Introducing Lotoo PAW Gold

Well, I think we can agree all the daps pictured have stellar sound, and the "winners" would simply be a product of personal preference and pairing, at least that's my opinion.

audionewbi said:

  Also the hm901s is a tricky one to review, it has so many different amp board. I myself after getting a hold of the hm901s with the minibox Gold amp board. I am hoping it is essentially my calyx M with the sound of portaphile 627x in it.

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I heard it with two amp cards, but I preferred the balanced output.  It was the first time I'd heard authentically balanced headphones and it was a revelation.

It has taken me a while to post because I am busy rereading this entire thread to glean every detail. Yes, that is how interested I am in the PAW Gold.
 
I will not comment on SQ except to say that I get bored of most equipment tests in about 5 minutes but I listened to the LPG for well more than an hour (until I realised that I someone else was waiting to try it. That is the only reason that I stopped.) The last time that I got so drawn into an equipment test was demo'ing the Calyx M. I bought that a few days later. We will see if history repeats itself. I have some comparisons to do Monday.
 
(Yes, I have some SQ thoughts but please be patient.)
 
One thing I did accomplish was to master the brilliant OS. This player does not require Rockbox for the simple reason that it has copied Rockbox File Browsing and Active Playlist functions to a "T". (Okay, you don't have the choice of "insert next" or "insert last". Everything is "insert last". No biggie at all.) You have a true Active Playlist which I did not expect. (This is the same function as the Calyx M Jukebox.) From the File Browser you can right click on any song and have the option of adding it to one of the three playlist. Then in a few clicks you can start playing that list - for example, Playlist 1. From there, while you listen, you can go back to the File Browser and keep adding songs to that playlist. And you can return to the File Browser (or Playlist Browser) from the Now Playing screen at any time to add to (or edit) the playlist that you are listening to. You can also see the number of songs increase on the list count on the Now Playing screen
 
So a true on-the-fly Rockbox-style Active Playlist. Huzzah! In fact, it is suspiciously similar to Rockbox. Within the playlist you can right click on a song to remove it or change its order. The 'change order arrows" come straight from Rockbox. I am not complaining. Why reinvent the wheel. It is perfect.
 
And navigating around the File Browser is speed of light material. Everything on the LPG is speed of light.
 
Here is something interesting: We harangued Fiio (who are great guys) for quite some time to get them to have the File Browser remember your last position on the X5. Originally it kept putting you at the root directory whenever you re-entered from the Now Playing screen. Eventually they (pretty much) fixed that. Rockbox has always been the gold standard for letting you return to where you were in the File Browser. (We won't even comment on the Calyx M since - ahem, cough - it still does not have a File Browser.)
 
Well... the LPG does something different again - and I like it!. Whenever you enter the File Browser from the Now Playing screen, it takes you to the directory where the current song is playing. So if you are using a dynamic playlist, it will land you at the point where you are listening. The wheel then lets you quickly back out to Band, Genre (in my case), i.e. however your directories are structured. Me like this!
 
Moving between the File Browser (File Button) and Playlist Browser (List button) is super easy. So is the one-button access to the parametric equalizer which would have me really excited if I used EQ (I don't).
 
The screen is quite beautiful if you put it on high brightness. And I am not worried about battery life. I had the screen on continuously at high brightness for more than an hour, perhaps an hour and a half, listening to music as I played around with the OS - maximum brightness, maximum screen use, maximum processing - and the battery dropped from 69% to 55%. Nice!
 
I love how you can set the centre button to "Display". That frees the FN button for any of several other functions. I thought that "-20db Mute" function was pretty cool. (Is that my phone ringing? It is better than pausing play or spinning the volume control.)
 
You can reverse the direction of the Volume wheel from the CW increase to CCW increase - a nice touch.
 
The one thing I was sure of was that the OS would not be as good as the "M:use" OS on the Calyx M. I was wrong. If you have good directory structuring for your files (which I do), the speed, simplicity and Rockbox-style functionality of the LPG is quite superior to the laggy M:use OS. And don't get me wrong; I think that M:use is pretty sweet.
 
Lastly, the ergonomics in the hand are lovely. The volume wheel is easy to operate and never misses a precise click as indicated by the numeric onscreen volume display. The buttons are easy to reach and there are dedicated buttons for everything that there should be. It is a heavy player but really solid and surprisingly small (but thick). There would be real pride of ownership with this thing. It is lovely. Even that blingy wheel.
 
Glitche
I found one  glitch. On the Playlist Browser, there is an "ALL" entry which assumedly would show all songs from all playlists. You could then listen to them in a row, shuffle them etc. It kept insisting that it was empty, even though my playlists had songs. No biggie but a fix is needed there. (Edit: This was not a glitch after all. The LPG had not scanned my SD card which is actually a good thing. The database feature is a mistake that limits the number of songs that you can put on a card.) I found no other bugs.
 
Negatives
There is just one negative - and it is a big one. I found the gaps in 'gapless material' to be really annoying, even more so than with most DAPs that fail to do gapless. They are short but the sound goes from high volume to silent and sharply back to high volume. I am not sure why it is more egregious than expected but I really don't like it. I think that I can live with it but I sure hope that they fix it. I did not have the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway with me today. I will take that on Monday as the ultimate test.
 
