Cowon Plenue D High Resolution Music Player 32GB (Silver/Black)

Cowon is a rather well-known yet rarely-mentioned Korean audio device manufacturer. Their marketing is downright terrible compared to, say, Fiio or Hidizs, they ask premium prices for seemingly barebones devices and worst of all — they are hard to find. All these ensure that most of their devices stay under the shadow of anonymity. I knew them back from the days of using JetAudio (darn I loved that player on Windows XP), and I assume most of us have tried JetAudio at least once in our lives.

I bought the Cowon Plenue D with a view to using them as a standalone DAP for my personal use. They were rather cheap at the time of buying ($129) and they kind of stood out among the other DAPs in that range, not in terms of feature, but rather their overall design philosophy and the astounding battery life of 100 hours.

Let’s see if there are other thing wont’ noticing.

N.B. Get all the relevant specs here.
Note: the ratings given will be subjective to the price tier. Definitely the expectations from a $15 IEM won’t be the same as a $150 one, and that’s the approach taken while assigning scores. I bought the Plenue D with my own funds. Disclaimer

IEMs/Headphones used: Final E5000, IMR R1 Zenith, MeeAudio Pinnacle P1, Audeze iSine10, Dunu Titan 1, JVC FX700, Moondrop Crescent/Spaceship, Sennheiser IE40 Pro, Sennheiser HD650, Takstar Pro82, Philips SHP9500



Accessories: Barebones, in short. The packaging itself looks nice and premium but once you open the box you only find the DAP itself along with the charging cable and… that’s it. Fiio throws in a lot of freebies with their DAPs so it’s kinda disappointing to see how few stuff Cowon gives you (and even that’s kinda useless as chances are you’ve already got a micro-USB cable at home). I wish they’ve put in at least a silicone case, but alas.
1.5/5



Build: The disappointment with the accessories set quickly evaporate the moment you take these out, or even take a look at it. They are so absurdly cute. Yup, it’s that word that I try not to use but darn is it cute. It’s deceptively tiny (the photos don’t quite portray how small they are) and is literally less than half the size of my palm. The top and the backside are made of solid aluminium, while the sides and bottom are made of good quality plastic. The upper portion is solid glass (scratch-resistant, apparently) and overall their design and feel in the hand belies the price tag. The buttons are well spaced and clicky, though I would’ve preferred a bit more texture on the play-pause/volume up-down buttons. There’s a microSD slot as well and it apparently support cards up to 200GB. The breathing multi-color LED light adds a touch of bling in the otherwise industrial-design device, and I dig this look.
4.5/5



Display: The display is poor in terms of modern standards, there’s no getting around it. On the plus side — the display has very good viewing angles, so they are indeed using an IPS panel. However the resolution is so low that it’s kinda comical at times when I pick it up after using the pixel-dense LG G7. Now, I don’t expect this device to have 300+ ppi pixel density, but the display has poor resolution in general (240*320).

Fortunately this doesn’t hinder much from doing the general operations, and most, if not all DAPs in this price range has more or less terrible displays (even some higher end ones have awful displays). So it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
2.5/5



Handling: Handling is… weird. The size is a bit too small for a comfortable grip, and the sharp square-ish edges don’t help. A case is a must if you want to use them comfortably. Fortunately, due to the small size, the buttons are really easy to get to, so there’s that. The position of the headphone jack is a pet-peeve of mine though, as I prefer them at the bottom.
3/5



UI/Responsiveness: Ah crap, here we go.

The UI is rather good, but the responsiveness, man, it’s atrocious. If you are way used to flagship phones breezing through everything, I can imagine that just using the Plenue D for 10 minutes will be enough to throw them hard on the concrete, sound quality be darned!

The UI literally crawls around. Every time you scroll through the album list, there’s a visible choppiness. Momentum scrolling has this weird, janky feel and it never works as you’d expect. Sometimes it overshoots the item you want to get to, other times it barely moves a few pixels downwards. The whole UI operates in 15fps or so, and that’s if you are fortunate. If there’s an FLAC file playing with high-res album-art, there’s more than half a second delay just to jump to the Now Playing screen.



There’s also no swipe gestures apart from scrolling, so you gotta tap and poke at things like it’s 2006 and you’re using one of those God awful Samsung TouchWiz phones.

