In this review we check out the all-new Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2. The latest flagship DAP from Lotoo selling for $3,200 USD!
Disclaimer: Lotoo supplied the PAW Gold Touch 2 for this review on loan together with their LTTP transmitter. Headfonia and Lotoo are not related in any way.
Lotoo
Lotoo is not a new name to the audiophile community, as their previous products have already been pretty popular.
Founded in 1999, Lotoo has focused primarily on professional audio recorders and has only tipped their toes into the audio player market 15 years after their start.
They introduced the PAW Gold as their absolute reference player, and legend has it, that it was only made because the owner of the company was not satisfied with what the market had to offer.
The PAW Gold has quickly risen to become a wildly beloved product. It stood out from the market with its unique looks and software, which could be described as rudimentary.
In 2015 Lotoo released the PAW 5000, a much cheaper DAP, that again proved popular. In late 2016 they released the hyper compact PAW Pico, a DAP comparable to the iPod nano, as it featured no screen.
Lotoo has always shown a good interest in keeping their products up to date by offering new firmware versions for their players throughout all the years.
To me it’s also very positive that they kept the Paw Gold as their flagship, where other companies push new products in a two-year cycle, they have just slightly updated the original and kept going.
In 2018 Lotoo launched the first generation of the PAW Gold Touch, which then replaced the original Paw Gold as their flagship. This DAP has gained momentum fast in the audiophile scene and has stayed a benchmark for neutrality and flexibility since then.
In 2019 the PAW 6000 saw the light of day. A smaller, more pocketable and amped down version of the PAW Gold Touch at a very competitive price.
Just like its big brother, the PAW 6000 became very popular very fast. I still own both of these DAPs at the day of writing this review and cherish both for their own feats.
In 2022 Lotoo announced their take on the hyper DAP. The Mjölnir is a transportable giant that’s supposed to run anything. Only the bravest of the brave use this as a portable DAP though, as it is more comparable to a desktop unit.
Last year, in 2024, Lotoo surprised us with their launch of the second-generation PAW Gold Touch. Which is today’s feature on Headfonia.
Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2
The Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2 is a new flagship level reference DAP which brings a few outstanding features on the table.
It uses an AK4137EQ sample rate converter for upsampling, a combination of an AK4191EQ and two AK4499EX digital to analogue converters as well as three individually powered processors for their wireless, digital and audio subsystems.
Some of the internal hardware was already used in the first generation PGT, like the processors or the SRC. But Lotoo updated their new flagship with higher end DACs and a new analogue section built around four BUF634A headphone amplifiers.
Just like the original, the PGT2 supports sample rates up to DSD512 (native) and PCM up to 768kHz. It reads all the important lossless and lossy audio codecs from WAV, FLAC and M4A to MP3 and AAC.
The PGT2 also comes equipped with bi-directional Bluetooth transmission and supports SBC, AAC and LDAC. On top of that, Lotoo has also implemented their own wireless transmission protocol, LTTP, as well as Airplay and DLNA functionality.
While I haven’t played with the latter two myself, I think it’s great Lotoo have finally found good use for their Wi-Fi connection.
Unfortunately, the PAW Gold Touch 2 still doesn’t support any streaming service on its own. So, you won’t be able to access your TIDAL, Spotify, Deezer and whatnot directly through the PGT2.
Of course, you can go the extra mile and send the data from your phone to the DAP via Bluetooth or Lotoo’s lossless transmission protocol, given you also bought an LTTP transmitter. More on that a little later.
The PGT2 can also be used as a USB DAC, using its USB C (3.1) input. It features two sets of outputs, with a 3.5mm single ended and a 4.4mm balanced connector. Exactly like the original. However, this time Lotoo has given both outputs different output power ratings.
The second gen PAW Gold Touch now has a rated output power of 1,000mW per channel balanced and 460mW single-ended. This is quite a lot, but we know that output power can bring us only so far, but when it comes to driving headphones more values have to be factored in. So, don’t throw out your desktop amps just yet.
There still is no internal memory anywhere in Lotoo’s DAP, so you can’t just load your music on it without owning an SD card. Like the original (and its predecessor) the PGT2 accepts full-size SD cards as memory.
According to Lotoo’s spec-sheet, you can use cards up to 2TB storage. I have used the SD card from my PAW Gold Touch, which is a 256GB Sandisk card without any issues.
With decreasing prices for storage, this can prove to be a cost-effective solution for the endconsumers though.
The PGT2 has a battery-capacity of 8,300mAH and lasts between eight to ten hours on a single charge in my experience.
Depending on what files you’re playing and what you’re doing. But ten hours with 44.1kHz FLAC files and all options off is no problem. It uses a 4” touchscreen with 800×480px resolution.
Lotoo’s PAW Gold Touch 2 is available through their dealer network around the world for 3,200$. A quick thank you also to Lotoo for keeping the price of the original and not ask for extra greens.
The review continues on the next page. Jump to page two for more info about the Lotoo PAW Gold Touch 2!
