[BruceBanner]

rockbox makes the dx90 UI faster?

 
Dunno, ask them in the rockbox dx50/90 thread here on headfi, I'm sure they'll be able to advise.
 

  The Plenue D has JetEffect 5.0.  The Plenue M has JetEffect 7.0.  Older Cowon players like the J3 or i9 have 3.0.

 
Little has changed since 3.0 - 7.0 (from my understanding). Essentially you get more presets, but the basics stay the same. With patience you will find sound signatures that surpass the presets anyway.
 
 

 
Small video I did of the ui just now. firmware 1.02  

 
Cheers.
 
It's very helpful to see the device in action in real time lol. It does (for me) confirm how annoying I would find this DAP. I repeat... YMMV, I am not you and vice versa, I am just simply stating that I think I would get very frustrated with this device, and I have some referencing being a Cowon owner of the D2 and C2.
Tiny little icons cramped up in the upper most corners of the screen... urgh. At least with a resistive screen you could use a stylus (like how they supplied the D2 with one), ironically with capacitive it's more fiddly. Watching this video just brings back feelings of frustration and disappointment I had with the aforementioned DAPs, and although this is capacitive it might possibly be worse, certainly the video doesn't inspire.
When I think of all the DAPs I have enjoyed they have been tactile. Sansa Fuze V1, Clip+, Clip Zip, AP100, Alien Shozy etc. I just like my DAPs tactile.

Perhaps the thing that will assist the Plenue D more than anything else will be custom UI's. I recall writing a very indepth review of the C2 from a custom UI perspective. I wrote pretty much that custom UI saved this DAP from being almost unusable. Hopefully with the Plenue D there will be enough interest for developers to get on board and enhance the UI to being more finger friendly etc.

I'll watch this with interest, but my money will likely be spent elsewhere.

 

[Photoman]

Dunno, ask them in the rockbox dx50/90 thread here on headfi, I'm sure they'll be able to advise.


Little has changed since 3.0 - 7.0 (from my understanding). Essentially you get more presets, but the basics stay the same. With patience you will find sound signatures that surpass the presets anyway.



Cheers.

It's very helpful to see the device in action in real time lol. It does (for me) confirm how annoying I would find this DAP. I repeat... YMMV, I am not you and vice versa, I am just simply stating that I think I would get very frustrated with this device, and I have some referencing being a Cowon owner of the D2 and C2.
Tiny little icons cramped up in the upper most corners of the screen... urgh. At least with a resistive screen you could use a stylus (like how they supplied the D2 with one), ironically with capacitive it's more fiddly. Watching this video just brings back feelings of frustration and disappointment I had with the aforementioned DAPs, and although this is capacitive it might possibly be worse, certainly the video doesn't inspire.

When I think of all the DAPs I have enjoyed they have been tactile. Sansa Fuze V1, Clip+, Clip Zip, AP100, Alien Shozy etc. I just like my DAPs tactile.


Perhaps the thing that will assist the Plenue D more than anything else will be custom UI's. I recall writing a very indepth review of the C2 from a custom UI perspective. I wrote pretty much that custom UI saved this DAP from being almost unusable. Hopefully with the Plenue D there will be enough interest for developers to get on board and enhance the UI to being more finger friendly etc.


I'll watch this with interest, but my money will likely be spent elsewhere.

plus the search feature is nice. So I can get to any song, artist and album with no problem

 

[Ghisy]

 
Small video I did of the ui just now. firmware 1.02  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adf5U_iXxMk

 
Thanks!
 
Seems the speed has improved a little. It's better but too bad the J3 is still more fluid. C'mon Cowon, get it together, don't you want to take my money?!
 
I've been running a custom UI on my J3 since forever. Do you guys think someone will be interested enough to make some for the Plenue D?

 

[RAFA]

I just tried aac files. They do not work. Can someone else confirm this too?

 

[F900EX]

I find the Plenue D is very similar sounding as the Plenue M and similar BBE.

 
How about for 300ohms headphones ?

 

[BruceBanner]

   
Thanks!
 
