[HiFiChris]

My review is now online: http://kopfhoerer-lounge.blogspot.com/2017/12/Cowon-Plenue-J-Review-English.html#more

 

[Eggs is eggs]

Thoughts on Plenue D vs J? I'm going to buy one soon though leaning towards D due to lower cost and better battery life.

 

[Tottenham1962]

I was originally going to buy the D . but after reading that review by @HiFiChris , I'm going to get this.

The extra 32Gb of memory + design has won me over.

 

[iJay]

Looking at the specs on the PJ I noticed it supports WAV tagging. Has anyone tried this? I use Foobar2k which also supports WAV tagging as well.

 

[Mython]

Long time J3 owner, here, wondering if the Plenue J is better than Plenue D, or if the Plenue D firmware revisions improved the fluidity/responsiveness of the D up to a point where it can match the responsiveness of the Plenue J.

I prefer the form factor and battery life of the Plenue D, so I'd only go with the Plenue J if the Plenue D firmware revisions failed to improve its responsiveness.

Can anyone confirm, either way?

 

[kfarndog]

Long time J3 owner, here, wondering if the Plenue J is better than Plenue D, or if the Plenue D firmware revisions improved the fluidity/responsiveness of the D up to a point where it can match the responsiveness of the Plenue J.

I prefer the form factor and battery life of the Plenue D, so I'd only go with the Plenue J if the Plenue D firmware revisions failed to improve its responsiveness.

Can anyone confirm, either way?

No. The D is still very slow on start up and drags while you are using it.

 

[Mython]

Where does this sit then? Between the D and R?
Cowon are just going to start confusing people.

We're a few months later, now, so we all now know where the J sits, relative to its sister players in the range.

Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Cowon are endlessly spitting out new players, these days - it's got to the point where, in my view, their range is not only confusing but it has also become risky to buy a premium Cowon player, since it may be superceded within mere months, and it's secondhand resale value thus slashed, even though it may be in almost new condition.

Smartphone technology is continually moving on, and Cowon use quite a bit of that technology in their DAPs, what with their home country of Korea being a hotbed of the smartphone industry. However, DAP technology doesn't truly move as fast as smartphone tech, in spite of some overlap in terms of processors, RAM, and touchscreens. I am suspicious of the number of DAPs Cowon are releasing, these days. They can't be 'learning' that fast - in other words, I suspect they are releasing more models than is really justified by the speed of their DAP R&D and smartphone componentry advances.

It seems more like they have A&K SP1000 prices in their greedy little eyes, and they may have decided to reach that pricetag for their own DAPs by releasing numerous DAPs with incremental price increases.

I hope I'm wrong about that, but the sheer speed and number of their premium DAP releases just seems disingenuous to this onlooker, and I'm saying that even though I am a long-time fan of their obsolete entry-level J3. To be clear: the above remarks are aimed more at Cowon's premium DAPs than at their entry-level stuff like the D and J, but, even there, I find myself shaking my head when I see that 7 years or more of R&D has resulted in 2 DAPs which are barely any improvement over the brilliant little J3, and, in some respects, are inferior to the J3!

God only knows what's really going on at Cowon HQ these days...

 

[Mython]

Considering how active the Plenue D thread is, I'm surprised how quiet this Plenue J thread is.

I haven't owned a D but I'm now a Plenue J owner, and I have mixed feelings about it. The hardware is basically OK, for a middle-of-the-road player (although the back panel is appallingly cheap & nasty, and will attract dirt and deteriorate sooner than the rest of the player). However, the firmware is (IMO) the weakest part of the player - I am not joking when I say it is inferior to the old J3 firmware. That's just shameful, Cowon!

I feel the old J3 firmware should be ported to run on the Plenue J, and that the Plenue J should be reduced in price. There are a lot of competing DAPs above & below this pricepoint which make the unnecessary shortcomings of the Plenue J unacceptable at the asking price. Cowon have clearly not worked as hard as they should've done, for Plenue J customers. The J3 has served me incredibly well, for several years (best work-a-day DAP I've ever owned in my life), and now it's reached the end of its lifespan, I find Cowon have barely advanced at all, at the entry level of their range, and in some significant respects, have gone backwards.

