#Articles on paw preference highlight magazine full
#Articles on paw preference highlight magazine plus

#Articles on paw preference highlight magazine plus

The left side of the player provides a USB 3.0 jack (used for loading digital audio files and metadata to the player’s music library memory card) plus a dedicated socket for the player’s included 12V battery charger. In short, virtually anything one might want to know about playback can be found at a glance on the PAW Gold’s screen.Ī master gain switch offering high (+15 dBu) or low (0 dBu) gain settings,Ī Hold switch (in essence a control lock-out switch),Ī knurled and gold-plated metal thumbwheel-type volume control (which is protected by a machined metal arch cut into the top surface of the player), Specifically, the window shows play settings (repeat or sequential playback modes, etc.), EQ/tone effects settings if any, a colour-coded 2-channel playback VU meter, total time and running playback time for the track in play, the track’s sequential number within a given album, file format/bit-depth/sampling rate information, artist/song title/file suffix information for the track in play, and playback status (playing/playback paused/playback stopped). The player’s main playback control window is a marvel of user-interface design, presenting a substantial amount of information in a very small space.

#Articles on paw preference highlight magazine full

SETUP (which provides comprehensive player setup configuration options)ĪTE/PMEQ (which offers sets of studio-quality ‘Acoustic Timbre Embellisher’ and user-definable Parametric EQ options),Īn engraved and gold-plated metal rocker-type selector ring (which provides Play/Pause, Forward, Backward, and Stop functions),Ī user-definable ‘function button’ positioned in the centre of the sector ring,Īn Fn switch (which lets users define the role of the ‘function button’),Ī Power On/Off switch that doubles as an ‘enable’ switch for the player’s display screen and front panel controls, andĪ sapphire glass-covered 1.8-inch full colour OLED display screen (which can, at the user’s option, provide three different screen views: the main playback/control window, a two-channel real-time spectrum analyser, and a window showing cover art for the track/album in play). LIST (to choose from among user-defined playlists) The front panel controls include the following switches and screens:įILE (which allows users to choose selections from a general song, artist, track, and album directory) Instead of fitting one or two cryptically labelled ‘mystery controls’, the PAW Gold takes the old-school approach of providing a number of clearly labelled pushbutton switches, each of which pulls down its own tightly constrained set of control menus. Where some manufacturers prefer minimalist, but therefore perhaps inscrutable, multifunction user controls that rely heavily upon extensively branched pull-down menus, Lotto takes a different approach. Lotoo also marches to the beat of a different drummer when it comes to the PAW Gold’s user controls. Rather than offering slimline styling in the vein of players from Acoustic Research, Astell & Kern, Questyle, and others, the Lotoo comes across as a decidedly purposeful (indeed, almost military-grade) chunk of a player-an impression further reinforced by the PAW Gold’s handsome two-tone, dark silver and even darker grey anodised outer surfaces. Even so, the Lotoo does not register on the mind as being truly ‘small’ owing to two factors: first, it is relatively thick (25.4mm or about one inch from front to back), and second, its beautifully machined solid Duralumin casework feels somewhat like a solid block of billet aluminium in the hand. The footprint of the PAW Gold is surprisingly compact if you place it atop the screen of, say, a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, you will discover there is a bit of screen surface showing all the way around the perimeter of the player, which will give you a sense for its pocket-sized dimensions. While Lotoo’s PAW Gold is by no stretch of the imagination an inexpensive product, I think a careful survey of its capabilities, which I hope to provide here, will demonstrate that it offers very good value for money. Rather, it strikes me as being a player methodically designed to do a great many things and to do them all well. But now that I have spent some time with Lotoo’s flagship player, which is the subject of this review, I’m prepared to say that it is anything but a copycat, ‘me-too’ product.

I first became aware of the Lotoo PAW Gold high-res digital audio player (£1,499) some time ago when online discussion threads began suggesting the Lotoo might be a strong (and more cost-effective) competitor to Astell & Kern’s expensive top-tier players.