Luxury & Precision W2
- Added by ZachPtheDude
- Create date
Luxury Precision W2
DAC Chip: Cirrus Logic CS43198 (Dual)
PCM 32bit – 384kHz DSD256, SNR: -131db, Power: 230 mW, USB Type-C Female, 4.4mm BAL & 3.5mm SE (Microphone: NO), Metal Chassis & 2 USB Cables
Listening Equipment: Etymotic ER4SR, HZSOUND Heart Mirror, Moondrop Aria, FOSTEX T40RP MK3, VE Asura 2.0. Source: USB 3.2 Samsung S20
LISTENING EQUIPMENT USED IMPARTED HUGE INFLUENCE TO SOUND IMPRESSIONS & RATING
PROS
- Reference grade, pristine balanced neutral flat timbre
- Vibrant, coherent dynamics, full bodied, very smooth airy presentation
- Exceedingly well nuanced Micro and Macro details, very transparent
- Balanced Mids with detailed textures and definition, naturally toned Male/Female vocals
- Rich sparkly Treble with smooth decays, great extensions
- Smooth impactful Mid-Bass, tight, fast with crisp decays
- Sub-Bass with deep seismic response, natural decays.
- Crisp and realistic guitars, piano, percussions (chimes, bells) and drums and taps
- Great holographic spatial imaging with sharp precise placement/layers
- Amazing speed and dexterity on complex passages and transients
- Super clean background, zero floor noises
- Super clean layers, razor edged separation lines
- Drives Magnetic Planars and BA at 75/100 volume, great fidelity
- Does not heat up easily
- EQ, SPDIF, Filters and User Selectable Gain
- Very useful and refined volume adjustments
CONS
- Driving power maxed out at 91db sensitivity.
- Not forgiving on Lo-Fi sources or recordings, super revealing
- Officially the heaviest Dongle tested so far
- A bit tricky to get it work properly on iPhones, may distort
- Single Ended output not on par with the 4.4mm performance
- Lean sounding driving demanding Magnetic Planars compared to top 3 performers
VERDICT
Luxury & Precision W2. This is a flagship DAC/Amp Dongle designed from the ground up destined to be a fine bespoke specimen. Everything about it shouts quality and precision. Simply beautiful. There’s a wealth of options that will make any mid-tiered DAP blush. SPDIF, EQ, Filters, Gain Selection etc. Not forgetting the intricate power circuitry that individually serve the dual CS DACs and Amp stage. This is a micro DAP any which way I looked at it. The sound is utterly natural and neutral with great fidelity that is definitely reference grade. W2 is an upgrade over Lotoo PAW S1 assuredly,PAW S1 losing it by being a bit more laid back and lean sounding in contrast. Compared to Astell & Kern PEE51, W2 made PEE51 seemingly colored with that super euphonic signature and energetic timbre. But then I don’t really see this as being a negative as they are meant to cater for different tastes and varying synergies. There’s no right or wrong.
W2 passed the FOSTEX T40RP MK3 91db Magnetic Planar brutal test (Balanced, High Gain) . It does need the volume to be cranked all the way to 75-80/100. But once desired loudness has been set, the output is great. However it is not as meaty and wholesome as how it was with Ovidius B1, Hidizs S9, S9 Pro and hiliDAC Audirect BEAM 2S. While fidelity is great and refined, vibrancy was mildly laid back compared to the other 4 top performers. Timbre coherence and stability is top notch, devoid of any signs of distortion or jitters even subjected to very heavy load. This is a great option for those preferring smooth neutral output from their planars.
Etymotic ER4SR (Balanced, High Gain). My favorite BA sounded truly Hi-Fi with W2. That polished smoothness complementing ER4SR technical characteristics exceedingly well. The best part, despite being highly resolving, both the source and IEM does not sound sterile and dry as how I heard it when paired with some ESS or Cirrus based DACs (HiBy FC3, Hidizs S3 Pro, Zorloo Ztella, JM20, Cayin N6ii E02, Topping D10s). W2 was able to strike a true neutral output with ER4SR to make any Diffused Field Sound fans proud.
VE Asura 2.0 (Balanced, High Gain) on the other hand is almost like a contrast to the performance exhibited by ER4SR. While both being highly technical and fast, audibly the overall tone is warmer on the Asura especially with very lush and rich mids. I can literally feel Diana Krall’s sexy voice engulfing me with velvety sensation. This is a super combo to enjoy Mids focused presentation. It is just breathtaking, silky smooth yet still very technical and with agility. W2 and Asura does seem to be a match made in heaven.
