphabetically), Artist (listing by artist in alphabetical order), and Album (list by album based off the file tag). My favorite way to browse songs is by Directory, though in that view mode everything is sorted by date (when files were copied over) rather than alphabetical order, and I hope they will fix it in the next firmware update. In the playback screen you have an area dedicated to display album art, a gain setting, a sampling rate, EQ preset name, a song and an artist name, playback progress bar with a current time position and a total time, song number within current directly, and playback buttons. On every screen you also have a visible status bar at the top showing play/pause status in the upper left corner, volume level in the middle, and battery icon in the upper right corner. My only wish here is to be able to see battery percentage next to the icon so there is no guessing.
System setting menu was filled with a lot of config and customization options, and I was actually happy to see something different considering I got used to similar looking FiiO and Cayin menu choices. In Play Mode you have 4 choices with Repeat, Sequence, Repeat all, and Shuffle. In Equalizer you have a choice of Normal setting and 5 presets (Rock, Pop, Classic, Bass, and Jazz). Though I’m not a fan of presets, these were actually very useful to assist you with some sound shaping. There is no custom EQ adjustment, and I hope it will be implemented in future updates. Visualization has an option for ID3 tag or Lyrics display. Audio Output setting has its own sub-menu with PA Gain (five gain settings with Ultra Low, Low, Medium, High, and Ultra High), SPDIF on/off (which should enable/disable LO/SPDIF), DoP SPDIF on/off, Digital filter setup (Fast vs Slow attenuation), and Output phase setting of either 0 or 180 degrees. Update Media Library re-scans content of internal 32GB memory and micro-SD cards to update file list.
The last selection in System setting is Advanced which has Display setting where you can adjust Light time and Brightness level, select a Language, Configure auto-shutdown, set Sleep timer, configure Key Setting (which also includes C1/C2 setting), restore to Default setting, and display a detailed System Info which also includes used and total capacity of internal and external memory. Without a doubt, my favorite config setting is C1/C2 short cut keys assignment. You get 10 parameters to choose from where you can pick one for each of these short cut keys. For example, I selected “Now playing” for C1 and “Explorer” for C2. Now, regardless of which screen I’m in, pressing C1 takes me to the main playback screen and C2 takes me to a file browser. Another shortcut assigned I found useful was Gain setting where I could cycle through 5 gain setting by pressing the assigned shortcut button. Later I decided to use only Low Gain which is optimal for all of my IEMs and full size, and doesn’t drain battery as much.
GUI.
Before I will go into sound analysis, I do want to bring up a few spec parameters. Just like with LP5 Gold, Luxury & Precision doesn’t spare any expenses and goes for the latest top components in their design. Everything from AKM latest generation VERITA 4490 DAC (which can support up to 32bit 768kHz sampling rate, and up to DSD256 format), to a quality headphone amp (1812A double crown), power management (1812P), volume control (CS3310), 32GB Micron dual channel Flash memory, and even brand name discrete capacitors and inductors. Supported formats cover everything from DSD lossless (DSF, DIFF, ISO) to PCM lossless (FLAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, ALAC), and the usual compressed lossless (MP3, AAC, WMA, and OGG).
Display is 3.5” IPS with 480x320 resolution which is not super sharp when it comes to album cover art or text, but it’s not pixilated either. Taking into account this is OGS type touch screen and considering large real estate of the display area where everything is out in the open, clear, and easy to read – I was satisfied with screen usability. Also, as I mentioned before, having hardware controls is a huge plus where you don’t have to keep your screen on most of the time. Volume adjustment has a very easy rotary access without a need to push any up/down buttons, and you can play/pause and skip forward and back using hardware transport buttons on the side without even looking at the DAP. I actually found the arrangement of Play/Pause followed by Skip buttons to be more logical than in AK120ii where Play/Pause is in the middle between skip buttons. One of the benefits in keeping the screen off is to be able to extend battery life where in Low Gain I got up to 11 hours of playback. I’m sure in Ultra Low you can extend it even further since L&P spec promises up to 12hrs of battery life, but I found Low gain to be just perfect for all of my IEMs and efficient full size headphones.
Sound Analysis.
From the moment I started to listen to L5Pro, I became addicted to its sound. At first I got an impression that a sound signature was a bit warm because I'm so used to FiiO X5ii and Cayin N6 sounds. But after going back to AK120ii, QA360, and LP5 Gold and comparing it to L5Pro, I realized that other DAPs with brighter signature were just thinner (especially in lower mids) and not as rich in tonality. L5Pro has a very dynamic highly resolving smooth sound with analog full body quality, tuned more toward the neutral-warmish signature. It has a rather nice soundstage expansion with a noticeable above the average width and depth, and an excellent layering and separation of instruments and vocals. Overall it has a great low end extension with an articulate bass impact, detailed organic mids with a full body lower mids, and well defined extended treble. The background is black, and with a choice of 5 gain settings you can control hissing level of the most sensitive IEMs.
Sound analysis of a DAP is always a tricky business because it’s a relative comparison to others while evaluating in conjunction with a signature of your headphones and their pair-up synergy. So here is a brief rundown of some of the headphones I tested with L5Pro, including Volume setting value. Please note I only used Low Gain.
