Disclaimer
The Cayin N6 was provided to me as part of the
CTC Audio North American tour in exchange for my impressions and honest opinion on the device. It has left my possession and is on to the next reviewers. I am in no way affiliated with Cayin or CTC Audio and do not own the Cayin N6. I'd like to thank Cayin and CTC Audio for providing the opportunity to review the N6. This review is based entirely on my impressions and your impressions may be different.
About Me
I am an audio enthusiast in my mid forties and have enjoyed listening to music since my youth with vinyl, cassettes, and later CDs and digital files. I listen to wide variety of music from a perspective of losing myself to the experience. At times I like to be transported to different states of mind or emotion in the case of classical and OST recordings. Other times I go to the venue in the case of live recordings, binaural+, or studio sessions. Some times I just like to rock out. Every time, however, I want the clearest and most natural representation of the music that I can afford. If the track has thumping bass I want to hear it. If the track is complex with many instruments I want to hear each one. I listen critically often but also appreciate timbre and musicality.
I've used Sony Walkman cassette players, mini disc players, Sansa Clip+, iPod classics, iPhones etc., over the years as my portable devices, and have 'grown up' with headphones in my ears and players at my side. My first digital high resolution player was the FiiO X3 first generation. My current player is the first generation FiiO X5 and I enjoy it for it's revealing and honest presentation of the music, and it's flexibility to integrate with the rest of my gear. This review will be mostly in comparison to the X5 with different headphones and amplifiers currently in my possession.
Cayin N6 General information
1. DSD playback and DSD native output.
2. Separate crystals for 44.1 kHz PCM, 48kHz PCM and DSD to reduce the crosstalk from the clock signal and decrease jitter.
3. Support high performance Asynchronous USB Audio 2.0.
4. Dual PCM1792A DAC chips from Texas Instruments are used for highest sound quality. Each chip for each channel converts the digital signal to analog signal.
5. MCU can judge from the playback situation and give order to setup PCM1792A at its best listening situation. PCM1792A can work in both PCM and DSD operation state. It can switch between different modes and realize DSD native decoding and playback.
6. Volume control takes high performance volume chip PGA2311 from Texas Instrument.
7. N6 comes with three output ports: headphone out, line out and coaxial digital output.
Apart from connecting directly to headphones, you can also connect it to other DACs and amps.
8. Dual BUF634 with a driving capacity of 250mA are used for headphone drive.
9. Separate power supply circuit for the Digital and Analogue ciruict.
10. Precise I/V conversion circuit, low pass filter circuit and high performance amplification circuit.
11. Build in battery with capacity of 3.7V 5600mAh.
12. 8GB internal storage with one extera TF card slot.
Specifications
Headphone Out:
Power Rating 220mW+220mW (@32Ω)
Frequency Response - 20Hz~20KHz±0.2dB - 5H~50KHz±1dB
THD + N - 0.005% (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
Dynamic Range - 110dB (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
SNR - 109dB (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
Output Impedance - < 0.26Ω
Line Out:
Output level - 1.7V (@10kΩ)
Frequency response - 20~20kHz±0.2dB - 5Hz~50kHz±1dB
THD + Noise - 0.004% (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
Dynamic Range - 110dB (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
SNR - 109dB (20Hz~20kHz,A-Weighted)
Coaxial Out:
Output level - 0.5V (@ 75Ω) - 1.0V (Unloaded)
Output Impedance - 75Ω
Other specifications:
Display 2.4” 400*360 IPS
Data transmission USB2.0
Outputs:
Phone out(3.5mm)
Line out(3.5mm)
Coaxial Digital Out(3.5mm)
Miscellaneous:
Player dimension - 126*72*19.7 (mm)
Package size - 208*163*47 (mm)
Net Weight ~ 225g
Package weight (Player and Accessories ) ~ 635g
Battery - 5600mAh 3.7V Lithium polymer
Memory card - MicroSD-TF (Up to 128G, not provided) - supports FAT32, FAT16, NTFS, exFAT
Firmware upgrade - Upgrade via TF card
Battery duration ~ 7hrs
Charging time ~ 4hrs (with 2A charger, not privided)
The Packaging
The N6 comes in a fairly simple box yet it feels very classy. I like that there aren't flashy graphics all over the packaging and just a simple outline of the player.