Moondrop Aria & HZSOUND Heart Mirror (Single Ended, High Gain, FAST Filter). I was taken aback by what I heard from Aria. Bass responses were audibly slow despite being well controlled and textured. This may appeal to those who prefer their Bass indulgence slow-cooked, but not me. The rest of the spectrum are just okay-ish, I have heard the best performance of Aria when paired with Zorloo Ztella. Similarly the normally fast and sparkly Heart Mirror exhibited mildly subdued output. There’s smoothness and refinement but I have heard better from Heart Mirror paired with a dozen other Dongles. If I am to draw conclusions on this, I think W2 is not as highly optimized for Single Ended use because the Balanced Port definitely sounds a lot better to my ears. And all these were done with the fastest filter profile available for W2.
Ultra-Critical Tests #donglemadness Top Performers
ZOOAUX vs L&P W2 vs Ovidius B1 (6 passes for each Dongles)
DIANA KRALL – “CALIFORNIA DREAMING” (24BIT/48KHZ) FLAC
- W2 (Vol 52/100), ZOOAUX (Vol 32/100), B1 (Vol 14/100)
- Micro Details W2 equal ZOOAUX. B1 slightly more pronounced
- Crisper Piano tone on B1, W2 and ZOOAUX equal
- Shorter decays on ZOOAUX, Slightly longer on W2 and B1
- Intimate Mids on ZOOAUX & B1, W2 slightly spaced back
- Overall timbre: W2 & B1 slightly warmer, ZOOAUX neutral
- Timbre coherence equal on all three
- Background on silent passages equal for all three
- W2 (Vol 56/100), ZOOAUX (Vol 32/100), B1 (Vol 14/100)
- Overall timbre W2 and B1 equal, ZOOAUX very slightly brighter
- W2 Mids spaced back 1 step, B1 & ZOOAUX equally intimate
- Timbre coherence equal on all three
- Everything else performed equally (timbre, transparency, details, speed, soundstage, imaging & extensions)
Luxury & Precision W2 is undoubtedly a great performer. The sound is well within reference grade quality. However to fully enjoy W2, it is a must to use the Balanced 4.4mm port. I am not impressed with the subdued performance of the Single Ended option. What bothered me as well, in contrast to many other top performing Dongles, W2 generally sounded leaner, slightly lacking in dynamics density especially when the paired partners will be more demanding on power draw. I can understand the aim to sound neutral, however there are many others that achieved flat neutrality without sounding lean. Keeping it to highly efficient pairing would be the key to enjoy this very expensive unit. For magnetic planars and heavyweight headphones, it just fell short. Even the likes of Colorfly CDA M1, Questyle M12, HiBy FC5, Cayin RU6, Lotoo PAW S2 exhibited better versatility with highly efficient or demanding drive, but not W2. From my POV, this one device that will satisfy on measurements, but not so much on actual listening indulgence.
Best Pairing: An already very efficient partners
LUXURY AND PRECISION W2
Luxury and precision are well known for their higher end R2R Daps and so trying them out in one form or other, was in my list. The opportunity came up when the Conceptkart team through my friend, decided to do a tour in my country and I wasn’t going to give up the opportunity. So here we are with L&P W2 for review.
DISCLAIMER- The L&P W2 is provided by the courtesy of Conceptkart as part of review tour in INDIA. But this subjective review of mine, are my own thoughts and I am not being paid anything to say positive or negative about this dongle. That said I want to thank Conceptkart for giving me an opportunity to hear it!!! You can find a link to buy them here (not affiliated of course
)
UNBOXING-
The pictures will speak for itself. It’s not much for the price but the added accessories made me happy seeing the practicality intended by the manufacturer.
TECHNICAL SPECS-
It’s a solid little device. There is carbon fiber type skin on the back and whole thing feels to be made up of solid aluminum or steel. It just feels densely packed.
The screen is pretty good with great white numbers and good visibility. The screen can also be switched off to save your battery and also night time use, which is great practicality by the manufacturer.
The keys are clicky and have good actuation pressure. They are quite responsive too.
PRICE-27999 INR on sale / 299.99$
SOUND IMPRESSIONS (THIS IS SUBJECTIVE AND YOUR OPINIONS MIGHT VARY)
NOTE- I used quite a few iems and 3 headphones to discern on the sound impressions. It was already reviewed by few others and hence has good burn in already. I used Tune 02 more than tune 01 since it was too intimate and rounded. FLT used was NOS or FAST and high gain all the time. It was used with ipad air, LG G8x, Cayin N6ii and Samsung note10 lite.
SUB-BASS-
It’s rumbly and has good energy. There’s great dynamism in the notes and the notes decay is fast but still leaving an impressive timbre. The projection of notes is not limited and do fill the corresponding side headroom and doesn’t pan the entire soundstage in the background. The entire background is black and not a hint of graininess. The notes are well textured and separated from each other with great definition in the body, edges and also the beginning of the notes. The sub-bass extension feels a bit lacking but, the rumble is still not suppressed.
BASS-
The Bass is punchy and energetic to say the least. Using with headphones and iem with good DD and bass tuning, it punches haha. The body is balanced with great beginning and good edge definition. The decay is too fast which makes the timbre slightly lacking here. But the voluminous body and energy overall takes the cake. The tonality is slightly on the leaner side (I have been used to R2R DAP- N6ii with R01) but it does make it up with the beautiful dynamism of the notes. The separation isn’t lacking at all in between the notes either too. The projection of the notes is present but slightly blunted by the fast decay.