However, the various settings and filters, including BBEffect 5 (more on those later) are rather easy to get to. Tapping on the album art shows a handy little shortcut screen and you can nearly change every useful setting right from there. The UI in general is very intuitive, unlike some of the stuff I’ve tried from Fiio and co (non-Android ones). Also, the device boots up really fast (3/4 seconds max), so I guess that’s a plus.
2/5 (all 2 points because of the good UI layout and fast boot, the UX is a dumpster-fire)



Connectivity: It has nothing. No BT, no Wi-Fi, no SIM card support like some new DAPs. I absolutely love it for that very reason, but it’s understandable why it might be a deal breaker for some. If you need any of those connectivity options, well, give this one a hard pass.
0/5

Battery Life: Phenomenal. If you charge it once, I can imagine not having to charge for over 2/3 weeks, depending on your use. This is beyond refreshing in this age of charging your darn smartwatch every other night (unless you are using Apple Watch and gotta top it up every single day, you poor soul). Cowon cites 100 hours of playback time, and I guess they’re not overstating things even the slightest bit. Having no wifi/BT helps immensely, but for someone like me who prefers his DAP to not have any of these stuff — it’s a great start.
5/5



Sound Quality: Ah, here we go, finally. Let’s talk about sound quality. If you need specs and numbers, check their website linked above. Cowon usually don’t lie about their measured figures so what you see is what you get. The 1Vrms (at 16ohms) 3.5mm output is pretty decent but definitely not as good as some 2Vrms ones (and it’s a far cry from it’s successor, the Plenue D2, that has an insane 4Vrms output from the balanced out). You get increased gain while using the device in line-out mode, but I suspect that mode will be rarely used as this is an ultra-portable for the most part.

When it comes to the actual sound signature, this one is… bland, boring — in default state that is. When I first plugged in my Final E5000, the sound lacked dynamism, and the sub-bass response was lacking. Then I plugged in the IMR R1 Zenith and they fared much better, but it was nothing to write home about.

Having read in some of the reviews about the general awesomeness of JetEffect 5, I decided to give them a go. They are basically some advanced DSP effects that you can use as a quick sound-tuning tool. So on the Final E5000 I turned on “MP Enhance” and et voilà — these changed their whole sonic character. I was astounded how good these sounded, and the Final E5000, an otherwise warm, laid back headphone, actually sparkled with treble. I didn’t even need to EQ anything, no fiddling with Q-factors or gains — it just worked. Yes, I had to try out a few presets, but it was fairly simple and after 3 minutes of fiddling I was very satisfied with the result. I didn’t even have to change the preset for any genre, nor did I find any clipping or distortion issues even when pushing the volume high. Mighty impressive!

There are in total 44 such presets (+ 4 user customzable) but I’ve found out that usually only one will work well with a specific headphone. The Mach3Bass especially makes otherwise anemic sounding headphone sound really weighty around the bass regions, and every preset had its own uniqueness. There’s also a pretty decent parametric equalizer that allows you to choose 3 different frequencies for each sub-frequency range, and it actually works well unlike certain others players in this range.

So yes, the stock sound is meh, but once you turn on JETEfffect 5, there’s no turning back.
3/5 (Without JetEffect)
4.5/5 (With JetEffect)

Amp Performance: Decent would be the verdict. It runs most IEMs well, but I had to push it really high for the Final E5000. For the HD650 while it got the volume, it lacked the bass response that you only find when running from a decent amp. It does have way more power than the Sony players in this range, so yes, I’m not complaining much.
4/5

Select Comparisons:

Before continuing with the comparisons, I’ll be frank: I’ve almost always used phones as my portable audio solution, since I’m never critically listening to stuff on the go, and to get a performance similar to my desk setup from a DAP — I’ll have to spend over $2000, not kidding. What’s even the point, then? Or so my pragmatic mind thought. At one point you just have to have one even if to maintain the status quo, sadly.

vs LG G7: This is the comparison most would be interested in, I assume. Firstly, G7 has infinitely better responsiveness/connectivity so if you need those two things, just don’t even bother with the Plenue D, or any of the DAPs available at under $200. None of them sound noticeably better than the G7 (in stock form), and while they might pair well with some of the IEMs due to brighter/smoother tonality, it will be more a matter of taste rather than absolute difference in perfomance metrics.

