EDITED/UPDATED
I finally took possession of my ‘M’ a few days ago, after waiting a month for them to come back into stock. Previously, I’d graduated from a modified iPod Gen 5 (took out the HD, replaced it with a CF card adaptor and Rockboxed it), then on to an iBasso DX90 via the DX50.
I love the DX90 it was the DAP that made me realise just how much better you can get your music to sound. I’d paired it with the Westone W40s and then recently moved to the NAD HP50s. The NADs are a fantastic set of cans for the money and outperform the more expensive W40s.
So, here I am after having shelled out nearly 500 clams for the next step up the ladder. It wasn’t easy justifying the expenditure, but I did in the end ;o)
After charging and powering up, the first step was to update the FW, which was nice and simple. The first thing to strike me was how slick and smooth the UI was. I’d coped with the DX90’s very dull (literally) and somewhat buggy UI for quite a while, so the snappy Plenue was like coming into the light after being in a dark room. I should also add the the unit itself is a thing of minimalist beauty. Hmmmm…milled aluminium…(said in a Homer Simpson voice).
Popping my 128gb card in I was also very impressed at the time it took to scan (around 90 seconds). A quick tour through the screens was straightforward and self-explanatory. The Jet effects looked very tasty but I was going to save that for a more prolonged listening session. I also tried my SD to microSd adaptor (something that I could never get to work properly on my DX90) and it easily and quickly read the 256gb card…woo-hoo! That meant I’d have a player with a potential storage of over 300gb. This was one of my main reasons for switching players. I’d looked at the Fiio X5 and its dual card slots. I’d also auditioned the Calyx and the Questyle but then when you start to look at this sort of stuff in more detail you start to want more bells and whistles, so the ‘M’ with its Burr-Brown 1975 and it’s 64gb on-board memory popped onto my radar (after lusting after the P1, but realising that the small compromises in the ‘M’ [less memory and moderately lower spec DAC] and its more parent-friendly price was better suited to my pocket).
So, the sound? I should point out I’m not an audiophile but am a musophile. I love my music, it keeps me sane in an insane world and because I do most of my listening on the move, this is where I choose to spend my money, cautiously. Although having said that my partner looks at me with my, now 3, redundant players and multiple sets of phones and rolls her eyes.
I listen to a complete spectrum of stuff; classical, jazz, rock, soul/funk, electronic, acoustic, you name it, if it’s got balls I’ll listen to it. With the DX90 I loved the soundstage it gave and (despite one or two FW updates knackering the sound-sig) the lovely warm, non-tiring sound. I’d never really used the EQ much because, to me, it never really improved the flat sound I was getting out of it.
Anyway, on to the ‘M’. I took a quick tour of some of my favourite HD tracks. First up, Tears For Fears “The Working Hour”, then Genesis “Back in NYC”, Daft Punk “Contact”, David Bowie “Golden Years”, Donny Hathaway “Live” aaaaaand Madre Dios! I knew people were saying it was a step up but for me it was like graduating from a point-and-shoot camera to my Nikon D700. The first thing I realised was the mid-range. Vocals popped out of the mix like they never had with the DX90. It took me by surprise at first. It’s a part of the sound that for me the DX90 had never excelled at but the ‘M’ brought it all into such sharp focus. On top of that there was the bass. On the DX90 bass was present but didn’t carry as much weight as it probably should have. I always thought it was a limitation in my cans (the HD50s) but the ‘M’ brought a clarity and speed that was entirely new to me and was extremely satisfying. Then the treble, the ‘M’ sprinkled just a little bit of fairy dust onto the top to set the whole sound off. My HP50s changed up a gear admirably to accommodate all of this extra information. I was stunned quite frankly and spent the next three hours with a stoopid grin on face. I usually measure playback of a system by its ability to cope with complex drums (i.e. Phil Collins virtuoso drumming on “Back in NYC” along with Omar Hakim ‘tearing **** up’ on Daft Punk’s “Contact”) and the ‘M’ re-created these with amazing realism. Cymbals had crispness and sustain, toms had reverb and the snare had snap. There was so much space and detail between all the instruments. I was a very happy camper indeed.
The JetEffects; well as we know there’s a myriad of pre-sets plus 4 user-definable sets. As I mentioned I’ve been use to just listening flat with no eq but since Cowon had gone to such effort I felt it’d be churlish not to take a tour. The BBE headphone settings proved to be my favourite, specifically number 2. It’s just raised everything in scale without sounding like an obvious addition. So far I haven’t turned it off. The reverb, chorus and flange settings I’ll save for when I’m feeling silly, although I think some of the reverb settings may work really well with some live recordings.
So, after all that gushing is there any negatives? Well, perhaps one or two. The lack of a case is a pain and I don’t mean just that the P1 comes with one and ‘M’ doesn’t, I mean that currently we really only have 3 options; the official Cowon leather case, the Dignis and the Tuff-Love wallet –style case. Although the Cowon looks nice, at £50 I can’t help but feel I’m being played just because I’ve bought an expensive DAP. I’ve bought leather bags that didn’t cost that much. I had a Dignis case for my DX90 and lovely it was too but again for the P1 you’re looking at around the same price. The Tuff-Love case was what I’ve compromised with at £34 but to be honest it looks a bit naff. Why would I carry around my credit cards and cash with my DAP!? It’ll do for now because I think it looks to offer the most protection. And that’s another slight pain, without a case the Plenue is as slippy as a bar of soap, which is a worry with such a high-value piece of consumer electronics. My last quibble is that it took me forever to work out how to get to the basic EQ settings. It is mentioned in the manual but it didn’t seem that clear to me.
Finally then, for me this is where I’ll be for the foreseeable future. The only thing on my list now is possibly the Oppo PM3’s but I’d need to know that they outperformed the HP50s some margin.
The Plenue M was everything I hoped it would be and then some. It’s added a level of detail and focus to my music that I always suspected was there but couldn’t see a way of releasing. DSD playback is fantastic, particularly its ability to play SACD ISOs. The processor has enough grunt to stream very high bit-rates (something that my DX90 struggled with at times) and to keep the UI moving quickly and smoothly. The addition of an SD to microSD adaptor should keep your storage qualms at bay. I’d happily recommend the Plenue M as a ‘just about affordable’ step up from the DX90 / X5. I guess we just need to see what iBasso and Fiio can’t do with their next flagship models, although it’s clear to me that Cowon have the expertise and infrastructure that has enabled them to produce and extremely professional DAP. I’m just looking forward to the next firmware.
Update: I've been using the 'M' as a DAC from my laptop over the weekend, using the optical-out and I'm extremely impressed! 100% simple to use (plug it in select the device via audio manager and away you go!), the SQ is, as you'd expect, considerably better than my generic Realtek HD soundcard. The only slight issue is when using with video due to the slight delay (4ms). That's easily fixable with VLC's track-sync function but not so easy with any web streamed stuff.
It's funny that the problems that vexed the DX90 so much (DAC function, gapless playback, not-great UI) works straight out of the box with the Cowon. To my mind that's the difference between a quality product and not-quite product. I wonder if the DX80 will resolve those problems?
So, it's been a couple of weeks with the 'M' now and I'm still really impressed.