In the Box
- USB cable
- Coaxial cable (3.5mm to RCA)
- USB Micro SD adaptor
- Silicone Case
- Stainless steel and carbon fiber Keychain
- User Manual
- Warranty Card
Hardware Look and Feel
Compared to to the X5, iPhone 5s, iPod Classic 120gb.
As a physical device the first thing I have to say is that the N6 is very appealing. The combination of right angles, bevels, curves, and materials hits just the right spot for me. I realize the appreciation for the physical shape is entirely subjective, but to these eyes it has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. I really like the departure from cold rectangular buttons on the front of the device in the ever increasing crowd of new DAPs. It reminds me of a 60's Sci-Fi gadget and for that I love it. On the more practical side I would say the unit is a bit on the large side but not enough to cause me any issue, you need space to fit quality hardware!!
I have a thing for Carbon Fibre and it looks very nice on the N6.
The main chassis is made of aluminum with a circular glass covering the screen and a glossy carbon fibre back. I love the carbon fibre and, like the AK240, it compliments the metal front and sides very well. Again, it adds a certain something to the look of the DAP. In the hand it feels solid and the build quality is top notch.
The screen is a 400x360 resolution screen and is bright and vibrant. My only comment on the screen is when compared to the X5 which uses a screen with the same size and resolution (is it the same screen?). When looking at the two units side by side the N6 screen is a little more washed out with a slight white balance shift to the cooler light spectrum (blue). The FiiO screen is much more accurate in neutral colour representation and comes closer to the ideal D6500 white balance (warmer) and has more contrast. See below.
X5 screen with a custom theme on the top. N6 screen on the bottom.
Notice how the album art is placed differently in each DAP.
The N6 screen is also set to be brighter than the X5. At it's lowest brightness setting the N6 is clearly brighter. It's a nice screen to use and has good sharpness and viewing angles. The square screen seems to disappear and is barely noticeable when the N6 screen is off. The Cayin name above the screen is another small touch that really adds to the beauty of this DAP.
The beautiful spectral colour shift in the Cayin text is difficult
to capture in photographs.
Hardware Usability
The unique scroll dial.
Interaction with the N6 is a combination of buttons and a unique scroll dial located on the left side of the screen. You can use the dial to scroll through song lists and menus and it can be pressed to select the item you are on in the menus. It is one of three buttons you can operate when the screen is off where it acts as the Pause/Play button. It also has the duty of bringing up the shortcut menu in the Now Playing screen when pressed. The dial is a handy and convenient feature that takes some getting used to but is rather enjoyable once you get the hang of it. The dial isn't loose and yet it isn't too tight either.
Simple Volume control on the side.
On the other side of the unit is the Volume Down/Up buttons that also skip Forward/Back when the screen is off. A short press will lower/raise the volume one increment while a long press will skip Forward/Back.
Uniquely shaped buttons on the front.
The front of the N6 has a four way control scheme using unique 'infinity' shaped left/right buttons, and semi-circular down/up buttons. Like the scroll dial the down/up buttons on the front navigate down/up in the menus. The down/up buttons also act as the next/previous buttons in the Now Playing screen. The right button selects and toggles menu items and acts as the Play/Pause button in the Now Playing screen when the screen is active. The left button takes you back a level from a menu item.
On the top is the power button and output jacks. Besides powering the device on/off with a long press it's also used to toggle the screen on and off.
Inputs and Outputs and Storage
I like the approach Cayin has taken with the three separate jacks for Headphone Out, Line Out, and Coaxial SPDIF digital out.
-
Headphone Out uses the powerful BTL amplification built in to the N6.
-
Line Out bypasses the internal headphone amplifier and sends the stereo signal from the Dual DACs to an outboard amplifier.
