*edit 15/07: Cowon have updated their website to reflect the firmware 1.10 updates - the product info now includes support for DSD, DFF and SACD file formats, and images show the updated black/orange UI theme which is similar to the UI found on the higher end Plenues.
Right... let’s just get this out of the way to start with: who the hell would buy this player? 3.5mm audio only, no balanced out, no USB DAC function, no Bluetooth, no wireless, in 2018!? And the look – you’re either going to love it or hate it, but it looks a bit like a spaceship. Well, curiosity got the better of me and the Plenue V made me think of that saying when someone screws something up and an onlooker says “you only had one job”. In this case, the Plenue V has one job, and I started to wonder just how good it would be at that job. That curiosity was added to by the profound lack of any reviews in English on the interwebs.
So, thank me later interwebs, but I spent my hard-earned cash on one of these crazy DAPs just to find out what it’s like. That, and I figured my interest in the player came down to three things:
One thing that intrigued me about the Plenue V is that it contains the CS43131 chip which is both a DAC and amp. A lot is made of a player’s DAC chip here on head-fi, but the tide seems to be turning a bit where people are paying more attention to other components such as the amp and power supply, which color the sound and are important determinants of the overall sonic characteristics of a player. I think it’s an interesting, and perhaps risky, move for a DAP manufacturer to use a combined off-the-shelf DAC+amp combo – it leaves them less room to claim that they’ve added their own “secret sauce” to the sound or painstakingly trialled various amp pairings to hunt out the best one for you. On the other hand, Cirrus Logic chips have been used in a lot of well-received players in the last few years and I’m more than comfortable leaving the amp component decisions in the hands of the engineers at Cirrus Logic as well, who in my books clearly know their stuff.
So far the CS43131 and its predecessor the CS43130 have mainly been used in mobile phones – the Samsung S8 and S9 Exynos editions, Meizu Pro 7 and Nexum AQUA+ wireless headphone DAC/amp.
Why buy a dedicated DAP using a chip mainly used in cell phones? You can see right on Cirrus Logic’s site that the CS43131 has the highest specs on paper of any of their range, equal to the CS43198, now used in players such as Opus #1S and A&norma SR15: https://www.cirrus.com/solutions/playback/hifi/#psearch. Plus, this is actually the first time Cowon have used a Cirrus Logic chip in their players, as far as I’m aware. Reviews on Cowon’s Korean language site (plenue.cowon.com; which are embedded as images so not easily google-translatable), include measurement graphs which are universal in any language, and pointed to some great specs on paper for this DAP. Plus, one of the main drawcards (for me at least) of the Cowon players is their incorporation of JetEffect DSP – so here I think is where Cowon can claim they do have their own secret sauce added to the mix. A Cirrus Logic DAC/amp chip with great specs on paper + JetEffect? Count me intrigued.
Comparisons:
I’m a minimalist and prefer to only own a few audio items that I use heavily, so typically sell off my previous DAPs/DACs/headphones when I get additional gear. So at present the only DAP I have to do direct comparisons is the Plenue R. But I’ve owned various others and will provide some indirect comparisons and thoughts in the conclusion below.
I have a ZX300 on order from Joybuy, which is taking ages to get here, so will update this review once that has arrived and I have it burned in. There’s approximately 40 hours of burn in on the Plenue V at writing, perhaps 80 on the Plenue R single-ended and 30 on the Plenue R balanced out.
Headphones:
Comparisons were made with both Plenues set to fast, low latency DAC filters, since both players have these options and I haven’t really noticed much difference between filters on the R.
Sound:
My first impressions were that the detail retrieval on the V is fantastic, and that impression has not changed at all with use. I get that clichéd hi-fi experience of noticing extra details in music I know well, and it’s been some time since I had experience. I’m sure most people on head-fi are sick of hearing that impression, since it truly is a cliché, but I can’t deny that’s what my ears hear. Pity I no longer have a Chord Mojo to compare, but I feel like the detail retrieval of the V would be right up there.
The V has a good spread of energy across the whole bass, mid, treble spectrum, and keeps the separation between instruments nicely spaced in busy sections – the emotion and intensity of the track can pick up, but the player doesn’t feel like it struggles.
