How many times, about to buy another player, all the acquaintances sang with one voice: " take N5 kain, he is the best that is created by human hands". Indeed, looking through the reviews, you simply wonder - how such a miracle can even exist with a price tag of only about $ 350. However, communicating with the real owners, everyone answered that in fact there was nothing special in the player and secretly sent to listen to the FiiO X5 of the first revision , which we talked about in one of the previous reviews.And now, the day X has come - today we have the famous and almost legendary Cayin N5, where we will find out what it really costs.

CHARACTERISTICS

• DAC: AK4490EQ
• Amplifiers: OPA1662 + AD712 + BUF634U
• Format support: DSF, DIFF, SACD-ISO, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, WMA, MP3, OGG
• Display: 2.4" IPS 400x360
• Headphone impedance: 16-300 ohm
• Battery life: 9 hours (screen off)
• Charging time: 3 hours (current 5 volts 2 amps)
• Battery: 4200mAh
• Frequency range: 20Hz - 20kHz
• THD+N: 0.005%
• SNR: 108 dB
• Dynamic range: 108 dB.
• Output impedance: 0.26 ohm.
• Input: Micro USB 3.0
• Outputs: 2.5mm TRRS balanced, 3.5mm headphone, line-in, coaxial
• Memory card support: 2 x MicroSD (up to 128 GB.)
• USB DAC Mode: Asynchronous, up to 192kHz/24bit, DSD64 in DoP mode
• Dimensions (L x W x H): Dimensions: 111 x 64 x 16.4mm
• Weight: 195 g.

VIDEO VERSION OF THE REVIEW

UNPACKING AND PACKAGING

The packaging of the player is made of black durable cardboard.

On the reverse side are the main characteristics of the device.

In the configuration, we are spoiled with various types of waste paper: instructions, a warranty card and an incomprehensible cardboard box with a description of the functional elements of the player.

But the biggest joy for most users is a silicone case, which they usually immediately put on the device and do not remove until it is destroyed or resold.

Of course, silicone gives a more serious grip with the hand and protects some elements of the player from scratches, but judge for yourself - what looks better and what do you really want to touch?

DESIGN/ERGONOMICS

The player fits in your hand just fine. The case is almost entirely made of metal, which gives off a pleasant chill, and a considerable weight, as they say, is reliability.

The first gag that every N5 owner faces is finding the power button on the top of the device. Of course, FiiO had exactly the same in his X5, but that was a long time ago and the company took into account the flaws by the second revision. But the Cayin N5 was released quite recently and immediately such a jamb. Pressing this button is another quest, and there is no other way to unlock the device.

Nearby, on the upper part, there is a balanced output, combined with a linear classic 3.5 mm. headphone output and separate coaxial.

Below we are greeted by the same MicroUSB 3.0, which I previously saw only on hard drives. To the right, they placed two slots for memory cards up to 128 gigabytes, a reset button and a single screw for disassembling the device.

The right end is Feng Shui, that is, absolutely empty.

On the left - the manufacturer has placed a volume control swing and a small menu button. These keys have two assignments: in normal mode, these are the same volume control and menu launch, and on the locked screen, pause and switch tracks. In fact, a very curious move and quite convenient to use.

Turning the back of the Cayin N5 reveals the carbon-look finish, model designation, and other service information.

The front is much more interesting. There is a 2.4" display with terrible viewing angles, but with a good margin of brightness and decent resolution.

The wheel, unfortunately, is not responsible for the volume, but only scrolls through the menu items and folders. In the middle of the wheel is the OK button, and on the left are three keys responsible for backtracking and transitions. It is convenient to press these buttons, but to use the wheel you have to intercept the device, which can cause it to fall unexpectedly.

INTERFACE

The main interface of Cayin N5 is designed in the form of cello strings.

On the left is the playback mode by artists, genres, favorites, and more.

