[BruceBanner]

  Hey thread is back! Wonder why it was locked a few days ago.
 
Anyway, after a week of use (3-5 hours a day) I figure I'd add/elaborate a few points.
 
~ I've gotten used to the UI lag a little, but my earlier comments still stand. In summary, not expecting phone responsiveness, but it is still worse than the 5 year old J3, I don't find this acceptable, even if others might. However, I'm confident cowon will improve it with future patches. 
 
~ Used it aprox 30 hours, and the battery meter is about 2/3rds full, which supports the 100 hour battery claim! Good stuff! I still haven't charged it since taking it out of the box.
 
~ At first I was confused by how the volume and track skip buttons were set up, how increasing volume/track number were facing 'opposite' directions on the player, unlike the J3, but that's more a case of getting used to something. And after a week of using it, I like it that way. Feels fine. Personally I would have liked the buttons to stick out a tiny bit more, but that's a nitpick.
 
~ Not a critique of the player itself. The case it came with isn't very good (not worth the $50 I see it sold separately for IMO). Lack of a screen flap. Mandatory for those of us who want to put the player in our bag and not worry about a camera or whatever impacting the screen. Yes the glass is scratch resistant, but a screen flap on the case is always welcome. You never know how hard something can accidentally hit it. I'll be buying a 3rd party case as soon as they become available.
 
~ When browsing through a list of files, the drag-scrolling area on the right edge of the screen is very hard to touch and drag. When you have 200 artist folders and you want to scroll from the As to the Ts, it can be finicky from how hard it is to hit that perfect spot on the right edge (which feels like it's only a few pixels wide). Somewhat worsened by the included case design.
 
~ I really miss the J3's ability to scale the font. In a player that's already a bit finicky (compared to previous players of the same company) to scroll through big lists of folders, I consider the lack of this feature to be more of a negative than it would be had the UI been much more responsive. See photo below, there's a lot of wasted space between lines. Again, when you have 200 folders to scroll through, you notice these potential improvements. Why they got rid of the zoom feature? I don't know. I hope they will add it back.
 

 
~ Once again, superb sound quality! No complaints there. I don't know whether it's the difference between jeteffect 3 and 5, or whether it's just the amp in this thing can betteer drive my cans than the J3 did, but it's just great! It also highlighted a few songs that I should reencode at a better bitrate that I didn't notice before.
 
To those who think I'm being way too negative, I do think it's a great player. I'm content with my purchase, though it's in collectively pointing out flaws that I hope companies will deliver better products in the future. Cowon will probably fix a number of things in future patches, as they have in the past. This player is superb hardware that (in my opinion) is somewhat let-down by its software. When you have hardware this good, software flaws just stick out more. At least to me.
 
Good job to cowon, and I look forward to future firmware improvements to make this great player even better.

 
- It got accidentally locked after I called some guy 'dense', threads were deleted and the temporary lock mistakenly left on. lol my bad. 
 
- I don't find it acceptable either, which is why I will pass for now until it is fixed or addressed (no high hopes here).
 
- Have we any evidence to support Cowon fixing lag issues on their devices? Bugs yes, even adding features, but I can't recall Cowon at anytime in the past on their older models actually fixing lag (tho am happy to be proved wrong). WYSIWYG I think is a safer assumption in this particular regard. Where hope lies is in the global community in releasing new and different UI's that may very well get around the lag due to an overhaul of UI.
 
- Yep I knew this would be an issue, I said as much in a previous post, and it might not just be restricted to scrolling but also in terms of hitting tiny icons (such as shuffle etc). These are the drawbacks of touchscreen devices, make the icons sizeable, on a smartphone icons are at a specific size for a reason, I can already see on this tiny screen icons that are far smaller than they should be, it's asking for trouble (especially due to their top corner cramped locations etc). Once again CUI may help get around this.
 
- I didn't know the J3 had a font zoom feature. I only came across a custom UI that supported zoom font feature on the C2 and it was very helpful indeed! Now all you need to do is pluck up the courage and install some C2 UI on it and see if it works xD.  On a serious note, when connected to PC what folders do you see on the Plenue D in windows explorer etc?
 
Anyway, thank you, you perfectly raised my concerns that I made a few threads back, somehow by not owning the device my thoughts and concerns should be ignored and thought of as heresy...

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

How would this compare with Sony a Walkmans?

 

[cloudscapes]

   
- It got accidentally locked after I called some guy 'dense', threads were deleted and the temporary lock mistakenly left on. lol my bad. 
 
- I don't find it acceptable either, which is why I will pass for now until it is fixed or addressed (no high hopes here).
 
