[Xamdou]

My point was that...

A. If you're going to compare with high end DAPs, at least use something contemporary. Why use an old, outdated DAP for comparison?

B. It definitely seemed to me like you were comparing L3's UI favorably to older high end DAPs, making them sound unattractive. Perhaps I misinterpreted, but that's how I read it.

C. I've been using portable media players since minidisc, where I owned every major brand and was on headfi in its early days (most likely before you, my friend) under the username "matheis". I've also owned Rio and iRiver DAPs amongst other old-skool DAPs. Those were honestly more user-friendly and full-featured than a lot of today's boutique DAPs, so I have a hard time excusing limited functionality as being us used to A&K, Apple iPod and such.

I'm in touch with more than a couple DAP manufacturers regarding UI improvements and have helped with FW revisions on a couple DAPs now and strongly feel as portable audio enthusiasts, we should be a bit less forgiving IMHO. Just my two cents, and anyone who wants is free to disagree.

I'm keeping my L3 for now and hope L&P make solid FW improvements soon.

I think what he was trying to say about older DAPs was that they lack UI as compared to modern DAPs these days but have superb SQ. So as long as you can close one eye on the minimalistic UI of L3 you will pretty much get a very good SQ that gives you a run for the money you spent on it. But these depends on personal needs though since there are people like us that won't really bother with the UI as long as it has a good SQ.

 

[Whaleshark12]

  I also used this way but I received the unit last week... Maybe u just need to wait abit more... USPS as usual...

Yep, Mine arrive after 3 weeks, USPS cannot track it either.
 

My point was that...

A. If you're going to compare with high end DAPs, at least use something contemporary. Why use an old, outdated DAP for comparison?

B. It definitely seemed to me like you were comparing L3's UI favorably to older high end DAPs, making them sound unattractive. Perhaps I misinterpreted, but that's how I read it.

C. I've been using portable media players since minidisc, where I owned every major brand and was on headfi in its early days (most likely before you, my friend) under the username "matheis". I've also owned Rio and iRiver DAPs amongst other old-skool DAPs. Those were honestly more user-friendly and full-featured than a lot of today's boutique DAPs, so I have a hard time excusing limited functionality as being us used to A&K, Apple iPod and such.

I'm in touch with more than a couple DAP manufacturers regarding UI improvements and have helped with FW revisions on a couple DAPs now and strongly feel as portable audio enthusiasts, we should be a bit less forgiving IMHO. Just my two cents, and anyone who wants is free to disagree.

I'm keeping my L3 for now and hope L&P make solid FW improvements soon.

Agreed. I'm keeping the L3 as well. The balance output is seriously good.

 

[rdaneel]

  I think what he was trying to say about older DAPs was that they lack UI as compared to modern DAPs these days but have superb SQ. So as long as you can close one eye on the minimalistic UI of L3 you will pretty much get a very good SQ that gives you a run for the money you spent on it. But these depends on personal needs though since there are people like us that won't really bother with the UI as long as it has a good SQ.

 
I like my L3, and the SQ is great.  That being said, it doesn't have a "minimalistic UI."  I has an incomplete, half-assed, broken UI.  Broken AAC, broken gapless, etc.  Please stop claiming that the UI was some kind of well-engineered clean, pure Scandinavian thing like an Ikea table.  It's just half done. 

 

[Xamdou]

   
I like my L3, and the SQ is great.  That being said, it doesn't have a "minimalistic UI."  I has an incomplete, half-assed, broken UI.  Broken AAC, broken gapless, etc.  Please stop claiming that the UI was some kind of well-engineered clean, pure Scandinavian thing like an Ikea table.  It's just half done. 

I am definitely not trying to claim that it is well-engineered UI. It is just that some of us finds the UI acceptable and I myself find that in terms of usability (not functionality) wise it is still okay.

 

[JohnYang]

   
Agreed. I'm keeping the L3 as well. The balance output is seriously good.

 
Glad you are liking the balanced output, I find it much more impressive than the SE output.

 

[HirschiAUT]

i hope this is still the indiegogo thread, though the campaign has been a long time ago. the thing is that i still have not got my l3. i was one of those who shipped our unit to HideousPride and paid to ship our units out of NA. i know some have got their units this way. i wonder if i am the only one left here still waiting for the campaign unit.