It is followed by a much more interesting playback mode by folders, where we first select a memory card, and then, moving through the directories, launch the song we are interested in for playback. You can immediately delete an unnecessary file or folder, this is done using the "menu" button.

The third item is “now playing”, here we are transferred to the main playback screen, which displays the status of the battery, equalizer, volume, progress bar and of course the cover, name and characteristics of the file being played.

SETTINGS

According to an unwritten rule, the settings are divided into two parts. In the sound settings, you can select the gain mode, digital filter type ( play around, it doesn't change the sound much, but you should notice a difference in the accents), DSD settings, EQ and 3.5mm output mode. - default is headphones.

The same applies to design themes, in fact, only “theme B” is more or less adequate, everything else is some kind of terrible nightmare. USB mode allows you to select the type of connection to the PC - it will be a regular drive or a sound card (USB DAC). It is not clear why, but you can change the volume settings and disable folder operations.

Scrolling down, we find sleep and scheduled shutdowns. Here you can format the memory card or do a full system reset.

Well, where without "about the device".

As comments, I would like to note that the equalizer is a specific thing and is needed solely to adjust your headphones, and not at all in order to “improve” the sound. Also, when the Cayin N5 is working, you can notice a rather strong heating of the device, which, as it were, hints at its use without any covers. The last thing I want to note is some thoughtfulness when you press pause. And although the processor power should be enough, however, from firmware to firmware, unpausing occurs simply with an incredible delay.

IRON

I have no desire to talk about hardware, and especially zealous readers can get acquainted with it from the characteristics at the beginning of this review. In short - all the elements are quite worthy, the only thing you can complain about is only 9 hours of operation with a battery as much as 4200mAh.

SOUND

Before talking about the sound, I want to clarify that for testing I used only a 3.5 mm jack, since I don’t have a cable with a balanced plug. As headphones, I used the Trinity Vyrus of the first edition, which proved to be good in practice, with gray filters without "bags" and the continuation of the legendary Sony line - 7510 monitor ears.

The first time I listened to the Cayin N5, I immediately appreciated the very good detail, but when compared with the FiiO X5, the latter turned out to have even higher detail.

The overall sound in the N5 is somewhat softened, which is why live instruments are sometimes perceived as an imitation, and the vocals, at first glance, move a little inside the composition. But this is not the worst. Worst of all in Cayin N5 things are with the depth of the scene, and therefore with the separation of plans and intelligibility. Indeed, in the case of a small number of instruments, the Cayin N5 does an excellent job of conveying emotions, intelligibility and shows good speed characteristics, but if there are, say, 6 or 8 instruments, then due to the narrow stage, the sound becomes a complete mess and it becomes completely impossible to listen to a separate part, and the separation of plans is sharply blurred.

But despite the above, if we take the frequency ranges separately, we can note excellent low and medium frequencies, moreover, a very good study ( for the price of course) high frequencies.

If you ask me what you can really compare the Cayin N5 with, then I can only cite the FiiO X5 of the second revision. Seriously, Cayin N5, like FiiO X5 II, has strengths and weaknesses, and if you decide to choose between these two devices, then this is a very difficult matter. In terms of frequency range, the Cayin N5 is in a better position, but in terms of intelligibility, it is ahead of the X5 ii. As for the FiiO X5 of the first revision, it outperforms both applicants, which is why it is a much more interesting device, in my opinion.

CONCLUSIONS

Summing up, I can note that for a really great sound Cayin N5 lacks depth and volume. With a large number of instruments, the N5 gives a very dense and compressed sound, which makes it much more difficult to listen to a separate part than in the same FiiO X5. In total, for those who are still choosing a good Hi-Res player for themselves, I still recommend turning their attention to FiiO X5 the first revision, and let the Cayin N5 remain for lovers of a clamped soft sound.

