[BruceBanner]

I'm confused;
 
1) that's not my pic
2) that is a M2
 
I'm saying once a D is opened up we can compare the two.

 

[TDanz]

Wow cool..so this is Plenue D, the M2's siblings
Does the issue is right about the difference between Plenue D and M2 just on their screen?
how about their SQ? Do they have same SQ?

 

[jmills8]

First someone has to have heard one of these daps or best have heard both.

 

[globiboulga]

Given the price range, I would expect the quality to be descent. Anything more would basically mean that this will be a great value little player. Given the resistive screen has always been the key issue with the D2 / M2, that would make it a great little replacement.
 
Now, given that I have been burned by the D3 in terms of performance (underpowered), and the first videos that are floating around, I would also wait for thorough reviews to be done on this. It is unacceptable that in 2015 a dedicated music player like this does not have flawless performance and battery life.

 

[BruceBanner]

I think many of us would agree that we would quite happily have a 3rd of the battery life for twice the performance. Cowon have a reputation for recycling old parts and I think we're seeing the same here with the D. They've bunged a Ferrari shell on a Lada engine lol. I just can't get excited for this as I think we're all getting duped again, yes it LOOKS nice (often many of their DAPs look nice and are advertised well), but for that kinda cash I'd expect more vavavoom!

 

[gelocks]

  I think many of us would agree that we would quite happily have a 3rd of the battery life for twice the performance. Cowon have a reputation for recycling old parts and I think we're seeing the same here with the D. They've bunged a Ferrari shell on a Lada engine lol. I just can't get excited for this as I think we're all getting duped again, yes it LOOKS nice (often many of their DAPs look nice and are advertised well), but for that kinda cash I'd expect more vavavoom!

 
I would have to agree...
Darn it Cowon!!!
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!!

 

[Photoman]

I would have to agree...
Darn it Cowon!!!
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!!

it's funny how some of you complain and never heard it or play with it. I had it since Friday night. It's sounds good but not better than P1 of course. Better than my fiio X1 I had firmware V.1.1 less lag than the one in video. Some software issues but can be fixed. A well built small player. A nice sleep mode like (wake up) is also great. Build is niceeeee. Battery is incredibly especially the sound that's comes out. That's it for now

 

[BruceBanner]

it's funny how some of you complain and never heard it or play with it. I had it since Friday night. It's sounds good but not better than P1 of course. Better than my fiio X1 I had firmware V.1.1 less lag than the one in video. Some software issues but can be fixed. A well built small player. A nice sleep mode like (wake up) is also great. Build is niceeeee. Battery is incredibly especially the sound that's comes out. That's it for now

You don't need to hear or play with it to make your mind up about something. How many of us have made our purchasing choices around reading forums and reviews :S

A Youtube vid displaying the kind of lag interaction is a very good indicator of how it will be, that is unless it is inaccurate in someway and irl far less painful or fixed with an update. But as it stands from that vid, if it is the same or only slightly improved then my comments still whole validity. Perhaps lag worsens or improves depending upon database, have you noticed a difference with sd card in or out? If you feel the lag is not as bad do you care to make a video for us?
You have basically confirmed everything I have speculated, build is nice (ferrari analogy), not on par with P1 sound (so more like a M2 prolly), tho what headphones are you testing with? Have you done any A/B testing so far semi properly with the P1? I'm not 'getting at you', it's just till I bought a A/B switch myself, I was extremely guilty of praising any new DAP and inaccurate in my sound assessment due to 'new toy syndrome'. Once I sat down and A/B switched more closely I got far higher (and often more disappointing) assessment of a new toy.

 

[marlin29311]

 
Pls no hate here, I have owned a X5, D2, O2, C2, i9, i9+, E2 and E3, I love them, but always I take each device at face value and make decisions accordingly. This Plenue D is really a M2 with a capacitive screen, their using the 'Plenue' name to whack on an additional $200AUD on it just because they can and it'll work.

 
Not sure that this would be the case here...M2 doesn't support Hi-Res audio - only does up to 44/16 FLAC - this new "D" can handle up to 192/24 (but sadly no DSD) - I would have to assume that there is at least a change in DAC at the very least.  Just my .02.
 
Now my questions - I've been looking for a new DAP to replace my J3.  I've initially been pretty gung ho about the Sony NW-ZX100 (moreso than the AW-27), as other people in the ZX-100 thread talk about how good it is and compared it to the J3.  I generally use Ultimate Ears 900s IEMs, but want to buy Sony MDR-1A's to have as well.  I have been told that the power output from the ZX-100 should be sufficient to drive both of those options, so would that hold true here too?