MIDS-
The mids are the most important part of a music- it’s the soul
. Notes are well established in the entire structure of them and there is great amount of definition to them too. The mids are pretty forward and makes it good balanced signature overall. There is plenty of dynamism in the notes which makes the overall signature a lot musical for me. Tonality is slightly on the leaner side with fast decay but still maintaining a certain amount of timbre to keep certain amount of musicality overall. The inter notes separation is excellent and inter instrumental separation is excellent too but the space in between them seems to be very less. The imaging though seems good and overall makes the separation more in the Z axis. The microdetails pops up pretty nicely and doesn’t feel like piercing your brain haha 
. The upper mids have a little more energy than the lower mids. The lower mids lack a little notes thickness overall and hence it shows up in the vocals too as I will mention in the next paragraph.
The vocals are pretty good if you can manage with slightly thinner male vocals. The notes are well extended, textured and have proper definition to all the parts. Male vocals lack slightly in the thickness and seems to feel slightly limited with smaller body present but the extension is wonderful and the details come through awesomely. Female vocals are well extended, much better than the male vocals and are really nicely textured. Slight leanness works in favor of the female vocals and kind of maintains the wonderful high-pitched tone. It doesn’t become sharp or ear-piercing at all too.
TREBLE-
Treble is excellent. It seems to be well extended and airy. Notes are slightly leaner but the dynamism here makes up for it. The timbre is good with great natural tonality albeit some might consider slightly lean if you are accustomed to any warm sources. What will make you wonder though is, the great amount of microdetails and transparency and texture throughout. The energy is excellent and runs a good balance between being overly powerful to having the appropriate amount of energy needed. The notes are well defined especially the edge definition. Inter-notes separation is excellent and inter instrumental separation follows that trend too. Spacing ain’t much between the instruments but still they don’t feel congested at all. Air is present in the instruments but not much pronounced. Overall, these shortcomings are highly nitpicky I feel.
TECHNICALITIES-
It’s not a wide sound staging dongle but it presents a good amount of height and stage depth. The amount of transparency is also pretty great. There is great amount of dynamism overall in the notes and separation in between them is also really great. The imaging along with the resolution makes it pretty great for a musical yet analytical experience. The background is black all the time and not a hint of hiss or anything I heard with this.
PAIRINGS-
Overall – I would consider this in case of iems/headphones with pretty good soundstage and maybe a neutral to warm signature
WITH EARSONICS GRACE-
One of the best pairings overall. The greatly dynamic nature of the dongle adds more energy overall to the neutral signature of the iem. The slightly thinner notes can be managed with a copper cable but the return of the musical nature of this iem is further enhanced. The layering is also further enhanced in this iem. Since it’s already a wide iem, the shortcomings don’t matter much. Tune 02 might be better if you want a warmer presentation overall with this.
WITH FIIO FD3-
The pairing is okay or average I would say. The positives of having a greatly separated midrange, better bass control, punch and added details, is taken over the short soundstage provided, too much dynamism (if that’s a thing) and the cut in the sub-bass extension and timbre being more decreased, which seems to be the largest hit to this iems signature. Overall, I would recommend against it but YMMV.
WITH SHOZY POLA-
This was a great pairing. The mids being forward makes the signature more balanced and beautiful. Since the iem isn’t wide but the projection of notes and the separation of the iem makes up for it. The highly dynamic nature of the dongle makes it much better and also the addition of more punchy bass is much better. The treble is much better enhanced and extended and makes this a great pairing.
WITH FOCAL CLEAR OG
Is there a thing called as too much dynamics, well I think this might be that? haha
. The bass and texture are well maintained but the reduction in sub-bass extension feels a little too much. Since Clear ain’t a wide headphone and has a spherical soundstage addition of too much height makes it not much better. The separation and accentuation of notes and also the treble with punchy bass is a welcome note but the lower mids especially the male vocals make it slightly less, against N6ii with R01 or PAW S1 pairing. Focal seems to like a thicker tonality source and hence may benefit from it. But this wasn’t that bad of a pairing, if I didn’t have a N6ii with R01 or PAW S1, I might have paired this with a tube amp and call it a day haha. Tune 02 was a better pairing, but having that much intimate staging wasn’t my cup of tea.
WITH SIVGA SV021 or ROBIN-
The pairing with this is much better. There is an enhanced level of separation and also the mids coming forwards to make it a much more balanced signature. There is more air in the treble region and also more details although slightly more but still better. The vocals though still need an uplift and can be considered with a cable change or some EQ.
WITH PS5-
With PS5 you need to switch on the UAC 1.0 mode to make it work. It does provide a lot of power and using it with any speakers with straight using 3.5mm jack, there’s no noise in the speakers. Plus, there is no latency and the sound is musical to slightly analytical. So overall, a pretty great experience.
