Great sound. Gets hot while in use. Thanks again Musiteck for your great service customer consideration.
Small,comfortable,simple menu,and ,of course,great sound!
Given prior experience with various DAPs including a Fiio M9, A&K Kann & SE100 as well as the Cayin N3Pro, all of which have been less than reference or neutral, I was eager to try the PAW 6000. I inquired with Andrew and firstly received a very honest and quick response. Secondly, MusicTeck's service was impeccable and the Lotoo delivered in 2 days despite a weekend order. Thirdly, the player lives up to all the hype of being a reference DAP with neutral tonality. I've been listening to my library of 8,000 songs via my favorite Kinera Nanna 1.0 and Campfire Audio Andromeda IEMs and am absolutely amazed how the PAW 6000 crushes the other DAPs in terms of sound. What an amazing experience. I'm pleased beyond expectations and can only recommend the Lotoo PAW 6000. By the way, the UI is amazing as commented upon by many. Boot-up time is 2 - 3 second and shut-down speed the same. Searches are quick and music planning in a second or two. Fantastic!!
I just hand on this Dap from MusicTeck store, so impressed with fastest OS and good sound quality
I have used quite a few audio players over the years and they all fall short in one way or another. It has been a never-ending journey trying to find a player that checks most all the boxes for me until now.
I really love this device and if you are looking for a player that just plays locally stored files then the Lotoo PAW 6000 is a great choice. It can play just about any audio file I need, handles large libraries (I have around 20000 FLAC and DSD files on it right now), has an extremely fast operating system, has a longer battery life than all of my other DAPs (about 15-16 hours), and sounds fantastic. It doesn't have the ability to locally stream from media services like Qobuz or Tidal but it does have the ability to work as a USB or Bluetooth DAC so you can easily use your cell phone to stream while listening via the Lotoo.
The PAW 6000 has some great OS features that are very thoughtful as well. If you prefer the jacks on the bottom of the device instead of the top, you can flip the screen. It has a nice PMEQ implementation. It also has a Left/Right balance control which is an essential feature for me. Both jacks can be switched to a line out functionality if that is a feature you need. If you like to double tap the screen to wake the device, that has been implemented as a user selectable feature. If you don't like the direction the volume knob turns, that can be changed as well. You can even swap the forward and backward buttons if you choose. The firmware is still in development and seems to keep improving as time goes on.
As for the sound quality, this is probably the best sounding player with the blackest background that I own. I have used multiple IEMs and headphones with it and haven't experienced any hissing. The soundstage is wide with nice dimension. There is fantastic separation and the overall tonality is fairly neutral. I feel the low mids are a little forward but overall the low end is very nice. There is great extension and clarity as well. It is just a great balanced player with a nice overall sound signature. I would be hard-pressed to find anything better in this price range.
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.