Does this mean the Plenue J isn't worth buying? That's a tricky question to answer, when there are so many worthy competitors in the market, for similar money. At this point, I'd say consider very carefully what competing products are offering, and, if you still like the Plenue J, then it's a reasonably good player. I'm just cheesed-off because I have every right to expect that the Plenue J should be significantly improved, over the 7 yr old J3, and instead I find it can barely keep up with it, in terms of usability. WTH??

 

[Eggs is eggs]

I was eyeing the Plenue D for a while, when the J came out I thought it was the successor but it didn't seem to be completely better than the D and since it was $100 more expensive and had less battery life, I ended up going for the D which I am happy with so far.

 

[Ultrainferno]

https://www.headfonia.com/review-cowon-plenue-j/

A review by Nathan with comparisons to other Cowon DAPs

 

[audioaudioaudio]

I was eyeing the Plenue D for a while, when the J came out I thought it was the successor but it didn't seem to be completely better than the D and since it was $100 more expensive and had less battery life, I ended up going for the D which I am happy with so far.

I did the same, bought a Plenue D at the start of this month for £180 and am really liking it. The battery on my ipod classic has practically given up and I wanted a replacement. I will probably get a Sony ZX-300 further down the line but for now the D looked like a great option.

At the time I thought about the Plenue J, from the photos it looks nicer but the D is tiny (so surpsingly so when you hold it) with a huge battery life. Agree that the OS / UI is far from perfect and was almost put off by the song / sd card limit but still very happy I went for the D, I don't really see much lag and it doesn't take too long to update the database when needed. For its price I think it's great value. The J on the other hand seems to be identical to the D with less battery life, £100 more and no improvements except an unnecessary face lift.

I also almost went for a Cayin N5ii but a quick scan of that thread and the new 'Issues with Cayin N5ii' thread I'm pretty happy I also didn't take the plunge for that! Seems amazing value but I guess the problems show why.

 

[Mython]

.... it doesn't take too long to update the database when needed.

"When needed" - do you mean you can disable it from updating the database each time it powers-on? Have you achieved this by using the deep-sleep mode?

 

[audioaudioaudio]

Have you achieved this by using the deep-sleep mode?

Yeah I just keep it in Sleep Mode

 

[Mython]

Yeah I just keep it in Sleep Mode

Yeah... thought so...

I was doing the same thing with my J, but sleep-mode was flattening the battery too frequently, which goes against one of the reasons I bought it (also bear in mind the J has about half the battery duration as D).

Honestly, I think it's stupid, stupid, stupid that Cowon can't do something as SIMPLE as allow users to disable automatic database updating during power-on/boot-up. It's face-palm level of stupidity.

The database could so easily be updated manually, by the user, on rare occasions when the contents of the memory have been changed.

I know I'm not the only Cowon owner who is frustrated by their ineptitude with such SIMPLE firmware oversights. And what idiot developer reverses the direction of the track keys, for no logical reason??

They haven't even had the common decency to upload the already-existing firmware to their website, should users need to un-brick their DAP, in the event of internal memory corruption.

As you can probably tell, I'm cheesed-off with Cowon.

I've gone from singing their praises, the past few years, for the little masterpiece that was the J3, to having a very low opinion of them for their attitude towards D and J customers, since recently buying a J.

 

[Ravix_04]

Got my J today, bought it second hand bu in NM condition (used less then 30min) of eBay and I have to say...what an awesome tiny player it is
Man, when I first packed it up I assumed it was going to be a lot bigger, but it's almost exactly half the size of my 6" U11 Plus...
Really happy so far, was so dissapointed with my last purchase...the low-playing Sony NWZ-ZX1. Couldn't deal with it and I'm now finally experiensing higher levels again. Had a S9 back in the days for about 7 years or so before it became weird acting with the headphone-jack wich gave on/off going sounds. Had it for 7 years or so, so I can't complain. But I've now realized that there is only one manufacturer out there who knows how to make greataudio-players.
Best purchase in years so far.