- Have we any evidence to support Cowon fixing lag issues on their devices? Bugs yes, even adding features, but I can't recall Cowon at anytime in the past on their older models actually fixing lag (tho am happy to be proved wrong). WYSIWYG I think is a safer assumption in this particular regard. Where hope lies is in the global community in releasing new and different UI's that may very well get around the lag due to an overhaul of UI.
 
- Yep I knew this would be an issue, I said as much in a previous post, and it might not just be restricted to scrolling but also in terms of hitting tiny icons (such as shuffle etc). These are the drawbacks of touchscreen devices, make the icons sizeable, on a smartphone icons are at a specific size for a reason, I can already see on this tiny screen icons that are far smaller than they should be, it's asking for trouble (especially due to their top corner cramped locations etc). Once again CUI may help get around this.
 
- I didn't know the J3 had a font zoom feature. I only came across a custom UI that supported zoom font feature on the C2 and it was very helpful indeed! Now all you need to do is pluck up the courage and install some C2 UI on it and see if it works xD.  On a serious note, when connected to PC what folders do you see on the Plenue D in windows explorer etc?
 
Anyway, thank you, you perfectly raised my concerns that I made a few threads back, somehow by not owning the device my thoughts and concerns should be ignored and thought of as heresy...

 
~ Eh, it happens.
 
~ I'm just going to keep harping onto the lag. I do think it's the single biggest flaw it has. If they improve that, I would have no trouble recommending it to anyone.
 
~ They have fixed UI lag in the past. I bought the S9 shortly after it came out, and I remember a major patch improving responsiveness, pleasing everyone on forums I was on at the time. Also, a couple years back, I bought a used J3 which still had old stock firmware. Played around with it a bit, installed newer firmware, and the first thing I noticed was a boost in responsiveness. So yes, speaking from experience with 2 of their players, they do improve lag in patches, much to their credit. But my critique comes from the fact that these other players (the S9 and J3) are using 5+ year old tech, and the plenue D which just came out STILL has this issue. I don't find this acceptable anymore. They should be putting more of an effort into responsiveness before shipping a product now in 2015/16. 
 
At the time of the S9 and J3, laggy phones were still a thing. It was "acceptable", so it was easy to give the S9 and J3 a pass. And we were all happy when cowon improved it in patches. But now, in a premium player with premium 24/96 specs, I'd expect a LOT better. Not iphone/android smoothness, but certainly better than the 2010 J3, out of the box.
 
I just did a test. On the J3, scrolling through 200 folders takes 4 seconds. And without a hiccup. No accidental clicks. On the plenue D, it took more than 12 seconds to get through the same 200 folders. But it's not the main issue, there were accidental folder clicks and even hangs where the list scrolling would just completely stop as I was swiping it. To prevent those accidental clicks and hangs, I had to slow down my swipes, making the time it too for me to scroll through 200 folders close to 40 seconds.
 
If I'm on the street with bags in one hands, the DAP in the other hand, and it's freezing out, it's the difference between just a couple seconds to pick your next album/song on the J3, and 30-40 seconds to prevent misclicks on the plenue. In the real world, it makes a difference. Not acceptable in a player that's marketed as premium.
 
~ It just makes scrolling through hundreds of files finicky. 
 
The zoom is with the stock UI, never used any custom stuff on the J3 (on the S9 I did a bit). The J3 UI was good enough that I didn't feel the need to customize it. Lots of options in settings, the zoom, and good responsiveness (admittedly after a couple patches).

 

[BruceBanner]

   
~ Eh, it happens.
 
~ I'm just going to keep harping onto the lag. I do think it's the single biggest flaw it has. If they improve that, I would have no trouble recommending it to anyone.
 
~ They have fixed UI lag in the past. I bought the S9 shortly after it came out, and I remember a major patch improving responsiveness, pleasing everyone on forums I was on at the time. Also, a couple years back, I bought a used J3 which still had old stock firmware. Played around with it a bit, installed newer firmware, and the first thing I noticed was a boost in responsiveness. So yes, speaking from experience with 2 of their players, they do improve lag in patches, much to their credit. But my critique comes from the fact that these other players (the S9 and J3) are using 5+ year old tech, and the plenue D which just came out STILL has this issue. I don't find this acceptable anymore. They should be putting more of an effort into responsiveness before shipping a product now in 2015/16. 
 
At the time of the S9 and J3, laggy phones were still a thing. It was "acceptable", so it was easy to give the S9 and J3 a pass. And we were all happy when cowon improved it in patches. But now, in a premium player with premium 24/96 specs, I'd expect a LOT better. Not iphone/android smoothness, but certainly better than the 2010 J3, out of the box.
 