COMPARISON-
LOTOO PAW S1-
Pros-
Similarly wide
Much better natural timbre
Better tonality
Better bass and sub-bass extension
Male vocals are much better.
EQ is better differentiated between the options
Qudelix 5K-
Pros-
Wide
Much better timbre
Much better sub-bass extension
Tonally similar
Better air in the notes
N6ii R01- (just sound comparison since it’s the only R2R I have and unfair comparison haha)
Pros-
Wider
Spacious in between the instruments
Better transparency and resolution
Better natural tonality and timbre
Better microdetails
Better treble extension
Better notes definition
L&P W2-
Pros-
Very dynamic
Great bass punch and energy
Good treble extension
Tall stage than N6ii R01
Treble is much more refined than both dongles
Female vocals are pretty good
Works with PS5
SUMMARY-
This is a wonderful dongle with great capabilities. It’s pretty dynamic and bridges a good gap between 100-300$. But I think its use is much with iems rather than headphones unless its high sensitivity ones like Focal. Overall, this will need some synergy to work greatly with something you have.
Luxury and precision are well known for their higher end R2R Daps and so trying them out in one form or other, was in my list. The opportunity came up when the Conceptkart team through my friend, decided to do a tour in my country and I wasn’t going to give up the opportunity. So here we are with L&P W2 for review.
DISCLAIMER- The L&P W2 is provided by the courtesy of Conceptkart as part of review tour in INDIA. But this subjective review of mine, are my own thoughts and I am not being paid anything to say positive or negative about this dongle. That said I want to thank Conceptkart for giving me an opportunity to hear it!!! You can find a link to buy them here (not affiliated of course
)UNBOXING-
The pictures will speak for itself. It’s not much for the price but the added accessories made me happy seeing the practicality intended by the manufacturer.
TECHNICAL SPECS-
- Flagship Dual DAC chipset- 2xCS43198
- Balanced- 4.4mm Headphone output.
- Single-ended- 3.5mm headphone output.
- SPDIF output(3.5mm).
- NOTE - For iphone since they just allow 100ma, so beyond 70 volume it won’t work (volume choppy and cuts off) in iphone - so set High Gain and volume <70; in android- no such limitations)
- Easy firmware upgrade (link)
- Impedance: 125mw @32Ω for 3.5mm & 230mW @32 Ohms for 4.4mm
- Sensitivity (dB): 131dB
- Source Jack: 3.5mm TRS and 4.4mm TRRS
- EQ profiles: Classical/Jazz/Rock/Pop/Bass/Movie/Game
- Filters: Fast/Slow/NOS/LL Fast/LL Slow
- Audio Formats Supported: MP3/WMA/FLAC/WAV/PCM/DSD/APE
- USB-C to USB-C Cable
- USB-C to Lightning cable
- USB-C to USB-A adaptor
- Luxury and Precision W2
- Warranty Card
- Manual
- Where’s my cover
It’s a solid little device. There is carbon fiber type skin on the back and whole thing feels to be made up of solid aluminum or steel. It just feels densely packed.
The screen is pretty good with great white numbers and good visibility. The screen can also be switched off to save your battery and also night time use, which is great practicality by the manufacturer.
The keys are clicky and have good actuation pressure. They are quite responsive too.
PRICE-27999 INR on sale / 299.99$
SOUND IMPRESSIONS (THIS IS SUBJECTIVE AND YOUR OPINIONS MIGHT VARY)
NOTE- I used quite a few iems and 3 headphones to discern on the sound impressions. It was already reviewed by few others and hence has good burn in already. I used Tune 02 more than tune 01 since it was too intimate and rounded. FLT used was NOS or FAST and high gain all the time. It was used with ipad air, LG G8x, Cayin N6ii and Samsung note10 lite.
SUB-BASS-
It’s rumbly and has good energy. There’s great dynamism in the notes and the notes decay is fast but still leaving an impressive timbre. The projection of notes is not limited and do fill the corresponding side headroom and doesn’t pan the entire soundstage in the background. The entire background is black and not a hint of graininess. The notes are well textured and separated from each other with great definition in the body, edges and also the beginning of the notes. The sub-bass extension feels a bit lacking but, the rumble is still not suppressed.
