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Looto PAW Gold Portable PlayerLike many things on earth of hifi, the digital audio player market flexibilities and has versions in a number of price points offering different functionality levels. One look in the PAW Gold from Lotoo (pronounced low-to) and you are able to view that it's firmly aimed at the high-end market. It might be new to the UK, but Lotoo has an established professional-sound background and is referred to as a supplier of audio workstations and broadcast automation systems.
Taking its first steps to the domestic hires audio player arena, the PAW Gold makes a striking debut. The chunky full-metal casing is machined from a solid brick of exactly what the manufacturer calls aircraft- level duralumin and the navigation and volume control is accentuated with 24k gold elements. Love or loath its blingy appears, the rough-looking PAW Gold is certainly constructed for a life traveling.
Storage is via an SD card slot with support for SDXC and SDHC cards and the PAW Gold asserts futureproof support for 2TB-capacity cards as and when they become accessible. Battery power is recharged by mains wall wart just, and you will have to invest in one more US-to-UK 3-pin adaptor as this isn't furnished. A USB 3.0 micro-B port gives drag-and-drop file transfers from a computer, while a Burr Brown PCM1792 DAC processor manages PCM sample rates up to 384kHz as well as DSD at 2.8 and 5.6MHz. A headphone driver supports a broad selection of cans, and there is a sensitivity correction switch on top of the unit.
Sound quality
Gapless playback isn't supported, meaning that live recordings buffs or Pink Floyd will dislike the miniature pause that happens as the Lotoo moves between tracks. It is a momentary break in an otherwise glitch-free performance, but annoying all the same.
Adhering with Pink Floyd's The Division Bell the Lotoo makes it easy to value the album's dark and moody feeling and well-crafted soundstage. High-frequency details sparkle and seem to float inside the sonic image. Vocals are superbly rendered too, and switching to Hotel California by the Eagles I am aware for the first time of the most tiny amount of reverb on the lead vocal. This motivates me to listen out for more subtle details on a record which I believed I understood well, in the expectation of hearing nuances that are added for the very first time. |