Ok, this is pretty cool.

The machine on the left has over 250 hours of "time played". Some line out, more headphone out.
The machine on the right is brand new.
The short story is, with the same files, out of the internal drive, with identical EVERYTHING settings, the "burned" machine sounds better at reproducing the music. No matter how complicated the mix becomes.
The new machine sounds like it's still figuring out how to reproduce dense mixes. Lots of instruments, that sort of thing. Still sounds great, no doubt.
I remember the "burned" player sounding this way when I first got it.
It's a small difference, but that's why we're doing this. Small things can make a big difference.
I had a friend tell me the i5 sounds like every instrument now has it's own speaker.
That's a pretty accurate description.

Update: One thing I do notice is the volume knob on the new machine is much easier to turn than the first unit. I like it better.

At around 20 hours the new unit still isn't as refined as the "burned" one. It seems better though. Just not quite as articulate in the trenches.
Much deeper soundstage on the "burned" machine.
The "Us And Them Torture Test" reveals all.
The "burned" one sounds effortless on the densely packed choruses. You can hear the bass notes separate from the keyboards, and pick out the background vocals. Amazing!
The new unit sounds like it's struggling slightly. Instruments like the saxophone don't sound as true to life on the new player.

Same fw version on both?

karloil said:

Maybe @Andykong
can also confirm the USB C to Coax pinout :bigsmile_face:

Click to expand...

x Relic x was able to help me with my inquiry of a USB C to Coax in another thread.

Andykong can you confirm that the i5 has Coax out in its 3.5mm jack too?

nmatheis said:

Same fw version on both?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I did an A-B last night with the firmware on the new one as it came (2.0) and the difference was more noticeable. Now with the 2.2 installed it just has that "confused" sound on dense mixes.
My torture test for audio has always been the 3 choruses of "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd. To date, the i5 (with 250 hours plus) has been the only player that resolves all the complex stuff on that song. You hear all the separate instruments instead of a buzz in your ear. (I still think they made that a little hot, volume wise, but I always trust the mixing engineer. If you play it on the right gear, it sounds amazing!)

Thanks for confirming that professor55.

Are there any thoughts on some of these i5 fault reports, my locking volume control and the comment from Demard? Anyone else seeing the same behaviour from the i5.

Tidal seem to have washed their hands with this by informing me ( rightly or not ) that Tidal requires Android 4.4.4. I can see for some Tidal support might be a deal breaker but not for me, I just remain interested having only recently bought the i5. I have a 90 day Tidal trial that lasts through to June so I've been trying it on other devices I own where it works without the stuttering issue. I think Tidal is ok but I also signed up for a Spotify account and find Spotify to be adequate for my purposes along with music on my 128gb sd card.

Regards

briand19 said:

Are there any thoughts on some of these i5 fault reports, my locking volume control and the comment from Demard? Anyone else seeing the same behaviour from the i5.

Tidal seem to have washed their hands with this by informing me ( rightly or not ) that Tidal requires Android 4.4.4. I can see for some Tidal support might be a deal breaker but not for me, I just remain interested having only recently bought the i5. I have a 90 day Tidal trial that lasts through to June so I've been trying it on other devices I own where it works without the stuttering issue. I think Tidal is ok but I also signed up for a Spotify account and find Spotify to be adequate for my purposes along with music on my 128gb sd card.

Regards

Click to expand...

I have had a tidal subscription for a while now. Stuff like this is making me consider cancelling the subscription. You would think people that use a device like the i5 are whole tidal would want to make happy, who else really cares about hifi? I am actually moving away from streaming for a variety of reasons. The chief reason is just what Andy said about why Cayin are moving away from streaming and android, just going to keep my chain simpler with a standard dap.

Good grief the opus 1 is an amazing sounding dap. People, try it out. Sounds really good.

