Page 59 - Hi-Fi World (January 2020)

REVIEW

Pocket Wizard

A tiny player at a great price, with wizard performance, Noel Keywood finds.

owon’s Plenue D2 por- size allied to high performance but a small side rocker – inconvenient –
table digital player is a tiny – and here’s a wrinkle – the claimed and volume level readout is numerical
pocket wizard. It is small performance is only available from only, positioned beside the battery
enough to be stashed the unit’s tiny 2.5mm balanced level indicator at top right. Beneath
anywhere, has a claimed headphone jack. OK, the unbalanced the volume control lies a Play/pause
C30 hour playback life with 3.5mm jack isn’t far off, also offering a button and forward/back track skip.
hi-res and – Cowon claim – packs a great result. The D2 comes with 64GB of
performance not bettered elsewhere. Weighing 98gms on our scales, internal storage for music and this
I hardly believed their figures – but the D2 feels solid but not overly can be boosted by using a micro-SD
they’re true. heavy. Measuring 79.2mm high, card of up to 128GB. Plenty enough
However, there are some points 53.1mm wide and 15mm deep it for MP3 and CD files, but DSD
to consider. The D2 is purposed will even fit a shirt’s top pocket comes in at 100MB a track or more
as a very high quality portable for and – happily – Cowon put both remember – and the Plenue D2 plays
headphone use; it has no digital headphone outputs on the top face, DSD if you so wish.
output for connection to a hi-fi not the bottom like some. However, The user interface has been
DAC, nor a digital input for use as there’s no rotary volume control at kept reasonably simple and obvious,
a computer’s headphone amplifier. top, only a circular power button making the D2 easy enough to use,
Price is a modest £250. You get small that looks like one. Volume is set by but the graphics are inevitably a
bit on the small side. Since this is
a touch screen you have to peck
at small active areas, but sensitivity
was good, making for a reasonably
assured response. Startup was almost
instantaneous, at around 5 seconds
and the screen is bright and clear;
I had no trouble reading it, unlike
some. An info screen gives bit depth,
sample rate, data rate and type
encoding.
Cowon supply the D2 with a
120cm long cable with a micro-
USB to USB A plugs for charging
or computer connection. The unit
will play whilst on a charger and is
compatible with both Mac and PC,
updating automatically when loaded
with new music files I found – a nice
touch.

www.hi-fiworld.co.uk JANUARY 2020 HI-FI WORLD 59