The company with the bold title "luxury and precision" (just like this, perhaps, should translate Luxury & Precision) made its debut on the player market relatively recently, but immediately attracted the attention of the unusual and bold design of its devices. Appeared a month ago, L5 Pro is an improved and updated version of their model L5 and is positioned in the top-end solutions segment.
The first model of the company LP5 was characterized by an interesting unusual design, but because of it ergonomics suffered greatly. The company took this into account, and the next L5 model came out with a very strict traditional appearance, but it had a number of design flaws, and so L & P, in addition to finalizing the L5, decided to release a new version with a similar design but improved filling. So there was L5 Pro.
The player got quite a powerful hardware: the new AKM4490 "Verita" DAC provides "native" DSD support and trouble-free operation with high-definition recording, the OS uses some 1812, the volume is regulated by a good chip CS3310 from Cirus Logic. The other strapping is also quite level, starting with the Murata capacitors and ending with the Alpine buttons.
Interestingly, the Internet does not know anything about the amplifiers 1812A and 1812O, which are declared in this player. Given the fact that both the processor and the power management chip carry the same indices, the conclusion suggests that L & P use chips that are labeled by the manufacturer for their needs, which gives a serious approach (well, at least I tend to think so). Usually other companies are limited to simple erasure from chip marking. Also, according to L & P, the player uses OU chips, selected according to the "one best of 5" principle.
As the main control element, the device was equipped with a very good by the standards of the players touch-sensitive IPS-screen resolution of 480 × 320 with a diagonal of 3.5 inches. It is made using technology without an air layer, which is beneficial for both the sensor's operation and color rendering.
Naturally, with such a filling the device could not be cheap, and the price for it is about 800 dollars (depends on the renminbi rate), which automatically classifies it as the top-end device. In Russia, too, you can already make a preliminary order for the player, . How much does this claim have the right to life?
Specifications
- DAC: AKM4490 Verita
- Volume control: CS3310
- Signal to noise ratio: 110 dB
- Total Harmonic Distortion: ~ 0.002%
- Output Power: 180mW @ 32Ω
- Support for DSD formats: DSF, DFF, SACD ISO
- Support for lossless formats: FLAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, ALAC, WavPack
- Support for lossy formats: MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG
- Battery: 3100 mAh
- Operating time per charge: up to 12 hours
- Built-in Memory: 32 GB
- Support for memory cards: MicroSD up to 128 GB
- Screen: touchscreen, 3.5 "IPS, 480 × 320
- Dimensions: 123 mm × 63 mm × 16.9 mm
- Weight: 195 grams
Packing and delivery kit
Of course, the top (or wanting to be one) device should be perceived as premium in everything, starting with the package, and L5 Pro does the maximum possible here. The outer box of the player is transport, it is made of ordinary beige cardboard and stores the main box, or rather, even two. The player comes in two flat boxes made of cardboard with a cloth texture, connected by a common "dust jacket" and sealed in plastic. In one of the boxes is the device itself, instruction and protective film on the screen, in the second - a USB cable and a leather case.
About the cover is worth saying a little more, for the material, it looks a bit like suede and looks just fine. So far, it's given to the buyers of the player for free, but it's very likely that this attraction of unprecedented generosity will not last long. The cover is hard enough and it will protect the player, the only problem is to remove the device from it first time quite hard, and it will have to do to access the memory card slot.
In general - the delivery kit would be the most common, but the "premium" cover significantly changes the case.
Design and management
The appearance of the player is also very, very cool. Used an alloy of aluminum with magnesium in the popular "unibody" -execution, that is, the body of the device is made of a single piece of metal. To slightly dilute this dominance of cold metal, the developers used on the back panel an insert from a rosewood with a logo and the name of the model. Of course, this is just not a very thick layer of veneer, but it performs its task magnificently, firstly, introducing an interesting luxury accent in the design, and secondly, it is just very pleasantly felt in the hand. The build quality is impeccable, there are no complaints about it. They even thought about slightly rounding the edges of the device, making them not so sharp.
People who are familiar with industrial design also worked on the form of the device itself. The size of the player is chosen so that it fits perfectly in the hand, and the fingers themselves grope the control buttons. By the way, the latter are surprisingly many. On the right side are located playback control buttons, along the way allowing you to travel through the lists of tracks and menus. Playback and pause button with long press to turn the player on and off.
Three more buttons are located on the beveled at the angle of the top face. One of them turns the screen on and off, and when it is pressed for a long time, it locks and unlocks all controls. And here are two more buttons - this is a mega-destructive discovery of developers, the fact is that you can choose their functions from an extensive list. Thus, you decide which options are important for you so that you have instant access to them. The buttons are very high quality, with a short stroke and a pleasant click, just like you expect from an expensive device.
The volume control is done with the help of an encoder, that is, you rotate the hardware wheel, it rotates with light clicks, but the real chip is controlled by a chip from Cirus Logic. Thus, the player does not have a hint of channel imbalance, no noise when adjusting the volume.