With the R, I feel like the energy and focus of the sound is more on the upper mids and treble; in that sense, the R is reminiscent of the IFi sound –bright and with a mid-treble centric sound. Personally, I was hoping the R would be my go-to player when I bought it earlier this year, and I don’t want to bad mouth it as it’s a great player and certainly no slouch. I preferred it over the Plenue M I previously had, which sounded veiled in comparison. The R offered more detail and a more neutral sound and I concluded I preferred the R to the M after direct comparisons. But, the R definitely has a different presentation in the low end to the M – the bass is there, but it doesn’t have quite the same solidity and impact as I’d like. That improves to some extent with the balanced out, and I feel that the R reaches its full potential from the balanced rather than single-ended out.
The V has a bass presence more like the M, there’s an extra weight to it that I don’t get with the R, and the V to my ears sounds weightier than the balanced out of the R. I can’t be certain, but I think this sound impression may reflect the output power of the respective players– the M is 2.0 Vrms, the R 1.4 Vrms on single-ended, with 1.6 Vrms on the balanced, while the V has 1.7 Vrms output.
All in all, the stereo imaging on the V is great, there’s balance across the bass, mid and treble spectrum, it keeps control in complicated passages, and detail retrieval is excellent. The V presents a very immersive sound, and I find myself with a stupid grin on my face where it feels like everything just comes together as it should and you connect with the music rather than thinking about the player and its pros and cons.
Headphone pairings: Personally, I find the combination with the B&W P7s is more to my liking with the V than the Meze 99 classics. Both sound great, but JetEffect settings like BBE or incremental adjustments to Mach3Bass give a deeper bass response on the P7s, compared to a more mid-bass elevation on the 99 classics, and I do likes me some deep rumbles…mmmm….
Burn in: I should note that straight out of the box and during the first 10 hours or so of use, I did note some prominent vocal “S”s, depending on the track being played - like sibilance but without any glare on cymbals that can occur with sibilant sources. It was present with both headphone pairings of B&W P7s and 99 classics. But, that has eased with use. I’m not sure how far into burn-in it disappeared but I haven’t noticed any S’s jumping out at me for some time.
DSD: Interestingly, I had been thinking when I bought the V that the CS43131 product page on the Cirrus Logic website says it can handle DSD256 playback, but there wasn’t any mention of DSD support on the Plenue V documentation. That has changed with the 1.10 firmware update just released – Cowon added DSD support up to DSD 64/128 (but no mention of DSD256) as well as extra FLAC file support (it isn’t stated exactly on the firmware release what extra is supported, but I presume higher res options given DSD support was also added). Cowon should really update the product marketing info on their websites to match. After downloading a DSD sample file (from https://www.oppodigital.com/hra/dsd-by-davidelias.aspx) I can confirm DSD playback works too, with a little DSD icon appearing at the top of the screen (see photo) where the equaliser icon typically sits. JetEffect settings aren’t applied to DSD playback.
DAC filters: The CS43131 has five filter settings:
The non-oversampling filter is different again to the others. I’d heard talk of non-oversampling DAC filters on head-fi but had never heard a non-oversampling source before. The change is quite interesting, bringing a sound that can seem more lifelike and organic, like hearing a live performance. The balance of bass, mid and treble is altered; the emphasis seems to shift higher towards the mids with less thickness in the bass register, although bass can still go quite deep when called for, and the overall sound can seem a bit airier. Even though it may seem contradictory – given I’ve just described it as more organic – at times I feel like the presentation on non-oversampling can come across a bit more digital, depending on the track being played. Which of these is “best” no doubt depends on the track and the sound you’d like.
Other non-sound stuff
Unboxing: comes in a black box, minimalist, like all other Plenue boxes, you open it, there’s your Plenue V inside, a Cowon-branded micro-USB cable, warranty card & quick start guide.
Memory: the Plenue V has 64 GB of built-in memory. That also houses the system files etc. so out of the box there’s 59 GB of usable memory (the player does come with four free files in FLAC format and multiple language options of the manual pre-loaded, which could be deleted). The microSD slot takes cards up to 128 GB; sorry, I haven’t got any larger capacity cards to try out and see if they’d work too. But the Cowon manual states the built-in memory can handle 8000 files and 4000 folders, and the microSD card 16000 files and 8000 folders. So there may be a firmware limit to the amount of microSD memory the player can handle anyway due to this file limit. microSD cards above 64 GB have to be FAT32 formatted.
