[vrapan]

For anyone that might potentially be interested at this AMP3 have it on their website for £1299 although out of stock. It usually means they will get stock in the next few weeks. Far too expensive in my humble opinion. 

 

[Whitigir]

Yeah, for something without wifi or Bluetooth, using the same DAC as P1 ? Very expensive. For that price, there are many other things can be had...like a nice 4K 60 inches tv ? A nice gaming laptop, customs desktop...etc...etc

 

[sandalaudio]

Like many other people, I've been mentioning that the Plenue S is too expensive for the feature set.
 
However, one thing that I have to say is... It sounded very good.
 
This is a DAP for playing music, so aside from all the features and bells and whistles, sound quality will ultimately decide on its fate.
 
I didn't buy it because it was too expensive for me, but I'm not the richest man in the world. If I had the money then I would have chosen this over the other DAPs for the sound quality alone. There are always people with yachts and Rolls Royce, where a difference between $1000 and $2000 is meaningless.
 
As soon as more demo stock goes to the retail shops around the world, we'll get a good consensus on how the sound quality compares with the other high end DAPs.

 

[M-13]

Yeah all this dicussion will be moot if the sound quality delivers.
 
If it sounds better than the AK320 which is around the same price, than it's a win for Cowon,
 
if it can sound as good or even better than the AK380, than that's even a bigger win for Cowon.
 
If it sounds about the same as the P1 and just doubled the price? It's a BIG Fail for them.
 
Let's see what the impressions say before making final judgements.
 
What's cool is that they're using the biggest battery in a DAP by far, like 4400 mAH, but the battery life is sitll only 8 hours.
I see they gave plenty of juice to the DAC and AMP sections, lots of overhead and plenty of juice for them to perform.

 

[BruceBanner]

  Yeah all this dicussion will be moot if the sound quality delivers.
 
If it sounds better than the AK320 which is around the same price, than it's a win for Cowon,
 
if it can sound as good or even better than the AK380, than that's even a bigger win for Cowon.
 
If it sounds about the same as the P1 and just doubled the price? It's a BIG Fail for them.
 
Let's see what the impressions say before making final judgements.
 
What's cool is that they're using the biggest battery in a DAP by far, like 4400 mAH, but the battery life is sitll only 8 hours.
I see they gave plenty of juice to the DAC and AMP sections, lots of overhead and plenty of juice for them to perform.

 
Ok, wait a minute...

On the Plenue D forum we have M2 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.

On the Plenue D forum we have M users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
On the Plenue D forum we have P1 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
And now we're expecting to hear something truly different sounding to the aforementioned DAPs from the S?

Look... I will accept the fact that not all ears are made equal, that some perhaps can ascertain a difference between said devices in a blind test. But just exactly how much of a difference...?
 
I have long learned that the vast increase in price becomes a small small percentage increase in sound quality (if any!). You pay 3-4x as much for as little as 10% perceived gain in sound quality!

These price tags are beyond daft, they are attracting status and egos, not sound quality. Cowon... get over yourself.

 

[M-13]

   
Ok, wait a minute...

On the Plenue D forum we have M2 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.

On the Plenue D forum we have M users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
On the Plenue D forum we have P1 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
And now we're expecting to hear something truly different sounding to the aforementioned DAPs from the S?

Look... I will accept the fact that not all ears are made equal, that some perhaps can ascertain a difference between said devices in a blind test. But just exactly how much of a difference...?
 
I have long learned that the vast increase in price becomes a small small percentage increase in sound quality (if any!). You pay 3-4x as much for as little as 10% perceived gain in sound quality!

These price tags are beyond daft, they are attracting status and egos, not sound quality. Cowon... get over yourself.

Well... we've got folks who say all headphones and daps sound the same so... there will always be "those people"

 
Hell there are plenty of people who say the iPhone is the ultimate player
 
Head-Fi and this hobby exists for people who say otherwise

 
I'm one of those people who think the AK JR sounds better than my old AK100ii (in some ways)
 
I'm guessing subjectively for me that the S might be worth an audition. if the PD sounds better than everything than I'm getting the PD, end of story
 
Also, what is a small difference for one man is a huge difference for another... there might not be much difference between a Rolex and Patek Phillipe, but for watch collectors the difference is worth 10 times the price of a Rolex.
 
Same goes for luxury cars, clothing, etc, etc. If you got the money and the difference is big enough for you personally then I don't see what's wrong with that.
 
Everyone spends money on something. If you spend $5000 on the latest greatest biggest TV and I think my 5-year-old $500 TV is "about the same" and I see very small SMALL differences...