BASS-
The Bass is punchy and energetic to say the least. Using with headphones and iem with good DD and bass tuning, it punches haha
. The body is balanced with great beginning and good edge definition. The decay is too fast which makes the timbre slightly lacking here. But the voluminous body and energy overall takes the cake. The tonality is slightly on the leaner side (I have been used to R2R DAP- N6ii with R01) but it does make it up with the beautiful dynamism of the notes. The separation isn’t lacking at all in between the notes either too. The projection of the notes is present but slightly blunted by the fast decay.MIDS-
The mids are the most important part of a music- it’s the soul
. Notes are well established in the entire structure of them and there is great amount of definition to them too. The mids are pretty forward and makes it good balanced signature overall. There is plenty of dynamism in the notes which makes the overall signature a lot musical for me. Tonality is slightly on the leaner side with fast decay but still maintaining a certain amount of timbre to keep certain amount of musicality overall. The inter notes separation is excellent and inter instrumental separation is excellent too but the space in between them seems to be very less. The imaging though seems good and overall makes the separation more in the Z axis. The microdetails pops up pretty nicely and doesn’t feel like piercing your brain haha . The upper mids have a little more energy than the lower mids. The lower mids lack a little notes thickness overall and hence it shows up in the vocals too as I will mention in the next paragraph.The vocals are pretty good if you can manage with slightly thinner male vocals. The notes are well extended, textured and have proper definition to all the parts. Male vocals lack slightly in the thickness and seems to feel slightly limited with smaller body present but the extension is wonderful and the details come through awesomely. Female vocals are well extended, much better than the male vocals and are really nicely textured. Slight leanness works in favor of the female vocals and kind of maintains the wonderful high-pitched tone. It doesn’t become sharp or ear-piercing at all too.
TREBLE-
Treble is excellent. It seems to be well extended and airy. Notes are slightly leaner but the dynamism here makes up for it. The timbre is good with great natural tonality albeit some might consider slightly lean if you are accustomed to any warm sources. What will make you wonder though is, the great amount of microdetails and transparency and texture throughout. The energy is excellent and runs a good balance between being overly powerful to having the appropriate amount of energy needed. The notes are well defined especially the edge definition. Inter-notes separation is excellent and inter instrumental separation follows that trend too. Spacing ain’t much between the instruments but still they don’t feel congested at all. Air is present in the instruments but not much pronounced. Overall, these shortcomings are highly nitpicky I feel.
TECHNICALITIES-
It’s not a wide sound staging dongle but it presents a good amount of height and stage depth. The amount of transparency is also pretty great. There is great amount of dynamism overall in the notes and separation in between them is also really great. The imaging along with the resolution makes it pretty great for a musical yet analytical experience. The background is black all the time and not a hint of hiss or anything I heard with this.
PAIRINGS-
Overall – I would consider this in case of iems/headphones with pretty good soundstage and maybe a neutral to warm signature
WITH EARSONICS GRACE-
One of the best pairings overall. The greatly dynamic nature of the dongle adds more energy overall to the neutral signature of the iem. The slightly thinner notes can be managed with a copper cable but the return of the musical nature of this iem is further enhanced. The layering is also further enhanced in this iem. Since it’s already a wide iem, the shortcomings don’t matter much. Tune 02 might be better if you want a warmer presentation overall with this.
WITH FIIO FD3-
The pairing is okay or average I would say. The positives of having a greatly separated midrange, better bass control, punch and added details, is taken over the short soundstage provided, too much dynamism (if that’s a thing) and the cut in the sub-bass extension and timbre being more decreased, which seems to be the largest hit to this iems signature. Overall, I would recommend against it but YMMV.
WITH SHOZY POLA-
This was a great pairing. The mids being forward makes the signature more balanced and beautiful. Since the iem isn’t wide but the projection of notes and the separation of the iem makes up for it. The highly dynamic nature of the dongle makes it much better and also the addition of more punchy bass is much better. The treble is much better enhanced and extended and makes this a great pairing.
WITH FOCAL CLEAR OG
Is there a thing called as too much dynamics, well I think this might be that? haha
. The bass and texture are well maintained but the reduction in sub-bass extension feels a little too much. Since Clear ain’t a wide headphone and has a spherical soundstage addition of too much height makes it not much better. The separation and accentuation of notes and also the treble with punchy bass is a welcome note but the lower mids especially the male vocals make it slightly less, against N6ii with R01 or PAW S1 pairing. Focal seems to like a thicker tonality source and hence may benefit from it. But this wasn’t that bad of a pairing, if I didn’t have a N6ii with R01 or PAW S1, I might have paired this with a tube amp and call it a day haha. Tune 02 was a better pairing, but having that much intimate staging wasn’t my cup of tea.
WITH SIVGA SV021 or ROBIN-
The pairing with this is much better. There is an enhanced level of separation and also the mids coming forwards to make it a much more balanced signature. There is more air in the treble region and also more details although slightly more but still better. The vocals though still need an uplift and can be considered with a cable change or some EQ.
WITH PS5-
With PS5 you need to switch on the UAC 1.0 mode to make it work. It does provide a lot of power and using it with any speakers with straight using 3.5mm jack, there’s no noise in the speakers. Plus, there is no latency and the sound is musical to slightly analytical. So overall, a pretty great experience.
COMPARISON-
LOTOO PAW S1-
Pros-
Similarly wide
Much better natural timbre
Better tonality
Better bass and sub-bass extension
Male vocals are much better.