Have Chinese missiles become more reliable than ours? The question is certainly interesting. Well, here the grandmother said for two, but in the gadget market, purebred Chinese Lenovo and Huawei have become familiar no worse than apple ones. Perhaps music lovers have already received or are about to receive a big hello from China. I mean the Cayin brand, which is not yet very popular, is a small Chinese company that produces high-quality amplifiers, DACs, CD players, and speaker systems. And today this brand sent us a premiere. Today let's talk about the first portable player Cayin N6, which has a unique design and good sound. The device was built on two PCM1792A DAC chips. Well, it's time to dive into the nuances. Are you with us?

Text: Alexey Kashirsky,

Thanks to XChesser Audio for providing the audition sample

SPECIFICATIONS:

DAC: 2×PCM1792A

CPU: Ingenic Xburst JZ4760, 2 cores @ 600 MHz

FPGA: SA2000

Volume control: PGA2311, 100 steps of adjustment

Frequency range: 20Hz - 20KHz ±0.2dB, 5Hz - 50KHz ±1dB

THD: 0,005%

Dynamic Range: 110 dB

Signal to noise ratio: 109 dB

Headphone Output Power: 220mW per channel @ 32Ω

Output impedance: 0.26Ω

Line out: 7V @ 10KΩ

USB DAC: asynchronous, up to 24 bit/192 kHz

Gain selection: 2 levels (+6 dB)

Channel balance:±10 dB

Equalizer: 10-band, ±10 dB

Display: 2.4″ IPS TFT 400×360

Analog outputs: 3.5mm TRS to headphones, 3.5mm TRS line

Digital output: 3.5mm TRS coaxial S/PDIF

DSD support: DSD64 (DSF, DFF), DSD128 (DSF, DFF), SACD ISO

Support for lossless formats: WAV, FLAC, ALAC, APE (up to 24 bit/192 kHz), WMA (up to 24 bit/96 kHz)

Support for lossy formats: AAC, OGG, MP2, MP3

Battery capacity: 5600 mAh

Built-in memory: 8 GB

Memory card support: MicroSD up to 128 GB

Operating time on one charge: up to 8 hours

Charge time:~ 3 h

Maximum dimensions: 126mm × 72mm × 19.7mm

Main body dimensions: 126mm×68mm×17.6mm

Weight: 230 g

Appearance and kit

The device comes in a reddish cardboard box, inside of which there is a box, where all our charms are located. Namely: the player itself, an envelope with papers and protective films on the screen, a MicroUSB cable for connecting to a power adapter and synchronizing with a PC, a card reader, a coaxial cable for outputting “numbers” with s/pdif, and a nice keychain with the company logo to remember! Everything is clear, beautiful, elegant, I like it!

The device is quite weighty and of a decent size, but at the same time it manages to sit comfortably in the palm of your hand, like a drummer's handshake. Material - aluminum. The color is silver, the assembly is solid, everything is clear, symmetrical, you can’t find fault: the iPhone, for an hour, isn’t going to the same places?

The back cover is covered with carbon, nice, with the company logo. The screen is made in the form of a porthole with protruding edges beyond the body. The squaring of the circle turned out to be cool: for some reason, after turning on the player, a purely square menu flashes in the round window. And to round the menu in full screen was weak?

The picture and color reproduction of the screen is very high quality, which indicates a decent matrix. Everything, I do not get tired of repeating, clearly, beautifully, elegantly. The only pity is that the letters are somewhat small. But the menu is quite understandable, although there were moments when I got confused in the controls: the wheel, buttons - where to press something? Well, okay, you can get used to it.

A huge plus of N6 is that the player can work as a USB DAC if it is connected to a computer. He came, inserted it as a sound card and listen up to the drums around the room - a very pleasant moment.

Menu buttons are located on the front side under the screen. On the right side there are keys responsible for the volume. And on the left side, closer to the screen, there is a “wheel”, which, when rotated, finds the desired menu item, and when pressed, fixes the choice made.