-
Coaxial SPDIF outputs the decoded digital signal to use an external DAC to handle the digital to analogue conversion.
Unfortunately the N6 has only one mSD slot.
On the bottom of the unit you'll find the micro USB jack and the mSD slot. The USB jack is used for charging as well as transferring data and also when using the N6 as a USB DAC from a computer.
The battery life of the unit is rated at seven hours and I found this to be about what I was getting playing a variety of redbook CD 16bit/44.1kHz files to high resolution 24bit/192kHz files. I find the unit gets fairly warm (warmer than the X5), even when not playing music. Battery life feels quite short compared to other devices I've used and I hope Cayin is able to increase it somewhat with new firmware. Being realistic though I doubt there are huge gains to be had here.
The mSD slot supports the current 128gb cards on the market and I had no trouble using the Sandisk 128gb FAT32 formatted card straight out of my FiiO X5. Scanning music from the card seemed on par with the X5, that is to say pretty snappy considering the amount of files. I was also able to upgrade the firmware from 1.1 to 2.0 using this card with music files on it so no worries there.
There is 8gb of internal storage built in to the device that contains the Windows USB DAC driver and user manuals. It's nice to be able to put some music on the N6 and get started right away but you're going to want to pick up a higher capacity card to take advantage of the high resolution playback of the device if you have more than just a couple of albums.
Software Usability (UI)
Startup and power off screens.
Just like the FiiO X5 the Cayin N6 uses a proprietary interface designed specifically for the player - The main theme of the N6 is based on a vinyl record album. This is no Apple UI but it gets the job done and I have no real complaints here, just a couple minor annoyances.
The first is the way the interface seems to encourage me to have to move my hand around the device to operate it. For example, in the Now Playing screen you can not push in the scroll dial on the side to pause the music. You need to move over to the front face right button to Play/Pause. I would swap the function mapping of these buttons to make it more intuitive and keep Play/Pause consistent when the screen is on or off. Conversely you can not use the front face down/up buttons to scroll through the lists of songs in the Now Playing screen so you need to move over to the scroll dial for that. It's not a deal breaker for me but certainly not as convenient as the X5 scroll wheel and buttons that are all on the front face of the device (besides volume and power) with easy access using one hand.
Boot time is fairly quick at around 10 seconds though it's slightly slower than the X5.
I had no issues playing a variety of music files from mp3 320kbps, aac 256kbps, to 16/44.1 lossless FLAC and ALAC, and high resolution ALAC up to 24/192.
The N6 has a 10 band EQ that adjusts in increments of 1db. It would be nice to have finer control over each frequency volume adjustment but the EQ works well otherwise. Another minor annoyance is the adjustment of the EQ bands seems overly complicated with the required finger dance on the device needed to adjust a slider and I'd like to see Cayin address this in a future update.
Gapless playback worked without a hitch for me and I did not notice any transitions in the tracks of an album such as Pink Floyd's The Wall, or Hans Zimmer's OST The Dark Knight Rises.
Menu pics
Menus starting with Now Playing and moving clockwise in the Main Menu.
As you can see there is a lot of information in the
Now Playing screen.
There is also access to a shortcut menu by pressing the scroll dial.
The
Playback Settings offer a lot of options for music playback. I didn't notice much difference between the Sharp and Slow digital filter.
The
System Settings menu has the standard items to set in a DAP.
The
Categories menu has the standard categories to help find your music.
The
Music Library menu is where you update your library for categories and where you browse the storage media.
From here you also add or remove your Favourites. Odd that it isn't found in the Categories menu.
As you can see in the pics the menus in the N6 give a lot of control over how you set up and listen to your DAP.