 

[BruceBanner]

   
Not sure that this would be the case here...M2 doesn't support Hi-Res audio - only does up to 44/16 FLAC - this new "D" can handle up to 192/24 (but sadly no DSD) - I would have to assume that there is at least a change in DAC at the very least.  Just my .02.
 
Now my questions - I've been looking for a new DAP to replace my J3.  I've initially been pretty gung ho about the Sony NW-ZX100 (moreso than the AW-27), as other people in the ZX-100 thread talk about how good it is and compared it to the J3.  I generally use Ultimate Ears 900s IEMs, but want to buy Sony MDR-1A's to have as well.  I have been told that the power output from the ZX-100 should be sufficient to drive both of those options, so would that hold true here too?

You could be right, it's innards a bit better than M2, but so much better it warrants twice the price? Personally I have abx tested FLAC against mp3's and cannot ascertain the difference, so I'm rarely convinced of any High Res argument.
 
Powerwise I'd expect fine for yer IEMs, perhaps not for yer cans. The vast majority of size of that Plenue D will be battery, not amp components. If yer looking to drive yer cans adequately then I would recommend something more along the 'boutique' line of DAPs, you know... the ones that give out only 10hrs battery life etc as they seem to have the components inside built for powering cans better.

I'm not a can lover, tho I do own a couple of pairs, and my Hidizs AP100 certainly drives them better than my Cowons. I'd expect Cowon's M and P1 to do the job better, but not all cans are made equal, it maybe that those specific ones you mention will be fine.

What I have learned is that cans vary enormously in terms of sound quality depending upon ampage. I own Samson SR950 Studio Monitors, they are incredibly difficult to drive, connected to say just a Fiio E7 amp makes it sound better, but when using in the Fiio E7+E9 USB DAC dock combo it's another thing entirely, the cans really open up and I hear the full potential of them (which makes sense as being Studio Monitors they are intended to being connected to higher sources that what usual OTG setup can give).

My point being that you may always be 'unsettled' as to what you might be able to hear from the cans if you had amped, and indeed even those users who buy boutique DAPs still amp ontop of that to drive their cans sufficiently. Sadly to find out if that is necessary for you might result in you buying a separate amp and testing.

 

[marlin29311]

 
You could be right, it's innards a bit better than M2, but so much better it warrants twice the price? Personally I have abx tested FLAC against mp3's and cannot ascertain the difference, so I'm rarely convinced of any High Res argument.
 
Powerwise I'd expect fine for yer IEMs, perhaps not for yer cans. The vast majority of size of that Plenue D will be battery, not amp components. If yer looking to drive yer cans adequately then I would recommend something more along the 'boutique' line of DAPs, you know... the ones that give out only 10hrs battery life etc as they seem to have the components inside built for powering cans better.

I'm not a can lover, tho I do own a couple of pairs, and my Hidizs AP100 certainly drives them better than my Cowons. I'd expect Cowon's M and P1 to do the job better, but not all cans are made equal, it maybe that those specific ones you mention will be fine.

What I have learned is that cans vary enormously in terms of sound quality depending upon ampage. I own Samson SR950 Studio Monitors, they are incredibly difficult to drive, connected to say just a Fiio E7 amp makes it sound better, but when using in the Fiio E7+E9 USB DAC dock combo it's another thing entirely, the cans really open up and I hear the full potential of them (which makes sense as being Studio Monitors they are intended to being connected to higher sources that what usual OTG setup can give).

My point being that you may always be 'unsettled' as to what you might be able to hear from the cans if you had amped, and indeed even those users who buy boutique DAPs still amp ontop of that to drive their cans sufficiently. Sadly to find out if that is necessary for you might result in you buying a separate amp and testing.

I do know that the MDR-1A is very easy to drive, with only 24 ohm impedance - people have said that their older siblings, the MDR-1R, with the same impedance, are driven just fine by the NW-ZX100, which only outputs 15+15 mW.  One would hope it would be ok, but I do have a high end sound card in my PC (the Sound Blaster ZxR), so I defiantly have something to benchmark against whether or not I would need an external amp.
 
Kind of hoping that this new Plenue does become what I want it to be though - I love my J3, but it's starting to do some random shutdown/freezing nonsense so I want to move on at this point.