 (it's always matter of personal tastes and perspective) Don't be surprised if not everyone in the world sees it the same way...

 

[sandalaudio]

The most important thing is to listen to it first. Then you can say whether you would like to buy it or not.
Nobody wants to see a "best movie ranking" written by someone who hasn't watched those movies.
 
Trying to rank these high end DAPs into some kind of hierarchy is a waste of time. It's like asking which power amp sounds better. Audio Research or Krell?
 
The real cost of these DAPs is the R&D involved in the development (not the raw material costs or feature sets).
If you listen and then don't like it, you can comment about what you didn't like about it, in comparison to the other products.
I'm interested to hear what others thought about how the Plenue S sounded like. I liked it over AK240 but felt a little glossy and smooth in the highs.
 
In terms of the objective improvement over the previous models, there is a significant voltage gain (Plenue 1 being 2Vrms, Plenue S being 3Vrms), which is an objective improvement for driving high impedance, low efficiency headphones. If you already like the sound of Plenue 1 but want it to drive harder then Plenue S is definitely better.

 

[vrapan]

   
Ok, wait a minute...

On the Plenue D forum we have M2 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.

On the Plenue D forum we have M users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
On the Plenue D forum we have P1 users who cannot decipher any difference between that and the PD.
 
And now we're expecting to hear something truly different sounding to the aforementioned DAPs from the S?

Look... I will accept the fact that not all ears are made equal, that some perhaps can ascertain a difference between said devices in a blind test. But just exactly how much of a difference...?
 
I have long learned that the vast increase in price becomes a small small percentage increase in sound quality (if any!). You pay 3-4x as much for as little as 10% perceived gain in sound quality!

These price tags are beyond daft, they are attracting status and egos, not sound quality. Cowon... get over yourself.

Agreed above a price point - something like a DX80/X5II - players are very competent technically and it all becomes a matter of taste and to the extremes a matter of prestige, look at me I can afford an AK380 - good on you mate - kind of thing.
 
However it is all fine, people are willing to spend money on all sorts of things that neither you nor me consider logical. Cowon knows there are people that can and will spend that kind of money for an MP3 player, so they made one. I really fail to see the problem in this.

 

[BruceBanner]

It's of my personal opinion that the problem lies with a dollar value attached to a perceived increase in sound quality... whereas in reality there is NONE to be had. Yes NONE.

Look, I would bet my 2 kids lives on blind testing some of these people who reckon they can tell the difference apart between a M2, PD, M, P1 and S. No.. I'm not being funny, I'm being deadly serious. I would love to see this actually done irl, I think the results would be startling.

And to make things interesting I bet I could mildly tweak a Cowon DSP effect here or there on a lower end device that will give the illusion to making it sound 'airy', 'spacious', more 'organic' therefore it must be the Plenue S! Um.. nop... i just left the other 3 DAPs in normal mode and tweaked the PD slightly. Do you see what I'm saying?

I will be the FIRST to admit that I too have suffered New Toy Syndrome. You have just spent $$$ on a new DAP, so it must be better right? Or yer listening to a 4 figure DAP therefore you look stupid to being all like '... meh' over it, u must be stupid and bad of hearing.
 
Blind testing. That's where the truth lies, funny how it is absolutely never ever ever done on head fi, anywhere. That's what should be flooding the boards, not peoples opinions on sound quality which is the most subjective thing there is. We're not talking a few $$ difference here or there, we're talking 10x the price difference of some DAPs!! It's the same with abx testing, rarely a video or evidence of a user being able to distinguish bit rates apart to a satisfactory degree...

 

[vrapan]

  It's of my personal opinion that the problem lies with a dollar value attached to a perceived increase in sound quality... whereas in reality there is NONE to be had. Yes NONE.

Look, I would bet my 2 kids lives on blind testing some of these people who reckon they can tell the difference apart between a M2, PD, M, P1 and S. No.. I'm not being funny, I'm being deadly serious. I would love to see this actually done irl, I think the results would be startling.

And to make things interesting I bet I could mildly tweak a Cowon DSP effect here or there on a lower end device that will give the illusion to making it sound 'airy', 'spacious', more 'organic' therefore it must be the Plenue S! Um.. nop... i just left the other 3 DAPs in normal mode and tweaked the PD slightly. Do you see what I'm saying?

I will be the FIRST to admit that I too have suffered New Toy Syndrome. You have just spent $$$ on a new DAP, so it must be better right? Or yer listening to a 4 figure DAP therefore you look stupid to being all like '... meh' over it, u must be stupid and bad of hearing.
 