So there - I left the worst to last. In practice, it will not usually be an issue anyway. I mostly listen to music using an Active Playlist to add songs on the fly. The LPG does that to Rockbox perfection.
 
In conclusion, in terms of OS, build and ergonomics, the Lotoo PAW Gold is quite a DAP. On Monday it will go head to head with the Calyx M on SQ. I will either walk home with the PAW or I will not.
 
(Today I listened 75% to the Lab 1 and 25% to the Heaven VI. Those are my preferred portable IEMs so the will be used on Monday again.)

kiats said:

I've been using the PAW intermittently all day since 12 hours ago. Of course I get dragged to meetings and all. But still... Look at the battery meter...

Oh yes! It works very nicely with the Ref1.

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I think that I have to decide if I am actually buying the LPG before I order this beautiful Dignis case. I have it bookmarked...  

cooperpwc said:

I think that I have to decide if I am actually buying the LPG before I order this beautiful Dignis case. I have it bookmarked...  

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Heheh! I have to agree. It's so well implemented & seamless with the LPG I sometimes forget it didn't come like this in the shipped package.

Amazing what is free on the Internet. Like this:
 
http://www.cuetools.net/wiki/CUETools_Download
 
Cuetools will take folders of your individual FLAC or ALAC files and convert them to a single FLAC file with a cue sheet. So long as the original files were ripped gapless (pretty much default these days), then you have an equivalent that will get around the annoying shortcoming of the LPG.
 
I will be testing converted files in the LPG tomorrow. They work in Foobar.
 
Ahoy, Lotoo... None of this is a substitute for getting gapless native on the PAW Gold. Cheers!   

Yea there are a lot of free software like that, foobar does it too, so does XLD for mac. I did mention it in my first post however as few members pointed we really shouldn't be needing to do this in order to have access to gapless which is something that is quiet essential in our hobby.
 
Also there is a limit on how the cuesheet work, if the list too long the last song wouldnt play and they will play as static noise. 

audionewbi said:

  Yea there are a lot of free software like that, foobar does it too, so does XLD for mac. I did mention it in my first post however as few members pointed we really should be needing to do this in order to have access gapless which is something that is quiet essential in our hobby.
 
Also there is a limit on how the cuesheet work, if the list too long the last song wouldnt play and they will play as static noise. 

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Unfortunately, the modern Foobar iterations insist on embedding the cue sheet in the FLAC image. Will that by read by the LPG? It probably has to be separate. (I will find out tomorrow anyway.)
 
(My files are all 16/44 so size is probably not going to be an issue. I might have an album with too many tracks.)

cooperpwc said:

   
Unfortunately, the modern Foobar iterations insist on embedding the cue sheet in the FLAC image. Will that by read by the LPG? It probably has to be separate. (I will find out tomorrow anyway.)
 
(My files are all 16/44 so size is probably not going to be an issue. I might have an album with too many tracks.)

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Yea that works too, I keep it both as I tend to use it with other devices but the emedded cue works too. I will check again and conform. 
 
Edit: Embedded cuesheet works in flac image. 

does Lotoo use Sabre 32bit chip?

Pcm1792, its right on the first page dude.

audionewbi said:

Pcm1792, its right on the first page dude.

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I want to buy this man...
Does it sound better than iBasso R10?

and where can I buy that leather case?

I had another great afternoon listening to the Lotoo Paw Gold. It is one fine piece of hardware. I was very close to buying it - I had the money with me and frankly expected to - but I could not quite the close the deal in my mind. There are a few factors at play, including that comparing the LPG with the Calyx M is affirmation that the M really is a fine DAP. Still I would like to own the LPG because the LPG + NXT-2AK + Lab 1 is a killer combination.
 
I am missing it already.
 
What spoiled the deal for me is the lack of gapless playback. As I learned doing my comparisons today, songs that run together are all over my music collection. And every time that the LPG stutters through the transition, I am frustrated anew. I cannot spend big bucks on that and be reminded everyday that the world is just not right.
 
It turns out that FLAC + Cue sheet (embedded or otherwise) is not a useful solution. All that you see is the single FLAC file and Cue sheet in the File Browser. Once you start playing, you can advance forward (and backwards) and the individual song title is shown on the Now Playing screen. But unless you go into a Playlist, you never see the individual songs to choose from. That is no solution for my purposes.
 
So I am worried that Lotoo will go big on the PAW 5000 - an inexpensive product that may not raise gapless expectations - and never follow through on gapless development for the PAW Gold. If they do implement gapless in a firmware update, I will seriously reconsider my situation. Go Lotoo... do it! 
 
I will post some impressions of the comparison between the LPG and the M a bit later when I get over my disappointment of coming home empty-handed.

Originally Posted by cooperpwc /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
What spoiled the deal for me is the lack of gapless playback.

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This. A pity, otherwise I'd have bought it, too.

kawaivpc1 said:

audionewbi said:

Pcm1792, its right on the first page dude.

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and where can I buy that leather case?

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http://dignis.co.kr/product/detail.html?product_no=87&cate_no=54&display_group=1