On the top end are easily located: a headphone connection, a line-out, coaxial, and a player on / off button. On the bottom there is a connector for connecting a MicroUSB cable, a slot for a MicroSD memory card, and a hole for emergency rebooting the device (reset).

Sound

I must say right away that the sound of the Cayin N6, although not without minor flaws, is very decent!

The following headphones were used for listening: Etymotic ER-4P/S, Westone UM3X, MyST Nail 2, Beyerdynamic dt 1350, Audio-Technica ATH-SX1a, OPPO PM-3. With all the headphones, the device played properly and I did not find any whims.

The sound of Cayin N6 can be described as neutral. Musicality, coupled with good detail, even tonal balance without any obvious distortions, accuracy, intelligibility, this is all about our premiere.

Listening to your favorite songs on the N6 is a real pleasure. The player builds a "virtual scene" in a very interesting way. There is both depth and width. Sounds are positioned as if in small layers, multi-level presentation of material. A kind of impressionism in the presentation of sound, if you like.

The Cayin player stands out among modern portable devices not only by its exterior, but also by its manner of presenting musical material. For example, I added an OPPO PM-3 to it, installed FFS (for those who don’t know, I strongly recommend it - this is a new project by Franz Ferdinand and Sparks), well, I installed it and flew away! Sounds amazing, dude! Every nuance, every fragment is transmitted very accurately and musically, even if you listen to the entire collection acquired over decades!

Well, okay, “closer to the body,” as the erotic classic used to say.

HF— clear, moderately transparent, practically flawless, there are few and many of them, they always come and go on time. There are exactly as many as you need and I have no complaints about their quality. Although in some places there is a slight friability, but not particularly critical.

MF— detailed, with good resolution. Each tool is clearly drawn in space. The middle is very musical.

LF- they don’t mumble, there are exactly as many as you need, no more and no less. The bass has good speed. But there is one point of contention. For example, an intelligible unhurried composition sounds, everything is in order ... and then, a large number of instruments enter, the speed increases, and ... the bass starts to choke a little, pulls back a little, some kind of overtone appears, and then at some point - once and everything is fine.

You can hear this mainly on my Etymotic ER-4S, on the other headphones this moment is almost imperceptible. On dynamic headphones, I did not hear such a jamb at all. In general, there are small complaints about the bass, but I can’t even clearly identify them. And in general, everything is very good.

conclusions

The player turned out to be very interesting. The design, of course, is for an amateur - it looks like the style of the "Bolshevichka" of the times of stagnation, but then - what is hidden under the dress! In addition, the player has a porthole - quite a pretty round face.

In terms of sound, Cayin N6 is one of the leaders in the world of portable players. Its sound deserves all praise. Prices in Russian online stores for Cayin N6 fluctuate around the mark of 30,000 rubles, which is quite sparing with today's ruble against the dollar.

Sound, design (not for everyone), the ability to use the player as a sound card, price (again, not for everyone).

Design/management (for someone it's the other way around)

• DAC: 2×PCM1792A
• CPU: Ingenic Xburst JZ4760, 2 cores @ 600 MHz
• FPGA: SA2000
• Volume control: PGA2311, 100 steps of adjustment
• Frequency range: 20Hz - 20KHz ±0.2dB, 5Hz - 50KHz ±1dB
• THD: 0,005%
• Dynamic Range: 110 dB
• Signal to noise ratio: 109 dB
• Headphone Output Power: 220mW per channel @ 32Ω
• Output impedance: 0.26Ω
• Line out: 1.7V @ 10KΩ
• USB DAC: asynchronous, up to 24 bit/192 kHz
• Gain selection: 2 levels (+6 dB)
• Channel balance:±10 dB
• Equalizer: 10-band, ±10 dB
• Display: 2.4″ IPS TFT 400×360
• Analog outputs: 3.5mm TRS headphone, 3.5mm TRS line
• Digital output: 3.5mm TRS coaxial S/PDIF
• DSD support: DSD64 (DSF, DFF), DSD128 (DSF, DFF), SACD ISO
• Support for lossless formats: WAV, FLAC, ALAC, APE (up to 24 bit/192 kHz), WMA (up to 24 bit/96 kHz)
• Support for lossy formats: AAC, OGG, MP2, MP3
• Battery capacity: 5600 mAh
• Built-in memory: 8 GB
• Memory card support: Micro SD up to 128 GB
• Operating time on one charge: up to 8 hours
• Charge time:~ 3 h
• Maximum dimensions: 126mm × 72mm × 19.7mm
• Main body dimensions: 126mm×68mm×17.6mm
• Weight: 230 g

