[ilovecassettes]

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[Sulbh]

Can anyone please compare cayin n3 with colorfly c3?

 

[BogdanUK]

I like my N3 a lot but I just saw a new product from Shanling, the M2s Mini, and I am very curious if someone can compare it with the N3. This M2s Mini looks so good, a lot better than N3 but I don't know if it matches or exceeds the N3 sound quality. The price for both is similar in UK so I think it is a direct competitor.

 

[BartSimpson1976]

difference in sound quality is more or less neglectable (not only between these two but between DAPs in general) - just depends on what is your preference in sound signature and functionalities/

 

[groucho69]

I like my N3 a lot but I just saw a new product from Shanling, the M2s Mini, and I am very curious if someone can compare it with the N3. This M2s Mini looks so good, a lot better than N3 but I don't know if it matches or exceeds the N3 sound quality. The price for both is similar in UK so I think it is a direct competitor.

Nice. It is 34% more costly in Canada.

 

[riffrafff]

I like my N3 a lot but I just saw a new product from Shanling, the M2s Mini, and I am very curious if someone can compare it with the N3. This M2s Mini looks so good, a lot better than N3 but I don't know if it matches or exceeds the N3 sound quality. The price for both is similar in UK so I think it is a direct competitor.

Looks interesting. And it seems that company offers replacement screen protectors for their products. What a concept.

 

[ilovecassettes]

Yesterday I got this player in the mail and I figured I would post my first impressions here! I got it the same day as some Fiio EX1 IEMs. I was hoping there would be no hiss on the N3 with IEMs but it's not as bad as my old iPod. One issue though is there is a slight buzzing in the left channel I notice. I'm sure I'll grow used to it tho. I haven't done a head to head comparison with my iPod Video since it needs a part coming in the mail, but this combo with the EX1 is really really nice. I feel like there could be a bit more bass, but once again could be the new IEMs. Overall I'm mostly happy with the hardware else than the buzz in the left channel

Software was a big reason I bought this. It's mostly polished and doesn't give me issues. There are a few things I would like to see in the future, though:

1 Have the lights between the capacitive buttons turn on as long as the screen is on, not just when charging. It would help a lot with nighttime use (90% of my dap usage is then)

2 Have a lower brightness setting and shorter timer, but it's not too bad since I can just turn off the screen with the lock button

3 Have the album art smaller on the now playing screen so it's not cut off


Overall I'm mostly really happy with the player! I'm def going to be using the USB dac feature when listening from my PC, but not for video because it has half a second lag. Great player though, I'm watching Cayin closely now for new players

 

[BogdanUK]

difference in sound quality is more or less neglectable (not only between these two but between DAPs in general) - just depends on what is your preference in sound signature and functionalities/

I incline to agree with your statement but I can not wait to get to the CamJam London next month, and try as many DAPs, DACs and Headphones as possible, and see if really it is such a big difference in sound to justify their big tag price. And then I will completely agree...or not Even because I am looking for a good but not crazy expensive portable amp to complete my N3 and ATH-WS1100is bundle.
I personally prefer a warmer sound with a good, healthy but clean bass rather than a neutral signature more suitable to musicians in my opinion. And N3 is warm enough and I can use it also as a DAC with my gaming laptop. Plus if keep upgrading and spend more and more money my wife will send me to the dog house I don't have )) so outside basically.

 

[BogdanUK]

Nice. It is 34% more costly in Canada.

To be more precise on Amazon UK the N3 is £149.99 and the M2s mini is £169.99 so very close price wise. Anyway, I've just bought the N3 about 2 months ago, so not very keen to replace it with the M2s so soon even because I am not holding all the facts about the M2s to judge if it is worth or not to switch.

 

[Dcell7]

To be more precise on Amazon UK the N3 is £149.99 and the M2s mini is £169.99 so very close price wise. Anyway, I've just bought the N3 about 2 months ago, so not very keen to replace it with the M2s so soon even because I am not holding all the facts about the M2s to judge if it is worth or not to switch.