Seems the speed has improved a little. It's better but too bad the J3 is still more fluid. C'mon Cowon, get it together, don't you want to take my money?!
 
I've been running a custom UI on my J3 since forever. Do you guys think someone will be interested enough to make some for the Plenue D?

 
Yes. There was even custom UI for the C2 (and hence M2), I wouldn't even be suprised if it works straight out of the box on the D. Despite my 'negativity' surrounding the Plenue D, it prolly is one of their better offerings of late, I would be surprised if custom UI's won't pop up soon.
 
 

plus the search feature is nice. So I can get to any song, artist and album with no problem

 
Yes that's nice feature. The D has lots of nice features, it just seems to me that the interface and processing power lets the device down (for the price tag their asking of course).
 

   
How about for 300ohms headphones ?

 
I said from the start that the M and P1 would be very similar sounding to the D (and possibly M2), where the difference lies in driving headphone capability. The M and P1 are essentially devices that already have decent amp components housed within, the others not.
 
In summary I would expect this (in terms of sound quality);
 
M2 = Plenue D and M and P1 in sound quality/signature, but carries much more hiss.
Plenue D = M2 without the hiss, and is equal to the M and P1 also when using most IEMs
M and P1 = the same as the aforementioned DAPs yet carry more power to satisfy the can users.

 

[jbolia]

 
Small video I did of the ui just now. firmware 1.02  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adf5U_iXxMk

That speed is the same as the M2, which is slower than the C2.
 
Does the Plenue D has the bookmark function?  Anyone?

 

[BruceBanner]

Wow.
 
Great idea guys, let's charge our fan base more with worse processors than our previous offerings!

 

[taffy2207]

Funny how the more negative comments are from people who don't own it or haven't auditioned it and the people who have heard it or own it are more balanced / positive. It's new and and only on it's 2nd firmware update. Some people lack patience it seems.

 

[Photoman]

  Funny how the more negative comments are from people who don't own it or haven't auditioned it and the people who have heard it or own it are more balanced / positive. It's new and and only on it's 2nd firmware update. Some people lack patience it seems.

You are 100% correct.  This device plays music and  that's it.  People get spoil with smartphones.  I'm not waiting more that a second to play music.  I'm good

 

[Tokyoghoul]

Funny how the more negative comments are from people who don't own it or haven't auditioned it and the people who have heard it or own it are more balanced / positive. It's new and and only on it's 2nd firmware update. Some people lack patience it seems. :rolleyes:

I agree too. Thanks to the 1.02 update, scrolling is much more smooth. I don't see how the upcoming updates won't fix other lags...
I would like a more customizable UI though.

 

[soundblast75]

Thanks for the video,
what's wrong with it?!
Stop moaning...

 

[cloudscapes]

Hey thread is back! Wonder why it was locked a few days ago.
 
Anyway, after a week of use (3-5 hours a day) I figure I'd add/elaborate a few points.
 
~ I've gotten used to the UI lag a little, but my earlier comments still stand. In summary, not expecting phone responsiveness, but it is still worse than the 5 year old J3, I don't find this acceptable, even if others might. However, I'm confident cowon will improve it with future patches. 
 
~ Used it aprox 30 hours, and the battery meter is about 2/3rds full, which supports the 100 hour battery claim! Good stuff! I still haven't charged it since taking it out of the box.
 
~ At first I was confused by how the volume and track skip buttons were set up, how increasing volume/track number were facing 'opposite' directions on the player, unlike the J3, but that's more a case of getting used to something. And after a week of using it, I like it that way. Feels fine. Personally I would have liked the buttons to stick out a tiny bit more, but that's a nitpick.
 
~ Not a critique of the player itself. The case it came with isn't very good (not worth the $50 I see it sold separately for IMO). Lack of a screen flap. Mandatory for those of us who want to put the player in our bag and not worry about a camera or whatever impacting the screen. Yes the glass is scratch resistant, but a screen flap on the case is always welcome. You never know how hard something can accidentally hit it. I'll be buying a 3rd party case as soon as they become available.
 
