Andrew was a pleasure to work with, helping me find a dap that worked with my needs and met my budget. I am very happy with the Lotoo PAW 6000! It is quick and easy to use, and it sounds excellent. The build quality is top notch and it sounds much cleaner than my go blu I was using before and has a dead silent (black) background. The Eq is easy to use in my opinion and a lot of fun. The bluetooth has worked great for me the odd time I want to stream so no complaints there either. If you don't need streaming capabilities I think you would be hard pressed to find a better dap without paying 2 to 3 times the money. The paw 6000 is an easy 5 stars and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a standalone dap.
I got the PAW 6000 to replace my MK1 Lotoo 5000 that finally gave up the ghost, after 6+ years of heavy use. ( actually still very functional, battery gave up, so wont hold charge) - And actually was just thinking of a replacement 5000, upgrading to the current version, as the quirky UI, I was used to, and the sound I was more than happy with.
But then started thinking about maybe an audio upgrade while at it. I looked at the Paw 6000 as this seems to be gathering great reviews, and my pockets definitely have bottoms in, so have a budget, and the paw 6000 , on top of the stella performance and quality accolades, seems to be a great value unit, plus Musictech seemed to offer the very best price I was able to find, so I contacted Andrew, and bit the bullet.
And extremely happy with the player, very intuitive, and customizable, and sounds beautiful, and a solid feeling unit I can easily see keeping me happy for many years. The whole experience, was fantastic, even my concerns of shipping to Canada were settled, Incredibly fast, reasonable postage. So if considering the PAW 6000, or even Misictech, Id recommend both in a heart beat.
First, GREAT service and fast shipping, no-nonsense customs - Thank you Grace!
The Lotoo PAW 6000 is an excellent value all around! I've had several A&K's, Sony WM1A &1Z, Sony ZX507, Fiio's.,.. overall sound quality and OS speed, battery life make this easily the best value under 2K, in my opinion. The quality of your files (flac or dsd) and the right IEMs or headphones also make the difference, as with any.
Really happy with this purchase, recommend it over A&K, Sony, and Fiio. As soon as I discovered Lotto is a big brand overseas that produces various pro-audio and related items, as well as being the producer of the (legendary) PAW Gold/Touch I decided to try my luck.
So--- A++ build quality, FAST OS (and so easy), great battery life, GREAT EQ! (Spend time with the EQ - it is very configurable), Excellent sound quality (++ better than the AK Cube imo), Gain works great, LINE Out is a plus. I can plug it into my Carver M I AMP with the 4.4 line-out... background and spaces between tracs are just as black as with iem's - never had that with any other DAP.
Received January 31, today is February 4 - ~30 hours on this player already - excellent! I may go for the Gold/Touch soon, if it's that much better than the P6000 I'd guess it is the Reference Player of all.
Lotoo P6000 - CA Andromeda's - Sony Kimber balanced 4.4 cable
In my opinion the sound quality is good but not great. It has an extremely low noise floor so it is great for sensitive IEM's. The OS is extremely fast and easy to navigate. The battery life while using the player is great but I have noticed some significant battery discharge when the player is turned off completely. At a 100% charge turned off completely I am seeing about a 5% lose in charge in less than 24 hours. That is a little concerning to me but I am not an electronics expert.
I'm delighted with my acquisition of the LP6K because it makes a perfect companion with my Sony WM1Z which I also love. The LP6K is very light and easy to walk around with in my pocket. The unit powers up in mere seconds unlike my Sony which takes close to a minute to refresh the database.
It sounds great with all of my iems. More reference sounding without the extra warmth from the Sony. Now I can have two different flavors depending on my mood. I had trouble pulling the trigger on the full sized Gold Paw Touch as a second unit due to the price, weight and battery life. After reading all the reviews about the Paw 6000, it was an easy decision. I'm very happy with the purchase and I highly recommend it. As usual, dealing with Andrew was a pleasure.
It’s been 5 weeks since CanJam NYC. My mission, try as many IEM’s
I left the Grand Maestro until the end of the day.
