Today we look at the Luxury & Precision L&P P6 R2R DAP, selling for $2,999 USD. I’m sorry for the commercial video showing below, I asked the agency to remove it asap.
Disclaimer: The Luxury & Precision P6 was sent to us free of charge in exchange for this review. Headfonia is not related to Luxury & Precision in any other way.
Luxury & Precision
It’s not the first time we feature the Chinese Luxury & Precision on Headfonia.com and we have looked at their L3, L3PRO and L5PRO, L6 and LP6 before. L&P still after all these reviews is a bit of a mystery company on this side of the world and their Chinese only website doesn’t really help in that regard. Luxury & Precision isn’t as famous as Enrico Pallazzo, but the US based Musicteck is really making it easier for everyone to look at and understand the L&P products.
The general idea about Luxury & Precision DAPs is that they look and feel luxurious, sound extremely good but that they are very basic in features and usability. Music first has been the L&P philosophy so far and on one hand that’s really good as they do sound exceptional, but on the other hand, it’s 2020 and DAPs should have basic functionalities.
Let’s find out what the P6 has to offer.
L&P P6
The L&P P6 isn’t featured on Luxury & Precision’s own website but you can find it Musicteck’s website here: https://shop.musicteck.com/products/luxury-and-precision-p6?variant=32150519382078
If you’ve read any of our L&P DAP reviews before or if you’ve been following Luxury & Precision then you know their audio players have a proprietary operating system. They have developed their own OS in order to get the best possible sound. According to L&P, non-Android operating systems have lower EMI and lower noise than Android operating systems. So that means you with L&P get great sound, but you won’t get that UI you’re used to. This still goes for the P6 player as well, but more on it later.
So what’s so special about then P6 then? Like the LP6 DAP, the P6 features an R2R DAC system (though the implementation is different from), and it in this case according to L&P that means it’s the equivalent of 8 PCM1704K chips. R2R devices aren’t best or easiest to measure, but when you listen to them (see the LP6 review), you will find they are extremely quiet in regards to noise. As we’re used to from L&P, the P6 has very low distortion and an ultra-high dynamic range. Please check out the elaborate info on the R2R implementation online if you want to learn more about it.
The biggest down-side? No swiping compared to the previous model, and a file limit of 10K tracks. More on that later.
The L&P LP6 player was built to drive full-sized headphones but this P6 version is more of an all-rounder as we know most of the DAPs to be. Usually we’re always one of the first to cover L&P gear but this time we’re a bit behind. The advantage of being late(r) with this review is that all its technical features have already been published and discussed online. You can always check the full specs and features on the last page of this article.
Price & Accessories
The L&P P6 DAP doesn’t come cheap and you will have to find $2,999 USD in order to buy one. It’s cheaper than the LP6(ti) flagship DAPs from L&P, but it’s still a very high end price.
The L&P P6 comes delivered in a very simple box but it has a beautiful wooden box on the inside, for the price it’s the least you can expect, though you’re especially paying for the technology inside the DAP. Inside the box you will find a simple USB to USB-C Cable, a P6 manual and a cleaning cloth. That’s very basic. It does seem that others received screen protectors (some were applied already) and some even got a soft carrying pouch with their units, but they weren’t included in my box. No idea why, but it does make sense at this price level. I hope you will get all of it when you buy the unit.
The yellow leather P6 case came with the same shipment but I’m not sure it’s part of the regular package (it is when ordering from MT). I have always stated that the L&P cases were the best because of the precise fit, choice of leather and their soft feel. But like with the LP6, this case uses a slightly different material. It’s thicker, built from a different kind of leather, and it’s bright yellow. I think it looks stunning and it’s fully recommended.
Design & Lay-out
You either love or hate the Luxury & Precision DAP design, and I myself absolutely love it. All L&P DAPs look beautiful with the unique edges and the incorporated volume control (on the side this time). For this model there this time is no wooden or carbon back on the player. The P6 features a nice and shiny black panel with the L&P logos. It’s a very sexy and luxurious looking DAP and while it’s a bit different from the previous L&P designs, the L&P house style is still very present.
The eye-catcher here is the right side of the player where you have a vertical split, creating a 2-3mm see-through opening from the volume wheel down. I don’t think I have seen this anywhere before, it’s quite unique.
Lay-out wise the P6 is simple. On top of the player you from right to left have the power button, the 3.5mm output( which also is the SPIDF in/out and the Line Out) and the 4.4mm balanced headphone output (and Line Out). On the left side of the player you find the main buttons for playback: play, pause, forward and rewind. On the bottom of the player you from left to right have the MicroSD slot and the USB-C connector for charging, data exchange and DAC function. On the right side of the player you have the vertically placed volume dial and navigation control as well as the select and back buttons for the menu navigation.
Size and weight wise the L&P P6 is very normal. It’s not as big and heavy as the AK’s SP2000, HiBy R8 or Shanling M8. It’s more the size of the previous L&P DAPs and the Sony WM1Z in example. So very pocketable and easy to work with. The P6 measures 67.7 mm (W) x 124mm (H) x 20mm (D) and weighs 248g. The front glass panel covers the size of the whole player. The screen is a 3.5” IPS display with a 480 x 320 resolution and it doesn’t have the touch screen functionality. (P6 Pro anyone?)
The battery inside the P6 is a 4000mAh one and it’s supposed to give you 14 to 15 hours of play-time. I haven’t really tested it to that point, but it’s safe to say the battery life time is excellent, of course depending on the usage of the screen and audio file types used. The P6 features 64GB of internal memory and the microSD slot officially accepts SD-cards up to 512GB. That actually is more than enough taking into account the 10K file limit and the way you have to work this DAP. More in a bit.
For the full features, check the MusicTeck site. For the full specs, check the last page of this article.
Usability
Let’s start with the bad. The elephant in the room here clearly is the fact that this again is a high end DAP from L&P without a touch screen. This makes working with the DAP rather difficult, let me explain.
It’s actually easy to work with the buttons inside the menu structure, but as there is no touch screen, the P6 with 10K files on the SD-card (last FW update) is difficult to work with. It takes ages to scroll the wheel and get down to the album and artist you want to listen to. I haven’t found a shortcut to fast brows and so I find it incredibly annoying and useless. As a result I have only used the DAP in shuffle mode or as DAC with my laptop. Scanning a large SD card also takes very ling.
Because of the particular button functions it takes a bit of getting used to working with the P6. You have to scroll the wheel to whatever you want to select and then click the enter button. You need to use the back button to go back to the previous menu. I really found that difficult to work with in the beginning, but he more you use it, the easier it gets. Now it doesn’t bother me at all anymore.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the scrolling wheel only functions as navigational tool or volume control. This is quite logic but it does mean you can’t change the volume when you’re in the menu structure. It also means that you have to play a song first before you can change the volume, as the player boots up to the navigation menu. Weird but ok.
The P6 menu and the options are quite elaborate, as you would expect from a high-end portable player. Navigation through the menus is easy, and logic. Everything is where you expect it to be. It would be even easier with a touch screen, but ok. The P6 boots up and shuts down fast and that’s always a nice thing. Of course L&P are still offering the EQ option, though it’s not something I use myself. You have an 8-band EQ with 6 settings. Unfortunately you can only use the presets, L&P doesn’t let you configure your own “ideal” setting.
So yeah, basically the P6’s User Interface & usability is still pretty much the same as it was before: Music before everything. Last time – in the LP6 review – I wondered if L&P could still get away with it at this price point and with all these DAP options on the market. And I guess the answer is more to the no-side as L&P has now already released a P6 Pro which has a touch screen again.
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