N6 DAC section
The N6 uses a dual DAC architecture with two top of the line Texas Instruments 1792A DAC chips and Cayin has done a terrific job with the
implementation. Using three Crystal Oscillators for multiples of 44.1kHz, 48kHz and DSD there is little to no digital distortion/smearing (jitter) that I can detect with my most revealing headphones/IEMs. Using a DAC for each channel in the stereo output to the amplifier section helps keep the signal clean while at the same time helps to ensure that no detail is missed when converting the digital signal to analogue. They are able to utilize more DAC resources per channel and the difference may be slight, but certainly appreciated when the rest of the audio chain can keep up. The DAC section can deal with DSD high resolution formats DSD128 and DSD64 natively and DXD, as well as up to high resolution 24bit/192kHz for lossless PCM ALAC, FLAC, WAV, APE formats, and lossy PCM MP3, AAC, WMA formats.
To use the N6 as a USB DAC you'll need to install the provided drivers for Windows. For Mac users no drivers are required for the USB DAC functionality.
N6 Amplifier section
Cayin has taken the BTL amplification approach to take advantage of the dual DAC architecture in the N6. What is BTL amplification? Technically it's short for Bridge-Tied Loads. In simple terms its implementation is to take the output from the dual DACs and bridge them together for a stereo output and gives outstanding channel separation with very little crosstalk. It also doubles the voltage swing for great dynamics in the music. The loudest and quietest parts of the music are able to be played with very little distortion. The headphone output impedance is a respectable 0.26 Ohm so it should play nice with low impedance balanced armature IEMs.
Enough about the techno-babble. In short the N6 amplifier section is
powerful with a very low noise floor. It can drive both my LCD-2 and my JH Angie IEM with good enough power for the LCD and little to no hiss for the Angie. This is very impressive.
It has a more powerful amp section than the X5. After volume matching both units (to the best that I can) the N6 volume is set at 23/100 (23% of the total) and X5 volume is set at 42/120 (35% of the total) with the JH Angie IEM, that's a 15% difference! I see no reason why you'd need to strap an external amp to the N6 unless you prefer the sound signature of the external amp, have pretty difficult to drive headphones, or really like a feature like bass boost or crossfeed. The amp section is very well implemented.
Cayin N6 Overall Sound
When describing the sound of a player there are many factors to consider - from the files being used and how they were mastered, the headphones being used, the volume one is using, the output chosen (headphone out, line out, coaxial out) and the other gear in the chain. Also, the perspective one is coming from I feel is of great importance. If a user has never heard a very detailed and analytical source they might find the N6 to be too bright and analytical, or too revealing of the flaws in poorly mastered music. On the other hand if coming from a perspective of highly revealing source gear and quality masters one may find the N6 to be too organic and not analytical enough.
I'll be describing the signature of the N6 from the use of generally well mastered music with a range of headphones with different sound signatures in my collection. One last note before I begin with describing the sound. If you don't like the sound signature of your headphones the N6 will not magically change them in to something else. These are my findings and your mileage may vary.
In a nutshell the Cayin N6 is a very detailed and musical portable player that is able to pull out minute details while at the same time sounding spacious and musical. This is not easy to accomplish to be sure. It's a
slightly warmer DAP than the X5 but in no way would I say that takes away from the overall clarity of the presentation. It`s simply nice to have some warmth in the music and this helps take it away from being cold and analytical. Makes it natural. The soundstage is also very large with the N6, borderline holographic. It doesn`t cross that line thankfully and presents music with some nice depth and width which helps with the sense of space in the track. Instruments are rendered with good timbre and you can hear the nuances come through fairly easily. With the right headphones it`s easy to get a sense of imaging from the N6 to place the instruments within the soundstage.
Sound Comparison to FiiO X5
The first thing I noticed was a slight recess in the upper mid range compared to the X5. Given that I've been using the X5 for over a year it may just be my perspective (there's that word again) but this recess makes it sound slightly less detailed and less forward than the X5. For example, When listening to Tears In Heaven from Eric Clapton's Unplugged album I can hear the reverberations from the guitar strings more easily on the X5 and the bell that rings in the track sounds a litter more prominent on the X5 than on the N6. Then again the difference in upper mids presentation may also be what gives the N6 a more natural organic sound than the X5.
