Cayin N3 Pro loaner tour review;



Gear used for review and comparison;

• Focal Eligia
• Hifiman Ananda
• Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless
• Astell&Kern Kann Cube
• Cowon Plenue R
• Monoprice Liquid Platinum
• Little Bear B4x

This is not going to be a technical review as I know there will be others that are better at that than me. I did not insert photos as there are great photos in the other reviews. I will focus on how it is to use the player and how it is able to deliver the little nuances of each song I play. I listen to a variety of music except country and western. Mostly jazz, soul, r&b, pop, reggae, and hip hop. The last is for when my daughters are around so I can embarrass them.

So, let’s get started. I was looking forward to reviewing this product because I am a fan of devices that use AKM DACs. I understand that it is the implementation of the DAC that is critical but I have found DAC’s that use AKM chips to be musical as opposed to the more analytical Saber DACs. So that would make me a little biased in my review.

I did not get into how it sounded in wireless mode because there was no difference with my other players. I would imagine the sound is determined by the headphones. No issues with connection.

I will start off by saying if you are looking for a portable dap that offers you a variety of listening flavors, this player fits that category. I will get into more detail if you read on but for those of you with a short attention span here is a quick explanation. When I listen with the balanced connection, I found the sound to be very precise and detailed. Switching to single mode I found it to be very close to the same just not as crisp in its definition. When I used tube mode, I noticed the sound to be slightly warmer which made longer listening sessions easier on my old ears. The Focal Eligia’s and the Beyer’s seemed less warm than the Ananda’s.

It was very close when I compared the N3 pro to the Cowon Little Bear combo but I would prefer the N3 pro for portable use. Just less bulky. When compared to the Kann Cube Monoprice combo there was a difference. The Kann Cube combo had the same warmth added but retained most of the detail in the songs. An example is during the song Somedays by Jacksoul, l can hear someone was snapping their fingers. You could tell clearly their fingers are snapping with the Kann combo but not as evident with the N3. Remember the Kann combo is 5 times the price of the N3 so I was glad to see the difference even though it was not earth shattering.

The Next song I listened to was Yulanga by Dead can Dance. You have to be patient with this tune because the introduction is about half way through. You hear the female vocals first but then the percussion comes in. It is very dramatic and more so when you hear the amazon wildlife sounds thrown in in spots. The N3 was able to provide good definition and almost equaled the Kann in balanced mode and again it was toned down a bit when I switched to tubes. Both players provided similar definition of instruments and wildlife as the music seemed to circle my head. At 4:10 some heavy percussion was introduced and it sounded like distortion with the N3 but less so with the Kann. When I compared it to the Cowon combo it was the same as the N3, so with similar priced devices it was comparable.

Kiss in Blue by Yellow. In balanced mode the vocals were very forward where you lost some of the instruments in the background even though the detail was there. When I switched to tube mode the volume decreased slightly and the vocals blended a little more with the instruments. The song has a good blend of vocals, bass guitar and percussion with a little sax thrown in. The vocals dominate the tune and slightly overpowered the instruments. When compared to the Kann Cube Monoprice combo there was better separation between the vocals and instruments but again the price difference.

Percussion Shuffle by Charlie Hunter. Listening in balanced mode the cymbals and cow bells were very dominant and vibrant while in tube mode the percussion seemed to dominate more but with less crispness. In balanced mode the bells had an echo when they played while with the tubes activated the echo seemed to disappear. The tube made the song less harsh and melodic. Basically, if you want to analyze the song listen in balanced mode but if you want to sit back and relax, turn on the tubes. It was not a big difference but it is evident.

For an old guy I was able to navigate through the user interface with no issues. I was able to find the different tube modes easily. Triode was a little crisper than the Ultra linear in the presentation so I did my review in Triode mode. I also found the player to be quite comfortable in the hand and as stated before more portable than my other players. There were times that the screen was not sensitive enough as I found myself tapping the screen several times to change tunes.

All my headphones are easy to drive so I can’t comment on its performance with hard to drive headphones. Hopefully one of the other reviewers can do that.

Sorry I have gone on too long so I will stop here. This was my first formal review so was not sure on how long it should be. If you are interested in my thoughts for the other tunes I compared, just send me an e-mail.

I also compared the following tunes, Right in the Middle by Luther Vandrose, Sun is Shinning by Bob Marley and Feeling of Jazz by Wynton Marsellis.

I did send two questions to Andy so perhaps he could post the answers here.

• Can you tube roll and does it have to be sent to an authorized dealer?
• As it has wi-fi, is there a plan to allow Tidal in a future upgrade or does the hardware limit that ability?

The bottom line is this is a very good sounding DAP and yes I would buy it for portable use. Thanks for the oppotunity to review this player. Joe