Blind testing. That's where the truth lies, funny how it is absolutely never ever ever done on head fi, anywhere. That's what should be flooding the boards, not peoples opinions on sound quality which is the most subjective thing there is. We're not talking a few $$ difference here or there, we're talking 10x the price difference of some DAPs!! It's the same with abx testing, rarely a video or evidence of a user being able to distinguish bit rates apart to a satisfactory degree...

I have a 15$ casio, I also have a significantly more - and no it is not 10x it is a lot more than 100X more - Tag Heuer . The Tag does not have an alarm or a chronometer like the casio, it also needs winding up every couple weeks because it loses 2 seconds a day, ie the casio is in many ways superior to a relatively expensive swiss watch. So get that, it's better but its cheaper yet people (including me) have bought the expensive watch. You can call me a fool or a person with money to burn but in the end in the face of Casio logically Tag's (or any other watch maker to be honest) does not need to exist, heck Casio's other watches do not need to exist.
 
I wear the Tag everyday, I wear the Casio only on bike rides....
 
However it would be a bland boring world if we all made all our decisions based on logic. 

 

[sandalaudio]

I don't think the customers interested in the Plenue S are particularly value conscious, or worried about the odd $1000 here or there.
 
I bought a $50 USB cable because my $5 cable was a bit dodgy and kept disconnecting. I wanted a piece of mind and a bit of fanciness.
Now imagine if I had ten times my current income.
 
It's a hobby, so I want people to actually go out and try things out just for fun and interest sake.
 
Then if someone says "I've listened to both the Plenue 1 and Plenue S, and they both sounded exactly the same".
That would be a very valuable opinion that people will appreciate to hear.

 

[Deftone]

 
Also, what is a small difference for one man is a huge difference for another... there might not be much difference between a Rolex and Patek Phillipe, but for watch collectors the difference is worth 10 times the price of a Rolex.
 
Same goes for luxury cars, clothing, etc, etc. If you got the money and the difference is big enough for you personally then I don't see what's wrong with that.
 
Everyone spends money on something. If you spend $5000 on the latest greatest biggest TV and I think my 5-year-old $500 TV is "about the same" and I see very small SMALL differences...

 (it's always matter of personal tastes and perspective) Don't be surprised if not everyone in the world sees it the same way...

+1
 

 
Cowon knows there are people that can and will spend that kind of money for an MP3 player, so they made one. I really fail to see the problem in this.

especially when cowon makes players in all different price ranges, its not like they stopped making cheap players and are now forced to buy P1 prices upwards.
 

 
Blind testing. That's where the truth lies, funny how it is absolutely never ever ever done on head fi, anywhere. That's what should be flooding the boards, not peoples opinions on sound quality which is the most subjective thing there is. We're not talking a few $$ difference here or there, we're talking 10x the price difference of some DAPs!! It's the same with abx testing, rarely a video or evidence of a user being able to distinguish bit rates apart to a satisfactory degree...

Hydrogenaudio is for you then. you cant even say you like your new dog over there without providing proof of a blind test.
 

  I don't think the customers interested in the Plenue S are particularly value conscious, or worried about the odd $1000 here or there.
 
I bought a $50 USB cable because my $5 cable was a bit dodgy and kept disconnecting. I wanted a piece of mind and a bit of fanciness.
Now imagine if I had ten times my current income.
 
It's a hobby, so I want people to actually go out and try things out just for fun and interest sake.

+1
lets use this for example, i could buy some jeans £7 but i like the styling of the £50 ones more, maybe theyre 10% better quality material, maybe there not. the £7 jeans will still be the same but i got to choose. 

 

[Whitigir]

There is nothing depreciate faster than audio player , phones , technology. That is why some people would pay for unique jeans, purses...etc. if DAP would be the same, then it is good...however, it is not.

 

[jmills8]

Seems people just want to communicate with others here. We all know a dap can last for many years. Fashion changes per season and there are four seasons in a year. Keep on chatting but I dont think you want to buy the S. It seems you are just negging it in a gentle way.

 

[Whitigir]

Seems people just want to communicate with others here. We all know a dap can last for many years. Fashion changes per season and there are four seasons in a year. Keep on chatting but I dont think you want to buy the S. It seems you are just negging it in a gentle way.

Almost bought it, for the price of more expensive than Zx2, with no wifi, no Bluetooth....I started to hate how it is priced for so little that it does. In this day and age, where a device can not be firmware upgraded OTA is a failure. To each of his own. I would love to see you buy the "s" and give me more feed backs, perhap it sound signature may make it worthy.