Review: Luxury&Precision L6 – Swiping!

Disclaimer: The Luxury & Precision L6 was sent to us free of charge in exchange for this review. L&P is not related to Headfonia 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 L5PRO, L3 and L3PRO before. L&P still 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, that’s for sure, yet I still managed to write 4728 words about it in this review. You better get that coffee now.

They have launched their twitter, Instagram and Facebook account a while ago and it’s slowly helping to make the brand more accessible all over the world. There are several L&P threads on Head-Fi, but there’s no dedicated L6 thread yet. The L6 info is spread in the L5PRO thread for now.

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 2018 and DAPs should have basic functionalities. We’ve been asking L&P for some simple things and it seems they have finally started listening. How much? Keep reading.

L&P L6

The L&P L6 has a new architecture and L&P calls it a new experience, based on the LTD199. The LTD199 was a very limited edition of the L5 DAP that didn’t really make it to the European and US market but the new L6 has a Low-pass filter and amp circuit, based on that model and the L6 also uses the same AK4414 DAC-chip. More info on the LTD 199 can be found in this post on Head-Fi here.

The Chinese L&P L6 web page can be found here: http://www.luxuryprecision.net/shangpin/bofangqi/2017-12-27/32.html but you’ll no doubt understand much more form the product page on the famous Penon Audio website here: https://penonaudio.com/luxury-precision-l6.html

The new L&P L6 uses silver military grade capacitors to meet audiophiles’ variety of harsh toss. It results in a perfectly black background and noise isn’t present in any way. The L&P players have always delivered in this regard but according to L&P, it has improved even more:

“LTD199 single-ended technologies plus a new balance of architecture make the control of L6 background noise to the next level, even if the “background noise detector” SE846 is also helpless to face L6.”

L&P claims that even the hiss-king the Shure SE846 will be dead silent from the L6 and that is impressive indeed. Next to that L&P also uses brass shielding and metal-allay inductors to get the best possible sound and most power from their players.

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 non-Android 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 great sound, but you won’t get that UI you’re used to.

Other components used inside the L&P L6 are:

Master: 1812C

Crystal: ultra-low phase noise -155db active crystal

Operational Amplifier: EXCELS-O

Headphone AMP: EXCELS-A

Coprocessor: ICE40LP1K-QN84

Power Management Chip: AXP192

PCB: 6 layers 3U Immersion gold Matte black

Inductance: low resistance large current metal alloy inductor

Analog circuit filter capacitor: silver military tantalum capacitors

Button, volume button: ALPS long-life series

 

Price & Accessories

The L&P L6 is the flagship L&P DAP of this moment and the selling price on Penon is set at $1399. Compared to the TOTL Sony and SP1000 that is relatively cheap, but it’s still a lot of money for a DAP.

For that price the L6 comes in a pretty but very normal box and accessory-wise you also get a screen protector, a Chinese mini-manual, a stamped QC card with serial number, a velvet bag to transport the L6 in and a USB-data cable.

I’ve already said it so many times but L&P’s leather cases as the nicest on the market. Luckily for me L&P sent me one for the L6 as well but I don’t think you’ll get one with your normal L6 order. On the Penon site I have seen L3 cases before but not those for the L6, so I have no idea where to get them this time.

L6 Looks & Design

Like any other L&P DAP we have reviewed, the L6 is gorgeous. It has the same look and feel of all the other DAPs and it also has that beautiful rosewood cover on the back. On the rosewood back you’ll find the L&P logo on top. At the bottom you have the second Luxury & Precision Classic logo and the “Only for 199 Club” mention, all of these are engraved in the beautiful wood. In contrast to the previous models, the memory buttons have disappeared, but the design still breaths L&P.

All the materials used are top notch and the L&P L6 screams luxury with the perfectly finished DAP. The L6 DAP measures 63x123x16.9mm and it features a 3.5 inch screen with a resolution of 480×320. The L6’s body is made out of 6 series aluminum-magnesium alloy and it looks soft, smooth and nice. Compared to the earlier L&P DAPs it has a darker tone of grey and the buttons have their function engraved in them. As before, the volume dial on top is beautifully incorporated in the L6’s body and the level of finish can easily be compared to that of Astell&Kern

While the quality of the case is very high, it’s a bit of a shame you can’t see the rosewood back or the beautiful DAP metal, but safety first. And you of course can always take it out of its case at home, as I do myself.

 L6 Lay-out

The first big difference with the previous L&P models is the fact that the front buttons are no longer present. With the other L&P DAPs you could set 2 buttons to whatever you wanted and the 3rd was a lock button, with the new L6 you don’t have the user selectable buttons anymore and the power button now is separated from the play/pause , previous, next buttons. These four buttons can be found on the right side of the device, as well as a little LED.

The review continues on Page 2, after the click HERE or by using the jump below

4.5/5 - (45 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.

9 Comments

  • Reply March 16, 2018

    Guy Lamaar

    This is crying out for a Questyle QP2R comparison.

  • Reply March 31, 2018

    Dean Whiteley

    My thoughts exactly! L&P L6 or QP2R?

  • Reply May 13, 2018

    OpoO

    How does the club199 version compare to the normal L6?

    • Reply May 13, 2018

      Lieven

      Good question but it’s so limited that we didn’t get one unfortunately

  • Reply May 15, 2018

    Adam

    Yeah a qp2r comparison would be ideal.

  • Reply September 14, 2018

    LuiC

    Thanks, fantastic review as always..

    Question, L6 vs SP1000M?

  • Reply September 14, 2018

    John Churn

    Any review on upcoming L&P L4 please?

  • Reply October 4, 2020

    sszorin

    This review is from 2018. Did the manufacturer update this DAP to increase it’s files capacity ?
    6000 was not adequate.

    • Reply October 7, 2020

      Lieven

      I don’t know if they did it with a fw update for this particular player. But for the latest P6, they did remove the 6K file limit. finally!

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