~ When browsing through a list of files, the drag-scrolling area on the right edge of the screen is very hard to touch and drag. When you have 200 artist folders and you want to scroll from the As to the Ts, it can be finicky from how hard it is to hit that perfect spot on the right edge (which feels like it's only a few pixels wide). Somewhat worsened by the included case design.
 
~ I really miss the J3's ability to scale the font. In a player that's already a bit finicky (compared to previous players of the same company) to scroll through big lists of folders, I consider the lack of this feature to be more of a negative than it would be had the UI been much more responsive. See photo below, there's a lot of wasted space between lines. Again, when you have 200 folders to scroll through, you notice these potential improvements. Why they got rid of the zoom feature? I don't know. I hope they will add it back.
 

 
~ Once again, superb sound quality! No complaints there. I don't know whether it's the difference between jeteffect 3 and 5, or whether it's just the amp in this thing can betteer drive my cans than the J3 did, but it's just great! It also highlighted a few songs that I should reencode at a better bitrate that I didn't notice before.
 
To those who think I'm being way too negative, I do think it's a great player. I'm content with my purchase, though it's in collectively pointing out flaws that I hope companies will deliver better products in the future. Cowon will probably fix a number of things in future patches, as they have in the past. This player is superb hardware that (in my opinion) is somewhat let-down by its software and UI. When you have hardware this good, software flaws just stick out more. At least to me.
 
Good job to cowon, and I look forward to future firmware improvements to make this great player even better.

 

[BruceBanner]

  Funny how the more negative comments are from people who don't own it or haven't auditioned it and the people who have heard it or own it are more balanced / positive. It's new and and only on it's 2nd firmware update. Some people lack patience it seems.

 
It's not funny at all, makes perfect sense to me.
 
When people are shopping around and researching to purchase products they have their own 'boxes to tick'. Doesn't matter if it's a camera, DAP, laptop or whatever, everyone's needs and wants differ. The problem is people see negativity as a personal attack, this usually because they ended up buying the product so feel the need to defend their purchase. Instead of looking the fool they would rather defend it's faults and make less of the negative issues, this is human nature.
 
What people need to understand is that we all have different needs and wants in a DAP. I once gave the Alien Shozy a glowing review despite it being a screenless DAP (which therefore has obvious limitations), but even then I could understand why that DAP might not be for everyone. Different horses for courses.
 
Personally if I am to shell out $399AUD for another Cowon DAP I'd want premium features, starting with zero lag, not lag that is worse than their 2010 J3 model for instance, it is 2016 after all. If the J3 lag is less than the Plenue D, then it is akin to being given 2008-2009 type processing power placed in a DAP in the year 2015-16. Cowon have a strong reputation for using old parts in new devices and personally I just want off this train.

Now if the Plenue D cost say half or a third of that price my opinion for value alters of course.
 
But it's not just lag, there are other aspects of the device that don't satisfy me (or 'tick my boxes'). The majority of the size and weight of the device is down to that ridiculous battery! After my C2 experience (rated at 55hrs) I soon learned that it was complete overkill in terms of battery life. I rarely directly charged the thing. The weekly hookups to the PC to transfer new content was all the charging it ever really needed. My Cowon i9+ rated around 25-30hrs weighs 40g and is far more portable and comfortable to use than the C2, and I too never ran into battery life issues with that model either.
I would rather have half the thickness and weight of the Plenue D (5-7mm thick please) and take a third or half of the battery life in compensation, but it's just another example of Cowon having a huge stockpile of these batteries (or they can get their hands on these units at a very good price) and rehashing them time and time again. D2, D2+, C2, M2, Plenue D...

Horses for courses, some people I am sure welcome the battery life, it's just not for me.

 

[Stoneburner]

Jetaudio has it on their ebay site for $299
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COWON-Plenue-D-PD-High-resolution-music-player-32GB-Silver-Black-HiFi-24bit-/371525094957?hash=item56809f0e2d:gxkAAOSwT~9Wit56