Luxury&Precision L&P P6 Pro Review

Luxury & Precision P6 Pro

P6 Pro Versatility

Next to its DAP function, you can also use the P6 Pro as a DAC . You don’t have to manually install any drivers for it and the P6 Pro uses Wasapi. It immediately showed up in ROON after the automatic Wasapi install was executed by the Windows operating system. The down side of the DAC function is that it doesn’t show the volume or file properties (rate/depth) of the song playing. A very weird issue I have with the Pro (and not with the regular P6), is that I can’t change the volume while in DAC mode. It’s either on or off. Extremely weird.

The P6 Pro officially doesn’t support USB OTG so SPDIF (on top of the unit) really is the way to go here if you want to use the P6 Pro this way.

The P6 Pro does sport Bluetooth, but it’s on the receiving end only, this is quite important to know. In BT mode you get a black background with the BT logo and the codec and sample rate received are showing in the bottom right corner. You will also see what source you’re receiving from. So this is the way to go if you want to stream music: stream it on your phone and send it wirelessly to the P6 Pro to use it as a DAC/AMP.

Other ways you can use the P6 Pro are with the Line Out function, both in single ended as in balanced mode as well as the SPDIF function. SPDIF in as DAC and SPDIF out as source. The P6 Pro can’t be used to stream music from your network, Tidal or Spotify. You can play music from the internal memory or the SD Card but that’s it. The P6 doesn’t allow you to install any apps either, if this wasn’t clear to you yet.

So the P6 Pro isn’t the most versatile player on the market but it does offer the basic options which everyone is expecting: USB DAC, SPDIF (in/out) and a good line-out.

Luxury & Precision P6 Pro

P6 Pro Main screen

There is no change here in regards to the P6 really. Well there are some small differences in placement on the screen as you now have play/pauze and fwd/back controls on the screen. I absolutely love the screen features in DAP mode. The top bar shows you the play mode, volume level and the battery status.

Right below that you have the graphical L/R presentation of each channel. It’s something simple but I really like this feature. Below that is the sample rate and bit depth as well as the selected gain and EQ preset (name + graph). Then there is a  small thumbnail for the artwork, as well as the song/artist info, track time and the file type. Under that are the controls for the music playback.

That’s quite a bit of info for such a small screen. The screen itself uses about 3/5 of the total available space on the front.

P6 Pro – Sound

P6 Pro – Sound Intro

The part on sound was done with the same series of IEMs as I used for the P6 article. The two IEMs I mostly end up using with this DAP for my non-review listening are the UM MEST and the JH audio JH13v2 pro.

The sound signature of the L6 Pro is the same as that of the regular P6, and yet it isn’t. What I mean is that the P6 Pro has the same kind of tuning the P6 has, but it’s just better in regards to technicalities. Let’s dive in!

Luxury & Precision P6 Pro

P6 Pro – Sound General

If I could describe the P6 Pro’ sound with 6 keywords I would say it is: engaging, detailed, technically immensely strong, musical and natural

Let’s be serious. The L&P P6 already is an incredibly good player, but the P6 Pro elevates that performance even more. The main differences are in the precision, extension, sub bass, sound stage width/depth and the layering. It’s actually fairly easy to distinguish both players’ sound and if you ever get the chance to compare both units, do try guessing the right “version” in a blind test. You’ll see it’s fairly easy.

The P6 Pro’s tuning still is neutral and it comes with the same natural flavor as before. It’s never warm or cold but it’s realistic and easy on the ears, like the good old analogue sound. From mids to top you get a good, normal amount of body. It’s not overly full or light, it’s just right and the impact it comes with is realistic. I do feel the Pro in the regard has a little more body in the bass and sub-bass regions. The Pro’s bass comes in with more amplitude, though it’s still a very natural sounding DAP.

The P6 Pro has great dynamics and clarity. The P6 Pro is even more resolving when it comes to micro details. Like before the timbre is rich from the lowest to the highest note. It’s a very precise DAP, but it’s always presented in a musical and non-analytic way. To your ears it will always sound so effortless

Luxury & Precision P6 Pro

The P6’s detail retrieval is already very good, but the Pro does even better. On top of that you get better extension in all possible ways, and that from top to bottom. The sound stage increases in both width and depth and especially the (even) better layering is really remarkable. The P6 Pro to me also sounds more airy and the separation is even better than in the regular model. That combined with better note extension and decay, really make it an incredibly strong, technically player. Where the P6 already was very silent in regards to noise, the P6 Pro is even better. It makes the fine detail come out more and once you’re used to all these improvements, it’s hard going back to the P6. Which is crazy because it’s also very good. But this is…better.

So as said the sound stage in the Pro version is even better but the Pro also has a more out of your type of sound. It feels like the music is all around you and you’re immersed in the music. The positioning, left-right balance and 3-dimensionality just might be one of the very best I ever heard in a portable setup. Top marks.

I do have to say that I find the upper mids and vocals in the P6 Pro to be a little more energetic and to the front. It’s not a huge difference but it’s there. I didn’t found this to be the case with the P6, but here I do notice it. This gives the sound signature a more exciting feel but it also – to me anyway – makes listening to the P6 Pro a little more fatiguing on the ears. This is especially noticeable if you have long listening sessions like me.

The part on sound continues on Page Three of this article. You can find it here.

4.3/5 - (75 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

1 Comment

  • Reply January 24, 2021

    InvisibleInk

    Nice review!

    I’m looking for a DAP that comes with a system-wide parametric EQ built-in. Would you happen to know of any such device? Thanks

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