 
 

  I also used this way but I received the unit last week... Maybe u just need to wait abit more... USPS as usual...

 
I also shipped my L3 to HideousPride´s home adress and he agreed to forward it to me.
According to the tracking info the L3 should have arrived at him on the 13th of APRIL ....
He said he "did not get it" and will look into it, that was 20 days ago, no contact since then.
 
He mentioned that he has a new job and lots of hectic days, i totally understand, but my DAP is "missing" since 6 WEEKS
I am generally not an overly unpatient person, but I am getting the feeling i dumped those 300$ and never gonna see anything for it

 
I guess thats a risk i partly ignored at start, you know, "all is gonna be fine", but things like that are not 100% safe...

 

[Xamdou]

I guess that I am glad that I shipped it to comgateway instead 

 

[dmkbox]

Again and again. UI is damn simple and stable. Need gapless - soon you get it. Need aac, let's convert it for a few minutes.
Audiophile must suffer
Only one disappointed thing in L3 - weak amplifier. I use it wil LZ-a2 and have lack of power.

 

[SillyChili]

.soon you get it.

how long has the L5Pro been released? it just reached FW 1.0.1.0 two weeks ago with neither touch-swipe nor gapless, which have been promised over and over and over that would come 'soon', instead a new playback issue with the very-common 16/44 flac came.
So, 'soon' you say.
one question: Since when did a 6-month time period became valid for the word 'soon'?

 

[SillyChili]

the only good side of the forthcoming 6 months and it's a witch-hunt, is that L&P wouldn't need to work on yet another new DAP project which means they could finally focus on FW updates for DAPs they already have and selling to the public since day one with cursed FW that have features needed to be 'unlocked'

 

[JohnYang]

how long has the L5Pro been released? it just reached FW 1.0.1.0 two weeks ago with neither touch-swipe nor gapless, which have been promised over and over and over that would come 'soon', instead a new playback issue with the very-common 16/44 flac came.
So, 'soon' you say.
one question: Since when did a 6-month time period became valid for the word 'soon'?

 
Where did you see L&P promised you this?

 

[twister6]

Just took a little break from other reviews, and sat down with L3.  Almost no hissing with my ES60, and can hardly hear any even from balanced output.  Sound is a bit on a warmer side of neutral, but still very detailed and dynamic.  One observation which I was able to confirm, mentioned in that "other" review, balanced output scales up in quality and soundstage expansion when you play high res DSD files.  With a regular 320kbps mp3 or flac, I'm hearing only a difference in output power going from SE to BAL (which is important for those who need extra power to drive more demanding headphones), while sound quality and soundstage expansion with mp3s is nearly the same between SE and BAL.  But once you start playing DSD files and switch between SE and BAL - you hear a rather noticeable difference in expansion of the sound, improvement in layering and separation, and even slightly better dynamics where I feel like I got more headroom now (and I did volume match by ear, turning it down to match SE level output when I switched to BAL).
 
I don't dismiss the issue others reporting about support of certain file formats, though I only use mp3/flac/DSD, and I usually don't use DAPs as usb DAC, and also no EQ for me.  I'm only lusting after touch swiping to fast forward through the song because lately I have been spoiled by Opus.
 
Also, to be fair, and I believe it was already mentioned by John in the past, many people mistake L3/L5Pro for running android in the background where touch swiping is easy to implement.  This is their own custom OS where I think they need to write their own drivers to implement touch swiping.  Just hope they will get to it sooner than later

 

[nmatheis]

twister6: You don't experience cut-off at the last second of each and every MP3 song? I do. Reset doesn't help. Everything's on internal memory.

 

[twister6]

@twister6: You don't experience cut-off at the last second of each and every MP3 song? I do. Reset doesn't help. Everything's on internal memory.

 
Hmm, don't hear cut off.  I mean, there is a very short gap between the tracks, especially noticeable when I'm playing my test gapless album, but I just played a few songs to the end (which I hardly do) and it always plays to the last second. 

 

[nmatheis]

Hmm, don't hear cut off.  I mean, there is a very short gap between the tracks, especially noticeable when I'm playing my test gapless album, but I just played a few songs to the end (which I hardly do) and it always plays to the last second. 

Weird. The last second or so of every MP3 file I play is truncated. Very annoying.