The only problem with the above statement is, when I turn on JetEffect 5 on the Plenue D, it sounds a lot better than the G7. I know that it’s DSP, but I can’t just not say that it sounds better in spite of that caveat. Also, it doesn’t artificially limit the amp gain (unlike LG) so you can use your insensitive headphones and IEMs a bit better, though at highest gain LG G7 has more output power (~1.8Vrms vs 1Vrms at 16ohm).

vs iPhone SE/Apple dongle: They both sound noticeably warmer in comparison, and have a less powerful amp. It’s also a lot easier to drive them both towards distortion with insensitive/high impedance headphones/IEMs compared to the Plenue D. As usual, with the JetEffect 5 turned on, none of the Apple devices stand a chance, and once again, connectivity/UI/UX is miles ahead on the Apple devices.

vs Hidizs AP80: The AP80 has more features, a better display, it’s even smaller in size, has a much inferior battery life, and of course — has a better UI that’s also a lot less stable. I’ve had the trial unit I had restart twice in the space of 3 days so… yeah.

However, sound quality is better on the AP80 in stock form, and it also has more output power. It doesn’t have anything like JetEffect though, so the sound is not as sculptable as on the Plenue D.

However, considering overall features and value — I’d definitely give the nod to the AP80.

Conclusion: There’s no going around it — the Plenue D looks like a complete oddball amidst the sea of chi-fi DAPs with a feature list as long as the National Constitution. In fact, the connectivity issues will be a deal-breaker for many, and the infuriatingly snail-paced UI navigation is the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back, at least that was the case for me.

I sent it back after 2 weeks, because the general responsiveness was just not my cup of tea. I know of a few people who don’t mind that though, and mostly just run a playlist and go about their day. I don’t do playlists personally and usually pick a song that I want to listen at a particular moment, so the poor performance was a no-go.

However, if you only listen to a playlist, don’t bother about BT/Wi-Fi, you’re on a budget, and you need the best possible battery life you can get at this range without compromising on the sound quality — well, get these instead of the shiny, blingy chi-fi DAPs or the anemic sounding Sony DAPs out these. The JetEffects alone will make it a worthwhile purchase.

As for me — I do miss the sound I got from JetEffects, and I will probably get a higher-end Cowon DAP without the janky UI issues down the road. Till then, I don’t really recommend the Plenue D, or the Plenue D2 for most people. You’ll just be frustrated with the general performance and for modern smartphone users it would be unacceptable for the most part irrespective of the audio quality.

If you are curious and brave enough though, well, you will enjoy the DSP effects, that I can guarantee. For the rest — stay away.

You can buy it from here (non-affiliated link).