Besides the slight difference in upper mids I'd say the sound signature of both these DAPs is very close with the N6 edging out the X5 in dynamics and timbre. The treble in the N6 is more natural to me than on the X5. It has a better sense of air and is slightly less grainy with a larger soudstage. These differences aren't huge but can make an overall better impression in the long run. For the sticker price I'd have a hard time deciding between the two. Especially given FiiO's more mature UI and I prefer it's button layout, but on a sound quality standpoint I'd choose the N6.
At the end of the day I'd say the differences are X5 can be compared to, not in absolute but relative terms, an analytical solid state amplifier and the N6 can be compared to a quality (not dark) tube amplifier with a more organic flavour and larger soundstage that's still very revealing of all the details in the music. Again, relatively speaking.
Headphone Pairings
To be honest I don't believe that a certain headphones
must be paired with a certain piece of gear or a certain genre. I believe in synergy with gear, sure, but if you don't like your headphone you should move on to a different set rather than wrestle with gear to compensate, or use an EQ.
Tpeos-Altone 350 [Volume 35/100, low gain] - The Altone 350 was included as a part of the N6 tour and I felt obliged to give them a listen. To be honest they weren’t to my liking and I found the bass to be much too elevated and loose. The bass bled in to the mids and the mids felt recessed. The treble was also too hot in my opinion, think V shape sound to the max. It was hard for me to get a sense of what the the N6 brings to the mix given the amount of coloration from the Altone 350. Overall I found the X5 to pair better with these earphones as it at least flattened out the sound a little.
Vmoda M-100 [Volume 40/100, low gain] - The N6 helps the bass heavy (though somewhat detailed bass) M-100 a little with the sense of space. Overall though the M-100 has so much bass that without an equalizer I prefer not to listen to it. On the N6 I dialed the 30Hz-63Hz range down by -6db, 125Hz down by -5db, 250 Hz down by -4db, and 500Hz down by -3 db. This helped quite a bit to balance the these headphones closer to my LCD-2 with regard to the frequency balance, and the EQ worked well.
AKG K550 [Volume 40/100, low gain] - These headphones can sound a bit hot in the treble but the lower bass has a good kick to them and can punch hard when the music calls for it. I found the K550 quite enjoyable from the N6 with its treble detail and extra soundstage, which enhances the excellent soundstage on the K550 (for a closed headphone). The only caveat is there are slightly recessed mids with this headphone which the N6 doesn't help much with. Overall a great match and a fun listen.
Audeze LCD-2 non fazor [Volume 75/100, low gain] - The fact that these planar dynamic headphones can be driven from the N6 without using high gain and without raising the volume too much is surprising to me. The N6 increased the sense of air and provides a good enough source for the LCD-2. It's not a match made in heaven though. The dynamics are somewhat crippled and it sounds a bit hollow to me compared to my desktop gear, or even a powerful portable amp. This is expected though. Still you can use the N6 with the LCD-2 to drive it to good volumes when in a pinch. High gain was not much different except for needing to lower the volume to keep the listening level the same.
Audeze LCD-XC [Volume 45/100, low gain] - The LCD-XC is a different animal than the LCD-2. It's much more efficient and has much faster drivers with more detail retrieval. The N6 paired very well with the XC and the more organic presentation from the N6 helped with the elevated upper mids and treble on the XC. The combination is extremely enjoyable to listen to and the punch from the bass, clear mids and treble with N6 sounded the best out of everything I tried it with. Of course we are talking about some serious headphones but the N6 wasn't ashamed to feed them what they wanted. Great dynamics and an open soundstage.
JH Audio Angie Universal IEM [Volume 23/100, low gain] - The N6 to the Angie was a revelation. There is so much detail retrieval on tap with every small nuance being thrown out for the Angie to reproduce, and yet it still had a wide soundstage. I found that no frequency was fighting with each other to be heard. This is a very close second in my tests and it would be number one if the bass could extend as low as the LCD-XC. I heard no real hiss from the N6 using the somewhat sensitive Angie (17 Ohm resistance and 117db sensitivity @ 1kHz).
