[Ojisan]

Save for the driving power of the SP3K vs the LP DAPs ?

Yeah the amp section is a part of the special sauce of LP. It works wonders for DD.

 

[visi77]

.

 

[searchingtom]

Interesting:

 

[BlankName]

600,000-700,000 yen or am I misreading?

 

[Kiats]

600,000-700,000 yen or am I misreading?

Sounds about right.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Hi folks,

Most of us know about the ... quirky software of L&P P6 Pro. Let's talk about sound instead. I have just done a series of A/B tests between P6 Pro and the best sources I have in my collection - Shanling M6 Ultra, Topping G5, and FiiO K7. I also throw in my FiiO KA3 dongle. For this test, I select the most "normal/average" IEM in terms of driving difficulty: the newly released Dunu SA6 MkII. The test track is the powerful performance of One Winged Angel by The Danish National Symphony Orchestra:



Some interesting results (observations from 4.4mm output across all sources):

• The difference between P6 Pro and other sources is not subtle. I don't need to A/B again and again and twist my ears to hear the differences like, say, between M6U and K7.
• The first key difference is the bass and dynamic. P6 Pro has deep bass that is very punchy and physical, yet very crisp on the attack end, as if the volume jumps from 0 to peak without any looseness or "hesitation". As a result, the sense of rhythm and musical pulse is very strong with P6 Pro. Everything else feel loose and weak, especially in the opening phrase of the performance.
• The next noticeable difference is the depth and layering. The difference is day and night when the choir comes in at around 1:30. Only P6 Pro manages to convey the illusion that the choir is somewhere before and above me. All other sources sound more closed in and flat. The KA3 performs the worst here, followed by G5. M6U and K7 are almost the same.
• The next difference is the sense of micro details. Every instrument has more nuances with P6 Pro, thus the whole performance feels real. Next to P6 Pro, all of other sources feel veiled, even though they are competent on their own.

P6 Pro is very competent via Bluetooth, even with the inferior AAC codec. Acceptable delay, no significant loss in staging or detail. It does not get more bourgeoisie than watching YouTube via bluetooth with P6 Pro.

3.5mm vs 4.4mm: the balanced output is simply superior in terms of bass control and dynamic. The presentation of 3.5mm feels sloppy next to the great 4.4mm, though still ahead of 4.4mm on my M6U.

So yeah, I'm shocked by the audio performance of this DAP (and also its software, in a different way).

 

[hongky]

So yeah, I'm shocked by the audio performance of this DAP (and also its software, in a different way).

You're doom
You can't unheard it

 

[o0genesis0o]

This whole contraption together barely matches the P6 Pro

I’ll miss this luxury DAP when sending it to the next stop in the tour.

 

[searchingtom]

This whole contraption together barely matches the P6 Pro

I’ll miss this luxury DAP when sending it to the next stop in the tour.

Are you selling your P6 Pro?

 

[o0genesis0o]

Are you selling your P6 Pro?

I am on a review tour in Australia. Trying for 2 weeks, and then shipping it to the next stop.

 

[Neweymatt]

I recently spent a couple of weeks with the Luxury & Precision P6 Pro as part of the Australian tour, many thanks to L&P for providing the DAP, and @Damz87 for organising these awesome tours!

First of all just a bit of background. While I’ve always been a big fan of music and enjoy listening to quite a wide variety of artists & genres, I am a COVID-era headfi’er, and only really got into the hobby in 2020. The reason I mention this, is the majority of my listening over the last 3 years or so has been at home at my desk using various Schiit DACs & amps, streaming Tidal or Apple Music from a Mac. That said, I’ve got a couple of DAPs along the way for on-the go listening, but I haven’t really prioritised that use case. So I was very intrigued to get an extended audition of a true TOTL DAP like the P6 Pro.

Now I went into this knowing a little about the P6 Pro’s ‘quirky’ UI and absence of streaming. Not having access to Tidal or Apple Music would ultimately be a deal-breaker for me, but I still wanted to give the P6 Pro a real chance to win me over with it’s sound, especially considering my preference for R2R/Multibit sound that I’ve come to love with my HiBy RS6 and Schiit Bifrost2 DAC. Up front I will say that the P6 Pro does sound pretty amazing, however I did find it comes with a few caveats, and it does ask you to make some sacrifices.

I was a bit surprised when I unboxed it how small the P6 Pro actually is, somewhere between my A&K SR25 and HiBy RS6.

So from an ergonomic perspective, this DAP is great, it fits very easily in a pocket and can be used one-handed with no problem. As far as the quirky UI, most of it was not really a major issue, although by now I, like most people, have gotten very used to a smartphone-like experience from a device this size and form-factor, and I felt it a bit jarring to use the P6 Pro. Not a total deal-breaker, but for a DAP at this kind of price, I would expect a nicer user experience that makes me really feel like engaging with the device. One thing that I don’t really get is how small the album art is displayed in the “Now Playing” view, considering the amount of screen real-estate available. I like being able to study album art, it’s just one more thing that helps create a more engaging listen for me. On the plus side, because the feature set of this DAP is so stripped back, there is not a lot to have to sift through to find things, and it’s a breeze to use pretty quickly. So in a way it was kind of refreshing to use a very simple device with very little between me and the music.