Sound Impressions:
BASS: Thick, Fast and Deep. The GM has what they call NOAH modules that can be swapped out to change the Bass frequency response, without impacting the upper frequencies, bringing the mids and treble appear to be more forward, through less bass (blue module). This impacts the sub-bass most and leaves the slam of the mid bass region intact. The black module, which comes stock, gives the most sub-bass. This is what many reviewers consider a “Basshead” sound. Having listened to the Scarlet Mini in comparison, I would say the Mini is a “Basshead” set. The GM is, however, not…just a Basshead set.
MIDS: I found midrange to be very well balanced, with both female and male vocals very clear and engaging. Giving the sound signature a slightly warm feel. But this is where Fatfreq has another trick up their sleeve. There’s a toggle switch just behind the 2pin connector. It sticks up about 1mm and allows the listener to turn the bass down on the fly and bring the midrange and treble slightly forward. My listening preference is always slightly warm, but for certain tracks and artists this setting is preferred.
TREBLE: The treble is crystal clear and very well extended, but never fatiguing.
TIMBRE: This is where the GM sets itself above all others I’d heard. The quality of the sound across the entire frequency range was best in class. Every instrument could be isolated with all the details present. 10/10
TONALITY: The balance of the instruments to the vocals is, again, the best I’ve ever heard. It’s like some little man (the crossover) inside working his soundboard, and making the IEM completely in control of the concert in my head. Getting the most out of every last bit of sound detail and making sure no part over powered another. 10/10
SOUNDSTAGE: Ok, this is some next level shit! We’re not talking about a soundstage that was ultra wide. Rather something I’d never experienced before and directly related to the timbre and tonality. Instead of having visualisation of the instruments playing on a stage, it feels like I’m sitting on the stage and Stevie Nicks is singing next to me, Mick Fleetwood is playing behind me and on my other side is Lindsey Buckingham playing his guitar with smooth precision.
SIBILANCE: I’m ultra sensitive to sibilance and have test tracks I use to see just how controlled an IEM is to lower it. Without a doubt the GM is the least sibilant of any IEM I’ve heard.
MASKING: This was probably the biggest and single most distinguishable difference between the GM and anything else I’ve heard on the market. Similar to the experience in soundstage, the instruments and isolated to themselves, making all the details present. On busy tracks that would normally sound like a bunch of different things happening on top of one another, but GM has a magical way of creating a space or protective zone around each musical element. If I could explain this another way, imagine hearing a track recorded in the late 60’s, with its hiss and imperfections, where it sounds like there’s a fog or layer of pollution present that makes everything sound just a bit layered into everything else. Now imagine you take the full stage in dip down into a pool that cleans all of that away, raise it back up and now you hear only the instruments as they were originally intended. The GM takes old tracks and “remasters” them. And takes remastered tracks and makes them even better! 10/10
BUILD QUALITY: Just look at the photos. I was also lucky enough to get the gold upgrade cable thrown into the deal for free! 10/10
CUSTOMER SERVICE: I had heard some stories about problems in the past, but after reaching out to Fatfreq post sales and asking for certain things that were missing from the sale, because it was a floor model and being contacted by Ben himself, I was very happy with how they handled everything. I used to live in Singapore and can tell you the people are amazing!!!
I think some of this has to do with just how much power these IEM’s really need. More than any that I’d tried on the day. Now remember I was driving these with a FiiO M17, a BEAST of a DAP that puts out round 1,500mW on the 4.4mm plug @32ohms. These IEM’s are power hungry! They take every bit of that and deliver it with surgical precision. I spoke with Ben, the CEO of Fatfreq and he told me the M17 is a great pairing for the GM and that they have a few at their HQ in Singapore. They also have a technology called Linear Impedance, which I believe levels the playing field for the different drivers in the set. I think the impedance of this set is 32ohms, but it sure seems like it takes more to drive it than other 32ohm sets I have. This higher impedance and power requirement also contributes to eliminating the background noise, giving a cleaner listening experience.
Premium build ..great sounding Dac ….great user interface….a true cayin product
Well built perfect size and weight, easy to carry for everyday use ... And sounds amazing, clear and powerful for its size. Cayin user interface looks great an is easy to use… n3ultra looks and feels very premium like its big brother the n8ii ….
I've had the Mest II for a month at this point, and it is truly worth the price for the experience. It excels at more instrumental music like rock or jazz, but electronic music is a good experience as well, you just have to crank the volume up a bit.