EQ is better differentiated between the options
Qudelix 5K-
Pros-
Wide
Much better timbre
Much better sub-bass extension
Tonally similar
Better air in the notes
N6ii R01- (just sound comparison since it’s the only R2R I have and unfair comparison haha
)Pros-
Wider
Spacious in between the instruments
Better transparency and resolution
Better natural tonality and timbre
Better microdetails
Better treble extension
Better notes definition
L&P W2-
Pros-
Very dynamic
Great bass punch and energy
Good treble extension
Tall stage than N6ii R01
Treble is much more refined than both dongles
Female vocals are pretty good
Works with PS5
SUMMARY-
This is a wonderful dongle with great capabilities. It’s pretty dynamic and bridges a good gap between 100-300$. But I think its use is much with iems rather than headphones unless its high sensitivity ones like Focal. Overall, this will need some synergy to work greatly with something you have.
Disclaimer:
The Unit was provided to me by conceptkart.com in exchange for my honest opinions. You can get the same by clicking here.
Technical Specifications:
Design & Build Quality:
The Design is more on the functional side. There is a volume control and function control on the right side. USB C-Type port on the top and two output ports (3.5 mm and 4.4 mm) on the bottom. There is also a screen smacked at the front and the back is plain. The build is top-notch.
Usability:
When you plug the device, the following things are visible:
The Fifth Click gives you SPDIF on the 3.5 connector. I had no use for the SPDIF options so cannot comment on the use of it.
The Sixth click gives you Display options. Two options: Manual or Auto Off.
The Seventh Clisck gives you HID On/Off. When off, the physical volume buttons on W2 controls the overall volume. When on, the phone’s volume control is responsible for the overall control
The Eight Click gives you Tune. Two options: Tune 01(Gentle) and Tune 02(Refined). I preferred Tune 02 as it was tighter and
Audio Specs:
The very first thing to be noticed here is that W2 provides an extremely black background. A clean and consistent signal enhances the listening experience of the user. W2 also gives a full-bodied weight to the sound.
Bass:
Bass, as per me, is the highest-selling point of the W2. Not just quantity, but quality as well. There is a depth present with the bass and yet it never overpowers the other frequencies. Layering, that W2 gives to the IEM, is top-notch, it gives ample detail retrieval to the sound. The Sub-bass is nice and rumbly and of course it depends on the IEM that is paired with W2, if you have an iem that has a good low end, like the Kinera Norn or UM 3DT, you will feel what I am saying.
Mids:
Again, Mids are warm and lush. They have excellent details and layering present…enough to entice all the listeners. It is musical at the same time, it is natural. Vocals are full-bodied and both the female and the male vocals are fully done justice with.
Highs:
Treble has enough energy to it. However, this doesn’t mean the highs are sharp or peaky. It is easy on the ears and at the same time, they extend excellently. It is safe to say that treble is smoothened at the end and the overall treble signature will please everyone.
Conclusion:
W2’s warm and musical presentation will please everyone. It is also, at the same time, a great DAC which has:
The Unit was provided to me by conceptkart.com in exchange for my honest opinions. You can get the same by clicking here.
Technical Specifications:
- Flagship Dual DAC chipset(2xCS43198).
- High-Gate-Count FPGA Chip.
- Low-power MCU chip.
- Super-Clean Output.
- Ultra-Low background noise.
- Dual high-power amplification chip.
- Balanced 4.4mm Headphone output.
- Single-ended 3.5mm headphone output.
- SPDIF output(3.5mm).
- Low-power consumption.
- Easy firmware upgrade.
- Output power up to 230mW @ 32ohms.
- USB-C to USB-C Cable
- USB-C to Lightning cable
- USB-C to USB-A adaptor
- Luxury and Precision W2
- Warranty Card
- Manual
Design & Build Quality:
The Design is more on the functional side. There is a volume control and function control on the right side. USB C-Type port on the top and two output ports (3.5 mm and 4.4 mm) on the bottom. There is also a screen smacked at the front and the back is plain. The build is top-notch.
Usability:
When you plug the device, the following things are visible:
- Volume Level.
- Format.
- Sample rate.
- The EQ was used.
- Beyerdynamic Xelento.
- Shure SE846.
- Sennheiser IE800s.
- Normal.
- High.
- Low
- NOS
- LL Slow
- LL fast
- Slow
- Fast
The Fifth Click gives you SPDIF on the 3.5 connector. I had no use for the SPDIF options so cannot comment on the use of it.
The Sixth click gives you Display options. Two options: Manual or Auto Off.