Despite my reliance on streaming to deliver fresh new tunes to my ears every day, I’ve built up a reasonable collection of my own FLACs, following is a selection of what I listened to on the P6 Pro and used to compare vs other sources:

Saint Etienne - I’ve Been Trying To Tell You
OTT - Heads
Angel Olsen - Big Time
Florist - Florist
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Tash Sultana - MTV Unplugged Live in Melbourne

I had a good variety of IEMs and a headphone to test with, including my own 64 Audio A12t, Campfire Andromeda2020, Campfire Cascade, TGXEars Serratus, and Campfire Audio Onyx, along with the Vision Ears Phonix & EXT that I had on hand as part of another tour.

It was with dynamic driver and hybrid transducers that I found better synergy with the P6 Pro. Listening to EXT was outstanding, and it was a tougher call whether I preferred the P6 Pro or the Bifrost2/Jot2.

I think though that the desktop rig made an even better case with the significant increase in power on offer, I felt it had better dynamics and improved EXT soundstage depth very nicely. For me, the Campfire Cascade headphone, as well as the Campfire Onyx IEM paired best with P6 Pro, as it cleaned up both of those warm bass canons very nicely and made them feel much tighter and more controlled down low.

One observation I did make across the board from a technical perspective was the relatively distant perception of P6 Pro’s sound stage, particularly noticeable with A12t and Phonix. The P6 Pro extends well in width and height, but I felt was just a bit flat and a little more 2D in it's depth, and gave me the impression that I was sitting back in the 10th row. The comparison with RS6 was very noticeable, which I find has a much deeper 3D sort of stage, and delivers a more immersive experience, albeit with a small sacrifice to detail retrieval. The Bifrost2/Jotunheim2 desktop rig combines the best of both worlds for me, and I suppose if I want to truly replicate that in a portable device I’d probably have to consider upgrading to the RS8.

In summary the P6 Pro definitely sounds great, delivering an extraordinary amount of detail with perhaps a small sacrifice to warmth and engagement, but the differences are small and it comes down to preference and pairing as to what might work best for you. When music is playing, that is. Because it’s when a track ends that the P6 Pro's achilles heal reveals itself…

…because the P6 Pro does not have gapless playback. In 2023. This means that between each track there is a 3 SECOND DELAY accompanied by a ‘pop’ noise that is louder or quieter depending on the sensitivity of your IEM. Now if you are listening to a playlist of songs pulled from many different albums and artists, or the album you are listening to is a collection of discrete individual songs, that 3 second gap might not bother you (although the ‘pop’ probably still would). But for an album that is meant to be heard as a continuous whole, the gap (and the pop of course) is completely unacceptable. That OTT album Heads is but one example where each track is meant to flow into the next, but the P6 Pro doesn’t do that, and on an album like this that gap kicks you straight out of your place of musical enjoyment. Every time, between every track.

I know I’ve belaboured this point about gapless playback, but to me a device that costs $3899 absolutely should have it. A device that costs $389 should have it for that matter, as well as any other music-playing device sold in the last 10+ years or so.

Unfortunately this is a hard stop, dead-set deal-breaker for me, and I could not recommend this DAP because of it. Which is unfortunate, because as an offline-only-music-playing device the P6 Pro is a winner otherwise.

 

[audionewbi]

I'm not sure how true this is but recently there have been posts on Weibo/WeChat speculating that the new LP5108 chip is actually 4 circuis logic re-engineered. I don't really care to be honest as looking at W4 sinad, it looks solid regardless. But if I was LP, I would rather deal with this rumour sooner than later. if the speculation is to be true, it wouldn't look too good for LP.

 

[twister6]

I'm not sure how true this is but recently there have been posts on Weibo/WeChat speculating that the new LP5108 chip is actually 4 circuis logic re-engineered. I don't really care to be honest as looking at W4 sinad, it looks solid regardless. But if I was LP, I would rather deal with this rumour sooner than later. if the speculation is to be true, it wouldn't look too good for LP.

There is a dedicated W4 thread where it has been discussed for a few days From all the readings and the links, it seems like something got seriously lost in translation since LP5108 is not really a chip, but more like a custom module using other chips and customized circuits. L&P is not in business of making integrated chips

 

[audionewbi]

There is a dedicated W4 thread where it has been discussed for a few days From all the readings and the links, it seems like something got seriously lost in translation since LP5108 is not really a chip, but more like a custom module using other chips and customized circuits. L&P is not in business of making integrated chips

Thanks for the clarification, but from the way I read it, they made it sound like it, and they sure did try their best to make it like it is their own HW.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Howdy folks, my review of L&P P6 Pro is up and online on my website and head-fi. If you are interested in watching and listening to reviews instead of reading, you can find my YouTube review below.



In summary, from the perspective of someone who has never listened to a TOTL player for more than a demo session, the sound quality offered by P6 Pro was eye-opening. The software is unusable for some albums, due to the lack of gapless playback, and the price is prohibitively high, but the sound is so good that I can see myself eyeing a unit one day. I'm looking forward to listening to the upcoming W4 dongle.