Okay, so I've had a little bit of time with the Lotoo PAW Gold Diana edition now. I'm not a super frequent listener, so it's only been through one battery charge at the moment and I'm not much of a reviewer, so this is just more a few comments on why I like it rather than a traditional in depth review...
First of all - does a DAP really have enough power to properly drive the Abyss? Yes. Yes it does. With one caveat, which some may find a problem and some may not. I noted something on two of my test tracks - "Royals" by Lorde and "The Devil Wears A Suit" by Kate Miller-Heidke. These tracks, at the start, seem like quiet recordings with the vocals a bit lower than the 'normal' volume for a lot of CDs, prompting you to turn it up, but both tracks have deep thumping bass at a level well above the vocals, so if you turn it up to a point where the vocals are loud, proper loud, like you (I) do when auditioning, you get distortion in the bass. However, these tracks were probably the exception. I noted on a couple of other bassy electronic music tracks "Do It Again" by Royksopp & Robyn, and a couple of tracks off Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" - "Get Lucky" and "Instant Crush" that this was not an issue, (different mastering approach?) and I could have it as loud as I would ever listen without any problems. I was at Xecuter's house the other day and he gave "Royals" a listen and I told him to turn it up loud so he could see what I was talking about. He didn't get it to distortion levels and looked at me and said "You're listening too loud". He was probably right. After my initial testing, I had a bit of a longer listen and realised that my normal listening volume doesn't reach levels high enough to cause a problem anyway, even with the two tracks that I mentioned. I hope that gives some sort of idea on the limitations of the amp in this unit. I figured the number one thing people would be interested in, as far as this DAP goes, is "How's the power tho? Really?" Hopefully that gives you some sort of idea of where you can draw the line with this unit. If you listen to rock, for example, and turn the volume up until the VU meter goes into the red from a guitar, that's way above comfortable listening volume for me, so it's not an issue on stuff like AC/DC or Rage Against The Machine. Or anything else that I listened to for that matter.
How does it sound? Well, sound signature wise, it sounds however you want it to sound... With built in DSP (ATE?) and parametric EQ, you can pretty much tune it to your preferred sound signature. Both Xecuter and I prefered the "Sweet" ATE setting over the off/standard setting with the Abyss. It just makes it a bit warmer and more rounded off. Probably the best recording I have is the album "Ys" by Joanna Newsom which is female voal with an orchestral background and turning the ATE/PMEQ off helps bring out a bit more detail in the orchestra which is nice on that album. There is a preset named "Dental" if you want it a bit more clinical again, but it's too much for me personally.
Sound QUALITY wise, I can't fault it. As per the disclaimer above, I'm not the most critical listener on the forum so I don't want to comment in detail on every specific aspect of the sound - I haven't done extensive AB testing with a number of other DAC/amp combos so I don't feel confident enough to make very detailed comparisons. But Mike (HiFiGuy) mentioned in another thread that with the Abyss, the LPG bested the AK380+Amp (at double the price) in pretty much every way, and Xecuter (despite his initial skepticism) said it was the best DAP he had heard. My desktop amp is a Violectric v281 which I've been very happy with for a couple of years now, with nothing about it making me want to look for another amp. In fact, I had mentioned to a couple of v281 + WA5 owners that I would like to try/own a WA5 one day and they both told me to basically not bother as there wasn't really much in it. There are also a number of v281 owners who have made the switch from the highly regarded Moon 430HA. Pretty much everyone who has tried this amp has been surprised. Yoga just bought one and said the difference between it and the 600i was 'close' (without having the two side by side though). Anyway, what I was trying to say was the v281 is a perfectly acceptable end game amp for a lot of people - not just IMO. Is there a massive difference between the v281 and the LPG Diana? Not really. Not for me anyway. There is still the nice wide Abyss soundstage and the killer low end (with the limitation I mentioned) and gobs of detail.
