Luxury & Precision L5 Pro DAP Review, Spoil Your Ears With HiFi Audio

Price and Availability

I’m not sure if the company has fully launched this product yet, but some online retailers are already selling the Luxury & Precision L5 Pro. Penon Audio is currently selling it at $809 USD, while on eBay some retailers are selling it for around $845 USD. Hopefully, availability will not become an issue as we move towards the holiday season.

Luxury & Precision L5 Pro Review: Conclusion

Like I said earlier in my introduction (if you haven’t skipped here in the conclusion part), sound quality alone is no longer enough to empress music lovers, enthusiasts and audiophiles alike. If an audio company is going to release a DAP, it has to be both audio and visually stimulating or attractive. Astell&Kern has been doing that with their AK series, no wonder their lineup are successful despite the insane price tag. Fortunately, the Luxury & Precision L5 Pro meets both criteria. The L5 Pro is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and hand, and will surely captivate your ears as well.

First, let’s talk about the good points about this DAP. Sound quality is definitely its forte. You will have to read back regarding its sound quality if you skipped that section as well. The body itself is very solid, built like a tank, and yet the rosewood at the back gives it a nice accent. As if it’s telling you that this DAP sounds natural and organic. The touch screen display is very responsive; too bad the current firmware version 1.0.0.3 is limiting its capability. During my day to day test, the battery lasted for around 10 hours or so, which is great. Battery life can be extended or shortened depending on the gain setting you use, headphone you pair it with and the brightness level. The programmable buttons and easy access buttons on the sides are quite handy as well. Not to mention, the buttons feels nice to press and doesn’t feel wobbly or loose. Paired with a leather case, overall, the L5 Pro definitely feels premium.

I don’t have major issues or concern with the L5 Pro (except for the firmware), but there are several things I can nitpick about. The current firmware version is okay, a little bit buggy, but since I am told that there will be firmware updates in the near feature, I leave this one open. Packaging is good, but I hope they included some useful interconnect cables and a detailed English manual as well. But I guess they can’t finalize the manual for now since the firmware is still currently being improved and polished. A Bluetooth function would have been nice to have, since there are a lot of wireless headphones already. I guess that’s all, I can’t think of anything else unless firmware related like USB DAC function, swipe function and etc.

I’m not fully closing my review of the Luxury & Precision L5 Pro yet. I will update this review as soon as new firmware becomes available; and hopefully by that time it would have addressed some of the issues and include more useful features. Leaving the firmware and user interface aside, I think the L5 Pro is overall a fantastic HIFI audio player that left me with eargasmic experience. I think once the firmware is fully polished this will be a DAP to be reckoned with. But for now, the L5 Pro will have to settle with a highly recommended award.

Note: There is an on going discussion about the L5 Pro DAP and its development on Head-Fi.org here.