EL-8C (v49) - wide spacious sound, excellent low end impact with a fast punch and a great extension, smooth detailed mids, extended well defined treble. L5P drives these planar magnetic drivers with authority. No upper frequency harshness or metallic sheen.
R70x (v55) - smooth organic spacious sound, drives these 470 ohm open back cans with authority. Low end is tight, well controlled and very articulate, with a surprising slam. Smooth detailed neutral mids and the same goes for treble. Overall, these headphones neutral balanced signature is well preserved and even enhanced with a more articulate low end impact.
PM-3 (v49) - warm detailed smooth sound without a need to switch to high gain like I had to do it with other DAPs (and amps) in order to drive these to full potential. Not the best layering and separation, and some mid-bass bleed, but that is more typical of PM-3 performance. Overall, I don’t think it was the best pair up, where PM-3 needs a brighter source.
VE ZEN (v52) - excellent detailed sound driving these 320 ohm earbuds, with a deep low end slam, wide soundstage, smooth detailed mids, and clear extended treble with a great definition.
Ei.xx (v39) - smooth detailed sound with a massive bass slam, absolutely no hissing (considering how much these CIEMs hiss with other sources), great soundstage expansion, clear smooth detailed mids, and clear well defined treble. I was actually very pleased with this pair up.
W60 (v43) - lush organic sound with a deep sub-bass extension and impressive mid-bass punch, mids are full bodied, warm and smooth, not super detailed, treble is smooth and detailed, zero hiss. Sound is very spacious. Not sure if it was the best pair up since mids lost a bit of details, but low end improvement was impressive.
UMPro 50 (v41) - aggressive balanced sound with an excellent low end slam, great sub-bass extension, fast mid-bass punch, and full body detailed mids, also a decent treble extension. Soundstage width actually approached W60 level.
UE600 (v39) - zero hiss, clear bright sound with a nice tight low end and bright detailed upper mids/treble. I typically like to use these IEM for my hiss test, and L5P passed with flying colors.
DN2000J (v42) - very minimum hiss, nice tight low end, mids were a bit peaky, while treble was crisp and with great extension. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the best pair up due to some upper frequency harshness.
I'm sure for some people DAP comparison will be more valuable than a sound analysis. By doing such relative comparison you factor out headphones sound sig and can concentrate more on the actual differences.
DAP physical comparison (L5Pro, LP5, AK120ii, X5ii, N6, N5, QA360, AP100).
L5P vs LP5: LP5 has a touch wider staging and overall LP5 sound has a little more punch. LP5 has a touch sharper sound, and overall tonality sounds a bit more digital in comparison, while L5P has a very similar sound quality and retrieval of details while being a little more analog and slightly less aggressive. Overall, L5P sound is more organic and with smoother characteristic, while LP5 is a little sharper and more digital in comparison.
L5P vs N6: N6 is slightly brighter and thinner, with a similar soundstage expansion, similar retrieval of details, though L5P sound is richer, with fuller body, more organic timbre, similar articulate low end, slightly more organic and thicker mids (L5P), and the treble (L5P) has a touch less sparkle and airiness.
L5P vs AK120ii: AK has a slightly narrower staging, but sound tonality is very similar with their smooth detailed signature. At the same time, I found AK120ii sound to be a touch slower, and also L5P has more power to drive demanding headphones.
L5P vs QA360: similar soundstage expansion, L5P has a tighter sound and slightly better dynamics and overall sharper definition. Here I can definitely hear L5P having a slight edge over QA360, but we are not talking about night’n’day difference.
While I found a bit more differences comparing L5Pro to N6, with AK120ii and QA360 the gap was a lot narrower, and it could all come down to a preference of a footprint size, design ergonomics, and interface implementation if you are choosing between these three DAPs. Also, I found that N5, X5ii, and AP100 with their mid-fi performance were on a different level in terms of sound quality. These DAPs definitely represent an excellent price/performance ratio and some might prefer their brighter and thinner signature, but they don’t reach the same level of dynamic performance (especially in terms of layering and separation) or have the same full body organic sound (if that’s your cup of tea).
Conclusion.
In the conclusion of my LP5 Gold review, I made an analogy with a high performance stripped down muscle car describing that DAP. With L5Pro, your muscle car now got some style to show off both its inner and outer beauty. Every single detail of this design screams Luxury, and it’s not just an eye-candy but also a cool audio gadget with a great user interface and a very impressive audio performance. It’s still a work in progress since L&P needs to address sorting issue (you have to sort folders and songs alphabetically, not by date), and I would like to see touch-swipe implemented for a smoother screen navigation. Perhaps being able to customize EQ would be great for those who want to fine tune synergy with their headphones, or add capability to tag songs for a playlist of favorite tunes, and hopefully USB DAC will be enabled soon. But if you take L5Pro as is now and consider its truly luxurious build quality, very practical touch and hardware controls, 32GB of on board memory and 128GB micro-sd expansion, 11+ hrs battery life (on DAP with 3.5” screen!!!), a detailed smooth dynamic layered sound, and a very competitive pricing – L&P L5Pro is one heck of a contender to challenge a lot of summit-fi DAPs!
on a separate note, I noticed you referenced the Adel U6, which I am VERY curious about...would a review be in the works?
Thanks again!