UI: I group the Cowon players in two tiers:
I was going to start this review saying the Plenue V has the same UI design as the Plenue D and J. If you haven’t used any of these lower-tier models, I’ll say that personally I find the UI pretty intuitive and easy to use and think most people won’t have any problems. I say “was going to” as with the 1.10 firmware upgrade the UI has changed somewhat – the V now has the same “database update” graphic on start-up, and UI theme designed to match the black & orange menus of the higher tier players. The orange highlighting in menu items is an orange pixellation (see photo - visible on "Dawn of Ashes" menu item), but the emulation of the higher tier players is there. In addition, there’s a new skin for the “Now playing” screen which matches the A skin on the higher tier players. The other skins on the V include the typical brown themed skins used on the D and J. One thing I didn’t realise until comparing the A skins on the V and R side-by-side, is that the V shows the actual time elapsed and total track time at the bottom (see photo) – the R includes various options for time display, but shows a count of elapsed seconds, which isn’t as intuitive. The A skin on the V also drops off the bottom line options of “Folder/track boundary”, “Repeat all” etc. – personally I think it’s better without and had been wondering how to drop those on the R and my previous Plenue M, as I would accidentally hit shuffle or set the boundary as one track only, then be confused why tracks weren’t playing in the expected order. So in all, the firmware 1.10 update is quite a step up in the UI usability.
UI lag: the Plenue D had a laggy interface. It’s still a well-loved player and when I owned one didn’t find it too much hassle – I tend to find an album I want to listen to, hit play and listen through, so a UI that had a slight delay didn’t bother me. I haven’t tried the J, but from reviews I’ve read and videos I’ve seen it doesn’t have the same extent of lag as the D. It seems it’s still not as snappy as the upper tier players, but not as slow as the D. The V is probably the same as the J – it’s slightly slower than the UI on the R, but in all honesty it’s not too bad, and I think was improved somewhat with the 1.10 firmware release. Scrolling through lists isn’t as smooth on the V, due to a touch of lag and that fewer items in a list are visible on the smaller screen. Probably the most laggy function is when you switch to the “now playing” screen, which is when the player needs to load the album artwork. At first I would hit the “now playing” icon twice, wondering why the screen wasn’t changing, but now I’ve got used to it and remember that there’s a small delay, it’s not really a problem.
Volume: The Plenue V has a volume dial which goes up to 140, like the higher tier players, compared to 100 for the D and J. Also, the V remembers the volume setting from the last session – so comes back at the same volume when you power it up again. The 1.10 firmware also added “Hearing protection” which I think means if you really want, you can purposely turn on the volume limitation for the EU if you’re in a non-EU region – how thoughtful of them!
Database update on start-up: The Plenue UI updates the database on start-up (for all Plenue models). When I first loaded music on the V it took a good few minutes to update the music database, with around 100 GB of files on the microSD card. With subsequent start-ups it seems that the update function just scans for new/changed files, because when I turn the player on/off now it’s about 14-15 seconds from hitting the power button until it’s ready to go (without any tracks being changed). On the R it’s slightly shorter at 11-12 seconds with the same microSD card. So yeah, some people hate the database update but it’s over quick and doesn’t bother me.
Battery life: Cowon claim 27 hours of playback with FLAC files on their website. My whole music collection is FLAC, either 16 or 24 bit. In normal use I haven’t actually managed to run the battery down yet – I’ve reconnected the player to the computer to load new music or update the firmware before the battery has run out. So for regular use, that means the battery life is great and doesn’t leave me high and dry.
Power button/LED: unlike the other Plenues which have the power button on the top right of the player, the Plenue logo LED on the back is actually the power button on the Plenue V. So that means you have to press your finger around the back and hold it to turn the DAP on/off, and tap it to turn the screen off. Once you’re used to it, it’s quite intuitive. Also if you hold the player in one hand, and use the other to navigate using the screen, the way your hand cradles the player means it’s actually quite simple to use your index finger to hit the P button. Like other Plenues the light glows red when the battery is low or while charging, and green when fully charged. In the menu settings you can set whether the LED is on or off during playback to save batter life - when on, it flashes blue intermittently to indicate that the player is on when the screen is off (see photo).