Having gotten the itch for a new music player, I decided to start looking out there.  And let me say, what a difference a couple years has made in music players!  Apparently gone are the days of the $2-300 iPods and Cowon J3’s of yesteryear…apparently I have to drop $600+ just to get a Portable Music Player (PMP) worth its salt!  But no, this isn’t exactly true.  While there are some obscure PMP’s out there that sell for a decent price, I wanted something that I knew came from a good brand and had a good price point associated with it.  Initially, I started out by finding the Sony A17 series, which is where I thought I was headed.  Then came the Sony ZX100, which was the $600 non-US market player that had great battery life and great promises of sound quality.  After dabbling the idea of a Fiio player, I then turned my eyes over to Cowon again, knowing how much I loved the J3, and saw that they had somewhat changed…the Cowon Plenue 1 was going for nearly $1k, and the Cowon Plenue M was around $800 or so.  Knowing full well that I loved Cowon and it’s sound signature and player capabilities, I was getting myself ready to drop that kind of money for a PMP when I saw that the Plenue D was coming soon, and it was going to be the PMP that I was really looking for – something to replace my J3, and build upon all of the strong qualities the J3 had.  So how does the new Plenue D fare?  Remarkably.  It’s everything I was hoping for in my new PMP.
The Plenue D comes in a very nice box, a sort of understated approach.  It’s black and simple, yet feels premium to the user.  Inside you find a warranty booklet, a quickstart guide, the Player, and a microUSB cable (THANK YOU COWON, NO MORE PROPRIETARY CABLES!)  The player is a different size I must say comparatively to other PMP’s I’ve used, such as the J3 or iPods or smartphones.  It’s a small little brick, almost kind of like a post-it note in size and feel.  It’s got some decent weight to it, but not anywhere near a smartphone weight.  The build quality is top notch – the metal body feels great, the power button up top is a nice touch, and the media buttons on the side all have good feel and press to them without feeling too hard or soft to touch.  The headphone port has a good hold on both my Ultimate Ears 900s IEM’s cable as well as my Sony MDR-1A’s cable as well – no sense of looseness at all.
I immediately charged the player (you can see the charging status of the player with the led circle around the power button – a nice looking touch if you ask me), and then booted it up.  Took around 5 seconds, and then turned on.  Upon start up, the player was preloaded with the 1.02 firmware, which is the latest release from Cowon  - my guess is that the US spec ones sold by JetAudio have this, but I cannot confirm for everyone.  Once I realized that I did not need to do a firmware update, I powered back down, and loaded in my 128gb microSD card, which was filled with around 70gb of music – a mixture of FLAC and MP3 files.  Do note that if you are going to be using a microSD card, the card must be formatted in FAT32, not ex-FAT like many cards come preformatted.  This is an easy job to do – just download GUIformat and have it run.  With my card now loaded, I booted the player up to get it going – the player took its 5 seconds to start, and then proceeded to complete a database upgrade, which took roughly 30 seconds.  After that completed, all of my music was there, ready to go!
The system UI is very Cowon – anyone who’s handled a J3 or other Cowon player should feel pretty much at home, but it can be a bit quirky to work around for a first timer.  Most settings for the player can only be accessed while playing music – a bit odd, but that’s just how it is.  The player responsiveness is average – I will say that it’s better than the J3, but you should not go in expecting iPhone 6 level UI responsiveness.  Your clicks will register without issues, scrolling up and down is relatively good, and the new search function is good, but album art and such do take some time to load.  But for a player that’s solely focused on playing music, I don’t find this to be a nuisance at all.  Again, as a comparison back to the J3, this system UI feels a bit more polished and ready to go.
The screen quality is decent – certainly nothing special or to write home about, but it serves its purpose fine.  Album art looks good, and all the menus are easy to read and interact with.  It is a little pixely as it’s not a high-res screen, but again, at the end of the day this PMP is for playing music only – no photos, videos, etc.
Now onto the main point of the review – the sound!  Sound is classic Cowon sound, nearly the same as the J3 (and well, my Soundblaster ZxR for that matter) – well defined, slightly warm, and tons of detail.  The player responds on all ends of the audible spectrum from bass to treble and all the way in between.  What makes this player even more special than the J3 is that playback is completely black – there is no player noise like there was with the J3 – essentially, there is no player ‘hiss.’  This is more than likely attributed to the 120db SNR compared to the 95db SNR on the J3.  The player also has a stronger crosstalk rating, which I was able to perceive as different from the J3 based on a couple of songs I have in my library that I’ve heard happen before while playing.  This is not to say the J3 didn’t do a good job, it’s just that the Plenue D is nearly 5 years newer, and benefits from a much stronger DAC and internal component setup – its great to have a player with no hiss present!
JetEffect 5 and it’s EQ capabilities are plentiful and great – I’ve personally always been a fan of either the standard BBE setting or the BBE Headphone 3 setting myself, and they are both here and making the player sound fantastic.   Even without EQ, the sound quality is excellent and presents the listener with wonderful detail and quality.  There are even more presets than the J3 had, and there is a full 5 band EQ you can play with in user settings to get the sound to exactly where you want it to be, all without any distortion – Cowon simply cannot be outdone with their EQ capabilities.
Another major improvement from the J3 is the power output – this was also another big reason that I was looking for a new player.  While the J3 could drive my multi-armature IEM’s (the UE900s), in certain situations, the J3 was not really able to drive my MDR-1A over ear headphones – I would have to pump the volume anywhere from 35-40 (the J3’s maximum setting) just to get them to where I wanted them to be.  That is no longer the case with the Plenue D.  The D has a 100 adjustment volume scale, and I am seeing that at most, I have to have the player on 60 for my MDR-1A’s – a huge difference in output power.  While I don’t think you are going to be driving 300+ ohm headphones without an amp with the Plenue D, it is certainly capable of driving headphones up to 100ohm’s or so on its own.
Battery life is also fantastic – I let the player run for around 90 hours of mixed MP3 and FLAC playback on its first charge.  Its fantastic!  As someone who hates to charge things all the time, this makes me truly happy, and really speaks to the portability of this player.
Cowon has truly created a home run PMP with the Plenue D.  If you’re someone who is looking for a no-nonsense music player, this is the player for you.  It’s good price point, it’s fantastic build quality, its wonderful sound quality, and it’s awesome battery life all combine for a great music player that will keep you happy for years to come.  This is the true J3+ that many have been looking for.