I just did a test. On the J3, scrolling through 200 folders takes 4 seconds. And without a hiccup. No accidental clicks. On the plenue D, it took more than 12 seconds to get through the same 200 folders. But it's not the main issue, there were accidental folder clicks and even hangs where the list scrolling would just completely stop as I was swiping it. To prevent those accidental clicks and hangs, I had to slow down my swipes, making the time it too for me to scroll through 200 folders close to 40 seconds.
 
The lag isn't something you notice much if you scroll through a couple folders slowly in front of a camera. It's a 'feeling' you get when you scrolling in the real world, then a misclick happens that shouldn't have, or it just doesn't scroll at all when your brain and your sense of touch tells you "huh, that shouldn't have done that just now". 
 
It's not *BAD*, but it's not as good as their older players. Not acceptable in a player that's marketed as premium.
 
~ It just makes scrolling through hundreds of files finicky. 
 
The zoom is with the stock UI, never used any custom stuff on the J3 (on the S9 I did a bit). The J3 UI was good enough that I didn't feel the need to customize it. Lots of options in settings, the zoom, and good responsiveness (admittedly after a couple patches).

 
That's good to hear about the S9 and J3 being improved, perhaps there is room for improvement yet. I'll adopt a wait and see approach tho realistically my money will be spent elsewhere, perhaps even with Cowon again in the form of a different offering from them (please please a i9 with microsd card!).

But yeh I agree, 2016, lag, premium price will = mass frustration for me. Pass for now.

 

[Deftone]

  You are 100% correct.  This device plays music and  that's it.  People get spoil with smartphones.  I'm not waiting more that a second to play music.  I'm good

+1 
 
if youre that obsessed with super smooth then buy and iphone 6s and add a chord mojo instead of bashing on something you dont want or own.
 
the difference is iphone and mojo is over £1k
 
the plenue D is £159.

 

[Raketen]

Not to mention the thousands of cheaper, lower powered devices made in the past 15 years that have negligible to no lag, including Cowon's own DAPs according to owners of both

. It's a totally fair criticism and good that people are aware of it before buying. Maybe I'm a little sensitive to this as a recent purchaser of AK Jr, I did not understand how frustrating though somewhat tolerable I would find it, and I have never experienced that kind of lag with another DAP (or phone, for that matter) before.

 

[cloudscapes]

  +1 
 
if youre that obsessed with super smooth then buy and iphone 6s and add a chord mojo instead of bashing on something you dont want or own.
 
the difference is iphone and mojo is over £1k
 
the plenue D is £159.

 
Personally, as someone who owns one, I just want the relative smoothness and responsiveness of cowon's own J3 back, from 2010.
 
No opinion on brucebanner's other comments, but I agree with him on lag. This amount of lag should no longer be acceptable. It doesn't need to be as smooth as an iphone, but it should at least match a J3 from 2010. Which it doesn't. I know, because I have both, side-by-side. And it's made worse by the other points I brought up, such as not being able to scale the list anymore, and the frequent misclicks/swipe hangs that the J3 doesn't have nearly as much.
 
There's a clear UI regression not compared to an iphone, but compared to cowon's older products.
 
That's the point some of us are trying to make.
 
Yes, it'll be improved over the year, but why wsn't it like this out of the box? They've obviously learnt how to make more responsive UIs back in 2010, and there have been many improvements in cost and power of embedded microcontrollers and SOCs since 2010 (I say this as someone who has a major hobby in DIY electronics, including projects using ARM and other 32bit microcontrollers).
 
Compare it to their own older products, not an iphone. Side-by-side as I have. The UI is still inferior in responsiveness and settings/features. It does the job, but it's still "less". I find it strange that a lot of people accept this as fine.
 
I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I'm just trying to make it a point that cowon, even though they've developed better hardware, seem to have forgotten how to make a feature-rich and responsive UI. Either that, or they rushed the plenue D out too fast before the firmware/UI got the love it needs, to be able to match cowon's older players.
 
It's a great player that's held back from being truly fantastic by a UI inferior to their older products.

 

[peareye]

  Jetaudio has it on their ebay site for $299
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COWON-Plenue-D-PD-High-resolution-music-player-32GB-Silver-Black-HiFi-24bit-/371525094957?hash=item56809f0e2d:gxkAAOSwT~9Wit56

Is it me or wasn't this 250.00 usd a couple of weeks ago????!!!!!!

 

[marlin29311]

With all the talk about the lag on the D, can anyone compare it to the M or the P1?

 

[cuiv]

Some more feedback on the player after using it for over two weeks for now.

1. UI

Yep it is pretty laggy. My problem is with the lag when swipe scrolling, and the fact that it is too easy to select a song or folder by mistake when doing so. That being said, I am not really annoyed by it since I typically listen album per album.

