OK. First things first, my thanks to Jack Fu for the generous and rather interesting approach towards obtaining the new hisoundaudio products.
I picked up the package today at the dreaded post office, and was pleasantly surprised of the lack of a long line. The box was unusually cold and for a second I thought it was being stored in a refrigerator or stored outside in the freezing night temperature. I digress.
DISCLAIMER: I no longer owned the AMP3 or Studio, so take what I type with a grain salt.
Since I've owned the Studio-I before, upon opening the RoCoo box and out of the plastic bag, aesthetically, they look similar, but once I held it in my hand, the physical difference is very apparent:
- RoCoo is about 1/3 thinner in thickness and weighs substantially less than the Studio. Upon further inspection, the thickness of the aluminum chassis on the RoCoo looks thinner and doesn't have screws to remove the circuit board.
- The latter feels like a brick and unlike the RoCoo, it doesn't have the shiny, plastic laminated covers that on both sides of the player. I recall on the back of the Studio is a thick, gorilla glass type cover, and on the front, the word "Studio" is engraved into the chassis face.
- No line-in, FM radio, and a lot less battery life capacity
The difference above are by no means deal breakers against the RoCoo especially when considering the rather large price gap. Both have that attractive, industrial look and design with the Studio taking the cake. Since the two share similar, if not identical UI and navigation, what's really important is the sound, right?
Before I begin on the sound, upon opening the package contents, I let the Live ear buds burn in a little bit playing out of my Sansa Clip Zip with moderate volume for about five hours. During this time, I charged the RoCoo and copied about a gig of FLAC files straight to the internal memory storage on the root storage in a folder that I created called "FLAC", which I observed to be rather slow. Within the FLAC file folder are its respective folders by artist. I then inserted a 16GB ADATA, Class 4 microSDHC with about 10GB of FLAC files in its respective folder by artist as well. The RoCoo took less 30 seconds to initialize the external card. Like the previous hisound daps, shuffling songs from different artists stored in their own respective folders only works with files stored on the internal memory. On the microSDHC card, shuffling is fixed with the home folder of the current music file at play. I guess it would work if you had only one folder for storage, but I think to most, myself included, find this method of mass storage not only impractical but cumbersome as well. Sadly, my Livewires Trips are being refitted and my UE 700 are out on loan, so I only have my Grado RS2 and Atrio mg7 to test out the RoCoo sound.
I was not that surprised that the volume level I set on the RoCoo is the same on the Studio. When listening with my Atrio, volume setting is at 17, with the Grado, it's at 20 and fluctuates +/- 2 to 3 levels depending on the song. Well, after listening to the player for about an hour straight between the two, I can confidently claim that the RoCoo and the Studio sound nearly identical on all accounts. The low end is tight and punchy, and the mids are not recessed or too forward with good amount of detail through out. Like the Studio, the RoCoo lacks the warmth and layed back sound, but it carries out details and lows very well - bass is tight and punchy. The RoCoo did great with the Atrio, but really excels with the RS2. Keep in mind that when the Studio debuted, it was optimized with headphones in general. I believe the Studio-V has different firmware for BA IEM or headphone usage. I surmise that that may be the difference between the standard RoCoo and the powered version. However, with earphones in general, the area that can be approved upon is the perceived lack of openness and somewhat congested sound. IMO, this is the only area that needs to be improved upon and is most likely due to the DAP chip being used, which may be the same one used in the Studio.
So, unless you don't need the line out function or the much longer battery life of the Studio, the RoCoo powered version is of great value and performs well even at its retail price. It looks great, good size, and relatively easy to navigate. I never been fond of the touch screen UI from S:Flo2 and Teclast soI would like to thank Jack again for the opportunity to purchase the RoCoo at a very bargain price.
Regarding the free gift, the Live ear buds, I'm current experiencing channel imbalance issues. So, a review for the Live may or may not materialize, depending on the exchange outcome with Jack/hisoundaudio.
Happy Holidays to all and may you have a Happy New Year.
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