Another interesting idea of the developers is the ability to choose whether the volume control and the playback control buttons will work when the screen is off. This also allows you to tailor the player to your usage scenario.
The rest of the interface is built around the touch screen. By the way, I can not fail to note the quality of the latter. Of course, it does not impress the imagination with super resolution, but it looks very good, it's quite enough to show skins and interface, and even in the sun it does not completely fade. The touch part works just fine, there is not the slightest claim to it.
The interface is slightly oak, it lacks some gloss, for example, lists are not scrolled by svaypami, and for paging you have to use the buttons on the screen, but in general it's cavils, managing the L5 Pro is easy and convenient.
The entire interface is built around three screens. The first is a playback screen that displays the album artwork and information about the tracks.
The second is the media library screen, which offers browsing by folders, by artist, album and track. Browsing by folders, unfortunately, does not sort them by name (I read on the Internet that to fix this problem it is necessary to format the internal memory of the player, but it did not help me), otherwise everything is quite simple and convenient.
The third screen is the settings. Here you can select the playback mode (no folder navigation at least for now), an equalizer (only fixed settings), an output mode (linear / digital), a gain (5 levels), a digital filter (traditional fast and slow), a phase, as well as various trifles such as the timer for auto power off, sleep, backlight time, and so on.
In general, the firmware is still in the active development stage, so I hope that the developers will correct everything that is not enough now to enter the market.
On the bottom panel are located the interfaces of the device: headphone output, line output, combined with coaxial (judging by the availability of the option in the menu, DoP is supported), a slot for MicroSD cards and MicroUSB for charging and memory access. In future versions of Luxury & Precision, they promise to add a USB-DAC function.
The operating time in my measurements was 10 hours and 45 minutes, although the results vary depending on the volume level and gain. Please note that you must charge the player until the charge indicator turns green. Also I want to note that the player shows the reduction of the charge quite quickly, while it is still able to play long enough. Probably, future firmware will fix this problem.
Sound
To listen to the player, the following headphones were used:
- ZMF Omni
- Oppo PM-3
- Dunu DN-2000J and Titan 1
- Lear LHF-AE1d
- Ambient Acoustics AM10
Of course, all of the above would be useless if the player forgot about the main thing - a good sound. Fortunately, this did not happen, the developers managed to achieve sound not only of high quality, but also delicious, Luxury & Precision definitely has what is called "brand sound" or "house sound". In general, the presentation of the player can be described as musical, smooth, with a slight emphasis on LF, providing a pleasant velvet obscurity. I can say that, despite the fact that many handsets have passed through my hands, L5 Pro managed to surprise me several times on different tracks, revealing them differently than its predecessors.
The bass player deserves praise, it's as good as it can be achieved in a portable device: fast, deep, energetic, with very good resolution. The slight emphasis on this part of the range, intentionally made by the developers is very tasty, emphasizes most of the tools, adding to them bodily and realism. Lovers of bass, choosing good headphones, will get a dense shock, providing the necessary vibrations of the skull, those who prefer a more low-key feed, can also, picking up the headphones to taste, enjoy the details of this player, although in the latter case, the headphones will have to take a little longer.
The middle frequencies, of course, are also good. In general, very few people in our time manage to spoil this part of the range, but sometimes exceptions happen, fortunately, this player did not become such. In his submission to the MF there is permission, emotion, volume and detail, everything that is valued in the mid-range. The L5 Pro sound in the mid-range is slightly smoother, I can not call it a problem, it's more of a feature, but similar anti-aliasing hides small details, not that they are not, they just are not so much accentuated. In return, the player gives an amazing effect of monolithic music, its scale. If we draw a parallel, L5 Pro is an impressionist, for him emotions and sensations are more important than photorealistic. I like this character of sounding very much, especially on live genres. The imaginary scene is very well built in depth, the player splits aside the near and far plans, the width of the scene somewhere between medium and wide. The instruments are well separated, their character is transmitted to the full extent (although, in general, it's difficult to expect anything else from a player of this level). As well, the device succeeds in various 3D and 3D effects, which are so loved by the authors of electronic (and not only) music.
The player's top frequencies are adjusted to balance the smoothening of the midrange. The player makes an accent on them, balancing on the verge of excessive sharpness, but not switching it (at least to my ears, on the Internet I met the opposite opinion). L5 Pro very adequately perceives even light headphones such as Dunu DN-2000J, while not taking the RF to the background. The upper frequency range is very well worked out, different dish-plates play naturally and in detail, as well as after-sounds, fading and upper notes of some instruments. Such a feed of the HF copes with the task of sound balance, providing the player with its own character, although if you do not like HF, you should listen to it first.
Of course, for a top player (or pretending to such a role), one can not do without comparisons with competitors. I will try to describe those very subjective sensations that L5 Pro compares with other models from the middle and higher segments that I heard. Please note that the text below is an attempt to put very subjective feelings into words, so take this description with some skepticism.
