Can this:
1) drive IEMs sufficiently
2) Shuffle All (and do it well and proper)
3) EQ?
4) Stream to BT IEMs?
I gather it's an oddball, no english etc. And it 'speaks' to you? I take it pushing certain buttons or long pressing places it in different playmodes and it's telling you which one is which but no one can really know because no one knows Japanese? lol
How's the folder structure work? Is it microsd or inbuilt only?
Can you connect to PC, dump folders with tracks inside and it plays them sequentially? Does Shuffle All get to other folders? Or is it dumping tracks in root only?
Cheers,
Bruce
I just bought a PAW Pico off eBay, so I'll answer BruceBanner's questions just in case anybody else has made it to the end of this thread. I am writing this as of spring 2019.
1) drive IEMs
- I've used a few different set of bud-style headphones with the unit and it certainly plays sufficiently loud. To be heard well over a vacuum cleaner? Eh...
2) a well and proper shuffle
- there's a switch on the side which controls playmode: OFF - SHUFFLE - LOOP
- from what I can tell so far it somewhat works, but is buggy
-- if you wanted to shuffle everything, the only method appears to be to put all your tunes in a root folder and switch the device on, into shuffle mode
-- using the app, you can play everything by using the "All Songs" section, but it doesn't seem like it will reliably shuffle around that, especially if you use the FFWD keys to skip a track
3) EQ?
- nope, none to speak of
4) stream to BT headphones
- nope
- the device does support BluetoothLE, but that's only for communication to/from the app for control purposes
5) how does the folder structure work? microSD?
- you can group music into folders, a long-press on FFWD or RWD will skip to the next folder and start playing at the first track
- no expansion memory is supported
Ultra-mini review based on my experiences across the last week:
The Good:
- the PAW Pico does play music, which sounds great
- the device is small, well constructed (feels more Japanese than Chinese) and subtle -- a purist's device
- it plays FLAC, DSF, and high-bitrate MP3's without any problem
- the clip is sturdy and I'm sure would hold up to jogging, buttons are minimal but functional, volume knob feels nice and isn't too sensitive
The Bad - The Player:
- there is no external indicator of battery charge level, or even an indicator in the app. You can have it read out to you when you push a button, in Chinese.
- in non-shuffle mode, tracks play in strict alphabetical order, so depending if you've padded your tracks with leading zeros, you'll get tracks played in order 1-
10-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, etc.
- you can arrange your music in folders,
but not subfolders, I had a double-disk set with two folders under the main folder -- mixes all the tracks together so you get 1-1-10-10-2-2-3-3-4-4 etc
- connection between the app and the player is not robust -- I've had to turn the app and device off and on in sequence a number of times to "catch" the two in a state where they'll recognize each other
- there does not appear to be any location to download an English-language device firmware -- if such a thing even exists.
The Bad - The App:
- the app on iPhone is just barely releasable -- I would call it a beta -- yes, you can play music, and select tracks, but it is extremely unfinished feeling
- the app is in English, but the translation is poor
- things you
can't do in the app:
-- build, modify, or view playlists -- because there's no such concept on this device
-- view album art or track details such as bitrate (all tracks play with the same bizarre graphic of a vinyl record spinning with blue feathers? on it)
-- manage any device music settings, like repeat modes, shuffle state, EQ
-- search by anything (track, artist, genre, filetype)