Overall difference from the X5 with these headphones is the X5 has a more forward presentation and more clinical sound, flatter, more closed in. The same qualities of the headphone shine through but with less timbre and dynamics. Less musicality. This gives me a perception of a slightly more detailed presentation from the X5 but not as enjoyable.
Line out to Oppo HA-1
For these tests I used the LCD-XC with the single ended output from the HA-1 and also compared the line out from the X5, no EQ on either player. The Line Level Output from the N6 is a respectable 1.7 volts.
Cayin N6 Line Out to the HA-1 was fantastic. The Dual DAC architecture compared well with the HA-1's built in ESS9018 DAC for detail retrieval, if not slightly behind. The N6 DACs had more separation and was nice and punchy. The leading edge of the notes had a great impact and the decay was tight and controlled. All the detail in the music is there and there seemed to be a greater sense of space.
FiiO X5 Line Out to the HA-1 sounded more clinical, more dry. I preferred the N6 Line Out.
Coaxial Digital Out to HA-1
Given that coaxial output simply bypasses the internal DAC on each player and sends the decoded digital signal to an external DAC this is an area where I don't expect any difference, and all I can say is I was surprised!! The N6 came through as more dynamic and revealing than the X5. Is it the three Oscillators in the N6? Is it the signal path? Is it the decoding of the music files? I have no idea, but my ears tell me that the N6 was tighter, faster, slightly louder, less boomy than the X5 coaxial digital out. Really surprised here. Are the differences night and day? NO, not at all, but they are there.
Line Out to FiiO e12 [bass boost off]
I know, the N6 isn't hooked up to the e12 but I forgot to take a pic of that!
From the e12 I used the LCD-XC, no EQ from either player.
The e12 flattened the soundstage and music was presented in a much dryer fashion than the N6 headphone out. Clearly the amplifier implementation in the N6 is made to take advantage of the dual DAC architecture. Once again, all the details are there but with less space in the music, less separation and less 'oomph' using the e12. It seems FiiO has a much dryer presentation overall and the Cayin presentation has more life.
X5 Line Out to e12 sounds very similar to the X5's headphone out. The e12 adds the required power for difficult to drive headphones and has slightly less grain than the X5 headphone out, but overall the similarities are obvious. Once again, given the more clinical signature of the e12 it felt not as organic as the N6 pairing yet slightly more revealing, more detailed.
Final Thoughts
I've been quite happy with the X5 for the time I've had with it and given the use of the same DAC in the N6 and the overall similar power ratings I didn't expect there to be much audible difference between the two DAPs. I was wrong. Sure, they have a similar sound signatures but the magic happens in the nuances. With better dynamics, more punch, and a larger soundstage the N6 is clearly ahead of the X5 to me. These details bring out a more organic musicality in the N6 that the first generation X5 doesn't have. The user experience isn't as mature as with the X5 but from following the N6 forum on Head-Fi I'm sure that improvements are coming.
Would I purchase one? If I didn't already have the X5 and based exclusively on the sound quality, yes, in heart beat. However, with less battery life, a less mature UI and it's price being almost twice as much as the X5 the decision becomes more difficult. Also with the new X5 II coming soon (which I will be reviewing) the decision becomes even more difficult.
If you don't already have a high resolution Digital Audio Player and are looking for top of the line audio reproduction on the go, or even as a source integrated with the rest of your audio system, the Cayin N6 is a great buy in the mid to upper tier of players on the market. The sound this player can reproduce is nothing short of stunning.
Thanks for reading.
Photos taken with Canon 7D,
custom white balance, manual focus, polarizing filter,
and iPhone 5s.
Small note on Custom Themes
I've been active in creating custom themes for the X5 and have been quite happy with the results. Cayin has expressed that they may allow custom theme modification in the future at which time I may not be able to resist picking one up. In my opinion it would go a long way to helping the usability of the device, not that its terrible as it is now.