Fiio X5-2. Of course, the player Fiio looks on the background of L5 Pro a poor relative, at a price of 2 times smaller it can not boast of L & P resolution, nor so shocking a springy bass. The case when the player of the first division is going to speak against the pro from the higher league. At some, very remote similarity of giving, X5-2 concedes in everything, as to a sound though on convenience of an insertion and its functionality it, of course, ahead.
QLS QA-360. This player is a device more straightforward, it does not try to give a sound somehow in its own way, instead it's a hobby - ultimate honesty and candor. If you try to draw analogies, then the L5 is a luxury sedan, and the 360th is an SUV. When driving on the average middle road, the first one gives a more pleasant feeling of driving, smoothing the irregularities, and the second will take you on bumps, emphasizing all the bumps and ruts on the road, but will drive on. Plus, the 360 has a more monitored sound, while the L5 Pro has a general musicality and high-frequency processing.
Cayin N6. These devices are caught in some similarity in appearance (one has a carbon insert, the other has a tree), and in sound. Both focus on musicality with some damage in resolution, although L5 Pro does this way half a step more. Cayin N6 is more restrained in the bass region, it's not so biting and assertive, due to this it sounds a little colder, but slightly better conveys small nuances (although both players are slightly behind in this parameter from the same 360).
HiFiMan 901 (balanced amp). This player I would call a musical hooligan, he tries to play everything dramatically, straight in the face, emphasizing emotions and bringing them to a hypertrophied state. If you continue the car analogies, then the HiFiMan 901 is something like UAZ Patriot (according to the feeling from the ride, not at a price or "level"), it will clearly show you all the bumps with its suspension, although the connoisseurs of this option are still available. Against this backdrop, the L5 Pro is the king of softness and fusion, although on some styles 901 is, of course, interesting.
HUM Pervasion. Do not be confused by the appearance of this model here, just the presentation of this player in some places reminded me of something L5 Pro. There is a similar orientation to musicianship, a pleasant accent on LFs, merged with the midrange, although L5 Pro, of course, wins a lot on working out the entire range. Especially it is noticeable on HH and HF.
Compatibility
The developers have tried to do everything to ensure compatibility with the maximum number of headphones. The five-level Gain switch will help you adapt to almost any sensitivity, and the near-zero output impedance allows you not to worry about capricious reinforcement and hybrid models. Nevertheless, when choosing headphones, it is necessary to take into account the nature of the sound and try to avoid headphones with a strongly colored pitch, both on LF and HF, although there are surprising exceptions. For example, with the DN-2000J, the player did not show excessive brightness, but the Titan 1 sounded a little on some tracks, although on most of the material they showed themselves well. The player copes quite well with overhead models, including sensitive isodynamines of the initial level.
The genre player is very versatile, although the styles that presuppose the emphasis on bass sound even better than the average on it. Critical to the quality of records, I would have estimated somewhere around 7 points out of 10 (conditionally, of course), the player does not like tracks with poorly recorded HF.
This time I decided to use for the examples tracks from the work of Ukrainian musicians and add links to YouTube for reference (of course, for listening I did not use YouTube-recording options). Unfortunately, the scope of the review does not allow placing many songs, so the choice was very difficult.
One canoe is Demon. Last time I start to find a special pleasure in listening to simple music, especially for test purposes. Tracks like this, allow you to assess the naturalness of the player, natural sound. The minimum of instruments is percussion, guitar and vocals, but absolutely hypnotic music. The voice of vocalist Irina immediately grabs attention and envelops, and the guitar with percussion creates that background that allows him to reveal himself. Given that most of the tracks of this band are live recordings, available only in lossy, L5 Pro copes with this song just fine.
Boombox - Exit. In fact, it's incredible how much this group has grown up over the last couple of years in everything: music, texts, and recording quality. A natural award was the invitation to perform on the same stage with David Gilmore in a concert of Staging A Revolution. The new track is a perfect illustration of what music is capable of when it comes from the heart. Explosive choruses, alternating with a quiet "reading" of couplets demonstrate the capabilities of L5 Pro to play out any music.
The Hardkiss - Make-Up. Who said that pop music can not be interesting? This person has never heard The Hardkiss. The band members themselves call their progressive-pop style, and, perhaps, are right. Despite the general attraction to the pop genre, they generously interfere in their work electronic music, elements of rock, folk and everything else that comes to hand. The result is always surprising with its novelty and surprise. Этот трек для для L5 Pro вообще не составляет труда, его акцентированный бас и объемное звучание просто созданы для подобной музыки.
conclusions
Очень здорово, что Luxury & Precision работают над своими моделями, исправляя имеющиеся недочеты. Благодаря кропотливой работе, L5 Pro получился интересным не только внешне, но и по звуку. Если компания поправит некоторые программные недочеты (в целом их не так много), то плеер однозначно займет достойное место среди устройств своего класса.
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment