Living with my Paw Gold for two days, I would like to share some first impression with you guys:
I'm not posting unboxing pics here since there is an unboxing video on youtube. Here's the receipt from the retailer EarSight (Shanghai, China). I got my unit for the MSRP 11,999 RMB.
Also bought a 128GB, 95MB/s SD card. I'm pretty satisfied with the speed.
The UI is simple and boy, this thing is FAST. Everything is blazing fast. Plays my DSD and AAC files with ease.
So far I feel there are no redundant features, nor do I feel anything is lacking.
OK. Lets go straight to the sound (without ATE/PMEQ)
First listen: oooh boy this basssss ooooh. The lows hits hard, deep and clean (and wide). I've never heard this powerful bass from a portable device. Maybe I did but that definitely has to be EQed and will have to sacrifice the highs. I doubt if a DAP is capable of reproducing BOTH ends in such a flawless way.
After a few more tracks: I was wrong. The highs from PG can only be better than the lows. With this separation and imaging, I feel like listening to a desktop rig. I would describe the highs as crisp, accurate, and intense. So if both ends are nice, does it mean PG has a recessed mids?
A few more tracks: well maybe this time I am right, maybe not. The mids in general is well presented, as accurate as the highs. As a result vocals sound less dominant. I spotted lots of details in the mids that I've never heard before, distracting me from focusing on the vocalist. There are just so many details going on in mids and highs, all reproduced accurately and intensely.
Do I feel fatigued? Well yes but I'm a detail freak (and a proud TH900 user
). I don't think I should blame PG for letting me hear everything in the music.
I spent a few minutes on ATE/PMEQ. Pretty cool feature and I really like some of the presets. Will play more with it.
Summary:
Pros: imaging, separation, bass, (pretty much the sound in all aspects), UI.
Cons: 1. heated up quickly and gets very hot; 2. I noticed a clicking sound coming from the inside of the device when turning it on and off. I can only hear the sound late in the night and am sure there's no moving part in the device, but I think I should mention.
My impression is based on pairing the PG with TH900 and KSC35. So far I'm happy. Will post more thoughts later.