The Seventh Clisck gives you HID On/Off. When off, the physical volume buttons on W2 controls the overall volume. When on, the phone’s volume control is responsible for the overall control
The Eight Click gives you Tune. Two options: Tune 01(Gentle) and Tune 02(Refined). I preferred Tune 02 as it was tighter and
Audio Specs:
- Impedance: 125mw @32Ω for 3.5mm & 230mW @32 Ohms for 4.4mm
- Sensitivity (dB): 131dB
- Source Jack: 3.5mm TRS and 4.4mm TRRS
- EQ profiles: Classical/Jazz/Rock/Pop/Bass/Movie/Game
- Filters: Fast/Slow/NOS/LL Fast/LL Slow
- Audio Formats Supported: MP3/WMA/FLAC/WAV/PCM/DSD/APE
The very first thing to be noticed here is that W2 provides an extremely black background. A clean and consistent signal enhances the listening experience of the user. W2 also gives a full-bodied weight to the sound.
Bass:
Bass, as per me, is the highest-selling point of the W2. Not just quantity, but quality as well. There is a depth present with the bass and yet it never overpowers the other frequencies. Layering, that W2 gives to the IEM, is top-notch, it gives ample detail retrieval to the sound. The Sub-bass is nice and rumbly and of course it depends on the IEM that is paired with W2, if you have an iem that has a good low end, like the Kinera Norn or UM 3DT, you will feel what I am saying.
Mids:
Again, Mids are warm and lush. They have excellent details and layering present…enough to entice all the listeners. It is musical at the same time, it is natural. Vocals are full-bodied and both the female and the male vocals are fully done justice with.
Highs:
Treble has enough energy to it. However, this doesn’t mean the highs are sharp or peaky. It is easy on the ears and at the same time, they extend excellently. It is safe to say that treble is smoothened at the end and the overall treble signature will please everyone.
Conclusion:
W2’s warm and musical presentation will please everyone. It is also, at the same time, a great DAC which has:
- Great Technical prowess.
- Excellent Depth
- Excellent Layering.
- Excellent Detail Retrieval.
- Clean Background for sensitive IEMs.
- Under-powered for full-sized cans.
I purchased the L & P W2 from Andrew at Musicteck. Want to go out of my way to note my experience buying the W2. Absolutely recommend doing business with them, it’s an absolute pleasure! Some of the very best customer service I’ve seen, period.
*Included photographs show the W2 in Luxury & Precision’s leather case sold separately*
Listening was done through Acoustune 1697ti’s out of the 4.4mm balanced output. Recently I acquired an xDuoo X10t II digital transport to use as the W2’s source instead of my phone. While the xDuoo UI isn’t the best by any means, the two devices together provide a sound quality experience that would rival most TOTL DAPs I’d bet. Mostly listened to jazz (mostly bop and hard bop), singer-songwriter stuff like The Mountain Goats, folk, and R&B like Erykah Badu.
I don’t have much interest in flagship DAPs, there is just too much overlap with what is offered by a smartphone and not nearly enough objective sound quality performance increase for the added cost and brick to carry around. But, most dongles seemed to cut corners somewhere or be missing a feature I really wanted. Then I discovered the Luxury & Precision W2. After some research, I made the .
The W2 arrives in a nice looking box. Nothing incredibly fancy, but a well-executed and classy look.
Inside one finds the user manual, a foam cutout with the W2 inside, and a separate foam piece with cutouts for the USB-C OTG cable and the USB-C to Lightning cable, along with a little adapter for those who want to use the W2 with a full sized USB port. After reading the manual I was able to easily navigate the simple UI and menus of the W2. It’s very user friendly.
I also purchased Luxury & Precision’s leather case which is sold separately. There is also a clear plastic case sold but I much prefer how the leather case looks.
The W2 is powered by the source it is connected to. There have been reported issues for iPhone users with the W2 drawing too much voltage, leading to issues specificalhen one pushed the volume control up past 70. While only a small part of my listening was done with an iPhone as source, I didn’t run into any volume issues myself and found my IEMs were already approaching unlistenable levels of loudness by 70, but YMMV.
I’m not a fan of using overly flowery language to describe how things sound, especially for amplifiers and DACs. While I am not a measurement purist, I believe we are listening to music and transducers, and if I want an effects box I will buy one or use EQ. With a DAC/amp I’m most concerned with neutral sound reproduction without sterility, and the W2 hits the ball out of the park in that regard. I was out of the head-fi game for years, and the pandemic brought more free time and reeled me back in and I’m just amazed at how far dongle technology has come in that time.
It all starts with the ultra-silent background for the W2. This is a very low noise device, and being so low noise allows it to better display its technical prowess. Each band of the frequency range has the ability to shine without any part having an unnatural focus placed on it, and because of the dead quiet background the sense of dynamic range only improves. Music playback is true to the source, and there is nothing more I can ask for from the W2. Output power wise the W2 provides more than enough for 99.9% of IEM use cases I can think of, and while it’s not going to power the most power hungry full sized cans it will do a more than good enough job with your slightly below average and up sensitivity headphones.
With more than adequate power on tap your IEMs are never strained. This allows for the absolute lowest distortion playback possible and it’s quite the listening experience. While I don’t have any high end DAPs to compare the W2 with, I’m fairly confident than purely in terms of DAC and amp performance there isn’t a DAP with better circuitry for less than flagship prices.
