[Nayparm]

P.s. unless you need bluetooth the Plenue 2 sounds better.

 

[twister6]

NEED HELP

So I picked up a Cowon R2 and two things are happening out the box:

First: Will not recongnize the R2 at all? I tried on 3 different computers tonight, ranging from Windows 7(last effort), Windows 10 and Windows 10 Pro. I am using a cable I know that works and the cable that came with the player currently.

Second: I plugged it into one of the desktops at the house and a pop box came up saying "Power Surge on Hub Port" . I did not get that on the two laptops.
*For record it charged the player with the cable that came with it on the laptop find but once it was full the next item below starting popping up.......Microsoft Laptop with Windows 10 Pro.

Any clue or did I get just get a paper weight?? I can get it replaced (Amazon) but this is sad if truely a band new product....?

Yep, sounds defective, better request a replacement.

 

[Bkew]

Thanks everyone. Already sent replacement request to amazon, should have it in a few days. .Sad as I really wanted to test it this weekend.

Probably dating myself (sadly) but I have used a J3 for a long time /wFiio amp. Shure headphones (SE425).

Honestly never felt the need to upgrade but thought about it with R, so gave in when R2 annouced. I need the bluetooth aspect. PLUS the wife listen to my old setup a few times and said "why dont you go ahead and get the new R2 and give me your old setup" =)

Since I could not test the R2, are the SE425 a good match for an R2? Is the the 846's really that good / worth the price??

I use IEM mainly so wondering what everyone is using / recommending? Wondered about upgrading / changing brands or if its not worth it. I like music to sound the way intended, but clean and separate. IF it has bass, then the iem should play bass. If its vocal presence, the vocals should stand front and center. So I guess as the music was intendeded, I guess presence is way to state it.

Appreciate any insight.

 

[someyoungguy]

P.s. unless you need bluetooth the Plenue 2 sounds better.

How would you characterize the differences in sound between the R2 and P2? I had the P2 mk2 for a while but actually wasn’t really into it.

Also, shout out to @Bkew for still rocking a J3 It was my everyday player for many years.

 

[keeney]

Does this really only expand to 256GB total?

 

[Nayparm]

How would you characterize the differences in sound between the R2 and P2? I had the P2 mk2 for a while but actually wasn’t really into it.

Also, shout out to @Bkew for still rocking a J3 It was my everyday player for many years.

The P2 had a much nicer low end with the exact same EQ/JetJeffects settings. Not sure if your an EQ user. To me the Cowons only shine with Jet effects and EQ, EQ alone doesn't cut it for me. I have P2 MkII also, very similar to P2 with more power on balanced.

 

[Nayparm]

Does this really only expand to 256GB total?

Nah, had a full 400gb card in all plenues from 1 to R2, wether all tracks will shuffle or not, or are even in the database, I don't know, I always use folder view.

 

[jmills8]

Nah, had a full 400gb card in all plenues from 1 to R2, wether all tracks will shuffle or not, or are even in the database, I don't know, I always use folder view.

Wow , I want to use a 400 gig card in my PM2 , PS , PL. Guss Im AFRAID the 400 gig wont work.

 

[Bkew]

How would you characterize the differences in sound between the R2 and P2? I had the P2 mk2 for a while but actually wasn’t really into it.

Also, shout out to @Bkew for still rocking a J3 It was my everyday player for many years.

LOL yea has been some time with the J3. Heard a lot of the new DAC combos in the last year that I thought sounded better but was not sure if going for a for full replacement was worth the $$$. As we know once you flip its all in LOL

 

[someyoungguy]

The P2 had a much nicer low end with the exact same EQ/JetJeffects settings. Not sure if your an EQ user. To me the Cowons only shine with Jet effects and EQ, EQ alone doesn't cut it for me. I have P2 MkII also, very similar to P2 with more power on balanced.

Yeah I’m definitely an EQ/JetEffect user. Typically I’ve always used BBE and BBE HP presets. I don’t know if the Plenues have been changing or just my tastes, but with the latest few models I’ve had, like the V and D2, the bass seems more upfront on default tuning and I’ve found BBE brings out too much bass, so have ended up using much more gentle user settings.

Interesting what you say about bass - I ended up returning the P2 mk 2 in the return window. It had great depth and soundstage but I found the bass kind of softened. I remember listening to “A Home” by Rivers Of Nihil and it was like I could feel the emotion in the singer’s voice, the tune of the guitars and this great drum placement, but I didn’t feel the kind of slam I wanted out of the low end. I wondered if the R2 might have a similar tuning to the V and D2 (given they all use the CS43131 chip), but with the bonus of larger screen, better UI and USB DAC that comes with the larger players.

 

[someyoungguy]

As we know once you flip its all in LOL

Ha ha, too true! I upgraded from the J3 to the Plenue D, but it just left me hungry for more. Then in the last three or so years I’ve ended up doing a Plenue tour: at some point I’ve owned them all but the J, P2 and L. So yeah, I guess I disappeared down that rabbit hole

 

[keeney]

Picked one of these up. I have a 512GB card almost filled with FLAC files and it detects them all no problem despite the site saying max 256GB.
Only have about 3 hours of listening so far, but they drive my OG Campfire Andromedas very well. I don't hear any hiss.

