This review only considers N5ii as a Spotify player and streamer, as others more qualified have already reviewed the audio quality and as a FLAC player. If you don't use Spotify, you can and should ignore most of the review!
Cayin N5ii has great audio quality, but avoid it if you plan to use it mainly as a Spotify player.
By far the most pervasive and frustrating issue is that the N5ii's Spotify stops recognizing offline files you have downloaded from Spotify. The files are still on the player, Spotify just doesn't find them. This happens regardless of using the internal storage or a microSD card. I have had this issue perhaps a dozen times over four months of usage. Sometimes it works for weeks, sometimes I get the issue every few days.
You are forced to delete the files with a file browser, and re-download everything. As Spotify is limited to 3333 offline songs per device, they take more than 30 gigs of space and bandwidth at highest quality, which will take hours.
There are several suggested workarounds and fixes found on the forums, none of which work 100% of the time for me. If you're traveling, you're SOL. The best way to ensure I have music at all times is that I loaded all my MP3s on the microSD card for the times when Spotify fails.
In fairness, this issues is not limited to N5ii and plagues some other DAPs, but that's little consolation when you've spent several hundred euros on a Spotify DAP which doesn't work properly. No Android phone or tablet I've ever used has this issue with Spotify, nor did my Sony NWZ-F886.
Another concern is the poor quality 3.5mm jack. After just four months of usage it's already much looser than originally. It's clearly weak plastic, and I highly doubt it will last almost four years like the Sony's did. Some people have reported failed ports on the forums. Fortunately there's the 2.5mm jack as backup for when it fails.
In addition, there are many more user interface and experience frustrations:
Troubleshooting and fixing any of the Spotify problems is difficult since Cayin tech support doesn't have Spotify, so can't test anything (Spotify not available in China?). Therefore I don't think any Chinese DAP will have a good Spotify implementation in the foreseeable future, so there's really no good Spotify alternative in this - or any? - price range.
I really wanted to like the player, but due to the awful Spotify UI and UX I can't recommend it to anyone as a Spotify player, either for offline or streaming use. When the music is on, it's sublime, though.
Cayin N5ii has great audio quality, but avoid it if you plan to use it mainly as a Spotify player.
By far the most pervasive and frustrating issue is that the N5ii's Spotify stops recognizing offline files you have downloaded from Spotify. The files are still on the player, Spotify just doesn't find them. This happens regardless of using the internal storage or a microSD card. I have had this issue perhaps a dozen times over four months of usage. Sometimes it works for weeks, sometimes I get the issue every few days.
You are forced to delete the files with a file browser, and re-download everything. As Spotify is limited to 3333 offline songs per device, they take more than 30 gigs of space and bandwidth at highest quality, which will take hours.
There are several suggested workarounds and fixes found on the forums, none of which work 100% of the time for me. If you're traveling, you're SOL. The best way to ensure I have music at all times is that I loaded all my MP3s on the microSD card for the times when Spotify fails.
In fairness, this issues is not limited to N5ii and plagues some other DAPs, but that's little consolation when you've spent several hundred euros on a Spotify DAP which doesn't work properly. No Android phone or tablet I've ever used has this issue with Spotify, nor did my Sony NWZ-F886.
Another concern is the poor quality 3.5mm jack. After just four months of usage it's already much looser than originally. It's clearly weak plastic, and I highly doubt it will last almost four years like the Sony's did. Some people have reported failed ports on the forums. Fortunately there's the 2.5mm jack as backup for when it fails.
In addition, there are many more user interface and experience frustrations:
- Keyboard has a significant delay, and often drops typed keys or selected buttons entirely
- This combined with tiny on-screen keyboard makes typing even a song's name in search bar an exercise in frustration
- Due to the delays, browsing through your Spotify music collection is slow and cumbersome even if you don't need to use the keyboard
- Weak wifi, and it may cause static-like noise. Tech support suggested moving closer to my wifi router - I was five meters away from it, behind a glass door and some furniture. Therefore I don't recommend the player for streaming.
- When the screen is turned off, the player does not always return to Spotify when turning it back on. Then you have to start swiping and searching for Spotify in your list of programs. This has been confirmed by Cayin to be a "feature, not a bug," and that they will not fix it.
- UI is slow to respond and often misses taps entirely
- There's a 2.5 sec delay when pressing the hardware pause button. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but results in awkward social interactions.
- There's no hardware lock for the buttons
Troubleshooting and fixing any of the Spotify problems is difficult since Cayin tech support doesn't have Spotify, so can't test anything (Spotify not available in China?). Therefore I don't think any Chinese DAP will have a good Spotify implementation in the foreseeable future, so there's really no good Spotify alternative in this - or any? - price range.
I really wanted to like the player, but due to the awful Spotify UI and UX I can't recommend it to anyone as a Spotify player, either for offline or streaming use. When the music is on, it's sublime, though.