For a dap with equal sq to the opus but with streaming ability (tidal works fine) consider the Acoustic Research M20. Excellent dap.

bavinck said:

I have had a tidal subscription for a while now. Stuff like this is making me consider cancelling the subscription. You would think people that use a device like the i5 are whole tidal would want to make happy, who else really cares about hifi? I am actually moving away from streaming for a variety of reasons. The chief reason is just what Andy said about why Cayin are moving away from streaming and android, just going to keep my chain simpler with a standard dap.

Good grief the opus 1 is an amazing sounding dap. People, try it out. Sounds really good.

For a dap with equal sq to the opus but with streaming ability (tidal works fine) consider the Acoustic Research M20. Excellent dap.

Click to expand...

I started using spotify and tidal but have evolved to making music to offline so I can hear during my travels, etc.I have a huge set of Flacs from my days of owning CD's, etc but it will never compete with 20M plus libraries and all the curated options.Myself will continue to use Android based devices as I hate being restricted to one thing.

bavinck said:

I have had a tidal subscription for a while now. Stuff like this is making me consider cancelling the subscription. You would think people that use a device like the i5 are whole tidal would want to make happy, who else really cares about hifi? I am actually moving away from streaming for a variety of reasons. The chief reason is just what Andy said about why Cayin are moving away from streaming and android, just going to keep my chain simpler with a standard dap.

Good grief the opus 1 is an amazing sounding dap. People, try it out. Sounds really good.

For a dap with equal sq to the opus but with streaming ability (tidal works fine) consider the Acoustic Research M20. Excellent dap.

Click to expand...

Opus 1 may sound amazing, and is getting good comment on headfi.  However it does not have streaming, so if people want that function it is not comparable to the i5.
 
Acoustic Research has less talk about it for whatever reason, but in the uk at least is an extra £200!

I tried the AR DAPs at RMAF and walked away unimpressed. It was quite some time ago, so I don't remember specifics. I just remember sitting down, listening for a bit, not being very impressed with the sound, and thinking that it was time to move on...

demard said:

After firmwares update to 2.2 this problem become more often. When a song end,playing in folder, it stuck and refuse to jump to next in queue and vu meter is jumping up and down until i press next

Click to expand...

Do you refer to unexpected stop at the end of a song and will not move to another song within the same folder?

I didn't notice this problem with my v2.2 i5, I used turn on play through Folder all the time and let it loop through my TF card, it just keep going playing songs after songs, and folders after folder.

May I suggest you perform a double wipe on your i5 and then scan the TF card again?

karloil said:

is anyone using the i5 with a Mojo via Coax? can you share the Coax pin configuration? or where you got the Coax cable?

@Andykong

karloil said:

Maybe @Andykong
can also confirm the USB C to Coax pinout :bigsmile_face:

Click to expand...

can you supply the Coax pinouts?

Click to expand...

I had, with DIY procedures:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/802382/cayin-i5-lossless-android-dap-with-akm4490-dac-supporting-32-384-pcm-64-128-dsd/2085#post_13033755

The process is not particularly difficult if you can find the required USB connector that has all the pins extended to a small PCB.

andykong said:

I had, with DIY procedures:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/802382/cayin-i5-lossless-android-dap-with-akm4490-dac-supporting-32-384-pcm-64-128-dsd/2085#post_13033755

Click to expand...

 
Thanks Andy, Relic was also able to point out the same link for me too.
 
Another thing to further confirm, does the i5 also have Coax out? I'm also planning to use Coax out to Mojo In

karloil said:

thanks for the reply. I need a shorter one for portable use.

on the other hand - I went to the N6 thread and I get to read a lot more:


So i guess a normal line-out interconnect will do or a DIYed TS plug

Click to expand...

karloil said:

x Relic x was able to help me with my inquiry of a USB C to Coax in another thread.

Andykong can you confirm that the i5 has Coax out in its 3.5mm jack too?

Click to expand...

N6 has a completely different approach in handling S/PDIF bitstream because it has a dedicated 3.5mm connector for Coaxial S/PDIF output. i5 has two 3.5mm output dedicated to phone out and line out, it does not has a 3.5mm Coaxial output.