Hi everyone, Before I start the review, I would like to thank Cayin for making this awesome DAP at an affordable price, and also to @Andykong for organizing the tour.
This review will focus on the sound quality and not so much about other aspects, so I'll make the other sections as brief as possible.
INTRODUCTION
I'm an Indonesian working as a Web Developer in Melbourne, Australia.
Other than programming/coding, listening to music is another one of my hobby.
When I start my headphone hobby, music listening has been a very rewarding experience for me and has helped me in many aspects of life other than music enjoyment, although, with the booming price of high end headphones/IEM, etc at the moment, it has become a bit of a heavy hit on my wallet >_<.
Starting from almost 2 years ago I've been really hooked in metal music, and nowadays my everyday music listening always incorporate metal tracks, I guess you can call me a Metalhead but I don't know about that, I also listen to other genres occasionally.
I don't actually listen to all kinds of music, lets say for example Classical, therefore it is important to understand that this review is based on my observation on the kinds of musics I like, and those are mainly:
- Metal (many kinds, mainly the extreme kind, everyday anytime anywhere)
- Rock (mostly Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, Radiohead or something like it)
- Pop (90s stuff, rarely)
- EDM (Mostly trance and it's sub-genres)
- Jazz (Norah Jones, Diana Krall and the likes)
- Indonesian Song (it's basically the Indonesian version of pop or rock, guitar is used all the time, sounds natural and relaxing, however, mastering of the song is not very good, this is good to test how good a headphone/Iem handle poorly recorded material)
- KPOP
- JPOP and JROCK/Visual Kei, whatever you call it (mostly the older stuff)
I used the Cayin I5 for about a week not including transit times everyday at work and at home on weekend, I will also make some comparisons to my Ak Jr DAP.
EQUIPMENT USED FOR REVIEW/COMPARISON WITH THE DAP
- Shozy Stardust
- Meze 99 Classic
- MrSpeakers Ether Flow
- Campfire Audio Vega (1 day only, lol not enough time)
- Cavalli Liquid Carbon (Cayin I5 as DAC)
- AK Jr
- Chord Mojo
PACKAGING
the box is black with white cover with the picture of the player itself, opening the box you are greated with the player nicely guarded with thick foam at the top and the accessories at the bottom.
ACCESSORIES
my unit come with screen protectors, one with information in it explaing the buttons on the player, very nice touch here.
USB c to usb cable
micro usb to usb c adaptor
Thick brown leather case
Coaxial cable
The Cayin I5
The Build Quality is very nice, nice paint colouring for the unit with sturdy construction.
It is a little thick, but it has excellent battery life, so i won't complain about this.
Nice screen with good brightness to be used outdoor very easily.
It has carbon fibre back which is the signature of Cayin products, I personally like this since it looks premium on the device in my opinion.
At the top of the unit you will find a volume wheel at the top right, with very good resistance to prevent un-intentional change while in your pocket. Other than that we have a 3.5mm headphine jack and line out jack.
At the bottom is the USB C port for charging and data transfer duties.
On the right, You will find 1 Micro Sd slot, play/pause button, previous and next button.
On the left is the power button.
All buttons in the unit has good tactile feel and does not feel flimsy at all.
The player itself is very responsive to touch, easy to use with snappy operations.
UI & FEATURES
At the home screen, you will find User, music, playlist(list) and search button at the top and just underneath that your navigation mode.
There are 5 Navigation modes available:
- Folder
- Artist
- Album
- Genre
- Tracks
For Artist, Album, Genre, Tracks to work, you need to scan your library first.
I'm a big fan of Folder navigation since I like to group all my musics in folders based on my preference, so It is very good that Cayin has included this feature.
You can then access you on-board memory or to your sdcard to play your music, there are also Dropbox, Lan and USB flash drive features however I don't usse them at all so I can't comment on their functionality.
If you swipe to the right, you have quick access to your user menu wherever you are in the player, in there you have:
- Third party app (Thanks to android, you install your own in it)
- Music Scan
- Equalizer (not a fan but usefull)
- Sleep Time (usefull to save battery life)
- Music Setting (to set gain, filter, SPDIF out mode, gapless playback, etc)
- About
Sound Quality
The Signatures
The Cayin I5 has a warm musical signature with smooth highs and forward mids.
It works very well with modern music and my favourite genre (Metal), The bass although quite a bit north of neutral never intrude the mids at all.
