Hi-Fi Bar: Cowon PLENUE S audio player
Music lovers to represent the Korean company Cowon is not necessary, but for less sensitive to the quality of the reproduced music I will inform you: since its inception (1995, I mean), Cowon has been producing digital audio players. Concurrently with them, he makes various 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.
"The floor below" is a leather case and a USB cable for connecting to a computer.
The case is made very high quality: beautiful, strong seams, neat cuts, a tight fit on the player.
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The body of the PLENUE S is made of a single piece of aluminum, and almost the entire front part occupies a screen slightly less than 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 volume changes.
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.). It 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 upper end for connecting headphones. The
second similar connector with the signature "BAL" is a 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 connector - for microSD memory cards - is located on the side:
There are no plugs for it, but when used, 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 image 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 processor Cortex A9) and a specially developed OS based on NIX, no brakes or hangs were noticed. The basic settings menu is short, with large “buttons” (an important nuance for owners of large brushes):
The most spready item is the equalizer:
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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 the system settings (time, date, timeout, etc.) are collected in the corresponding submenus:
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In everyday use, the player is very convenient. Well thought out the design and all elements. I am pleased with the omnivorous Plenue S, which is lacking for 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 file format, bit rate, duration, etc.: 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 showed itself 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 if we consider that the maximum value is not 100, but 140. Especially for those who like to alternate the 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-c-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 bits / 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 rate | 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 | 119x65x18mm |
| Weight | 204 g |