Packing and scope of delivery

The design of the box at Cayin was approached in a big way. To begin with, they chose an unusual, but very pleasant terracotta color, complemented by silver embossing. The outer shell of the box is removed, giving access to the inner box. The latter opens like a box. A cardboard envelope with instructions and spare films for the screen is fixed under the cover (one is already glued). In the middle, in velvet, lies the player itself. Under the velvet cradle you will find a microUSB cable, an S/PDIF adapter, a microSD card reader and, surprisingly, a keychain with the company's logo and a carbon insert, the same as on the back of the player.

In addition to this wealth, the kit included a simple gray silicone case, simply thrown into the shipping box.

As you can see, on this point, the company took into account absolutely all the wishes.

Design and management

They also actively worked on the appearance of the player, the design turned out to be unusual, and, perhaps, not everyone will like it, but it pleases at least that the company thought about the banal ease of use. Most of the body of the N6 is made from machined aluminum. The exception is the rear panel, which, in a tribute to fashion, was made of carbon fiber (better known as carbon). I'm not entirely sure why this was done, but in general it looks interesting and unusual.


The very form of the body of the player is also different non-standard, the upper part has a circular protrusion into which the screen is inscribed. The latter, unfortunately, is not round, which would make the player prohibitively expensive, but of the usual square shape. The screen quality compares favorably with most Chinese players with good color reproduction and resolution. Because of this, the covers on the screen look as great as ever. Rejoiced at the high resolution, the developers of the player's software used a very small and thin font that made it difficult to read, but quickly corrected it by releasing an updated firmware in which the font was greatly improved.

By the way, I would like to note the active work on the software part of the player, just a month after the release of N6, a new firmware version was released, which significantly improved DSD support, fixed a number of bugs and optimized energy consumption. I hope that this pace will be maintained by the developers in the future.


The controls are scattered across all sides of the player. On the front panel there are 4 control buttons of a very unusual shape. They can be used to navigate and control playback. On the right panel are two volume buttons. On top are headphone, line and coaxial output jacks, as well as a power and lock button. At the bottom there is a MicroUSB connector, a slot for memory cards and a reset hole. On the left panel there is a clickable navigation wheel made of corrugated metal, with which you can navigate the menu.

The level of performance of the body and the overall fit of the nodes are close to ideal, not the slightest backlash or unevenness, everything is in its place. The player, of course, is rather big, but due to the relatively small thickness it lies very well in the hand, all controls can be reached without using the other hand.


The player interface is quite good. The main menu is made in the form of a circle with 5 sections, hinting at the fact that it should be controlled using the side wheel (although control using the buttons on the front panel also works). The sections are as follows:

• Playback screen
• Player settings
• Playback settings
• media library
• Direct file access

In the player settings, you can change the language, USB connection mode (DAC or file access), backlight time (from 30 seconds), brightness (5 steps), turn off timer, reset settings and view information about the player.

In the music settings, you can adjust the gain, digital filter (sharp and slow), gain compensation for DSD, equalizer (10 bands), playback mode (in order, random repeat, repeat one track), remembering the playback position when turned off, remembering the volume when turned off, gapless playback, channel balance, and display of album art and lyrics.


