[Eggs is eggs]

I've been planning on getting the Plenue D for a while and was excited to hear they finally came out with a successor. Are there any reviews of this yet? From reading over the thread and the official website it seems like compared to the Plenue D, this one is:

Pros:
Smaller, thinner and lighter
64 GB of built in storage

Cons:
Battery life is half of the Plenue D at 53/27 hrs (though still pretty good)
More expensive, seems to be in the $300 range where the D is at around $200

Unknown:
Specs seem the same so I'm assuming sound quality will be the same?
Will this still suffer from the UI stutter that plagues the D?

 

[someyoungguy]

I've been planning on getting the Plenue D for a while and was excited to hear they finally came out with a successor. Are there any reviews of this yet? From reading over the thread and the official website it seems like compared to the Plenue D, this one is:

Pros:
Smaller, thinner and lighter
64 GB of built in storage

Cons:
Battery life is half of the Plenue D at 53/27 hrs (though still pretty good)
More expensive, seems to be in the $300 range where the D is at around $200

Unknown:
Specs seem the same so I'm assuming sound quality will be the same?
Will this still suffer from the UI stutter that plagues the D?

Hi Eggs is eggs,

I haven’t seen any reviews yet. Like you I’m interested in what this DAP will be like and also did a side-by-side comparison of the specs. My conclusion was that since the audio specs are identical it seems to be exactly the same as the Plenue D, and Cowon seems to have dropped the battery size which is why it is bit lighter. On the one hand I hope I’m wrong as I’d be disappointed if they just re-dressed the same DAP in a different case.

Cowon were pretty secretive about what was actually in the Plenue D (no mention of chip or amp details on marketing materials etc) but someone opened one up and posted details on the head-fi Plenue D thread. I can’t find the exact post at present, but here someone mentions the WM8998 is the DAC chip: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cowon-plenue-d.789488/page-262
Since Cowon hasn’t released any details about what the actual components of the Plenue J are either, I suspect we won’t know if the J is really any different to the D until someone opens one up and posts photos online. Sad, I like Cowon products but I wish they’d be more transparent about these entry-level Plenue models.

 

[tiddlywinks]

Ah, well that's something at least. I should've realized the CPU meant the PC and not the player....

There's a review in Korean on the Cowon site, I don't speak and certainly can't read Korean but there are the words DAC and then WM8998 - Cirrus Logic make a chip
with this model number - I am assuming the DAC is a Cirrus Logic WM8998.

 

[someyoungguy]

There's a review in Korean on the Cowon site, I don't speak and certainly can't read Korean but there is the words DAC and then WM8998 - Cirrus Logic make a chip
with this model number - I am assuming the DAC is a Cirrus Logic WM8998.

Right you are, I'd never looked at their Korean language site and didn't know there were reviews on there. Pity the reviews are images rather than text, can't use google translate! But I agree, looks like it's a WM8998 in the J too. There's some nice pictures of the different colored units on there too, and plenty of geeky audio graphs. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[JK1]

There are plenty of decent players for $200 and up. The challenge is to make decent players that are under $50.

 

[Orac]

now listed at Amazon Japan for release 22nd November:

Plenue J is ￥ 32,400 (approx. $287, £218, €243)​

and for quick comparison:

Plenue D is ￥ 23,325 (approx. $206, £157, €175)​

 

[Deftone]

Hmm so it’s a replacement of the PLENUE D, I would of liked to see improved specs for the price bump.

 

[bluedolphin]

This i like, 2 questions

1. Is it Aluminium alloy or Plastic, I dont know?
2. The size is it between Plenue D and M2 so is like a Mini dap in size just like D?

 

[tiddlywinks]

This i like, 2 questions

1. Is it Aluminium alloy or Plastic, I dont know?
2. The size is it between Plenue D and M2 so is like a Mini dap in size just like D?

1 - Premium High Strength Metal Body
2 - J =102mm tall, 53.2mm wide, 9.2mm deep, D = 77.2mm tall, 53.1mm wide, 14.9mm deep

 

[HiFiChris]

I don't know if the Plenue D's lack of responsiveness got better with later FW builds, but when I had it (I was one of the first people who bought it), it was rather slow and unresponsive. I have sold my Plenue D short time after I bought it so cannot compare the two head-to head, but the Plenue J is definitely not as unresponsive as my Plenue D was. It's most obvious when using the search feature where the Plenue J accepts touch inputs instantly.
In terms of general UI speed and responsiveness, the J is better as well, and around as responsive as the iBasso DX90, maybe just a hair slower.

 

[homocogitum]

I don't know if the Plenue D's lack of responsiveness got better with later FW builds, but when I had it (I was one of the first people who bought it), it was rather slow and unresponsive. I have sold my Plenue D short time after I bought it so cannot compare the two head-to head, but the Plenue J is definitely not as unresponsive as my Plenue D was. It's most obvious when using the search feature where the Plenue J accepts touch inputs instantly.
In terms of general UI speed and responsiveness, the J is better as well, and around as responsive as the iBasso DX90, maybe just a hair slower.

Have you bought plenue j? If you own it can you record a video of its interface to see the performance of scrolling, transitions between pages, etc.?

 

[HiFiChris]

Have you bought plenue j? If you own it can you record a video of its interface to see the performance of scrolling, transitions between pages, etc.?

I haven't bought the Plenue J but recently got it in for review. Unfortunately I don't have a smartphone to record a video, but I will see if I can use something else. Maybe I can use my DSLM if my memory card is fast enough, or my crappy webcam. I'll see if I can come up with something.

 

[Orac]

...Plenue J accepts touch inputs instantly...
...In terms of general UI speed and responsiveness, the J is better as well...

Useful to know, thanks

Waiting to see what the street price is in Europe, but a UK store changed the price of the D bundle for the worse - added a 32GB worth £10, and increased the bundle from £220 to £275. It does not bode well.

...I can use my DSLM if my memory card is fast enough, or my crappy webcam...

I'm sure it won't be a problem. I borrowed a Fuji mirrorless and the video was probably worse than an older compact camera, but usable for just verifying condition of items. As long as it's possible to see what's going who cares if the quality isn't great.

 

[HiFiChris]

Useful to know, thanks

Waiting to see what the street price is in Europe, but a UK store changed the price of the D bundle for the worse - added a 32GB worth £10, and increased the bundle from £220 to £275. It does not bode well.

I'm sure it won't be a problem. I borrowed a Fuji mirrorless and the video was probably worse than an older compact camera, but usable for just verifying condition of items. As long as it's possible to see what's going who cares if the quality isn't great.

Well, it seems like the memory card I'm using is unfortunately too slow for video capturing (but has no problems with photos and burst shooting), so I had to use my really crappy and old webcam. Please excuse the bad video quality. This video should however be more or less okay to demonstrate the UI and touchscreen responsiveness, and should be able to demonstrate that the J is fortunately not laggy.

Here you go:

 

[homocogitum]

Well, it seems like the memory card I'm using is unfortunately too slow for video capturing (but has no problems with photos and burst shooting), so I had to use my really crappy and old webcam. Please excuse the bad video quality. This video should however be more or less okay to demonstrate the UI and touchscreen responsiveness, and should be able to demonstrate that the J is fortunately not laggy.

Here you go:

Thanks, It seems that UI is pretty usable.
What about sound quality? Compared to plenue D or other players in similar price category?