Miscellaneous: In the UI settings you can also change the L/R balance, and the 1.10 firmware also added playback speed adjustment – something that was previously on the J3 (and I think S9) but so far I haven’t seen on any other Plenue model.
Ergonomics/Usability: Damn this thing is small. I’d read the dimensions beforehand and knew it would be, but somehow the stand-alone photos on the Cowon website make it look bigger – perhaps it’s the unusual shape. But when you get it in person it’s not much bigger than the D. The specs on the Cowon website show it’s the same width as the D and J, and the length in between the D and J. It’s 6 g heavier than the D, and about 50-90 g lighter than the bigger Plenues like the R, M, 1 and 2. So it’s highly portable.
Lay the V on its back and it sits slightly on an angle, like in the photo below. It means the screen is angled towards your line of sight. But - due to the player being so light, and sitting the way it does on its back, it doesn’t take much force to spin it around when you have it sitting on a desk. So, for example, the headphone cable dangling off the side of desktop can spin the player around so it doesn’t face you anymore. Then you have to re-right it when you want to use the menus again etc. The black rubbery material on the back is slightly grippy, and so far I haven’t had a headphone cable or anything actually pull it off the desk, but depending on the surface and size of a long, heavy cable I think that could be a possibility. But well, that’s the physics of a small and light player.
Overall, the player is nice and portable, and although the shape may seem off-putting, it actually sits quite nicely in the hand and slides into a pocket well.
Conclusions:
The V does one job and damn it does it well. There isn’t really anything I feel is missing from the sound signature, nothing I would wish to add or think needs to be taken away.
Previously, I had a J3 for about 5 years, and about 3 years ago moved on from it. Since then, I’ve gone on something of a tour of various audio products – partly as I caught the hi-fi bug and was curious what’s out there, partly because each option left me hungry for more. I upgraded to the D and did a side-by-side comparison on this review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ibasso-audio-dx80-high-resolution-audio-player.21124/reviews (see DX80 Vs Cowon Plenue D Vs J3 Vs S9). The D was a small, but noticeable improvement in sound to the J3, but left me wanting a bigger change. The DX80 sounded fantastic, but switch on the EQ and the beautiful soundstage was lost. I had a Plenue 1 for a while and somehow it didn’t gel with me. I saw one person in a head-fi thread call it “stuffy” and while I wouldn’t necessarily use that phrase myself I appreciated the inventiveness of it – the Plenue sounded good, but throw on something busy and I felt like the sound didn’t come together right. I had a Chord Mojo for about a year, loved the sound and do occasionally wish I hadn’t sold it. But I moved on as I often found myself thinking “this sounds great, if only I could switch off that smooth treble roll-off!”. The DX90 had sabre-glare and a slightly awkward UI, the X3 2nd gen was a trusty player and I kept it for about a year; it was good, but not great. I found a Plenue M going second hand in the forums and couldn’t resist trying it out; it has a nice weighty sound, but seemed a bit veiled and distant for my liking. The R fixed that problem – a Plenue with a brighter, more detailed sound than the M, but I did find the lower end of the presentation on the R doesn’t have the same weight and impact.
With the V I feel like I’ve hit the sound I’m after and can stop looking. There’s a quote on Cirrus Logic’s Master Hi-Fi product page saying that they deliver “a very pure, natural audio quality with exceptional fidelity” and I feel like that’s how the V sounds. I wouldn’t really describe the sound as warm, but certainly not cold or harsh – it just sounds good, there’s excellent detail retrieval and the pieces all feel like they come together to produce an enjoyable, immersive sound. It’s likely to be my go-to player for years and take its place in my black little heart like the J3 before it
Right... let’s just get this out of the way to start with: who the hell would buy this player? 3.5mm audio only, no balanced out, no USB DAC function, no Bluetooth, no wireless, in 2018!? And the look – you’re either going to love it or hate it, but it looks a bit like a spaceship. Well, curiosity got the better of me and the Plenue V made me think of that saying when someone screws something up and an onlooker says “you only had one job”. In this case, the Plenue V has one job, and I started to wonder just how good it would be at that job. That curiosity was added to by the profound lack of any reviews in English on the interwebs.
