Cowon Plenue M Portable Audio Player Review: The Case in 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, most Europeans are quite difficult to understand. We can only be surprised at a lot of what is happening there. But here's what not to take away from the inhabitants of the East - this is a strange habit of making really good electronics. As a proof, here is the Cowon Plenue M player .
The Korean company COWON was no exception to this rule. Her story began in 1995. At that time, these guys did not begin by producing audio players, but by writing sound processing programs for NEC and Fujitsu. Then there were a bunch of awards for the best software products in the field of audio processing and, finally, the entry into the market of “iron” mp3 players with their first brainchild, Cowon iAudio CW100, which weighed only 40 grams.
Fifteen years ago, it seemed that the era of MP3 players was a long time to come. That these humble gadgets ushered in a new era. However, even the once-powerful iPod fell very quickly before the brutal versatility of a modern smartphone.
Nevertheless, there are still people who want a sound quality that no smartphone can give them. This is for them - Colorful, Hifiman and Astell & Kern produce their premium devices. Cowon also decided to keep up with its competitors and therefore today I will tell you about their latest novelty - Cowon Plenue M
From the first seconds that 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 with good manners. At the same time, the east is modest and discreet. Cowon's main motive is discreet practicality, coupled with solidity.
The metal case is very nice and confidently fits in your hand. I was very pleased with the screen. Firstly, it is bright, and secondly, it is tactilely very pleasant and responds well to the touch of fingers. The software design is concise. I was especially pleased with the presence of two sound pressure indicators, stylized as arrows of the amplifier. I still remember these from the SPL Phonitor. It looks very beautiful, according to the studio. Something reminded me of the cute Wall-E robot from the masterpiece of the Pixar cartoon.
The power button is located on the top panel of the device. The main control keys are Play \ Pause, the volume and switching tracks are displayed on the right side. It is convenient to press the thumb without removing the player from the jacket pocket. The 3.7-inch screen itself is perhaps the ideal size so that the menu is readable and you can use only the thumb of your right hand in control. In short, convenient to horror.
Very pleased with the menu. For me personally, it was intuitive, not putting unnecessary puzzles in front of the brain. several “skins” to choose from, the ability to sort the library by various parameters, such as - Artist, album name, etc. Simple, tasteful and nothing more.
Now about the sound. Here was the biggest surprise. No, of course I was waiting for the sound “at the level”, but that’s not the point ... I got the player together with the Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 headphones . And this couple “sang”, I want to tell you just perfectly ... I was waiting for the bias, usual for the “Asians”, in the direction of high ones - I did not wait. The sound of the Cowon Plenue M is very well toned balanced (tested on several headphones), it is accurate, since the Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC does not doubt itself, but there is some charm to the sound of the player.
Subjectively, the sound is very soft, more prone to vinyl, very musical, especially in compositions with vocals and guitar parts. The stage in all planes is built just fine, the filling with higher harmonics is excellent, hence the increased “musicality” of the device. In general, instead of the usual analysis of sound files, this time I just enjoyed the music.
Among all the other “usefulnesses,” I would like to highlight the possibility of the player working in DAC mode when connected to a computer and the choice of gain for headphones with different impedances. As for the rest, asceticism, asceticism and again asceticism ... There is nothing superfluous, only sound, though the sound is extremely pleasant, in a heap of different formats that Cowon Plenue M is able to read.
Very stylish, concise, small-sized player, with a very decent, “live” sound, a pronounced personality in musical color and soft sound. Laconic on the menu and easy to manage. In terms of price / sound quality ratio, perhaps one of the most interesting models currently on the market in the price range of about 50,000 rubles.
Player Specifications:
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The Korean company COWON was no exception to this rule. Her story began in 1995. At that time, these guys did not begin by producing audio players, but by writing sound processing programs for NEC and Fujitsu. Then there were a bunch of awards for the best software products in the field of audio processing and, finally, the entry into the market of “iron” mp3 players with their first brainchild, Cowon iAudio CW100, which weighed only 40 grams.
Eastern minimalism and asceticism
Fifteen years ago, it seemed that the era of MP3 players was a long time to come. That these humble gadgets ushered in a new era. However, even the once-powerful iPod fell very quickly before the brutal versatility of a modern smartphone.
