Hello everyone
Dear Andykong, or Thomas Ibyy, or anyone infromed, could you please answer a few questions about Cayin N6 DAP. As N6 looks very interesting to me, I'd like to clarify some moments pertaining to its UI, firmware and hardware. So:
1) Does Cayin N6 support auto switching to the next folder after completing the playback of a current folder (i.e. I have several folders with music files on my micro SD card, can N6 progressively play all the music on micro SD card without me manually switching to the next folder after the playback of the current folder completes?). If it does not for now, are there any plans for implementing the feature in the future firmware releases?
2) What is the general scheme of USB DAC implementation: does the user have to install a driver for Cayin N6 to make it work in DAC mode (under Windows) or does the DAP work as DAC just by switching to DAC mode in the DAP menu and connecting it to PC via USB?
3) Does Cayin N6 have any software problems playing any music files in DAC mode (e.g. crashes when trying to play particular files, large lag in response to user actions, like ibasso DX 90)?
4) Does Cayin N6 support DoP (DSD over PCM) playback in DAC mode? If not, are there any plans for implementing the feature in the future firmware releases?
5) What is the actual time of playback (for example, of FLAC 16 bit, 44.1 kHz files) on one battery charge?
6) What are the functions of the jog dial: can it be rotated in two directions? Is it clickable? (and what these actions do: switch between tracks, fast forward\rewind, play/pause) Is it function assignable?
I would be much obliged, if anyone clarifies these points, as well as many people following this thread, I suppose
I'll give this a try, will forwards the questions to Cayin if there are issues that out of my hands currently.
(1) N6 does not support auto folder switching at the moment, not even in the new firmware that come with the production version N6 (as far as I know of). I have recommended Cayin to add similar function, my suggestion isn't exactly what you have stated but should fit the bill too: When you browse through the "Music Library", hold the jog dial for 2 second at a folder location to bring out a Quick menu, and allow user to select "Play" at folder level. This will start playing all songs and sub-folders under this selected folder, and play mode can be "play once", "repeat all" and "Shuffle", depends on the play mode that you selected in your DAP setup. Cayin has similar Quick Menu features in N6 but that was a title level, not folder level, they might need to sort out quick a bit of file structure and play list coding before this can be done. Cayin has acknowledged this suggestion and put into their to-do list, but the list is pretty long and I have no idea the priority of this item in the list, so it is in the queue, but I have no idea about the schedule.
(2) Cayin didn't disclose detail on the chipset they adopted for USB DAC implementation. I didn't notice other DAP has done that, but maybe I didn't look close enough. To the best of my knowledge, all Asynchronous USB drivers are pre-loaded in iOS system, so if you are using a Mac, you don't need to install any driver to use the N6 USB DAC, or any other Asynchronous USB DAC for that matters. Unfortunately Window OS does not included this driver in the system by default, so you need to install a driver to use ANY Asyn. USB DAC. You can download the driver from Cayin website which they are building right now. For Linux based system, the Asynchronous USB driver is included in the default system, but since there are uncountable Linux implementation out there, some customized Linux system might have left out this driver for whatever reason, so it is system-dependent.
(3) Did not come across any obvious bud on N6 USB DAC mode, and I didn't recall other Beta Tester has raised any alert on this area, but to be sure, I'll put in an query to Cayin, they have all the internal testing and beta test report on hand, so they can consolidate the test report and provide an answer with more supporting test data.
(4) I have not tested the DoP function of N6, can't comment on that, will ask Cayin to feedback on this.
(5) I have tested the battery life of N6 Beta quite extensively, my testing strategy is to charge the DAP to 99%, play a certain type of audio format continuously until the machine black out, and with minimum manipulation in between. I won't list all the test detail but I can quote TWO test condition for your reference.:
- Sony EX1000, Low Gain, Vol. = 50, WAV 16/44.1, repeat 10 songs in a folder, battery life = 445 mins.
- Sony EX1000, High Gain, Vol. = 80, DSD64/DD128, repeat 3 songs of different DSD format in a folder, battery life = 409 mins.
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For condition (1), the music is played at modest loudness, this is the typical sound level that I heard regularly. For condition (2), the IEM plays at a really loud level, although it won't damage the IEM, but I can hardly finish hearing one song at this loud level. I can literally hear the IEM at 3 feets away, I suppose this is the toughest condition you can get into in terms of DAP batter usage. I don't expect the production version will offer significant improvement when it comes out, but there is a chance that future firmware refinement will extend the batter life slightly, from what I experienced with iBasso and Fiio, this is not a top priority firmware refinement, so will take a while before they get to that.
(6) The job dial is fantastic, it can rotate in both directions and clickable. You can control around 90% of the DAP function through this job dial alone. It is not user definable.