The treble is laid back and smooth, sometimes too laid back in some tracks but it is fine most of the time and provides a fatigue-free listening experience.
The Bass
The Bass is big and hits hard with excellent dynamics, extension is very good but it is not the tightest bass I've heard, it has a little bloom in it but this bloom actually works very well and the bass sounds grand and satisfying to the ears.
Despite being a little thick due to the very slight bloom, speed is maintained and has distinction between each drum hits.
This is demonstrated very well in many Death Metal tracks especially in Brutal/Technical Death metal, double blast beat hits strong and fast with excellent rumble and distinction on each hits.
On EDM tracks, the bass extension down to the sub-bass is well extended and does a very good job to provide a very enjoyable experience.
I'm not a basshead but I feel that basshead will enjoy this DAP a lot due to it's excellent bass performance.
The Mids
The mids is smooth and is on the intimate side. Clarity of the mids is very good without any sibilance and just flows naturally with the music seamlessly.
Like the bass, the mids are a little thick and lush.
Screaming and growling vocals in metal track are intimate and smooth (I know right, it is harsh vocals but it's smooth as well, lol). The intimacy adds to the emotion and feel of the tracks, amplifying the rage and anguish of the song without sounding veiled in any way.
On Jazz Tracks like Norah Jones, the lushness of the DAP helps in this regard, you can feel the slight warm and raspness in her voice when she sing the lyrics and all the details of her vocals shine trough very well.
Electric Guitar sounds very smooth while maintaining the edges and bites it needs to bring its rawness out without sounding harsh and artificial.
The Treble
The treble is again, smooth and fatigue free, it still has some spark in it but it is not a bright DAP.
Details are there although it is a bit hard to spot this due to the excellent bass and mids being more forward by a good margin compared to it.
This brings up a point to be asked about this DAP:
"Is the treble too laid back?"
For me, maybe?
It is true that in some of my metal tracks I have found that some cymbal hits is a bit far back in the background and you will most likely miss it if you don't listen carefully.
In most songs, it is still laid back however, can still be heard easily albeit still being overshadowed by the bass and mids.
Overall the treble performance is good, however the placement could be a little too laid back for me, whether you like it or not depends on your preference though, some people is really sensitive to treble.
Other point to consider is that the details on treble will usually get drawn out while using it on the go, even if cayin decides to make the I5 brighter and provides more details up top, it is still hard to hear eveything in a noisy transport.
The Soundstage, Imaging and separations
The soundstage presentation is not very large but it is quite good, imaging is accurate and all the instruments are separated nicely and there is no congestion in the sound.
Pairing
Shozy Stardust earbud (hi-end earbud)
The tonality of the cayin blends nicely with the stardust signature, the bass hits hard and the mids are lush and very musical sounding, treble is smooth and not fatigueing, more laid back, relax listening experience, then using AK Jr.
Sub-bass is still rolled off due to the nature of earbud since there is no seal to get a good sub-bass.
Details in the treble still pops out here and there and is laid back so the mids being more prominent could potentially take your attention away from it, it is there if you listen to it though.
Mr Speakers Ether Flow
I'm impressed with the power that Cayin I5 provides to power ths planar, I didn't expect the unit to be powerfull enough to drive hi-end planars this well.
Bass gets more boost with some more meat in it and brought forward a little bit, while still being tight with nice dynamics, the snap is there and still maintain the speed even on a blastbeat drum attack with death metal tracks.
Mids is push Forward a bit and has longer decays, the pairing provides some more lushness to the mids providing a more intimate experience(the mids is usually a little bit laid back on the ether flow), details are still there.
Treble gets toned down a bit while still having some edges and sparkles when needed, overall good treble, but the mids and bass get my attention most of the time.
Compared to my usual setup, this pairing is good and would be happy to use the i5 in a pinch, although my usual set up (Mojo -> Liquid Carbon -> Ether Flow) still beats it handily(and it should).
Meze 99 Classics
Best pairing of the bunch IMO, very enjoyable experience.
Bass hits hard and deep with excellent extension, the quantity is definitely north of neutral by a decent amount(combination warm headphone + warm DAP), however it does not disrupt the mids at all. Very meaty and maintains good speed for metal tracks, works very well for metal and EDM.
The bass sounds big and grand and fills up the space just like listening to music in a hall but without the resonance.
