The Cayin C5 portable power house. | Page 106 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

imackler · May 1, 2015 at 7:47 PM

Anyone compare the C5 to the SR71A, Pico Power or any of the other more expensive big boys? Looking to drive my HD600/HD650 on a budget better than a E12 can.

Also, can anyone compare to the Fiio E12 DIY (even in stock config)?

Rozenberg · May 2, 2015 at 6:48 PM

imackler said:
Anyone compare the C5 to the SR71A, Pico Power or any of the other more expensive big boys? Looking to drive my HD600/HD650 on a budget better than a E12 can.

Also, can anyone compare to the Fiio E12 DIY (even in stock config)?

I'm also interested in the comparison of the performance between the C5 and the mentioned.

As for driving power, I believe the C5 is more than enough to drive high impedance headphones.
Last time I tried to demo HD600 and 650, it's still set on low gain and volume at 4,5 - 5. Still a lot of reserve power to get loud enough. Even my normal listening power with K7XX is at 3,5-4, and IEMs at 2 or 2,5

dennis611 · May 3, 2015 at 10:44 AM

Just got myself a pre loved unit (6 months old) and have been very happy with it..Using it together with X3 pairing my Momentum over ears.
I'd like to just ask about the battery life where I found that when it reaches the last led, the batt will just drain out very fast and before I know it. the unit will shut down by itself ..
Is this normal? Shouldn't it last longer?

skingg · May 3, 2015 at 10:50 AM

dennis611 said:
Just got myself a pre loved unit (6 months old) and have been very happy with it..Using it together with X3 pairing my Momentum over ears.
I'd like to just ask about the battery life where I found that when it reaches the last led, the batt will just drain out very fast and before I know it. the unit will shut down by itself ..
Is this normal? Shouldn't it last longer?

I had my unit on the final led last an hour before I switched it off and charged it. Perhaps it could go a little longer but someone did say the last led doesn't last as long as the first two led.

dennis611 · May 3, 2015 at 12:11 PM

Thanks for your input. Mine did not last even for half and hour.

hucifer · May 4, 2015 at 11:31 AM

The battery seems to be the weak spot of this amp. It takes ages to recharge and burns out noticeably faster than my E18.

zazex · May 5, 2015 at 2:17 AM

hucifer said:
The battery seems to be the weak spot of this amp. It takes ages to recharge and burns out noticeably faster than my E18.

Hmmm.

Mine charges quickly (I charge it with an adapter from the mains)
and hasn't even gone below the 2nd LED, though I listen to it very
often (even fall asleep with it on LOL).

philk34 · May 5, 2015 at 6:10 AM

Hi all,

I am actually listening to my C5 while answering and I really enjoy it.

That said, I noticed that the C5 takes advantage of a powerful recharge socket.
Practically, it will take hours to charge on a PC (limited to 500mA) and I suspect it even won't charge to 100%. On a 2A charger (one dedicated to tablets for example), it is fast (a pai of hours, I guess) and the battery is confortable, for my use. No measurement, sorry, I charge once a week or so, during the night.
But it look like (once no measurement), that it stay shorter on the secon led than on the first and even shorter on the last. But the last, I noticed that only the first time I received it and charged on a PC. I have not been to "stop from battery drain" since.

Hope it helps.

PsiCore · May 5, 2015 at 6:44 AM

philk34 said:
But it look like (once no measurement), that it stay shorter on the secon led than on the first and even shorter on the last.

Funny, for me it seems like the first and second are almost the same (pretty fast) and the longest is the third (I'm always asking myself "Jeeez, how long can it take?").
In general from a 2A charger it's about 4h.

dennis611 · May 5, 2015 at 9:07 AM

How long can your last led last .

zazex · May 5, 2015 at 4:30 PM

dennis611 said:
How long can your last led last .

I haven't paid much attention to this,
but I'd say a couple of hours max

G_T_J · May 6, 2015 at 10:19 AM

My C5 came today.

I'm running it like this: X1 > FiiO L16 > C5 > Sennheiser HD598 and the result is utterly mind-blowing! When I switch to HifiMan's RE-400, the sound signature and SQ in general remain pretty close with the only difference, of course, being a much narrower soundstage as you'd expect with an IEM. This means that it also boosts the RE-400 to perform to a completely different (higher) level.

I can't stretch out how big difference the combo makes in comparison with the X1's headphone out.

Lohb · May 8, 2015 at 2:01 AM

Going to try and get the Beresford Caiman Mk2 DAC to pair with my modded Cayin C5...

HRT microStreamer goes very well with C5 but want to see if the C Mk2 hype is real or not. I run these smaller USB DAC's off of isolated mains power or a battery.
I incorrectly attributed bass bloom to the pairing initially, but after re-tuning my Fostex planars that issue is now gone....very natural/3D presentation...does not add any treble grate whatsoever to peaky treble planars....

I wonder how the new HRT DSP iDPS goes with C5..I may step down to that and use C5 and DSP for mobile....I read the mids are better on the DSP than microStreamer....surprising.
That could be a killer entry-level pairing DSP/C5...entry-level stuff just getting better and better.

philk34 · May 8, 2015 at 4:40 AM

lohb said:
Going to try and get the Beresford Caiman Mk2 DAC to pair with my modded Cayin C5...

What do you mean by modded?

Lohb · May 8, 2015 at 4:45 AM

philk34 said:
What do you mean by modded?

opamp is in my sig. below.

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