Hi-Fi Bar: Cowon PLENUE S Audio Player

Music lovers do not have to represent the Korean company Cowon, and for less sensitive to the quality of the music being played, I’ll inform you: since its creation (1995, I mean), Cowon has been producing digital audio players. Concurrently with them, he makes different sound-reproducing equipment, as well as any small things like DVRs and charging.

But the release of Hi-Fi-players is a priority. Recently, the PLENUE S model, which is said to be an improved and refined version of PLENUE 1, has entered the market. I propose to consider the novelty in detail.

Black strict box of small dimensions does not give out the high birth rate of the device: rough cardboard, no decorations. The player and accessories are placed in velvet-trimmed foam holders. Looks beautiful.
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"The floor below" is a leather case and a USB cable for connecting to a computer.





The cover is made very high quality: beautiful, strong seams, neat cuts, a tight fit on the player.


The body of the PLENUE S is made of a single piece of aluminum, and almost the entire front part occupies a screen just under four inches diagonal.





There is no oleophobic coating on the screen, fingerprints are perfectly visible when the screen is off. Scratch resists well. Other controls are scattered on the side faces. On the left there are buttons for rewind, pause and change volume



Above - the power button, combined with a three-color activity indicator.



In battery charging mode, the color is red, green - the battery is fully charged. White light corresponds to the playback mode with the screen off.


One full battery charge is enough for seven and a few hours of work in mixed mode (playing audio files of various types, navigating through albums, etc.). This is one of the longest playing players on the market; compared to Plenue 1, battery capacity has increased by 30%. The rear corrugated wall a few millimeters thick serves as a radiator and heats up a little during operation.



Tactile heating is almost not felt, especially if the player is operated in a case.
There are five connectors on the case. One of the most used - 3.5 mm jack in the top end for connecting headphones



The second similar connector with the signature "BAL" - balanced output. On the opposite side is a microUSB connector:



Two groups of three recessed into the contact housing (audio outputs) are designed to connect accessories. Most likely, the last will be the docking stations or overall speakers, similar to the models from JBL and Harman-Kardon for the IPhone.

The fifth slot - for microSD memory cards - is located on the side:



No stubs are provided for it, but when worn, the memory card is completely protected from falling out, and the connector is free from contamination.

When controlling the player, the touch button is actively used, indicated by a circle on the screen.



It is called multi-button, the action for pressing is set by the user. By default, a certain analogue of Windows Explorer (selection of files for playback) is “hung” on it.



The graphical interface is easy to use and pleasing to the eye.



Immediately an important caveat: “screenshots” were taken with a camera and were not subjected to additional processing, which is why the quality of the picture differs from the original for the worse. In fact, all colors are juicy, the borders of the elements are clear, the viewing angles are almost 180 degrees.

The display style is chosen by the user independently, and thanks to the powerful stuffing (dual-core Cortex A9 processor) and a specially developed OS based on NIX, no brakes or hang-ups were noticed. The basic settings menu is short, with large “buttons” (an important nuance for owners of large brushes):



The most spreading point is the equalizer:


With it, you can widely change the sound, adjusting it to your tastes and used headphones (in our case, these are the monitors SONY MDR-7506). Additional settings are hidden behind the “music” item:



And system (time, date, timeout, etc.) are collected in the corresponding submenu:


In everyday use, the player is very convenient. Well thought out the design and all elements. Pleases the omnivorous Plenue S, which is lacking in many simple pocket sound reproducing devices. And the operation of filling the player with music is extremely simple: plugged in via USB, saw a removable drive in the “explorer”, copied the necessary number of files and folders. There is no need to fear for the file format, bit rate, duration and more: it will read and play everything.

The main advantage of the Plenue S is sound: clear, well detailed, without distortion. The characteristic for the MDR 7506 dry and detailed sound manifested itself even here: it is very pleasant to listen to complex compositions (classical, rock, industrial), simple electronic music is faded. This "disadvantage" is easily solved by replacing the headphones or adjusting the equalizer, to whom it is more convenient. The volume is enough with a margin, especially when you consider that the maximum value is not 100, but 140. Especially for those who like to alternate between audio equipment, the player lowers the volume every time you change headphones.


Summing up, we can name only two drawbacks of Cowon PLENUE S : price and weight. Not everyone can afford a player with a price of more than 150 thousand rubles (for a 128 GB model), and not every music lover can conveniently carry a bar weighing 200 grams with a trailer in his pocket. The rest of PLENUE S can only be praised. The layout, the location of controls and connectors, the software shell, omnivorous, compatibility with headphones, battery life, sound - all at altitude.

Screen	AMOLED 3.7 '', 800x480 pix, touch
PC connection	microUSB
DAC	Burr-Brown PCM1792A
CPU	ARM Cortex A9, 2 cores, 1.2 GHz
Internal memory	128 GB
Expandable memory	MicroSD cards, up to 128 GB
Battery	4400 mAh
Charging time	3 hours
Working hours	Up to 8.5 hours
Connectors	Headphones (3.5 mm TRS) Optical (3.5 mm TRS) microUSB
Harmonic distortion and noise	0.0005%
Output impedance	1 ohm
Signal to noise ratio	120 dB
Supported codecs	MP3 (MPEG 1/2 / 2.5 Layer 3, up to 320 kbps) WMA (up to 320 kbps, 48 ​​kHz) APE (Fast, Normal, High (~ 24 bit / 192 kHz)) OGG (Q10, 44.1 kHz)
Supported Formats	DXD, DSD (DFF, DSF), FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE, MP3, WMA, OGG, WV, TTA, DCF
Tags	LRC, LDB, Lyrics3, ID3 Tag Lyrics
Sampling frequency	DXD: 384 kHz DSD: 11.2 MHz PCM: 384 kHz
Equalizer	JetEffect 7 (10 lanes, 66 installations), BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance, Chorus (8 modes) and Reverb (9 modes) processing
Dimensions	119x65x18 mm
Weight	204 g