Cowon P1 Plenue High Resolution Audio Player (Black)

All I am after is good SQ and although other aspects are important (performance, features, output power, etc..) they are distant seconds. So after having purchased several DAP's (AK Jr, Cayin N3, etc.) I was really becoming despondent that I would be able to find anything affordable that would be satisfactory SQ-wise. (I do like my external DAC/AMPs like AudioQuest and ifi iDSD BL). But after seeing the reviews for the P1 I thought I would take the jump, even though it is quite a bit more expense than my other DAPs. So you have to imagine my initial disappointment when I first started listening, the SQ was really all over the place and it was overly warm / dark (and I like a full and bass accented sound). No matter what headphones/IEMs I tried none of them sounded remotely what I was hoping for! I was going to box it back up and try and sell it. However, I decided to see if maybe I could give it another chance and maybe my ears would adapt as well. Fortunately after playing it more, the sound started to improve noticeably. (I am sure I was also acclimating as well but it is definitely mostly the device's SQ improving). Much more cohesive, linear, and consistent. The sound stage and separation are excellent too. Still only on the 3rd round of playback / battery charge, hoping it continues to improve even further. Burn-in made a dramatic improvement for me. Really good now, if it continues to improve then I will give it a 5/5.

I've owned my P1 for over 6 months now and I love it now even more than when it first arrived. As others have stated, the sound quality is incredible! I owned a Samsung YP-P3 (32GB) for a few years that was becoming unresponsive to touch on the right half of the screen and the storage capacity was very limiting (although it was a very good player for it's time). While looking for a replacement I owned the Sony Walkman NW-F887 for one day because to my ears it didn't even sound as good as my YP3 and it didn't support WMA lossless (I have a lot of files in that format). Next I tried the Astell & Kern Jr. Kept it for about an hour. It may sound good to some, but to me it was very disappointing (Amazon was very good at accepting my return of both players). To be fair both of those players are less expensive than the Cowon P1, but as soon as it arrived I knew I had finally found what I was searching for and it has been worth every penny. The other players just sounded flat, dull and lifeless compared to the P1 (this was instantly confirmed on both players from a blind listening test with a co-worker).Other reviewers have already posted all the details about the sound so I won't try to repeat everything other than to say it truly has an extremely pleasing "analog" sound with wonderful clarity and separation as well as a great soundstage. For reference I use Sony MDR-XB90EX ear buds and Shure SRH1840 (open back) headphones for my listening and the P1 does a great job with both. It takes a little more volume to drive the Shure's, but there is always plenty of volume to spare with no distortion whatsoever. I've found the "Club" equalizer setting to be ideal for almost all tracks but others might have a different opinion. The "Ballad" setting is similar but with slightly less bass emphasis.I have MP3, WMA Lossless, and quite a lot of FLAC 24 Bit files and the P1 makes them all sound great. Of course the 24 bit files generally sound the best (the source mastering being equal) but the other files (even the MP3s) are still very pleasant to listen to.I'm using a Sandisk 200GB Micro SD Card and have never had any problems. The P1 recognized the entire 200GB instantly (not limited to a 128GB card). I have almost filled-up the entire SD card and the 128GB internal storage and when I turn on the P1 it goes through the "database update" in only a second or two - very impressive.I've seen a professional review claiming that the tactile buttons are always operational when the P1 is in lock mode, with the review commenting that could be a problem for some. That is not true. Within the P1 settings you can choose if the lock mode locks only the screen or both the screen and the tactile buttons. One thing to be careful of though, if you are removing the cover and the tactile buttons are not locked you can inadvertently turn the volume way up. I only had to experience the "pain" once to remember to check the volume after having removed the cover (no big-brother volume limiting on the P1).In another review I saw a comment that the P1 could use "letter choices" for faster scrolling through long artist/track lists. It is true that the P1 does not have that feature, but you can still touch the part of the screen where you think what you're looking for would be and you instantly go to that place in the alphabet. That helps with scrolling through very long lists (maybe a firmware update has/will have this feature).As long as it continues to work, this is the last personal music player I ever plan to own. I can't recommend it enough!1/4/17 Update: Over a week ago I swapped the 200GB Sandisk Micro SD Card for the Sandisk 256GB. No problems whatsoever. The initial database update took about 20 seconds, but ever since then just the typical second or two boot-up. The "System Information" display indicates the entire 256GB is recognized.One more quick point. All the pro reviews I've seen comment that the elapsed time only displays in cumulative seconds. That's true in full album art mode, but not in skin mode. The initial screen shown after touching the "gear" in the upper right corner includes a "Time display" option (second option from the upper left). You can toggle between 3 time display settings including "Elapsed +". That setting shows both the elapsed time and total time of the track playing in minutes/seconds. However, you lose the progressive shading of the album art that can be a useful visual aid for dragging forward or back (you can still drag forward or back though).Still love my P1!4/10/18 Update: I'm writing this update in case anyone is searching the Web or Amazon reviews for "Cowon P1 400GB Micro SD Card". If so, I hope they find this. I searched the Web trying to find out if the Cowon P1 would recognize the new 400GB Micro SD Card from SanDisk. Others had asked that question as well in various forums, but the answers were almost all rude, arrogant, and uniformed, with statements like "the manufacturer's site says "x", so no it won't read a 400GB card and even if you think it is, it is not recognizing all your tracks", etc.I took a chance anyway and ordered the 400GB card from Amazon a week or so ago and I can tell you with 100% certainty that the Cowon DOES in fact recognize the 400GB card and all my tracks are there. It works perfectly! You can go to the "System" then "Information" selections and see both the total and free space for both the internal memory and the micro SD Card (see the attached pics). Cowon never recognized 100% of the claimed internal or Micro SD card space (I'm sure storage experts can inform us on the industry claims vs. what is recognized), but the pattern is completely consistent with the smaller storage cards I used in the Cowon before. This has made me appreciate the Cowon even more. Now I think I'll have all the storage space I would ever want with the 400GB card plus the 128GB internal storage. I believe the one true limit that Cowon makes very clear is the 70,000 file limit. I doubt I'll ever approach that as I now have just under 11,000 tracks. In case it matters I'm using firmware version 1.11. I wouldn't know if later versions of the firmware would impact the ability to recognize a 400GB card, but it they did you can (as of this writing) download all earlier firmware versions from Cowon's website. I understand the earlier versions (like 1.11 that I'm using) have more of an analog sound, which is what I prefer (I think you get plenty of wonderful detail while having the smooth pleasant analog sound).The Cowon P1 is just an incredible Hi-Rez audio player and I wouldn't change a thing!

This gold Plenue looks beautiful. It came with a dark brown leather case which really nice. I'll cut right to the chase with this...PROS- Excellent sound quality. It really doesn't get much better than this.-Build quality is very nice- Large internal storage-UI is simple, EQ stuff is really nice.CONS - Mediocre battery life. Compared to my phone, or my old zone, battery just drains too fast considering the price- The power meters in the UI are glitchy, they don't flow smoothly, ever, so why have them?- No charger included, just a USB charging cable- Takes a long time to charge the battery considering its not a super long lasting battery- This is my biggest con- the 3mm jack is not a true line out. When you connect it to a stereo via analog interconnects, the sound suffers and distorts. I don't understand this at all. For the price of this thing, it should be a stand alone DAC and have a true line out.All in all , the sound is very seductive, I prefer the "maestro" EQ on almost all music types. There are some flaws , but I suppose that's part of esoteric audio products. For reference I use the sennheiser momentum headphones.