Review of the portable audio player Cowon Plenue M: The thing is in the sound
Welcome everyone to the iCover blog! As we all know, the East is a delicate matter! The mentality, habits, way of thinking of its inhabitants, is quite difficult for most Europeans to understand. We can only wonder at what is happening there. But this is something that the inhabitants of the East cannot take away - it is a strange habit of making really good electronics. As proof, we present the player Cowon Plenue M.
The Korean company COWON was no exception to this rule. Her story began in 1995. At that time, these guys did not start with the production of audio players, but with writing sound processing programs for NEC and Fujitsu. Later, there were a lot of awards for the best software products in the field of audio processing and, finally, the entry of “iron” mp3 players to the market with his first brainchild Cowon iAudio CW100, which weighed only 40 grams.
')
Fifteen years ago, the era of MP3 players seemed to be serious and for a long time. With these modest gadgets heralded a new era. However, even the once mighty iPod very quickly fell before the brutal versatility of a modern smartphone.
Nevertheless, there are still people who want a sound quality that no smartphone can give them. It is for them - Colorful, Hifiman and Astell & Kern produce their premium devices. Cowon also decided not to lag behind competitors and therefore today I will tell you about their latest novelty - Cowon Plenue M
From the first seconds, as the player fell into my hands, I had a sense of respect for him. This is Korean. In a good sense of the word. Small, dignified and well-mannered. In this case, the eastern modest and low-key. At Cowon, the main motive is low-key practicality, coupled with solidity.
The metal case is very nice and confidently fits in your hand. Very pleased with the screen. Firstly, it is bright, and secondly, it is tactilely very pleasant and responds well to the touch of fingers. Software design is concise. I was particularly pleased with the presence of two sound pressure indicators, stylized under the arrows of the amplifier. I still remember these by SPL Phonitor. Looks very nice in the studio. Something reminded me of a nice robot Wall-E from a masterpiece pixar cartoon.
The power button is located on the top panel of the device. The main control keys - Play \ Pause, volume and switching tracks are displayed on the right side. It is convenient to press with your thumb without removing the player from the jacket pocket. The screen itself is 3.7 inches — perhaps the ideal size so that the menu is readable and only the thumb of the right hand can be used in management. In short, convenient to horror.
Very pleased with the menu. For me personally, it was intuitive, without putting unnecessary puzzles on the brain. Several "skins" to choose from, the ability to sort the library by various parameters, such as - Artist, album name, etc. Simply, with taste and nothing extra.
Now about the sound. Here was the biggest surprise. No, of course I was waiting for the sound “on the level”, but that’s not the point ... I got the player together with Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 headphones . And this couple “sang”, I want to tell you just fine ... I waited for the Asians, which was usual for “Asians”, to skew towards the high ones - I didn’t wait. The sound of the Cowon Plenue M is very well tonally balanced (tested on several headphones), it is accurate, since the Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC doesn’t give rise to doubt, but in addition to this there is a player charm.
Subjectively, the sound is very soft, more prone to vinyl, very musical, especially in compositions with vocals and guitar parts. The scene in all planes is built up just great, the filling with higher harmonics is excellent, hence the increased “musical part” of the device. In general, instead of the usual analysis of sound files, this time I just enjoyed the music.
Of all the other "utilities", I want to highlight the ability of the player to work in the DAC mode when connected to a computer and the choice of gain for headphones of different resistance. For the rest, asceticism, asceticism, and once again asceticism ... Nothing superfluous, just the sound, although the sound is extremely pleasant, in a bunch of different formats that Cowon Plenue M is able to read.
Very stylish, concise, small in size player, with a very decent, “live” sound, a pronounced individuality in terms of musical color and softness of sound. Laconic in the menu and easy to manage. In terms of price / sound quality, perhaps one of the most interesting models on the market at the moment in the price range of about 50,000 rubles.
Player Specifications:
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of our blog. We are ready to continue to share with you the latest news, review articles and other publications and will try to do everything possible so that the time spent with us will be useful for you. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our headings .
Our other articles and events
The Korean company COWON was no exception to this rule. Her story began in 1995. At that time, these guys did not start with the production of audio players, but with writing sound processing programs for NEC and Fujitsu. Later, there were a lot of awards for the best software products in the field of audio processing and, finally, the entry of “iron” mp3 players to the market with his first brainchild Cowon iAudio CW100, which weighed only 40 grams.
')
Oriental minimalism and asceticism
Fifteen years ago, the era of MP3 players seemed to be serious and for a long time. With these modest gadgets heralded a new era. However, even the once mighty iPod very quickly fell before the brutal versatility of a modern smartphone.