Nevertheless, there are still people who want a sound quality that no smartphone can give them. This is for them - Colorful, Hifiman and Astell & Kern produce their premium devices. Cowon also decided to keep up with its competitors and therefore today I will tell you about their latest novelty - Cowon Plenue M
From the first seconds that 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 with good manners. At the same time, the east is modest and discreet. Cowon's main motive is discreet practicality, coupled with solidity.
The metal case is very nice and confidently fits in your hand. I was very pleased with the screen. Firstly, it is bright, and secondly, it is tactilely very pleasant and responds well to the touch of fingers. The software design is concise. I was especially pleased with the presence of two sound pressure indicators, stylized as arrows of the amplifier. I still remember these from the SPL Phonitor. It looks very beautiful, according to the studio. Something reminded me of the cute Wall-E robot from the masterpiece of the Pixar cartoon.
The power button is located on the top panel of the device. The main control keys are Play \ Pause, the volume and switching tracks are displayed on the right side. It is convenient to press the thumb without removing the player from the jacket pocket. The 3.7-inch screen itself is perhaps the ideal size so that the menu is readable and you can use only the thumb of your right hand in control. In short, convenient to horror.
Very pleased with the menu. For me personally, it was intuitive, not putting unnecessary puzzles in front of the brain. several “skins” to choose from, the ability to sort the library by various parameters, such as - Artist, album name, etc. Simple, tasteful and nothing more.
About Sound
Now about the sound. Here was the biggest surprise. No, of course I was waiting for the sound “at the level”, but that’s not the point ... I got the player together with the Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 headphones . And this couple “sang”, I want to tell you just perfectly ... I was waiting for the bias, usual for the “Asians”, in the direction of high ones - I did not wait. The sound of the Cowon Plenue M is very well toned balanced (tested on several headphones), it is accurate, since the Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC does not doubt itself, but there is some charm to the sound of the player.
Subjectively, the sound is very soft, more prone to vinyl, very musical, especially in compositions with vocals and guitar parts. The stage in all planes is built just fine, the filling with higher harmonics is excellent, hence the increased “musicality” of the device. In general, instead of the usual analysis of sound files, this time I just enjoyed the music.
Among all the other “usefulnesses,” I would like to highlight the possibility of the player working in DAC mode when connected to a computer and the choice of gain for headphones with different impedances. As for the rest, asceticism, asceticism and again asceticism ... There is nothing superfluous, only sound, though the sound is extremely pleasant, in a heap of different formats that Cowon Plenue M is able to read.
Summary
Very stylish, concise, small-sized player, with a very decent, “live” sound, a pronounced personality in musical color and soft sound. Laconic on the menu and easy to manage. In terms of price / sound quality ratio, perhaps one of the most interesting models currently on the market 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 '' (480 x 800) touchscreen
- Management: touch, push-button: Power / Lock, Play / Pause, LOUD. + LOUD. -, Back and forth
- Processor: ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz 2 cores
- 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 bit / 192 kHz * 352.8 / 384 kHz FLAC, WAV 1/2 for sampling * 32 bit FLOAT WAV, support for WAV tags * encoding 5.1 sound MP3: MPEG 1/2 / 2,5 Lay
- Text: LRC, LDB, Lyrics3, ID3 Tag Lyrics
- JetEffect 7:66 settings (including 16 user settings), 10-band equalizer, BBE + (BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance)
- Special effects: Chorus (8 modes), Reverb (9 modes)
- DAC: Burr-Brown PCM1795
- Stereo Transient Attenuation: -132 dB
- Output Signal: 2 Vrms
- Output Impedance: 3 Ohms
- Volume: 140 levels
- Clock: TCXO precision clock (1.0 ps jitter)
- Power: Lithium Polymer Battery
- Battery Options: 3.7 V - 3000 mAh
- Play time: ~ 10 hours
- Charging time: ~ 4 hours
- Output: Headphone port (3.5 mm) or optical output port (3.5 mm)
- Dimensions: 64.5 x 114.3 x 13.4 mm
- Weight: 170g
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 our best to make the time spent with us useful for you. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our columns .
Our other articles and events