[PinkyPowers]

Hi,

I'm new to this high quality audio thing.  I just purchased the N5 through Amazon and now I need to buy a SD card for the player.

Can someone send me a link to the SD card I should buy (preferably Amazon or Ebay link).

All these different class cards, transfer speeds, etc.....  Too much crap to figure out which one to buy.

Thanks.

Really anything Class 10, name-brand, from a reputable seller will do. These are the two best-sellers, both tested thoroughly by us Head-Fi'ers.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Memory-Adapter--SDSDQUAN-032G-G4A-Version/dp/B00M55C0NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444616145&sr=8-1&keywords=microSD

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Class-Adapter-MB-MP64DA-AM/dp/B00IVPU7AO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1444616145&sr=8-3&keywords=microSD

 

[Andykong]

Hi,

I'm new to this high quality audio thing.  I just purchased the N5 through Amazon and now I need to buy a SD card for the player.

Can someone send me a link to the SD card I should buy (preferably Amazon or Ebay link).

All these different class cards, transfer speeds, etc.....  Too much crap to figure out which one to buy.

Thanks.

From functional point of view, any Class 10 card will work well with N5, so its the capacity that matters most.

Read speed is not a big deal for audio application, even when you are dealing with the more demanding DSD format, the standard 40 MB/s is sufficient already. The write speed will affect the file transfer time from your computer to the TF card, 30 MB/s is slow, 60 MB/s is fast, 90 MB/s is very fast but you need a high performance card reader to explore that benefit.

I have a bunch of 64GBcards, 128GB is far too expensive at the time I bought my cards. Toshiba is my default choice but mainly because of its water proof and X-ray proof feature.

 

[Andy Le]

Thanks for the quick response.  Got it, class 10.

 

[nmatheis]

I would fully expect the Colorfly to beat the Cayin N5. I haven't heard the C4, but the reviews (and price) put it in a different class altogether.

My experience with the N5 is that it performs quite squarely within its price range. It's competition is the X5 and DX90, with which is stands neck and neck. Don't buy this DAP expecting it to outperform devices in the $500-$1000 range.

I mean, you can, if you want, but it will disappoint you. The N5 is not a miracle, just a really decent audio player for the price.

Quite the pragmatic response. Not very headfi :wink_face:

I've got Fiio X5,iBasso DX90, and Shanling M3 in house right now and will have Cayin N5, Fiio X7, and Shanling M2 in house soon - hopefully there'll be overlap. It'll be interesting to see which I end up preferring from both a sound and UI perspective.

Good time to be a portable audio enthusiast, my friends!!!

 

[Andykong]

Is cayin able to enable balance line out? As I intend to hook it up to my alo continental dual mono. Currently I'm using volume 90 in balance to hook up to the amp as any higher will cause distortion

Thanks

Enable balanced line out? If you want a fixed output line out from the 2.5mm PO connection, we need to install additional hardware into the player, we can't do that by firmware upgrade only.

You are using the 2.5 PO as a Balanced Line out? Can you share this with us? This is an interesting idea. Setting Vol to 90 is probably very high, is there any problem to set the volume at a lower level such as 70 and then adjust the volume at the amplifier side to compensate?

 

[PinkyPowers]

Quite the pragmatic response. Not very headfi :wink_face:

lol. Just trying to be as honest as I can.

Good time to be a portable audio enthusiast, my friends!!!

Indeed. The market is really filling up with fantastic products.

 

[Xcygen]

yes but I am using alo continental dual mono. This amp on Low gain is quite weak on 3.5mm line out and line in from amp. So I have to use 2.5 balance out with nearly MAx volume to 2.5mm input of my amp probably 90 is the sweet spot anything above I can hear distortion

 

[Andykong]

yes but I am using alo continental dual mono. This amp on Low gain is quite weak on 3.5mm line out and line in from amp. So I have to use 2.5 balance out with nearly MAx volume to 2.5mm input of my amp probably 90 is the sweet spot anything above I can hear distortion

My friend, you have very good ear, from technical point of view, Vol at 90 is very close to the sweet spot of the amplifier output, it is very close to 2.2v output, which is the equivalent to the 3.5mm line out of N5. You might need to fine tune the volume due to compensate the output level of the CD/music file.

For the moment, I think this is the easiest way to achieve balanced line out with N5.

what is the connector used in Continental Dual mono? 4 pin square similar to Ray Samuel S71B? or DIN type similar to iBasso?

If you have pictures handy, please show us a few snapshot for your interesting setup.

 

[Xcygen]

Continental dual mono uses 2.5mm balance like ak and cayin. So my interconnect is both ends 2.5mm. Will upload a photo tonight once I'm done figuring how To get it done

 

[Audiotomb]

How would you compare the sound to the N6?

I use that with with Brainwavs and HD600s
Considering some Oppos

 

[twister6]

How would you compare the sound to the N6?

I use that with with Brainwavs and HD600s
Considering some Oppos

 
I covered that in my review last month: http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-n5-dsd-lossless-music-player/reviews/13977 (toward the end, brief comparison).

 

[Audiotomb]

Great review

Thanks for pointing me towards it

Major thanks for your observations and very insightful review.

I had my Cayin N6 just sitting in it's box - I'm an analog 2 channel guy
But with the weather finally cooling down down south I picked it up and love the sound in my HD600s
Especially the hi-rez files I have

Looks like I might need a Cayin C5

Has the software advanced to a 256 gb card yet?

Great to hear the N5 is doing so well at a low price point




The more people we can turn on to beautiful sound reproduction the better

 

[Andy Le]

OMG, my N5 shipped today from Hong Kong via Hong Kong Post.  The estimated delivery date is 5-24 November according to Amazon.  I hope this isn't the real estimate of when I will get my DAP.
 
Does anyone have experience with Hong Kong Post as far as how long it takes them to ship to California in the States?

 

[Andykong]

Great review

Thanks for pointing me towards it

Major thanks for your observations and very insightful review.

I had my Cayin N6 just sitting in it's box - I'm an analog 2 channel guy
But with the weather finally cooling down down south I picked it up and love the sound in my HD600s
Especially the hi-rez files I have

Looks like I might need a Cayin C5

Has the software advanced to a 256 gb card yet?

Great to hear the N5 is doing so well at a low price point




The more people we can turn on to beautiful sound reproduction the better

N5 has two TF cards, so you can achieve 256GB by using TWO 128GB TF card. The most you can get in a TF card format is 200GB and they are pretty expensive right now.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-200GB-Micro-SDSDQUAN-200G-G4A/dp/B00V62XBQQ

 

[swannie007]

  OMG, my N5 shipped today from Hong Kong via Hong Kong Post.  The estimated delivery date is 5-24 November according to Amazon.  I hope this isn't the real estimate of when I will get my DAP.
 
Does anyone have experience with Hong Kong Post as far as how long it takes them to ship to California in the States?

Hong Kong Post takes so bloody long that I normally forget what I ordered until it shows up! Oh yea, forget about a tracking number, thats just a joke and is never updated. If I ever have a choice, I always use an alternative but unfortunately most vendors that use HK post don't offer an alternative. That's are just my multiple experiences with shipping to Australia, others may have different experiences in other parts of the globe. Cheers.