So, thank me later interwebs, but I spent my hard-earned cash on one of these crazy DAPs just to find out what it’s like. That, and I figured my interest in the player came down to three things:
- maybe single-ended output is all I want; balanced is good if it improves the sound quality, but there’s all the extra expense of aftermarket cables. Perhaps Rob Watts from Chord is onto something when he says that a well-done single-ended (SE) output is all you need.
- the combined DAC/AMP chip has some great specs
- it would be paired with Cowon’s JetEffects, familiar OS (I’ve owned a few Plenue’s already) and flawless gapless playback
One thing that intrigued me about the Plenue V is that it contains the CS43131 chip which is both a DAC and amp. A lot is made of a player’s DAC chip here on head-fi, but the tide seems to be turning a bit where people are paying more attention to other components such as the amp and power supply, which color the sound and are important determinants of the overall sonic characteristics of a player. I think it’s an interesting, and perhaps risky, move for a DAP manufacturer to use a combined off-the-shelf DAC+amp combo – it leaves them less room to claim that they’ve added their own “secret sauce” to the sound or painstakingly trialled various amp pairings to hunt out the best one for you. On the other hand, Cirrus Logic chips have been used in a lot of well-received players in the last few years and I’m more than comfortable leaving the amp component decisions in the hands of the engineers at Cirrus Logic as well, who in my books clearly know their stuff.
So far the CS43131 and its predecessor the CS43130 have mainly been used in mobile phones – the Samsung S8 and S9 Exynos editions, Meizu Pro 7 and Nexum AQUA+ wireless headphone DAC/amp.
Why buy a dedicated DAP using a chip mainly used in cell phones? You can see right on Cirrus Logic’s site that the CS43131 has the highest specs on paper of any of their range, equal to the CS43198, now used in players such as Opus #1S and A&norma SR15: https://www.cirrus.com/solutions/playback/hifi/#psearch. Plus, this is actually the first time Cowon have used a Cirrus Logic chip in their players, as far as I’m aware. Reviews on Cowon’s Korean language site (plenue.cowon.com; which are embedded as images so not easily google-translatable), include measurement graphs which are universal in any language, and pointed to some great specs on paper for this DAP. Plus, one of the main drawcards (for me at least) of the Cowon players is their incorporation of JetEffect DSP – so here I think is where Cowon can claim they do have their own secret sauce added to the mix. A Cirrus Logic DAC/amp chip with great specs on paper + JetEffect? Count me intrigued.
Comparisons:
I’m a minimalist and prefer to only own a few audio items that I use heavily, so typically sell off my previous DAPs/DACs/headphones when I get additional gear. So at present the only DAP I have to do direct comparisons is the Plenue R. But I’ve owned various others and will provide some indirect comparisons and thoughts in the conclusion below.
I have a ZX300 on order from Joybuy, which is taking ages to get here, so will update this review once that has arrived and I have it burned in. There’s approximately 40 hours of burn in on the Plenue V at writing, perhaps 80 on the Plenue R single-ended and 30 on the Plenue R balanced out.
Headphones:
- B&W P7s
- Meze 99 classics with Meze silver upgrade cable
- 99 classics + silver cable into Plenue R 2.5mm balanced
- 99 classics + silver cable + Meze 3.5mm adaptor into SE outputs on both players
Comparisons were made with both Plenues set to fast, low latency DAC filters, since both players have these options and I haven’t really noticed much difference between filters on the R.
Sound:
My first impressions were that the detail retrieval on the V is fantastic, and that impression has not changed at all with use. I get that clichéd hi-fi experience of noticing extra details in music I know well, and it’s been some time since I had experience. I’m sure most people on head-fi are sick of hearing that impression, since it truly is a cliché, but I can’t deny that’s what my ears hear. Pity I no longer have a Chord Mojo to compare, but I feel like the detail retrieval of the V would be right up there.
The V has a good spread of energy across the whole bass, mid, treble spectrum, and keeps the separation between instruments nicely spaced in busy sections – the emotion and intensity of the track can pick up, but the player doesn’t feel like it struggles.
