[Csi]

So I have been a Cowon fan for a while. I went from Samsung P2 to a Cowon J3 and thought I heard baby Jesus. Couple years later my J3 bricked. By then J3 wasn't readily available anymore so I turned to Cowon X9, as it had the same chip and the EQ/BBE joys I loved. When I stumbled over the "news" that Cowon was stepping into the high end DAP game I became immensely elated. 

I bought Plenue P1, loaded it with the same files as I had on Cowon (mostly 320 KBPS files, which probably was my problem) and started listening away with my IE80. Maybe there was slightly more sound separation and some added clarity but boy did the law of diminishing returns hit me hard. Probably should just use the money to upgrade IEMs.

There really is no point to this thread as I'm just venting and feeling so funked out. Returning it....meh

 

[Sound Eq]

 


So I have been a Cowon fan for a while. I went from Samsung P2 to a Cowon J3 and thought I heard baby Jesus. Couple years later my J3 bricked. By then J3 wasn't readily available anymore so I turned to Cowon X9, as it had the same chip and the EQ/BBE joys I loved. When I stumbled over the "news" that Cowon was stepping into the high end DAP game I became immensely elated. 

I bought Plenue P1, loaded it with the same files as I had on Cowon (mostly 320 KBPS files, which probably was my problem) and started listening away with my IE80. Maybe there was slightly more sound separation and some added clarity but boy did the law of diminishing returns hit me hard. Probably should just use the money to upgrade IEMs.

There really is no point to this thread as I'm just venting and feeling so funked out. Returning it....meh

can u tell what u did not like, because i was considering buying it

 

[Csi]

So mind you I am doing a direct comparison with X9 as that is what I currently have been using for past 2 years
 
Good:
UI, beautiful sharp screen, very responsive and load up time is fantastic
Well constructed, solid metal brick but not uncumbersome
DAP easily powered my IE80, zero distortion and loud volumes set at may be 40% volume.
Punchy, deep bass
10 bands of EQ vs 5 band prior
 
Bad
Price. 
Not enough of sonic improvement. 

Bottom line: to my crumby ears, which I think i must have really broke after years of concerts, is that I barely found to be an improvement over X9. There was a slightly larger sound stage and mids seemed cleaner and bass a bit tigher but overall it sounded like my X9. Maybe I needed more detailed IEMs then the bass monsters I've turned my IE80's into (full 5 notches!) but maybe it's just a testament to the chips inside of the i7;s and X9's of the Cowon lineup....

 

[H20Fidelity]

To be honest, you would have achieved a larger improvement from upgrading your IEM. And probably at half the cost. IE80 arent really something that's going to draw the full potential of your DAP upgrade, therfore they're hitting thier performance ceiling before you can hear what the new Cowon can really do. Now you have the player you may as well keep going. I recommend checking out the Fidue A83 hybrid for around $300, this has a high performance ceiling and will scale up further than IE80. (plus it's just a much better earphone).