Review and Measurements of Cowon Plenue 2 DAP

[amirm]

@amirm: The price of this DAP at the beginning of the review is wrong, it should be $1.000 higher.

It is so confusing. The Plenue P2 on Amazon is $599. But Plenue 2 (without "p") is indeed $1,600. From what the owner told me, this is "P2." I can't figure out what is what. Anyone know?

 

[WHO23]

It is so confusing. The Plenue P2 on Amazon is $599. But Plenue 2 (without "p") is indeed $1,600. From what the owner told me, this is "P2." I can't figure out what is what. Anyone know?

It’s the same item, Amir. I purchased the P2 on Amazon for $600 and its the same Silver Plenue 2 with Leather Cover.

Edit: Ok to clear some confusion:

Cowon P2 = Cowon Plenue 2 = Cowon Plenue 2 Mark I (It’s not Cowon Plenue P2)

There's also a Cowon Plenue 2 Mk2 (Jupiter Gold) which has the same DAC chip but with a higher power output on the balanced out whereas the Plenue 2 Mk1 (Silver) has the same output as single ended.

Also Amir, here’s the manual page:
http://www.cowonglobal.com/zeroboar...rrange=headnum&bmenu=M&desc=asc&no=79&bmenu=M

 

[AudioSceptic]

It’s the same item, Amir. I purchased the P2 on Amazon for $600 and its the same Silver Plenue 2 with Leather Cover.

Cowon P2 = Cowon Plenue 2. (Edit: It’s not Cowon Plenue P2)

Also here’s the manual page again
http://www.cowonglobal.com/zeroboar...rrange=headnum&bmenu=M&desc=asc&no=79&bmenu=M

There is now a Mk 2 version. Maybe the Mk 2 is $1500 and the Mk 1 is reduced to $600? On top of that, there's a lot more Plenues to cause confusion! <http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/product_plenue_main.php>

 

[pozz]

There is now a Mk 2 version. Maybe the Mk 2 is $1500 and the Mk 1 is reduced to $600? On top of that, there's a lot more Plenues to cause confusion! <http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/product_plenue_main.php>

So the one reviewed is the Mk1?

 

[AudioSceptic]

So the one reviewed is the Mk1?

The Mk 1 is silver and has 128 GB inbuilt storage; the Mk 2 is gold and has 256. That should settle it. <http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/PLENUE2/product_page_4.php>

 

[Nango]

So the one reviewed is the Mk1?

But I think the one on the picture looks like mk2!!

 

[STUDIO51]

Thanks but I looked for it on support page where it should be:

View attachment 32196

But it is not.

Click the + sign in the upper right corner of the image you uploaded. Everything is there.

 

[Tks]

Was always curious to see how DAPs perform, this one looks pretty good with it's performance. For $600, not bad really.

Would be real curious to see what an A&K SP2000 measures like, as it's seemingly the first device that I know of that will hit the market with the AKM 4499 is dual configuration.

 

[WHO23]

I wish @amirm gets his hands on one of the Astell flagships to get how its very high price is justified or not.

Nathan from Headfonia has been measuring Astell&Kern DAPs. Some of them have measured poorly
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astell-kern-spm1000m-24-bit
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astellkern-ak70-mkii-24-bit
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astellkern-ak380-24-bit

 

[AudioSceptic]

Nathan from Headfonia has been measuring Astell&Kern DAPs. Some of them have measured poorly
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astell-kern-spm1000m-24-bit
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astellkern-ak70-mkii-24-bit
http://ohm-image.net/data/audio/rmaa-astellkern-ak380-24-bit

Some interesting tests there, and he's entertaining to read. As I suspected, most of these DAPs are underperformers and hugely overpriced.

 

[amirm]

@amirm maybe something went wrong with the impedance test jig?

Ah, caught the mistake. The formula in my spreadsheet had corrupted in the last entry:

 

[amirm]

Fixed the review also.

 

[WHO23]

I took pictures of the internals for you guys to look at

 

[CerealKiller]

Así always, excelent work. Thanks!
I remember someone ofered to you a shanling M0, any chance than Review Is happening any time soon ?

 

[amirm]

I don't remember the M0. But I do have other DAPs that I will be testing soon.

 

[CerealKiller]

I don't remember the M0. But I do have other DAPs that I will be testing soon.

Shame on me then... It was an expression of desire we say in spanish, altho a better translation Will be, a wishfull thinking.

Thanks Amirm! I'll pull the trigger on the little thing as a replacement for my beloved (and still working) rockboxed Sansa clip+ as my running and training DAP and Will just try it.

Clip+ Is amazing, measures really well giving how old it Is (nwavguy did it) but its not as powerfull as i wish it was. Portapros and other koss, some low sens iems Will benefit

Cheers from patagonia

 

[headwhacker]

@amirm has my DX200 from iBasso for review. Let's see how it compares to Cowon's.

 

[NTomokawa]

Now I want to see measurements of other expensive MP3 players such as Astell&Kern, Sony WM1Z, other expensive Chinese stuff...

I use a Sony A45 because of its battery life. Sony went straight to the dark side nowadays, advertising the use of "Kimber Kable" in their new "high end" product lineup.

 

[headwhacker]

Now I want to see measurements of other expensive MP3 players such as Astell&Kern, Sony WM1Z, other expensive Chinese stuff...

I use a Sony A45 because of its battery life. Sony went straight to the dark side nowadays, advertising the use of "Kimber Kable" in their new "high end" product lineup.

It’s all about making money. Why bother pay top dollar to an engineer when they can just feed audiophile myths and end up making lots of money.

 

[NTomokawa]

It’s all about making money. Why bother pay top dollar to an engineer when they can just feed audiophile myths and end up making lots of money.

Ain't that the G-darned truth.

One of these days I'm going to buy some Benchmark products. One of these days...