With the R, I feel like the energy and focus of the sound is more on the upper mids and treble; in that sense, the R is reminiscent of the IFi sound –bright and with a mid-treble centric sound. Personally, I was hoping the R would be my go-to player when I bought it earlier this year, and I don’t want to bad mouth it as it’s a great player and certainly no slouch. I preferred it over the Plenue M I previously had, which sounded veiled in comparison. The R offered more detail and a more neutral sound and I concluded I preferred the R to the M after direct comparisons. But, the R definitely has a different presentation in the low end to the M – the bass is there, but it doesn’t have quite the same solidity and impact as I’d like. That improves to some extent with the balanced out, and I feel that the R reaches its full potential from the balanced rather than single-ended out.
The V has a bass presence more like the M, there’s an extra weight to it that I don’t get with the R, and the V to my ears sounds weightier than the balanced out of the R. I can’t be certain, but I think this sound impression may reflect the output power of the respective players– the M is 2.0 Vrms, the R 1.4 Vrms on single-ended, with 1.6 Vrms on the balanced, while the V has 1.7 Vrms output.
All in all, the stereo imaging on the V is great, there’s balance across the bass, mid and treble spectrum, it keeps control in complicated passages, and detail retrieval is excellent. The V presents a very immersive sound, and I find myself with a stupid grin on my face where it feels like everything just comes together as it should and you connect with the music rather than thinking about the player and its pros and cons.
Headphone pairings: Personally, I find the combination with the B&W P7s is more to my liking with the V than the Meze 99 classics. Both sound great, but JetEffect settings like BBE or incremental adjustments to Mach3Bass give a deeper bass response on the P7s, compared to a more mid-bass elevation on the 99 classics, and I do likes me some deep rumbles…mmmm….
Burn in: I should note that straight out of the box and during the first 10 hours or so of use, I did note some prominent vocal “S”s, depending on the track being played - like sibilance but without any glare on cymbals that can occur with sibilant sources. It was present with both headphone pairings of B&W P7s and 99 classics. But, that has eased with use. I’m not sure how far into burn-in it disappeared but I haven’t noticed any S’s jumping out at me for some time.
DSD: Interestingly, I had been thinking when I bought the V that the CS43131 product page on the Cirrus Logic website says it can handle DSD256 playback, but there wasn’t any mention of DSD support on the Plenue V documentation. That has changed with the 1.10 firmware update just released – Cowon added DSD support up to DSD 64/128 (but no mention of DSD256) as well as extra FLAC file support (it isn’t stated exactly on the firmware release what extra is supported, but I presume higher res options given DSD support was also added). Cowon should really update the product marketing info on their websites to match. After downloading a DSD sample file (from https://www.oppodigital.com/hra/dsd-by-davidelias.aspx) I can confirm DSD playback works too, with a little DSD icon appearing at the top of the screen (see photo) where the equaliser icon typically sits. JetEffect settings aren’t applied to DSD playback.
DAC filters: The CS43131 has five filter settings:
- Fast, low latency
- Fast, phase-comp
- Slow, low latency
- Slow, phase comp
- Non-oversampling
The non-oversampling filter is different again to the others. I’d heard talk of non-oversampling DAC filters on head-fi but had never heard a non-oversampling source before. The change is quite interesting, bringing a sound that can seem more lifelike and organic, like hearing a live performance. The balance of bass, mid and treble is altered; the emphasis seems to shift higher towards the mids with less thickness in the bass register, although bass can still go quite deep when called for, and the overall sound can seem a bit airier. Even though it may seem contradictory – given I’ve just described it as more organic – at times I feel like the presentation on non-oversampling can come across a bit more digital, depending on the track being played. Which of these is “best” no doubt depends on the track and the sound you’d like.
Other non-sound stuff
Unboxing: comes in a black box, minimalist, like all other Plenue boxes, you open it, there’s your Plenue V inside, a Cowon-branded micro-USB cable, warranty card & quick start guide.
Memory: the Plenue V has 64 GB of built-in memory. That also houses the system files etc. so out of the box there’s 59 GB of usable memory (the player does come with four free files in FLAC format and multiple language options of the manual pre-loaded, which could be deleted). The microSD slot takes cards up to 128 GB; sorry, I haven’t got any larger capacity cards to try out and see if they’d work too. But the Cowon manual states the built-in memory can handle 8000 files and 4000 folders, and the microSD card 16000 files and 8000 folders. So there may be a firmware limit to the amount of microSD memory the player can handle anyway due to this file limit. microSD cards above 64 GB have to be FAT32 formatted.
