[twister6]

Its back on.

Back on what? Your consideration list?

 

[jmills8]

Full of sponsors, cant see forums (mine). Waaaaay at the bottom. Now I need glasses. Wheres the new posts located ?

 

[sandalaudio]

Here is something I measured earlier..

 

[AndrewPL]

Here is something I measured earlier..

does this graph mean P2 is better than P1?

 

[Sound Eq]

it would be good for someone to tell us what this graph means comparing all three

 

[LCMusicLover]

it would be good for someone to tell us what this graph means comparing all three

P = V^2 / R

Where P is power, V is voltage, and R is resistance (impedance in this case).

So, as R increases, V must increase as well, in order to deliver the same power.

What this shows is that at the inflection point (around 60 or 70 Ohms) the P1 and the P2 stop delivering increased Voltage, and therefore, Power drops as R increases.

Plenue S delivers more voltage, and voltage continues to increase out into the 500+ Ohm range.

P2 delivers more voltage (and power) than P1 into loads up to around 30 - 40 Ohms, and then their voltage curves start to match, flattening out near 100 Ohms.

The question of 'better' is complicated, especially since impedance loads aren't linear, as your specific cans will present different impedance loads depending on the frequency of the signal.

The same is true for sources. Curves like these are typically based on a 1kHz signal.

Here's a good site to look at the basic EE formulae:

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-ohm.htm

 

[sandalaudio]

It was just with 0dBFS 1kHz sine wave FLAC file, with volume raised until it starts clipping (< 1%THD).

It's nice to see that the Plenue 2 gives a better low impedance drive compared to Plenue 1, because that gives it a bit of a leading edge on the AK 300 series.

Sound wise, I thought it was far superior to Plenue 1, but I was 50/50 on replacing my Plenue S with Plenue 2.
PCM sounded a lot more musically interesting on Plenue S, but the DSD was somehow much better on Plenue 2.

In the end, that extra bit of power available on Plenue S made me decide to hold on to it, since I do depend on it to drive low efficiency IEMs and headphones (e.g. for listening demos).

 

[bmichels]

Here is something I measured earlier..

Does this mean that the Cowon Plenue S is still the flag ship and better than the new Cowon plenue 2 ?

 

[sandalaudio]

Does this mean that the Cowon Plenue S is still the flag ship and better than the new Cowon plenue 2 ?

Higher power doesn't mean better sound quality, but it does suggest the design philosophy behind Plenue 2, so we get a sense of where Cowon wanted to position the Plenue 2 within their lineup.

One weakness of Plenue 1 was the low driving power when paired with low impedance IEMs, so they focused on improving that aspect.

 

[AndrewPL]

I really hoped that new firmware would fix that gyroscope in P2, its way too sensitive. Does anybody else experience this behaviour that it turns album view in horizontal position with a slight move?

 

[twister6]

I really hoped that new firmware would fix that gyroscope in P2, its way too sensitive. Does anybody else experience this behaviour that it turns album view in horizontal position with a slight move?

I just disable that, in both PM2 and P2. Don't need the landscape album view, prefer a portrait file list view

What I find a bit sensitive is when I'm in a file list view and scroll through, sometimes it goes too fast. It's great to scroll through a long list of files/albums, but sometimes I have to be careful because it scrolls too fast.

 

[Rockcoon]

PCM sounded a lot more musically interesting on Plenue S, but the DSD was somehow much better on Plenue 2.
(e.g. for listening demos).

What's that mean "a lot more musically interesting"?

 

[sandalaudio]

What's that mean "a lot more musically interesting"?

Meant that I was able to be engaged in the music I am listening to.

Do you know the feeling of when you hear a beautiful tone of a good instrument. It just makes you happy listening to that tone and keeps you interested in the music.

It's not a simple metric like this one has more bass, or this one has wider sound stage, etc.. They are both very good DAPs but I just felt that I could listen to the same piece of music with more enjoyment and attention on the Plenue S over Plenue 2.

Plenue 2 on the other hand had a tidier and detailed presentation that I could pin-point and hear every detail, but the important elements of the music didn't stand out as much as on Plenue S.

That was for PCM, but when I listened to DSD, Plenue 2 was surprisingly more direct and solid. Everything feels a lot more tangible and I prefer that over the Plenue S. (I always felt the DSD on Plenue S was somewhat fluffy and mellow compared to what I'm used to).

 

[twister6]

Meant that I was able to be engaged in the music I am listening to.

Do you know the feeling of when you hear a beautiful tone of a good instrument. It just makes you happy listening to that tone and keeps you interested in the music.

It's not a simple metric like this one has more bass, or this one has wider sound stage, etc.. They are both very good DAPs but I just felt that I could listen to the same piece of music with more enjoyment and attention on the Plenue S over Plenue 2.

Plenue 2 on the other hand had a tidier and detailed presentation that I could pin-point and hear every detail, but the important elements of the music didn't stand out as much as on Plenue S.

That was for PCM, but when I listened to DSD, Plenue 2 was surprisingly more direct and solid. Everything feels a lot more tangible and I prefer that over the Plenue S. (I always felt the DSD on Plenue S was somewhat fluffy and mellow compared to what I'm used to).

What filter setting do you use on P2? And do you hear difference when switching filters?

 

[sandalaudio]

What filter setting do you use on P2? And do you hear difference when switching filters?

The filter seemed noticeable on 44.1kHz CD rips but I couldn't really tell much difference on the 96 kHz files etc.

When I'm just flicking through the filters, the difference doesn't seem to be too big, but if I listen in one setting for a long time (say 10 minutes) and then switch to the other extreme (e.g. super slow v.s. sharp) then the change felt more noticeable. (sharp felt more upfront and punchy, super slow felt more fluid and organic). In the end I settled for the Low Dispersion, but I guess the whole idea is that you can change it as you like it on the fly.

P.S. I thought it wasn't significant enough for me to be worried about it on everyday listening, and certainly not as big deal as comparing against other DAPs etc.