The firmware EQ is a neat feature that isn’t applicable to most users, but for those with any of the IEMs with customized EQs provided by LP it’s a noticeable change, and for the better from what I’ve heard from fellow owners. The user selectable DAC filters are fun to play with. While not all of them make much, if any, negligible difference, some do and can be quite nice for more sibilant recordings or when you want to add a little texture to a recording.
I highly recommend the W2 for anyone looking for an end game dongle solution that can drive all but the most power hungry of IEMs and even a lot of full sized headphones to more than satisfactory levels. It’s not going to be an effects box that boosts any specific part of the frequency band, it’s just going to accurately playback the music in a way faithful to the original recording with output power to spare for head banging times
*Included photographs show the W2 in Luxury & Precision’s leather case sold separately*
Listening was done through Acoustune 1697ti’s out of the 4.4mm balanced output. Recently I acquired an xDuoo X10t II digital transport to use as the W2’s source instead of my phone. While the xDuoo UI isn’t the best by any means, the two devices together provide a sound quality experience that would rival most TOTL DAPs I’d bet. Mostly listened to jazz (mostly bop and hard bop), singer-songwriter stuff like The Mountain Goats, folk, and R&B like Erykah Badu.
I don’t have much interest in flagship DAPs, there is just too much overlap with what is offered by a smartphone and not nearly enough objective sound quality performance increase for the added cost and brick to carry around. But, most dongles seemed to cut corners somewhere or be missing a feature I really wanted. Then I discovered the Luxury & Precision W2. After some research, I made the .
The W2 arrives in a nice looking box. Nothing incredibly fancy, but a well-executed and classy look.
Inside one finds the user manual, a foam cutout with the W2 inside, and a separate foam piece with cutouts for the USB-C OTG cable and the USB-C to Lightning cable, along with a little adapter for those who want to use the W2 with a full sized USB port. After reading the manual I was able to easily navigate the simple UI and menus of the W2. It’s very user friendly.
I also purchased Luxury & Precision’s leather case which is sold separately. There is also a clear plastic case sold but I much prefer how the leather case looks.
The W2 is powered by the source it is connected to. There have been reported issues for iPhone users with the W2 drawing too much voltage, leading to issues specificalhen one pushed the volume control up past 70. While only a small part of my listening was done with an iPhone as source, I didn’t run into any volume issues myself and found my IEMs were already approaching unlistenable levels of loudness by 70, but YMMV.
I’m not a fan of using overly flowery language to describe how things sound, especially for amplifiers and DACs. While I am not a measurement purist, I believe we are listening to music and transducers, and if I want an effects box I will buy one or use EQ. With a DAC/amp I’m most concerned with neutral sound reproduction without sterility, and the W2 hits the ball out of the park in that regard. I was out of the head-fi game for years, and the pandemic brought more free time and reeled me back in and I’m just amazed at how far dongle technology has come in that time.
It all starts with the ultra-silent background for the W2. This is a very low noise device, and being so low noise allows it to better display its technical prowess. Each band of the frequency range has the ability to shine without any part having an unnatural focus placed on it, and because of the dead quiet background the sense of dynamic range only improves. Music playback is true to the source, and there is nothing more I can ask for from the W2. Output power wise the W2 provides more than enough for 99.9% of IEM use cases I can think of, and while it’s not going to power the most power hungry full sized cans it will do a more than good enough job with your slightly below average and up sensitivity headphones.
With more than adequate power on tap your IEMs are never strained. This allows for the absolute lowest distortion playback possible and it’s quite the listening experience. While I don’t have any high end DAPs to compare the W2 with, I’m fairly confident than purely in terms of DAC and amp performance there isn’t a DAP with better circuitry for less than flagship prices.
The firmware EQ is a neat feature that isn’t applicable to most users, but for those with any of the IEMs with customized EQs provided by LP it’s a noticeable change, and for the better from what I’ve heard from fellow owners. The user selectable DAC filters are fun to play with. While not all of them make much, if any, negligible difference, some do and can be quite nice for more sibilant recordings or when you want to add a little texture to a recording.
I highly recommend the W2 for anyone looking for an end game dongle solution that can drive all but the most power hungry of IEMs and even a lot of full sized headphones to more than satisfactory levels. It’s not going to be an effects box that boosts any specific part of the frequency band, it’s just going to accurately playback the music in a way faithful to the original recording with output power to spare for head banging times
Attachments
14christ
This article really excites me. I'm about to purchase the MEST and pair it with the W2 as I absolutely love my D30 pro with the same chips. This will be my portable solution. I'm fairly confident the W2 will make the MEST MK2 shine with nothing lacking. Atleast I hope.
Julienstanford
Does anyone know if the OTG chip is built into the device and any cable from a mobile device to the DAC will function correctly? Or does it needs an OTG cable work with mobile devices?