The thing that won me over (that a lot of people think is pointless) is the portability. I've been waiting a long time for a DAP that I can plug the Abyss straight into without any other auxiliary devices. I went as far as to get Joe to make me a new Abyss cable 4ft long terminated to a 3.5mm plug to get the full portable experience minus bulky adapters. I feel like I should add that Joe was great with the whole process - He has been sympathetic to my cause of a portable Abyss setup over the years and has looked after me well. After I transferred the money on Tuesday night, there was someone knocking on my door with the cable at noon on Friday. (Last postage day before Christmas). I know people have been very excited about the new DHC cable, but 5 grand and 5 months wait... I just couldn't justify it. Anyway, people always think that just because I want a portable player it means I want to wear the Abyss on public transport/ going for a run/ walking the dog etc. But it's not about that. For me personally, I just found that I since I bought the Abyss, even though it was better than previous headphones, I used it less because it meant I was chained to the desk, and I found that using a computer as source, I had a lot of distractions in front of me. I'd put on some music, then one song into my session, I'd remember I had to send an email, or I'd look on the forum or Facebook etc and find myself not really listening intently. With this player I can take it wherever I want away from distractions and just immerse myself in the music more. I was laying on the bed the other day with my eyes closed thinking that I was noticing stuff in recordings that I hadn't noticed before. Is it because the LPG's on board amp is better than the v281? Probably not. But because I was more switched off to the outside world, my mind was more focused on the music and I appreciated what I was hearing more. I also like that it is one device - no adapters, no interconnects, no separate chargers, everything is all in one - it has a long battery life and a percentage readout of how much battery is left. With other portable solutions I had in the past, you might have 3 devices and a bunch of adapters to carry around, then you finally get settled down to listen and one device goes flat because there is no way to know how much charge is left.
I feel like I should also mention the thing that made me pull the trigger on this is Joe's personal recommendation. Now, of course the skeptic in all of us would make the link that - well, he has an interest in the product so of course he'd going to tell people it's good. However, I noticed he posted a photo from a meet a while back of the JPS section of a show. There were two pairs of Abyss side by side plugged into two LPGs. To me, that inspired a lot of confidence because people head to these shows to audition gear. Every company's competition is set up right next to them. Therefore every manufacturer is going to want to show off their product in the best possible light, because if you are trying to convince people to buy one of the world's most expensive production headphones, you want it to sound as good as possible. There's dozens of people going to this show and hearing the Abyss for the first time and heading home to share their thoughts to an even broader audience. So for Joe to be basically saying to people "come and hear the Abyss - here you go" and hand them a pair connected to nothing but a PAW gold, knowing that sales and reputation are riding on it, well, that shows a lot of confidence in the product to me. Because if it's sub par, people walk away thinking your headphone is just 'ok' when in fact, it was the source letting it down.
I'm sure there are people this device will not suit - some people listen to exclusively to piano music or pipe organ music or... whatever and have played this instrument themselves their whole life and have gone through half a dozen amps and/or tubes trying to find the best possible pairing that gives that exact timbre they've been searching for. Will this player convince those people to sell their setups? Probably not. If you listen to mostly streaming services, this is going to be no good to you. No wifi etc. But for someone who moves around a lot and doesn't want to cart a desktop setup around from place to place or someone who wants to have a setup for a second room or occasionally sit outside on the deck and enjoy most of what the Abyss has to offer, then this would be ideal. I, myself, am thinking of using it as my main setup because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for me (of which I am hard pressed to think of any). Also, I have discovered that laying on the bed gives me the added advantage of taking the weight off my head, as the bed supports the 'phones. I'm sure this would be an advantage for many other Abyss users who have weight issues.
How can a little player the size of one Abyss earpad possibly sound as good as a desktop setup? I don't know. They've crammed a high capacity battery, a UI + screen, a DSD DAC and an amp in there, so you'd expect sonic compromises coming from everywhere but that is not the case. Maybe the best, noise free power comes from a completely independent DC source. The best USB cable and interconnect is NO USB cable and interconnect. Every time you add another link to the chain you add losses? Don't know. Point is, I can understand why people would be skeptical of it - look how teeny tiny it is. But it's really nowhere near as **** as you're probably thinking.
Rather the contrary - It really is a nice little piece of kit. I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised.
So tldr;
Is nice
I recommend
