[PLUSSOUND]

  PLUSSOUND
Did not see you online FITEAR

 
FitEar is found under IEM page: http://www.plussoundaudio.com/customcables/inearmonitor.html

 

[coolsagy]

Yes - Thanks. I selected the following options and it came out to $174.99:
 
4 Feet of cable is too much. I could not select anything less than that.
Do you think you can customize it and provide a more manageable 1 Feet and also reduce the cost my half?
I know I may sound silly making such a request and ofcourse you have all rights to refuse me ... but come to think of it.. who carries a 4 feet long cable connected to a pair of cans and a hi-res music player?

 

[noplsestar]

Yes - Thanks. I selected the following options and it came out to $174.99:

4 Feet of cable is too much. I could not select anything less than that.
Do you think you can customize it and provide a more manageable 1 Feet and also reduce the cost my half?
I know I may sound silly making such a request and ofcourse you have all rights to refuse me ... but come to think of it.. who carries a 4 feet long cable connected to a pair of cans and a hi-res music player?

1feet? If my cable would have only 3 (instead of 4) feet I would have to bend my head down when putting the player in my pocket while going around and listening.
1 feet - that's 0,3 meters. That cannot be the distance between your head and your pockets?!

 

[tienbasse]

Shortest commercial cables ever made were available in Japan and were 2 feet long.
They were provided with a 2-feet extension cable, mostly for Sony IEMs.
 
The most expensive part of making custom cables is not the cable itself, it is mostly properly soldering connectors.
So the price won't drop by half for a shorter cable, and you shouldn't ask anything shorter than 3 feet otherwise it's likely that there will more tension than usual on the connectors.

 

[coolsagy]

Oh Yes! I stand corrected.
tx for the same...  3 to 4 feet it is that I will be looking for.
Just wondering if anyone out here is purchased custom balanced cables which are competitively priced?
Any links would be appreciated.

 

[PLUSSOUND]

  Yes - Thanks. I selected the following options and it came out to $174.99:
 
4 Feet of cable is too much. I could not select anything less than that.
Do you think you can customize it and provide a more manageable 1 Feet and also reduce the cost my half?
I know I may sound silly making such a request and ofcourse you have all rights to refuse me ... but come to think of it.. who carries a 4 feet long cable connected to a pair of cans and a hi-res music player?

We have built custom cables at much shorter lengths than 4'. If you need it at 1', just specify at checkout or by email and we will provide a discount. Keep in mind that y-splitters and sliders are excluded due to the very short length.

 

[PLUSSOUND]

  Oh Yes! I stand corrected.
tx for the same...  3 to 4 feet it is that I will be looking for.

If you wish for a length that isn't available on the site, just leave a note and we will take care of it. 

 

[Spamateur]

For those in the US, I just noticed that Cowon is finally selling these through their Jet Audio distribution directly on Amazon. $1700 (USD) price is significantly cheaper than what I paid as well: https://www.amazon.com/Cowon-Plenue-Resolution-Titanium-PS-128TS/dp/B01D1439SQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1467036528&sr=8-4&keywords=cowon+plenue

 

[coolsagy]

maybe I am naive but can the PS also support MQA via a future firmware update? or would it require a hardware change?

 

[warrior1975]

Another winner from jet, $1599

http://m.ebay.com/itm/COWON-PLENUE-S-Digital-Media-Player-MP3-HiFi-Audio-24bit-128GB-3-7-Touch-/371670704523?nav=SEARCH

 

[sandalaudio]

I've been using the Plenue S for over a month now, and I'm still pretty happy with everything.
No major bugs that I need to be worried about, and the sound quality feels fantastic as I felt it on day one.
 
I haven't seen any info about that gigantic dock thing yet, except for on the Korean site (http://plenue.cowon.com/product/PLENUES/product_page_7.php)
 
Has anyone seen it yet? I'm still confused about whether it has active circuit in it (like Fiio K5 dock) or just a pass-through from the bottom pins on Plenue S.
It would be nice to have something not as flamboyant (since I bet it's expensive..) just to utilize the bottom pins to get XLR line out.

 

[musicday]

Is the battery life as short as before even after the last firmware update?
This is the only let down of this player for me,no matter how good it sounds.

 

[boris65]

i can play music in hi res and dsd about 5 hours

 

[sandalaudio]

Is the battery life as short as before even after the last firmware update?
This is the only let down of this player for me,no matter how good it sounds.

 
Yes it's quite short. 5 ~ 8 hours depending on the file, and how long you leave the screen turned on.
 
I think one of the big contributions to this is the fact that Plenue S uses PCM1792A DAC chip.
This chip was originally intended for mains powered audio gear (like high-end CD players), so the power draw is enormous.
 
PCM1792A specs sheet says
44.1 kHz = 205 mW
96 kHz = 250 mW
192 kHz = 335 mW
 
That's a pretty hefty power draw, and you can see it goes up as you play high res files. Similarly with Astell & Kern AK240 using Cirrus Logic CS4398 (in dual!), which is ancient and draws around 240 mW.
 
Just as a comparison, the new AKM4490EQ (used on AK380 etc) only uses 145mW, ESS ES9018S around 100mW.
Lower grade DAC chips like AKM 4452 is 50 mW, ESS ES9018K2M (used on countless DAPs like DP-X1) is 40mW.
 
There are other factors involved but you can see why DAP makers want to move on to new generation chips that are more efficient (and a lot cheaper to buy compared to PCM1792A).
Also the PCM1792A needs an extra I/V stage opamp that is not needed on modern DAC chips like ESS and AKM.
 
It does add up to a fair bit since headphone amp only needs to draw power as it's needed, but DAC and I/V opamp has to be running all the time.
Maybe we should treat it like a final breath of fossil fuel guzzling monster, while other companies all moved to the eco friendly happy land. 

 

 

[HighResMan]

So I settled on Cowon Plenue S after trying a number of DAPs including ZX2, AK300, AK320, ARM2 and MoJo (with iPhone 6S). My previous PS was apparently faulty so I decided to give it a try to other DAPs, however I concluded that PS was way above the abilities of the rest of these and decided to buy it again. I'm lucky to have received a good quality unit this time and couldn't be happier than I am now!
 
PS drives my LCD-3 with ease and I don't feel the necessity to buy an external amplifier. So this saves some money. This is absolutely a winning combination that worked for me very well.
 
My quick impressions:
- Excellent soundstage
- Excellent instrument separation
- Clean and clear sound
- Great dynamics
- Extremely musical sounding and not being overly analytical
- Jet Effects is unbelievable, this is an absolutely killer feature
- I don't miss that analogue sound anymore - no digital harshness there
- Excellent amplification
 
It seems there is lot of love for other brands on this forum (from "thread count") and this gem seems to be getting ignored... hence thought of sharing my impressions
 
I would highly recommend PS over all DAPs I have mentioned above by good margin.
 
Look forward to learn more from this community.
 
I'd be keen to hear some recommendations for headphone stand for my LCD3s.. not planning to spend crazy money on a stand though, functionality is more important than aesthetics
 
Cheers!