They are very similar performance and functionality wise. Both powered by a AK4490 dac and by Hiby software. I had the N3 on my list and even almost bought it but i opted for the M2s instead because of the looks. My 2 cents are if you have a N3 buying a M2s won't give you anything that you don't already have. Sound wise i can't say because i have never heard the N3. Both are outstanding players according to the reviews.

It's actually called M2s. There is no "mini" involved in the name. The word mini in the Amazon UK listing is probably attached to the words following the mini word. So it's like M2s, mini hifi portable player etc etc.

 

[gLer]

Hey guys, has anyone noticed significant differences in volume levels of different albums due to file format, specifically AAC? Seems most of my AAC albums play quite a bit softer than most of my FLAC and DSD albums (I know DSD gain is set to +6 which could affect this, but Flac is not). Might just be me and my sources so thought I'd ask it here. Would using Replay Gain make any difference (I've tried, with Album and Track, but it doesn't seem to make any difference even after I updated the music library - which I assume you need to do for Replay Gain to take effect?). Sorry if this is a noob question but since I'm fairly new to DAPs this is my best and only resource for N3 info. Thx in advance.

Edit: just did a rough measurement, and I need to increase volume on most of my AAC tracks by 20 points or more to get to similar volume levels as my Flac albums.

 

[MusicLover99]

Can you describe your playback condition in more detail?
Playback mode: Sequential playback of a complete folder? Shuffle playback of all song?
File Format: all songs in one format? mixtures of different PCM format with different resolution? mixtures of PCM and DSD format with different resolution?
Condition of the Pop sound: happen in every song? happen when change a folder under folder playback?

Any additional detail to help us understand your playback condition will help us to identify the cause of the pop sound, and then we can determine whether that is resolvable.

Hi @Andykong,

No matter I play by folder, playlist, all songs, sequential or shuffle playback, I hear the pop sound in between of every songs. I also hear the same pop sound when I click Next to jump to the next song. I have tried with different iem and they are all giving same result.

What I do now is using low gain as the pop sound is reduced a little bit.

I mostly have PCM WAV and FLAC 44.1 khz in my N3.

Thanks.

 

[elNan]

I know the leather case is way better, but just wondering, are the silicone cases available to purchase somewhere? I've seen pictures of them in a lot of different colors but I can't find them.

 

[Wiljen]

Can anyone please compare cayin n3 with colorfly c3?

No comparison between the two but then again not really a fair comparison when looking at $150 vs $53 either. The N3 outclasses the C3 in about every possible way. Going from memory as my C3 experience ended sometime back, The C3 wouldn't work as a DAC from the computer or as a transport via USB or spdif as the N3 will. The C3 didnt display album art or have folder shuffle. The worst feature of the C3 for me was that it was prone to stutter and lockup periodically. That may sound like I'm trashing the C3 and I'm not, it was a good sounding basic little player. What it wasn't is the swiss army knife of DAPs that the N3 is, nor was the interface as good on the C3 as the N3 already is and with the new firmware coming out fairly frequently for the N3, I suspect it will continue to improve while the C3 is pretty steady state at this point.

If you want a very basic but very good sounding player the C3 is still an option if you are willing to put up with lack of album art and shuffle features. (Also it wont read from both internal storage and card at once, you have to flip between).
If you want the versatility to use one device as a transport, a portable DAP, or a USB DAC then the N3 is better suited and has at least as good a sound quality as the C3 with a better output stage as it will drive higher impedance headphones than the C3.

 

[doowap]

Hi all, first post on Head-Fi. I just got my N3 from amazon yesterday and I am overall very happy with it. It has way more functionality than my fiio x3ii, and sounds more refined to me. I am having an issue with the usb connection though. When I connect with my macbook pro it shows up as a usb dac for a moment, works for like 30s and then cuts out. I suspect it's an issue with the cable supplied in the box, but I am using the newest beta firmware so I guess it could be a bug. I don't have any other usb c cables around so I ordered one from anker, I'll report back when I get the chance to test it. Aside from this one issue, which hopefully is no big deal, I am very happy with the N3. BT aptx > N3 Line out > Aux in my car sounds way better than standard bluetooth audio straight to the car stereo, which is a big deal for me because now I can use my phone to control music without sacrificing too much SQ. Great product.