The music library also deserves all praise. In addition to the standard options for viewing the media library by artists, albums, genres and all songs in a row, there is also a favorites list where you can add tracks yourself, and a history of songs played.

The playback screen is quite logical, all the necessary information is displayed at the top, most of it is occupied by the cover, the track name and position are shown at the bottom. According to a good Chinese tradition, up and down buttons are used to navigate the track and between them, the right button is responsible for playing and pausing, the left button is for returning back to the main menu. Rotating the wheel on the playback screen prompts you to select another track from the current playlist, clicking on it opens the context menu, with which you can change the gain, playback order, add a track to your favorites or delete it.

The powerful filling did not have the best effect on the player's operating time. Despite the capacious battery, it plays about 7 hours on a single charge, the full charge time when using the iPad charger is a little less than 4 hours. The indicators are not record-breaking, but Cayin promised to work on it and already in version 1.1 of the firmware they added support for the "sleep" mode for the processor, which allows it to consume less energy during idle times. Separately, it is nice that the player displays the battery percentage and does it quite accurately.

Sound

The following headphones were used to listen to the player:

• HiFiMan Re600
• Philips Fidelio X1

All in all, the sound of the Cayin N6 is very well balanced. It is musical, without loss of transparency, and does not slip into excessive dryness. Its sound is incredibly detailed, the player is very careful about the small nuances of music, transmitting them with the highest level of accuracy. This leads to the fact that when playing the instruments are very clearly positioned not only in width, but also in depth. With good headphones, listening to recordings of large bands is very, very interesting.

The power reserve of the player is not bad, although not a record one. With the exception of tight isodynamic models and headphones with an impedance above 300Ω, it confidently handles almost any load. The near-zero output impedance makes the N6 a good option for multi-driver rebar headphones, which are capricious about this parameter.


The bass is incredibly good in control and nuance. There is not the slightest hint of smearing and hum in the sound of the N6, everything is very clearly divided and is served very authoritatively. It is worth noting that the N6 is not very suitable for lovers of aggressive and sharp low frequencies, it is simply not designed for this.

Mid frequencies are very musical, their detail and control also do not cause the slightest criticism. The emotions embedded in the music, N6 conveys very reliably.

Not surprisingly, the HF is also very good. Here, too, the player's signature style is maintained: naturalness, detailing and musicality - all this is also on the HF. Thanks to this, the sound does not tire, and you can listen to the player for a long time.


I can't help but pay a few words to the Cayin N6 comparison with the closest competitor QLS QA360, they are in the same price category and, of course, compete with each other. In general, in terms of the sound of the players, the situation is close to parity. In terms of detail, naturalness, etc., they are very good, the difference is more in individual nuances. The QA360 has a little more bass, plus it works better with hard-to-drive headphones, the N6 has slightly better bass in the decay area, so instruments in this range sound more natural, at least to my ears. The QA360 also builds a three-dimensional imaginary scene more voluminously. But in general, the presentation of the N6 seems to me a little more musical.

Compatibility

In general, the player is good with any headphones that allow it to fully open up. Top dynamic and rebar models, as well as most over-ear headphones, are quite tough for him. It does not particularly need an additional amplifier, unless you decide to listen to isodynamics from N6, then you can dock the same C5 to it. It's funny that it is the amplifier from Cayin that fully corresponds to the nature of the player's sound, the rest are more inclined to replace the N6 feed with their own (another exception, perhaps).


It is very pleasing that the player can work as a USB DAC in asynchronous mode with support for an audio stream up to 192 kHz / 24 bits, this makes its scope even wider if you use, for example, a laptop - you can not lose quality music playback from him.

conclusions

A very interesting player that falls into the niche where it has few competitors. In terms of sound and design, it is very close to the top models, but has a price 2-3 times less, which makes it a very good candidate to buy if you want high-quality sound, but are not ready to pay any amount for it without looking. Omnivorous and versatile Cayin N6 complement its positive aspects.