 

[BruceBanner]

I think the Plenue D will be a sufficient replacement for the J3 (albeit laggy). You might find the M2 even acceptable, soundwise I doubt anyone will be able to tell the two apart under proper conditions. Yes the screen is resistive on the M2, but I have heard by a few that it is acceptable for navigating, possibly even less laggy than the D lol. I have also heard you can use the tactile controls and by pass the touch screen as well to navigate around, a def bonus. There are also UCI's available now for the M2 to change the way the device handles.
For me, at the end of the day the two gadgets are both Audio devices, screen quality is not high on my list when in reality it will mostly be off and I'll be using my ears to enjoy the experience the most. I'd rather may half the amount and get a lada shell and a lada engine than pay twice the price for a ferrari shell and lada engine. YMMV

Back in the day when AMOLED was a big deal on DAPs people were still converting video files etc. Back then screen quality WAS important. These days with smartphones so prevalent, not so much.
I'm about to jump on a plane for a long haul flight, I could take my C2, convert a billion files so it can play ok on it, or... i can just do zero file conversions, take a few sd cards/usb sticks and extra batteries for my phone and watch on a far higher screen quality...

Screen quality is a funny thing (on a DAP).
 
Many were happy with the Clip+, something that provides pure data and no album art, then came along the Clip Zip with it's ghastly screen quality (really... why bother at all!). Resistive can be a little like this too, washed out, crappy viewing angle, clearly not something to really 'show off', AMOLED capacitive much better. But in the end it comes down to how much one interfaces and uses a DAP. These days I connect most of my DAPs to the PC in the morning, make a m3u file and hit play, I then use the tactile buttons to skip or change volume slightly, really for me there is hardly any interfacing with a DAP at all. I find PC software (such as Foobar or Winamp) far more enjoyable experience to use to 'set up' the music for the day on the DAP. I can browse albums/artists quicker, enjoying album art view in a fluid and lag free environment, I have kinda replaced most DAPs limited UI with a PC, at least for the setting up part.
 

 

[JBThazard]

Can someone please spend an extra $200 dollars on an M2, compare it to the Plenue D and end these speculation wars? This thread died pages ago....

 

[BruceBanner]

  Can someone please spend an extra $200 dollars on an M2, compare it to the Plenue D and end these speculation wars? This thread died pages ago....

 
How many Cowon's have you owned? Anyone who has owned a ton of Cowons will tell you that they all sound virtually the same. The exception would be the P1 and M, due to their weak battery life will have more power hungry components, but the sound signature will still be very similar. Add to this fact that Cowon carry arguably the widest array of DSPs seen on a DAP, if one does have a slightly wider soundstage or warmer presence or what not I'm sure with the right patience and knowledge they could subtly tweak the DSP to being in the same league. Point is Cowon do good sound, you should base decisions based on price and features more than worrying exactly about comparisons.

Anyway, someone needn't spend an additional $200 to compare, you could visit a store (such as Minidisc in Australia) and try them out and compare. I'm sure Advancedmp3players in the UK will stock both, those are just two stores I know off the top of my head, I'm sure many other places exist around the world to compare. Stateside you guys seem to have a better return policy also.

 

[gelocks]

it's funny how some of you complain and never heard it or play with it. I had it since Friday night. It's sounds good but not better than P1 of course. Better than my fiio X1 I had firmware V.1.1 less lag than the one in video. Some software issues but can be fixed. A well built small player. A nice sleep mode like (wake up) is also great. Build is niceeeee. Battery is incredibly especially the sound that's comes out. That's it for now

 
The comments I agreed to doesn't have ANYTHING to do with how it reproduces music, but on the assumption of what Cowon as a company LIKES to do...
 
"Cowon have a reputation for recycling old parts and I think we're seeing the same here with the D. They've bunged a Ferrari shell on a Lada engine lol. I just can't get excited for this as I think we're all getting duped again, yes it LOOKS nice (often many of their DAPs look nice and are advertised well), but for that kinda cash I'd expect more vavavoom!"
 
But since you are an owner, enlighten us... Have you had any other Cowon players? Are the JetEffect settings different from their other players? Have you loaded it with a full microSD card and see if it's as responsive? Tell us more.
Especially how it compares to the FiiO X1 which can be had for less than a hundred bucks... #sarcasm (just to prove a point... Price might be more for aesthetics than performance).
 
I still think (that with the exception of battery life), the Sony NWZ-A17 is still one of the best options (plus it has Wifi, BT, etc.). Just wanted to see if Cowon had made something spectacular!
 
Thanks.