UI: I group the Cowon players in two tiers:
- Upper tier - Plenue R, M, M2, 1, 2 and S: bigger screen + matching big screen UI, JetEffect 7 with 10-band EQ
- Lower tier - Plenue D, J & V: smaller screen, different UI, JetEffect 5 with 5-band EQ
I was going to start this review saying the Plenue V has the same UI design as the Plenue D and J. If you haven’t used any of these lower-tier models, I’ll say that personally I find the UI pretty intuitive and easy to use and think most people won’t have any problems. I say “was going to” as with the 1.10 firmware upgrade the UI has changed somewhat – the V now has the same “database update” graphic on start-up, and UI theme designed to match the black & orange menus of the higher tier players. The orange highlighting in menu items is an orange pixellation (see photo - visible on "Dawn of Ashes" menu item), but the emulation of the higher tier players is there. In addition, there’s a new skin for the “Now playing” screen which matches the A skin on the higher tier players. The other skins on the V include the typical brown themed skins used on the D and J. One thing I didn’t realise until comparing the A skins on the V and R side-by-side, is that the V shows the actual time elapsed and total track time at the bottom (see photo) – the R includes various options for time display, but shows a count of elapsed seconds, which isn’t as intuitive. The A skin on the V also drops off the bottom line options of “Folder/track boundary”, “Repeat all” etc. – personally I think it’s better without and had been wondering how to drop those on the R and my previous Plenue M, as I would accidentally hit shuffle or set the boundary as one track only, then be confused why tracks weren’t playing in the expected order. So in all, the firmware 1.10 update is quite a step up in the UI usability.
UI lag: the Plenue D had a laggy interface. It’s still a well-loved player and when I owned one didn’t find it too much hassle – I tend to find an album I want to listen to, hit play and listen through, so a UI that had a slight delay didn’t bother me. I haven’t tried the J, but from reviews I’ve read and videos I’ve seen it doesn’t have the same extent of lag as the D. It seems it’s still not as snappy as the upper tier players, but not as slow as the D. The V is probably the same as the J – it’s slightly slower than the UI on the R, but in all honesty it’s not too bad, and I think was improved somewhat with the 1.10 firmware release. Scrolling through lists isn’t as smooth on the V, due to a touch of lag and that fewer items in a list are visible on the smaller screen. Probably the most laggy function is when you switch to the “now playing” screen, which is when the player needs to load the album artwork. At first I would hit the “now playing” icon twice, wondering why the screen wasn’t changing, but now I’ve got used to it and remember that there’s a small delay, it’s not really a problem.
Volume: The Plenue V has a volume dial which goes up to 140, like the higher tier players, compared to 100 for the D and J. Also, the V remembers the volume setting from the last session – so comes back at the same volume when you power it up again. The 1.10 firmware also added “Hearing protection” which I think means if you really want, you can purposely turn on the volume limitation for the EU if you’re in a non-EU region – how thoughtful of them!
Database update on start-up: The Plenue UI updates the database on start-up (for all Plenue models). When I first loaded music on the V it took a good few minutes to update the music database, with around 100 GB of files on the microSD card. With subsequent start-ups it seems that the update function just scans for new/changed files, because when I turn the player on/off now it’s about 14-15 seconds from hitting the power button until it’s ready to go (without any tracks being changed). On the R it’s slightly shorter at 11-12 seconds with the same microSD card. So yeah, some people hate the database update but it’s over quick and doesn’t bother me.
Battery life: Cowon claim 27 hours of playback with FLAC files on their website. My whole music collection is FLAC, either 16 or 24 bit. In normal use I haven’t actually managed to run the battery down yet – I’ve reconnected the player to the computer to load new music or update the firmware before the battery has run out. So for regular use, that means the battery life is great and doesn’t leave me high and dry.
Power button/LED: unlike the other Plenues which have the power button on the top right of the player, the Plenue logo LED on the back is actually the power button on the Plenue V. So that means you have to press your finger around the back and hold it to turn the DAP on/off, and tap it to turn the screen off. Once you’re used to it, it’s quite intuitive. Also if you hold the player in one hand, and use the other to navigate using the screen, the way your hand cradles the player means it’s actually quite simple to use your index finger to hit the P button. Like other Plenues the light glows red when the battery is low or while charging, and green when fully charged. In the menu settings you can set whether the LED is on or off during playback to save batter life - when on, it flashes blue intermittently to indicate that the player is on when the screen is off (see photo).