Mids is again got pushed forward more and is more of an intimate experience, vocal is lush and decay is a tad longer than my usual combo (AK Jr -> meze 99), however it is very musical and engaging, the edges in screaming and growling vocals is smoothened a bit by the longer decay, but there are still plenty of details to satisfy.
Treble is smooth and laid back, cymbal hits is usually heard at the background behind the bass and mids, it never gets fatigueing (I actually feel that the bass dynamic attack is more fatigueing than the treble in the long run).
I've concluded that in this pairing the treble is a bit too far in the background, despite that I still get the most enjoyable experience out of all the cans when using the DAP alone, still the best pairing.
Campfire Audio Vega
I only have 1 day to use the Cayin I5 -> CA Vega and I'm not sure if the vega that I receive has been burned in or not (I think it's brand new unit as it did sound better later on on my other set-up),so I can't comment much on it.
Based on my first impressions on it, in my opinion, it is not the best pairing, the Vega already has a north of neutral bass that sounds big in the soundstage(Confirmed this using the AK Jr and Mojo), when you combo this with the Cayin I5 that has similar properties, what you get is super big north of neutral bass that feels a little overblown.
Basshead may love this but I'm not a basshead so this is too much bass for me.
As DAC
When used as DAC with my Liquid Crabon with Balanced Output to MrSpeakers Ether Flow, I found that the line out functionality of the Cayin I5 still work quite well, however I need to turn the volume knob past 12 o'clock to get decent volume on my flow.
Again the most noticeable effect of this pairing is to the treble, The treble becomes more laid back compared to my ususal mojo->LC set up, this is good for me as the Ether Flow is a tad bright and this can help a bit.
With this set-up I don't have any concern for the treble to be too laid back on some songs. when using the Lc as Amp, the treble is not being toned down as much as using the Cayin alone.
This got me thinking that most likely the amp section of The cayin is the main part that is responsible to that laid-back smooth treble signature.
Onto the sound quality, It is quite good!
The bass still hits hard and have excellent extension, with very good speed.
The mids is still forwarded and smooth with good details on it.
The treble is not as laid aback as when using it alone, which is good. smooth treble without sibilance and fatigue free.
The Soundstage is the biggest improvement, it is simply bigger with better image and separation.
Overall I'd say it is quite good to be used as DAC but there are better options, it does not sound as full and dynamics compared to my mojo when used as DAC, details also come out more on the mojo -> LC combo, so given the choice I will always use the mojo for my DAC on the LC.
Comparisons
AK Jr
The Cayin beats the AK Jr very easily in my opinion.
The I5's bass has better dynamics and sounds bigger with better extension and clarity, the AK Jr has more neutral bass though.
The I5 has lusher mids that is smooth and emotional, the AK Jr is not as lush and as the i5 but has quicker decays with dryer sounding vocals.
The treble on the I5 is more laid back and smooth, the AK Jr's treble is not as laid back but despite that details does not seem apparent and not as smooth.
Soundstage is about the same, but due to the intimate signature of the Cayin, the Ak Jr sounds a little bigger.
Chord Mojo
Not a DAP, but why not..
Mojo's Bass is tight, accurate and still musical but not as much in quantity compared to the Cayin I5 bloomier bass.
Mojo's mids expose more details and is only a little bit lush, It is smooth and not as intimate compared to the i5, the I5 goes musical all the way providing Lush intimate smooth mids but not as detailed.
Mojo's treble is not as laid back and again is more detailed compared to the Cayin I5's laid back treble, both offers smooth treble and is not the thin analytical type.
When used as a DAC, the mojo is a better choice due to better implemented line-out sounding fuller, dynamic and detailed with the Liquid Carbon.
Summary
In Australia, I can buy this DAP for 599 in DWI, the original retail price is 699 AUD here, and for that amount of money, the Cayin I5 definitely punch above it's weight with excellent performance in the bass and mids.
The pairing needs some consideration as Bassy IEM will not fair well with this DAP due to it's Bass characteristics.
For some who has the meze99 Classic and is looking for a DAP, this is the best pairing I've heard.
It performs well when used as a DAC to desktop AMP, but there are better alternatives for that use case.
Battery life is excellent, but charging time is slow.
As for case, mine isn't tightest, but it sits pretty reliable. May be it'll stretch later, I don't know.