Luxury Precision: P6 & P6 Pro - Discrete R2R DAP

[Eskamobob1]

Luxury and Precision is a boutique DAP manufacturer based out of china focused on sound quality above all else. The P6 and P6 Pro are the newest additions to their lineup

While there have been options for portable R2R designs in the past, such as the Hifiman R2R2000, HM1000, and Luxury & Precisions own LP6 and LP6 Ti, all previous products have been chiplet based designs. The P6 and P6 Pro take this one step further by being the first portable devices on the market for utilize a fully discrete R2R ladder.

The P6, released in mid 2020, is a truly bare bones device. Everything from USB DAC capability over 96/16 to even a touchscreen was forgone in favor of pure audio fidelity.

The P6 Pro announced at the very end of 2020 is a complete package upgrade over the P6 featuring a touchscreen, refined R2R ladder, better clocks, upgraded volume control schema, and an updated BT implementation.

Overall the P6 and P6 Pro are barebones devices from a little known boutique manufacturer that produce some of the highest portable audio fidelity available today.

[Eskamobob1]

I dont want to talk too much about sound as I am honestly unexperienced in sources. What I will say is taht be it local file or BT streaming I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. My music has never once sounded this good, and tbh, the P6P + MEST combo made me stop wanting new gear in and out to try so voraciously. I am quite happy just listening to what I have and focusing on the music. This is not something the Hugo2 did for me.

Now onto some just interesting use notes I’ve noticed from using it for the past 3 weeks:

1. Hot damn does this thing look chintzy in the case. Like really cheap. The case being made of pleather doesn’t help that either. If someone handed it to me in case finger prints all over the screen I would legit guess under $500. Is real leather really such a big ask when we are legit using wood on the back? Its not even a veneer. And even if you have a moral issue with real leather, there are way nicer vegan case materials…
2. The battery life in LO (as expected) is astonishingly good. I got about 20 hours of playback before I charged (and it hadn’t even died yet) with 1/3rd of that being on BT. My amp (micro BL) died 2 times and was nearly dead the 3rd time by the time I plugged the P6P in.
3. The volume control on LO is quite finite and quite nice to use. I set a general level where the pot sounds good on the micro BL and then controlled volume with the P6P. Was quite a nice way to go about things tbh.
4. The BT on LDAC is very very good. With the exception of certain super congested songs I’m not sure I would be able to pick out local or BT. That said, any signal at all and the device stops playing local music, so you kind of have to pick which one you want to be in. No playing voice messages over BT and expecting music to start again when it stops (that would be amazing though and an auto restart local playback after bt signal stops is the very top of my want list for this device)
5. It takes 4x longer to hold the power button to turn the device on than it does to boot (not an exaggeration, its 6s hold and under 1.5s boot) This is actualy wrong. You only need to hold the power button for 2s for power on to start. They just don’t turn the screen on until the final phase of boot. Pretty clever trick to make an already fast bootup feel even fast. Total boot up time with a 2s hold is in the range of 5s until music playback can start.
6. If you turn on the device and just press the play button on the side nothing happens. Not a big deal, but would be nice if it would play with the click of that button since it already remembers where you are.
7. I’m not sure if I listen at lower volumes that most, so take this with a grain of salt (its been an issue on every single source i have ever owned), but the minimum volume on lo gain out of 4.4 is still fairly high. Its too loud on mest and starlight V4 and right in my normal listening range on clears and nanna. Because of the amp stage of the P6P being a pure power amp with volume adjustment done through a passive preamp, the high and low gain differential on lower volumes is nearly non-existant since you are amping a pretty minimal signal as is. I would personaly like this minimum volume to be dropped quite a bit as I currently use an iematch with most things, but I’m not sure if that is ever possible. Ultimately, its tough to volume match and truly abx with that big of a delay, but I don’t think I can tell iematch vs no iematch at the same SPL, so its not that big of an issue tbh

[Eskamobob1]

Ok. Just a couple updates on the P6P since I want to talk about it.

General thoughts

1. I am now convinced I can reliably hear BT vs internal storage. That said, I dont know if it is the resampling of android that I am hearing or the actual BT transmission its self, but there is a notably blacker background on local files and a dash of a sharper feeling to notes (maybe because of the backer background). This is particularly noticeable when using LO to an amp (and mind you, when I say “particularly” I mean it took me a month of 4+ hours a day to pin down…)
2. I admittedly dont understand synergy too well, but there are some serious synergy issues with the P6P 4.4 → focal clears. They feel closed in, congested, and maybe even dark? That last one isnt used in the typical FR meaning, but the sound just reminds me of being “dark”. This is completely remedied by using my Mass Kobo 428 in LO mode though, and in fact, with this combo, I am starting to think I may actually enjoy it more than my hugo 2 (my previous top spot) for clears.