Miscellaneous: In the UI settings you can also change the L/R balance, and the 1.10 firmware also added playback speed adjustment – something that was previously on the J3 (and I think S9) but so far I haven’t seen on any other Plenue model.
Ergonomics/Usability: Damn this thing is small. I’d read the dimensions beforehand and knew it would be, but somehow the stand-alone photos on the Cowon website make it look bigger – perhaps it’s the unusual shape. But when you get it in person it’s not much bigger than the D. The specs on the Cowon website show it’s the same width as the D and J, and the length in between the D and J. It’s 6 g heavier than the D, and about 50-90 g lighter than the bigger Plenues like the R, M, 1 and 2. So it’s highly portable.
Lay the V on its back and it sits slightly on an angle, like in the photo below. It means the screen is angled towards your line of sight. But - due to the player being so light, and sitting the way it does on its back, it doesn’t take much force to spin it around when you have it sitting on a desk. So, for example, the headphone cable dangling off the side of desktop can spin the player around so it doesn’t face you anymore. Then you have to re-right it when you want to use the menus again etc. The black rubbery material on the back is slightly grippy, and so far I haven’t had a headphone cable or anything actually pull it off the desk, but depending on the surface and size of a long, heavy cable I think that could be a possibility. But well, that’s the physics of a small and light player.
Overall, the player is nice and portable, and although the shape may seem off-putting, it actually sits quite nicely in the hand and slides into a pocket well.
Conclusions:
The V does one job and damn it does it well. There isn’t really anything I feel is missing from the sound signature, nothing I would wish to add or think needs to be taken away.
Previously, I had a J3 for about 5 years, and about 3 years ago moved on from it. Since then, I’ve gone on something of a tour of various audio products – partly as I caught the hi-fi bug and was curious what’s out there, partly because each option left me hungry for more. I upgraded to the D and did a side-by-side comparison on this review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ibasso-audio-dx80-high-resolution-audio-player.21124/reviews (see DX80 Vs Cowon Plenue D Vs J3 Vs S9). The D was a small, but noticeable improvement in sound to the J3, but left me wanting a bigger change. The DX80 sounded fantastic, but switch on the EQ and the beautiful soundstage was lost. I had a Plenue 1 for a while and somehow it didn’t gel with me. I saw one person in a head-fi thread call it “stuffy” and while I wouldn’t necessarily use that phrase myself I appreciated the inventiveness of it – the Plenue sounded good, but throw on something busy and I felt like the sound didn’t come together right. I had a Chord Mojo for about a year, loved the sound and do occasionally wish I hadn’t sold it. But I moved on as I often found myself thinking “this sounds great, if only I could switch off that smooth treble roll-off!”. The DX90 had sabre-glare and a slightly awkward UI, the X3 2nd gen was a trusty player and I kept it for about a year; it was good, but not great. I found a Plenue M going second hand in the forums and couldn’t resist trying it out; it has a nice weighty sound, but seemed a bit veiled and distant for my liking. The R fixed that problem – a Plenue with a brighter, more detailed sound than the M, but I did find the lower end of the presentation on the R doesn’t have the same weight and impact.
With the V I feel like I’ve hit the sound I’m after and can stop looking. There’s a quote on Cirrus Logic’s Master Hi-Fi product page saying that they deliver “a very pure, natural audio quality with exceptional fidelity” and I feel like that’s how the V sounds. I wouldn’t really describe the sound as warm, but certainly not cold or harsh – it just sounds good, there’s excellent detail retrieval and the pieces all feel like they come together to produce an enjoyable, immersive sound. It’s likely to be my go-to player for years and take its place in my black little heart like the J3 before it
Just received my Plenue V a couple of days ago and I like it quite a bit.
Also, I found that when I sent the output through another amp (in this case
a Topping NX4 w/ DSD), the sound improved considerably. It's the way
I intend to listen to it going forward. Not a big deal - to me, anyway.
Have plenty of those thick rubber bands around.
So, again - thanks for the excellent review!