The size is perfect for me. The Fiio M11 Pro was so heavy and clunky, that it was almost a pain to carry around. The screen is big enough, so I don't really fat finger while browsing and can use it just fine with one hand without feeling like I may drop it. The edges are very sharp, even more so than the M11 Pro. I have the leather case coming, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The EQ options are amazing. I haven't had time to sit down and mess with some custom EQ and a lot of them seemed to bass heavy and narrow the sound stage. For now, I've been using the 'Rap' preset as it sounds the best to my ears. Anyone care to share their EQ settings? Gapless playblack works properly, unlike the M11 Pro.

The software could use some work. Background images and player skins look like they were copied from 90's Winamp skins. It doesn't bother me because 90% of the time my screen is off. I opted for 'Black' background with 'Type A' skin. It'd be nice to see some more customization options or ability to create our own themes, but I doubt that will happen. I haven't figured out how to display lyrics properly. Right now they're stored in the FLAC tags and the app doesn't seem to detect them. Their website says they support tags for lyrics, but I have a feeling I'll need to export to .lrc. I'm just afraid adding a bunch of .lrc files will cause issues.

Navigating music could be a little improved. If you're searching in 'Folder' mode, you need to back out into the root directory to change to a different mode of browsing such as Artist/Album/Playlist/Genre. Folder mode is the only way I've found where it automatically goes to the next album, so most of my time will be spent in that mode anyways.

The LED feature where it changes colors depending of the quality of the music is kind of pointless IMO, so I turned it off. Calling FLAC 16bit 44.1kHz files 'Standard' seems weird. I don't know anyone who can blind test 16bit vs 32bit FLAC and be consistently correct. I also don't get the buzz behind DSD. I think 128kbps-320kbps mp3 should be standard, FLAC should be HD, and then have a Master/DSD color.

Overall, it's the best player I've found for my Campfire Andromedas. The software is easy to find the music I want to play and the it sounds amazing in my ears. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

 

[jmills8]

Picked one of these up. I have a 512GB card almost filled with FLAC files and it detects them all no problem despite the site saying max 256GB.
Only have about 3 hours of listening so far, but they drive my OG Campfire Andromedas very well. I don't hear any hiss.

The size is perfect for me. The Fiio M11 Pro was so heavy and clunky, that it was almost a pain to carry around. The screen is big enough, so I don't really fat finger while browsing and can use it just fine with one hand without feeling like I may drop it. The edges are very sharp, even more so than the M11 Pro. I have the leather case coming, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The EQ options are amazing. I haven't had time to sit down and mess with some custom EQ and a lot of them seemed to bass heavy and narrow the sound stage. For now, I've been using the 'Rap' preset as it sounds the best to my ears. Anyone care to share their EQ settings? Gapless playblack works properly, unlike the M11 Pro.

The software could use some work. Background images and player skins look like they were copied from 90's Winamp skins. It doesn't bother me because 90% of the time my screen is off. I opted for 'Black' background with 'Type A' skin. It'd be nice to see some more customization options or ability to create our own themes, but I doubt that will happen. I haven't figured out how to display lyrics properly. Right now they're stored in the FLAC tags and the app doesn't seem to detect them. Their website says they support tags for lyrics, but I have a feeling I'll need to export to .lrc. I'm just afraid adding a bunch of .lrc files will cause issues.

Navigating music could be a little improved. If you're searching in 'Folder' mode, you need to back out into the root directory to change to a different mode of browsing such as Artist/Album/Playlist/Genre. Folder mode is the only way I've found where it automatically goes to the next album, so most of my time will be spent in that mode anyways.

The LED feature where it changes colors depending of the quality of the music is kind of pointless IMO, so I turned it off. Calling FLAC 16bit 44.1kHz files 'Standard' seems weird. I don't know anyone who can blind test 16bit vs 32bit FLAC and be consistently correct. I also don't get the buzz behind DSD. I think 128kbps-320kbps mp3 should be standard, FLAC should be HD, and then have a Master/DSD color.

Overall, it's the best player I've found for my Campfire Andromedas. The software is easy to find the music I want to play and the it sounds amazing in my ears. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

"M11 Pro was so heavy and clunky, that it was almost a pain to carry around. " what ? Are you a dude or a dudet ?

 

[someyoungguy]

. It'd be nice to see some more customization options or ability to create our own themes,

This actually is a possibility. I haven't looked into making my own as it seems to require some shockwave flash coding. Strangely there's nothing listed on the English Cowon website but I have a handful of other themes on my computer that I think came from the Cowon Korean language site. They only change the "Now playing" screen though. Seems I can't upload them here to head-fi, but could sort out a dropbox link if anyone's interested (or remind myself how to find it on their Korean website).

I've had random songs come up with lyrics embedded on my Plenue players. I never knew any of my files had lyrics associated with them, so can't really help with lyric format options, but just to say it definitely does work.

 

[keeney]

"M11 Pro was so heavy and clunky, that it was almost a pain to carry around. " what ? Are you a dude or a dudet ?

I'm a dude, but the m11 wasn't comfortable to hold and use in one hand without feeling like I may drop it. It also would stick out of my coat pocket and the weight of it would pull it down and had it fall out a couple times while sitting on the train.