P6P → Mass Kobo 428 Vs Hugo 2

Obviously having a much cleaner and faster amp stage with the P6P/428 combo there are some gains there, but far more so than that it is the increase of the stage dynamisms (P6P/428 combo is much better at the intermediate distances away from you as opposed to just kind of “close and far” with the H2) with the trade off of some image clarity and total stage. I personally prefer this trade off over the H2 as it makes my music feel much more dynamic (onto this later). While the Hugo 2 is, what I feel to be, a polite listen with no offense and good capabilities, the P6P/428 combo is much more willing to get aggressive and agro as needed (a trait of each that holds across several cans). The last trait is kind of a combo of the previous two. Micro detail in the H2 (especially ones hidden in high dynamic range) gets brought up and kind of played on the table in front of you. With the P6P/428 (and even just P6P by its self on IEMs) those details get their own portion of the stage sometimes being easier to miss and sometimes being right in your face. IMO, these traits are very much so appreciated for when I want to focus on the music and have to hold my attention (think I may prefer the H2 for office style listening though) making me feel like I’m listening to music with the P6P while with the H2 I feel like I’m listening to music as presented by chord

[Eskamobob1]

Two interesting portable setups utilizing the P6P.

Some background: These two amps are both quite new to me but I have had the cans and dap for several months and have a couple hundred hours on each item. My music tastes cover realistically everything asside from rap (though I do listen to a lot of hip hop, r&b, and neo soul so some cross over). The majority of my listening is also quite quiet at usualy around 55-60db average, but I will have “loud” sessions around 75db average as well (peaks basicaly never over about 80-82db).

P6P → LessFox BX2 Plus → Diana V2

This is what I feel to be the more “normal” setup of the two. My 3 main points of reference for diana are using the P6P LO with a GSX-mini, Mass Kobo 428, and just directly out of the dap.

BX2 Plus vs GSX-mini:
Unfottunately I dont have the mini side by side with the bx2+ as I sold it on about a week ago but I’m at least confident I remeber the general sound signature on diana even if I can’t compair stuff like attack, detail, or raw image clarity which i feel are fairly similar between the amps from memory.

The place these two chains are not similar at all is stage and layering. I’m not sure if its a trick of having better air, but the stage size difference between the bx2 and mini is massive. The bx2 has a vast (for diana at least) stage that allows for propper layering and the Diana’s play within that stage quite well with no noticable dead spots. On the mini, while the imaging was good, the stage felt flat and narrow and as such didn’t have much opportunity to layer. The mini did have better control of over the bass leading to better texture, but I think the bx2 may actualy slam harder with better general presence (won’t say for certain without them next to eachother though)

BX2 Plus vs Mass Kobo 428

The mass kobo is a very low power amp (about 150mw max) but with amazing control and texture. It is the best bass texture I have ever heard on diana and the image clarity is a clear step above the bx2+ and gsx-mini. The real stand out though is the timbre. The timbre of this chain gives me the same kind of “wait, what?” that i have only ever gotten on the raal sr1a (though do note i havent heard susvara). Unfortunateky, the low power comes with some consequences though. While the image clarity is extremely high, the stage is the miniscule (im talking smaller than any iem i own) leading to 0 layering, the bass impact is obviously lacking, and it can push the Diana’s a bit too bright at times leading to fatigue on particularly sibilant or glarey songs. This is all basicly in direct opposition to what the BX2+ does with its large stage, slight loss of texture, and lack of timbral focus (its not bad, but its not mind blowing at all). All that said, the mass kobo is probabaly my favorite setup for diana purely because of that truly amazing timbre and texture, but that may change as I get more ear time on the bx2 (only have about a dozen hours so far)

BX2 Plus Conclusion

Just to reiterate. I dont have the GSX-mini on hand to AB them but the last time i hear it was about 5 days before the bx2 arrives. Over all I am extremely confidant I prefer the diana on the bx2+ over the mini and it is about tied with the mass kobo 428 as even though the 428 has some large downsides due to the low power, the timbre is just astonishing. Overall a very astonishing amp given the fairly low pricing (for a portable amp at least). Im genuinely currious how it stacks up against desktop amps in a similar price range for anyone else that has it.