Nevertheless, there are still people who want a sound quality that no smartphone can give them. It is for them - Colorful, Hifiman and Astell & Kern produce their premium devices. Cowon also decided not to lag behind competitors and therefore today I will tell you about their latest novelty - Cowon Plenue M
From the first seconds, as the player fell into my hands, I had a sense of respect for him. This is Korean. In a good sense of the word. Small, dignified and well-mannered. In this case, the eastern modest and low-key. At Cowon, the main motive is low-key practicality, coupled with solidity.
The metal case is very nice and confidently fits in your hand. Very pleased with the screen. Firstly, it is bright, and secondly, it is tactilely very pleasant and responds well to the touch of fingers. Software design is concise. I was particularly pleased with the presence of two sound pressure indicators, stylized under the arrows of the amplifier. I still remember these by SPL Phonitor. Looks very nice in the studio. Something reminded me of a nice robot Wall-E from a masterpiece pixar cartoon.
The power button is located on the top panel of the device. The main control keys - Play \ Pause, volume and switching tracks are displayed on the right side. It is convenient to press with your thumb without removing the player from the jacket pocket. The screen itself is 3.7 inches — perhaps the ideal size so that the menu is readable and only the thumb of the right hand can be used in management. In short, convenient to horror.
Very pleased with the menu. For me personally, it was intuitive, without putting unnecessary puzzles on the brain. Several "skins" to choose from, the ability to sort the library by various parameters, such as - Artist, album name, etc. Simply, with taste and nothing extra.
About Sound
Now about the sound. Here was the biggest surprise. No, of course I was waiting for the sound “on the level”, but that’s not the point ... I got the player together with Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 headphones . And this couple “sang”, I want to tell you just fine ... I waited for the Asians, which was usual for “Asians”, to skew towards the high ones - I didn’t wait. The sound of the Cowon Plenue M is very well tonally balanced (tested on several headphones), it is accurate, since the Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC doesn’t give rise to doubt, but in addition to this there is a player charm.
Subjectively, the sound is very soft, more prone to vinyl, very musical, especially in compositions with vocals and guitar parts. The scene in all planes is built up just great, the filling with higher harmonics is excellent, hence the increased “musical part” of the device. In general, instead of the usual analysis of sound files, this time I just enjoyed the music.
Of all the other "utilities", I want to highlight the ability of the player to work in the DAC mode when connected to a computer and the choice of gain for headphones of different resistance. For the rest, asceticism, asceticism, and once again asceticism ... Nothing superfluous, just the sound, although the sound is extremely pleasant, in a bunch of different formats that Cowon Plenue M is able to read.
Summary
Very stylish, concise, small in size player, with a very decent, “live” sound, a pronounced individuality in terms of musical color and softness of sound. Laconic in the menu and easy to manage. In terms of price / sound quality, perhaps one of the most interesting models on the market at the moment in the price range of about 50,000 rubles.
Player Specifications:
- Built-in memory: 64 GB
- Additional memory: microSD SDXC (up to 128 GB)
- Display: AMOLED 3.7 '' touchscreen (480 x 800)
- Control: touch, button: Power / Lock, Play / Pause, VOL. +, LOUD. -, Back and forth
- Processor: ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz 2 core
- Audio Formats: DXD / DFF / DSF / FLAC / WAV / AIFF / ALAC / APE / MP3 / WMA / OGG / WV / TTA / DCF
- Audio codecs: DXD: ~ 352.8 / 384 kHz (1/2 per sample) DSD: ~ 5.64 MHz (DSD64, DSD128) FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC: ~ 24 bits / 192 kHz * 352.8 / 384 kHz FLAC, WAV 1/2 per sample * 32 bit FLOAT WAV, support for WAV tags * 5.1 audio encoding MP3: MPEG 1/2 / 2.5 Lay
- Text: LRC, LDB, Lyrics3, ID3 Tag Lyrics
- JetEffect 7:66 settings (including 16 custom), 10-band EQ, BBE + (BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance)
- Special effects: Chorus (8 modes), Reverb (9 modes)
- DAC: Burr-Brown PCM1795
- Stereo crosstalk: -132 dB
- Output Signal: 2 Vrms
- Output impedance: 3 ohms
- Volume: 140 levels
- Clock: Precision Clock TCXO (1.0 ps jitter)
- Power Supply: Lithium Polymer Rechargeable Battery
- Battery Parameters: 3.7 V - 3000 mAh
- Play time: ~ 10 hours
- Charging time: ~ 4 hours
- Output: Port for connecting headphones (3.5 mm) or optical output port (3.5 mm)
- Dimensions: 64.5 x 114.3 x 13.4 mm
- Weight: 170 g
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of our blog. We are ready to continue to share with you the latest news, review articles and other publications and will try to do everything possible so that the time spent with us will be useful for you. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our headings .
Our other articles and events
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/369189/
All Articles