Honestly overall this dac kinda reminds me of my rockna (at first listen as a dac only) in the sense of it being slightly warmer and more organic while still having something that sounds clean and clear, it strikes a very good balance, honestly this sounds like it has more weight and body and impact than the holo dacs while still having that warmth and slightly smoothness, while maintaining capability and technicalities, very impressive so far. Also to be clear no this doesn’t get close to the rockna or totaldac lol, but it might get closer than I expected to the spring 2 (but realistically I might actually rate it a bit higher than a cyan, it’s not a spring 2 in your pocket lol, but it’s probably the closest you could get to that).
Regarding vs like the denafrips stuff, imo I might prefer the p6 dac wise to a pontus actually, because the pontus kinda can sound a bit over emphasized or not clean enough (for the price), where the p6 doesn’t run into this issue. But it’s been awhile since I heard the pontus so can’t really confirm. I will say though that this is easily a higher tier of dac than the ares ii so far
IKR, I’m honestly I’m pretty surprised that I can even say that, I could really only say that about a few things like the hugo 2 for something actually competing well with desktop dacs (albeit a bit lower price bracket but still desktop nonetheless). This is actually something I feel like could replace something like a 1k ish higher end desktop dac in a system if you needed it to. I just recently plugged this into my main desktop setup so now to really put this up to the big boys lol
Hmm well right away the h6ii isn’t competing on the same level as the other two lol. The p6 vs hugo 2 though is a much more fair comparison. Although that’s something I’ll have to make later on, still just have it hooked up as a dac only (and it’s still changing as it burns in, how lol, don’t think I’ve ever experienced a burn in this long with a component of this size)
So r2r do have a warm up time for temperatures to stabilize, for some of my r2r desktop dacs it takes about a day for them to fully warm up, and I just leave them on all the time, other r2r I have take like a few hours. But the burn in aspect here is pretty substantial, I have been told that it doesn’t really take long for this thing to warm up (pretty much for the reasons I predicted earlier in the thread), but apparently there is a pretty substantial period where it changes alot on the first few hundred hours lol. Most of the time I don’t need to deal with r2r burn in myself since I buy used and the stuff I have heard that’s new is pretty much burned in during production. But like this is like tube level burn in change, just really bizarre, I guess when you have to make a super small ladder dac like this it needs more time but I have no clue lol
So with more listening on some higher tier amps with the p6 as a dac only, it really is still super impressive lol. Something I noticed about the soundstage on a line out is that it can seem to make things sound a bit larger than they should be compared to other dacs, but it’s pretty enjoyable so I’m not going to complain about it lol (only slightly), separation is still really great and depth for a portable like this is really still surprising. Also the weight it can give to sounds and the fullness can come through without messing up clarity and separation, really nice. I would say the dac is more desktop class rather than the amp in the unit, but the amp is no slouch either and drives iems better than some of my desktop gear which is pretty nice. While I don’t think the p6 really competes with anything on the main desk dac wise, it does end up being something I prefer when testing against the bf2, ares ii, and dac1421 and I think it’s on a higher level. I also compared against an ifi pro idsd and I gotta say, I kinda prefer the p6 here actually, the pro idsd can get a bit muddled sometimes and while forward and fun, can really lack refinement and good spatial recreation. From memory, I would agree with what I said previously about being somewhere inbetween a holo spring 2 and holo cyan, but with more weight and density than both so it doesn’t sound as dry as the holo (they are a tad dryer leaning)
@Ohmboy
Using it as a dac only vs a hugo 2, to be quite honest I might prefer it to the hugo 2 lol, imo it has a more organic timbre, it’s got a more spacious sound with better separation although the hugo 2 can sometimes offer a more accurate to the recording’s presentation (but not as accurate to life, the p6 sounds more natural with live recordings), I think both are matched in resolution with only a slight edge to the hugo 2 potentially, the hugo 2 also is a lighter and more airy sounding dac as well with the p6 having a bit more meaty and dense sound to it. Both are pretty dynamic but I think the p6 is more impressive to me in that regard. I might actually say the hugo 2 sounds a bit quicker but the p6 isn’t far behind. So mainly I think if you are after a more forward and analytical sound and don’t mind a bit of dryness overall the hugo 2 is solid, but imo I just prefer the naturalness, impact and dynamics, and spatial recreation the p6 has to offer. I did try some oversampling modes and while it did bring forward more detail, it kinda reduced the impressiveness of the stage and traded a bit of organicness so decided to not mess with it further.