P6P → Phatlab Phantasy ii → HD800S

The Phatlab Phantasy ii is a portable SET tube amp. Unfortunately, this is my first ever tube amp (hard to find decent ones being predominantly portable) so I can’t say much since I don’t have a proper frame of reference. What I will say is that it has taken my HD800S from in the pile to sell to considering keeping it as my only over ear. I fucking love this setup. While the technicalities are lower than the HD800s on the masskobo they are still quite high IMO. The mids get a hair more body and presence without loosing detail and the bass presence is brought up as well. Its clearly an overly colored sound, but also quite a technical one. I’m sorry I dont realy have the experience to compair this with other tube amps. Something to note is that this amp is SE only even with a 4.4 on the ii model. Its just an SE signal over a balanced plug.

Edit: just as a side note: diana on Phantasy ii sound solid on a quick listen but get extremely fatiguing very quick and maybe even have a slight chanel imbalance in the bass (hd800s+phantasy and bx2+diana are both fine). Not sure what’s going on there.

[antdroid]

Thanks for all the posts about this. I’ve been interested in this DAP since I’ve found out about it a while back. I am pretty happy with my Lotoo PAW 6000, but this is one of those that I’d consider upgrading to if I ever found a good deal on it.

[Tc71]

Hi, can you confirm that the LP6 pro will receive Bluetooth audio and connect to my Apple TV so I can use its dac and amp to power my earphones when watching tv. I bought a dx300 but returned it. It would connect to my iPhone and iPad but not Apple TV. Thank you Tom

[Eskamobob1]

The LP6 does not have a BT receiver. The P6 Pro does have a BT receiver (up to LDAC quality). I cannot comment on connecting to an apple TV as I havent tried that though.

[Tc71]

Thank you for responding. It’s a important feature for me. Guess I’ll wait on dap purchase until I can confirm.

[Eskamobob1]

if I have some time tonight Ill try connecting the P6P to my apple TV and let you know

[Tc71]

That would be great. Thank you

[eduh]

I’ve seen @GoldenSound review on this unit [the P6 Pro] and he comments he does not recommend it due to the slow interface, but it is really a good sounding dac, subjectively and objectively.
I’m after a portable dac to use with Cayin C9, so I don’t care that much with this if it is really good and functional if used as a usb DAC with an iphone (it is often incompatible with some dacs that drain energy, this worries me) or android phone as a source. Anyone can tell me if this could be a good solution?

And on the review, is this really that good as a dac? I’ve been avoiding everything that does not have a dedicated dac output, as I’m worried with the amp section in the middle.

[GoldenSound]

Yeah the sound quality is truly phenomenal.
If you’re happy to use it as a ‘shuffle box’ of sorts then it’s fine. But the UI does mean that actually navigating to and picking songs/albums is a real pain with medium to large sized libraries.

USB input would solve this…if the USB input worked the same. Unfortunately the device performs substantially poorer (subjectively and objectively) when using USB input vs local/SD storage. No idea why, but unfortunately it does.

[eduh]

This is really not what I’m looking for, thx!

[Eskamobob1]

I mirror @GoldenSound impressions. The p6p is a super incredible dap and even straight dac. Tbh, I think you end up loosing a very significantly level of sound quality using a C9 even. Unfortunately it’s USB performance is seriously sub par for some reason loosing out even to LDAC bt in (with local storage on device being best Sq imo).

Outside of the p6p, lpgt and sp3k will also both be very solid option. L&P will also be dropping a new dap that apparently solves the interface and USB problems in the next month or so that may be worth a look.

Honestly though, I would personally recommend realy thinking about why you want the c9. Quite frankly, there isn’t a single use case that I wouldn’t take a different portable setup over one using it. It isn’t as powerful or commanding sounding as the spec implies, the technicalities are pretty lacking compared to others at the price. I think the best pairing I heard it with was p6p into utopia on class a tube but I would honestly way rather have an sp2k or lpgt for utopia alone from an Sq and synergy perspective.

[eduh]

Your answer and @GoldenSound confirms that it is not what I’m looking for. I do not listen to local files, all my listening comes from Deezer, Youtube and things like Berlin Philarmonic and medici.tv, so I usually need something that does well usbc. In fact, I’m not looking for a dap to begin with. but it looks like the best option if you want a portable dac ends up in the totl daps. As LP was so well regarded as a dac, I thought maybe it could work as the only dac I had, not needing a desktop one if I ever decide to get a desktop amp again.

The new model with fixed usb is something I will keep an eye on, thanks for mentioning.

I will reply about the C9 specifically on its own thread as I think it is not something of interest for people reading this topic.