Weirdly enough the drag scrolling (via the scrollbar) is actually quite smooth and convenient, so that's the one that I use the most. There is a trick in getting hold of that scrollbar because it is only a couple of pixels wide. Now I am used to it and never miss, but come on Cowon please make that scrollbar tap area a good ten pixels wide!

Otherwise the button sizes are not a problem for me at all.

One weird quirk is that you can only access settings when playing a song.

2. Sound quality

I love the sound. I use MDR-A1 on this and just love being in a quiet room and being carried away by the music
The equalizer is good, although I feel that the bass setting is a bit high in their rock or pop selections, especially when couple with my earphones, which have a bit of bass leak into the kids already. The Classic setting is however perfect for classical music.

I don't hear any hiss whatsoever. Well I sometimes do, but then I realize it's part of the recording proper. I kind of enjoy being able to hear all of the small background noises of an orchestra thanks to the lack of hiss.

I don't use an amp BTW, most of my files are 16 bits 44.1 khz flacs (I can't for the life of me see the point of anything above but that is another topic).

Otherwise volume increments are very fine. I personally can't even tell the difference from one level to the next typically.

3. Battery life

It lasts forever. Pretty amazing, and for me very useful because I hate charging stuff. I can also happily forget to pause it or put it to sleep for a whole day without feeling any worse for it, which is great.

4. External design

It feels very small and a bit heavy, and overall very cute and easy to hold. It's winter right now so I don't notice it at all in the pocket of my jacket, but maybe in summer I'll feel differently?

The buttons are buttons, great for control while in pocket. The + on the volume up button is very prominent, and is enough to know what I'm touching immediately.

As I mentioned before, it is a bit weird that the forward button points to the bottom of the player but the volume up button points to the top of the player.

One thing I miss is a button lock that is easily accessible. It is in the settings, but too buried for me to use it often.

5. Price

Here in Japan it is 250 USD, same as the 32GB version of the sony nw-a25. The Sony has a smoother interface, is thinner but longer, has much worse battery life, but has features such as Bluetooth and noise cancellation for headphones with microphone. Not sure about the sound though.

All in all I am satisfied with this purchase, although the UI quirks are indeed there (but somehow don't bother me, really. Maybe it's because I'm used to lag).

 

[QsTree]

I really don't understand the whole story about the UI !!
 
Cowon will improve it step by step, if not I'm sure that CUIs will come soon. In my opinion the two most important things about the Cowon PD are the similarly sound quality and the long(er) playtime compared to the M / P1.
 
Jesus, the player ist just out now. We talk about the first or second FW version (1.02). I just remember the horrible FW story of the iBasso DX50. Same discussions at that time (& really crazy SW bugs). Eg the volume jumped from one second to the other to maximum. That was no fun. Okay, iBasso fixed it, but that was really an issue. Finally Rockbox was available on the DX50 and I love the sound of the DX50 by Rockbox.
 
Among others I owned the iAudio4 & 5 & J3 and currently I'm more than happy with my P1. The P1 was nearly perfect from the beginning but in the mean time 13 FW versions are available & have improved the P1 further more. Indeed I use the CUI with Asurada style on my P1. And some further CUIs are available for the M & P1.So it will be just a matter of time until CUIs will be available for the D. Just because the D is much more cheaper that the big brothers.
 
Nevertheless the playtime of < 8hrs is a drama on the P1 but that was clear from the beginning.
So now I will be happy to get hands on the PD with >50hrs. I hope that AMP3 will get the blackgold version on stock soon. Can't wait to compare the sound quality of the D vs P1. No, I will not write anything about the UI. Pros and cons have been already widely discussed and it is always the same, love it or hate it. There is nothing in between. Btw, if anyone is not happy with the UI of the D then I recommend the Colorfly C10. I've never seen a more basic UI on a brand new and so called Pocket HIFI Player.

 

[tds101]

I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active 64gb, and it was a priority over this ATM. I'll get this by summer, and most likely the updates will kill the (definitely minor) lag. I will probably see it at the original USA release price of $249 by then. Why it's available from the JetAudio store for $299 is beyond me. I personally think it warrants a $299 price tag,...but why pay more for it when you don't have to.

 

[taffy2207]

What are peoples experiences with sd cards?
 
Any compatibility issues with different brands?
 
Anyone tried going above the recommended 128GB?
 
My D's being delivered today and I don't think my 64GB card is going to cut it anymore. Meh, I love my music

 

[HiFiChris]

Mine should (hopefully) arrive tomorrow or on Friday, so I could test with my 200 GB SanDisk card. I think it should work as long as it is FAT32-formatted. Hopefully they'll enable other card formats with future FWs.

 

[taffy2207]

I'll probably go with a 128GB for now if I can find a decent deal but it's definitely worth knowing if it can do 200Gb for future reference