As an all in one vs the hugo 2, I do think for most full size headphones I tried on them, the hugo 2 offers more control and better matches with most harder to drive things, while I still really like the sound of the p6 it just doesn’t have the drive and control to open up some of the a bit harder to drive portables I enjoy. But for iems, I actually do think the p6 might outperform the hugo 2 as I think it offers a more realistic sound (imo more organic impact, better timbre, nicer control, more microdetail, and a more accurate stage) vs the hugo 2, also a quieter noise floor with pretty 0 hiss on anything I’ve tried.
If you can get past the non touch nav and the lack of features (compared to like more modern android daps), it’s pretty damn sweet. Although I have a questyle qpm coming in to compare to my qp2r, so really interested to see how the p6 stacks up and if they compete on a similar tier since both are more simple high quality daps purely focused on sound
This might be the best I’ve ever heard my mmr thummim outside of my main desktop setups, this just works so well, the bass reaches so deep, has excellent slam and impact but never gets out of control with very solid texture, the midrange sounds so organic and enjoyable yet doesn’t sacrifice technicalities, and the treble is extremely resolving and airy, but never harsh or overly forward, carrying everything through while sounding like it should. This dap also really really works well with the spatial recreation of the mmr, extremely holographic and honestly just impressive what it can do here. Sorry at this point I’m just like jacking off over this thing but like now I don’t really feel like I’m missing out as much when I take this thing on the go. Also with the hyla sarda it’s just crazy good, like the most enjoyable I have heard them outside the desktop setups.
I am very excited to try out the final lab ii on there but I really just don’t want to take the mmr out of my ears to do that lol. I will say though that the p6 with the jh lola isn’t exactly doing it for me as much as the others, it might be tiling it a bit too colored tbh since that’s already a really overly almost wet sounding iem and felt like it was too much, I should prob stop drinking lol
The ui and design remind me of Cowon a little. The ti has a nice wood to it but it may also be the size of a very expensive brick… if this had a better amp it would probably make a decent all in one for home listening too.
I really want to hear a lp6ti now lol, that apparently can drive headphones really well, although it’s no longer resistor ladder and it’s chip based r2r, and touchscreen, which is interesting. There is also the regular LP6 which is more reasonable as well
So this with the lab ii is a really good experience as well, super spacious and really nice timbre, and also it really helps to add body to the bass as well, honestly just improves upon what the final can offer. I will say though that I might want a touch more of treble prominence here actually, just like a bit more air, the treble is still excellent and not really lacking technically, I just could use a bit more prominence depending on the recording. But man this thing can be nuts, can really sound like a room is inside your head with these on the p6, I don’t really get as good of an experience with any of my other daps so far with the lab ii
Also today a new firmware was released, and that’s the one that raises the track cap and also adds play through folder which is handy. I thought I already had this firmware but it turns out it was just ignoring the rest of my tracks on there, which is why I thought I was missing some tracks on that card lol. They also added a dsp mode specially for JVC FW10000 which is strange to say the least lol, so that’s cool I guess (although not useful to me)
Regarding burn in, it’s been on nonstop for like 3 days now and I’m no longer hearing any real significant sonic changes, the only thing that still might be changing is the treble, it’s slightly still getting a bit more refined and open sounding but really not as large changes as I was experiencing earlier.
Not so obvious from the site but having and using them i would be fooled if you told me the p6 was an ultra high end cowon. http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/PLENUEL/product_page_1.php
Both are kind of more barebones daps where more modern features have not seeped in yet. I really love my cowon but when i went to update, their players were higher priced with less features. I know their eq and dsp are absolutely awesome and loved their matching with my ultrasone 780s.
I almost put $500 on one of the cowons but an m11 popped up for $300 used and i just couldnt justify the cowon where it missed some modern conveniences.
Yeah I def see the similarities in build, but they are different from memory in terms of the ui and control schemes
eq and dsp wise I’ve always loved lotoo players, I really enjoyed my paw gold 2017 and also the new paw 6000 and paw gold touch are pretty impressive players in that regard
lol
