[hmscott]

Will this work with HD800S?

Here is the best answer so far for the unreleased C9:

Any headphones that claimed portable friendly should be within our reach and performed well, examples are Meze Empyrean, Focal Stella, Clear, Clear Professional, Audio Technica ATH-AP2000Ti, Denon 7200/9200, AKG K872, Dan Clark Aeon2, ...

We can keep expanding the potential list but it become less important as we dig deeper. To me, the real test are Abyss Diana V2 and HD800. If C9 perform reasonably well with these two headphones, that would clear the doubt of a lot of potential customers. The Diana is pretty compact by design, so make it portable physically but it is relatively power hungry, I personally are looking forward to a portable solution. On the other hand, the HD800 is one of the benchmarks, if not the benchmark. I hope C9 can pass these two tests.

I have tried HD800 briefly, with C9 Engineering Sample in 4.4mm power amp mode and N6ii balanced pre out as source. To be honest I have heard better HD800 in many occasions, even within $2000 DAC+Amp Solution (just a convenient amount, I have no intention to indicate the price of C9), but if I were to describe the problem of C9 Engineering Sample and N6ii combo with HD800, "not enough power" is not the number 1 or 2 concern.

It may be an evolving situation as Cayin tests various headphones and tunes the C9 - IDK if they are set for production or are still in development. This kind of customer interaction helps them get a feel for the current demand and headphones to test - most are likely obvious like the HD800(s) HD820, but some might be outliers that define a subset not tested.

So far no indication of the time to release either... I might get an N3Pro to play with and see how it responds, but the C9 is the one that will have the power to support more headphones and 4.4mm "tubey" sound.

 

[Whitigir]

And somewhere in November, I am still waiting for the news about C9

 

[runningwitit]

Come on Andy and touch base with us..
Waiting! Waiting! Waiting!!

 

[Andykong]

This is the Headphone output specification of C9 Portable headphone Amplifier. We measure the figures out of our production candidate sample, so it should be final, but we reserve the right to fine tune the figures after trail production run.

We are performing the battery duration test right now, will take some time as there are a lot of combination to cover, but I can quote two preliminary data for your reference. Both battery duration readings are achieved at low gain, volume at around 10 o'clock position, with 32ohm loading and standard line in signal (2V for single-ended, 4V for balanced). Since users can swap the C9 battery with two screws only, you can carry an extra set of batteries (4x18650) and double the battery duration if long continuous playback hours is important to you.

• 3.5mm Single-ended phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 15 hours
• 4.4mm Balanced phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 10 hours

Cayin will demonstrate C9 portable headphone amplifier, together with complete portable product lineup, at Bejing ZOL 5th Z-HiFi Show starting tomorrow (19-22 November), we can expect more photo and show impression from Chinese social media during the weekend.

 

[seamon]

This is the Headphone output specification of C9 Portable headphone Amplifier. We measure the figures out of our production candidate sample, so it should be final, but we reserve the right to fine tune the figures after trail production run.

We are performing the battery duration test right now, will take some time as there are a lot of combination to cover, but I can quote two preliminary data for your reference. Both battery duration readings are achieved at low gain, volume at around 10 o'clock position, with 32ohm loading and standard line in signal (2V for single-ended, 4V for balanced). Since users can swap the C9 battery with two screws only, you can carry an extra set of batteries (4x18650) and double the battery duration if long continuous playback hours is important to you.

• 3.5mm Single-ended phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 15 hours
• 4.4mm Balanced phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 10 hours

Cayin will demonstrate C9 portable headphone amplifier, together with complete portable product lineup, at Bejing ZOL 5th Z-HiFi Show starting tomorrow (19-22 November), we can expect more photo and show impression from Chinese social media during the weekend.

Banger Specs. Price?

 

[Andykong]

Banger Specs. Price?

We are still waiting for feedback from Supply chain, we don't have BOM cost right now, so we can't set the retail price at this stage.

We have enough component to start a trail production run very soon, but the supply chain is chaotic because of all sorts of delays in logistic and volatile component price in last 6 months.

 

[jambaj0e]

Should works alright with the exception of really demanding music.

Hi Andy,
Where in Los Angeles can we demo Cayin products? I'm loving my HA-300 and think this would be great, too. If you can talk to Alan at The Source AV, that'd be a great place!

 

[muths66]

This is the Headphone output specification of C9 Portable headphone Amplifier. We measure the figures out of our production candidate sample, so it should be final, but we reserve the right to fine tune the figures after trail production run.

We are performing the battery duration test right now, will take some time as there are a lot of combination to cover, but I can quote two preliminary data for your reference. Both battery duration readings are achieved at low gain, volume at around 10 o'clock position, with 32ohm loading and standard line in signal (2V for single-ended, 4V for balanced). Since users can swap the C9 battery with two screws only, you can carry an extra set of batteries (4x18650) and double the battery duration if long continuous playback hours is important to you.

• 3.5mm Single-ended phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 15 hours
• 4.4mm Balanced phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 10 hours

Cayin will demonstrate C9 portable headphone amplifier, together with complete portable product lineup, at Bejing ZOL 5th Z-HiFi Show starting tomorrow (19-22 November), we can expect more photo and show impression from Chinese social media during the weekend.

both tube/SS same power output??

 

[normie610]

This is the Headphone output specification of C9 Portable headphone Amplifier. We measure the figures out of our production candidate sample, so it should be final, but we reserve the right to fine tune the figures after trail production run.

We are performing the battery duration test right now, will take some time as there are a lot of combination to cover, but I can quote two preliminary data for your reference. Both battery duration readings are achieved at low gain, volume at around 10 o'clock position, with 32ohm loading and standard line in signal (2V for single-ended, 4V for balanced). Since users can swap the C9 battery with two screws only, you can carry an extra set of batteries (4x18650) and double the battery duration if long continuous playback hours is important to you.

• 3.5mm Single-ended phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 15 hours
• 4.4mm Balanced phone out, Class AB, Solid state timbre, around 10 hours

Cayin will demonstrate C9 portable headphone amplifier, together with complete portable product lineup, at Bejing ZOL 5th Z-HiFi Show starting tomorrow (19-22 November), we can expect more photo and show impression from Chinese social media during the weekend.

Wow that’s a lot of power! Can’t wait for the pricing

 

[davidmolliere]

The Power listed in specs is in Class AB mode? Class A is also of interest to me

 

[Andykong]

both tube/SS same power output??

The Power listed in specs is in Class AB mode? Class A is also of interest to me

Yes, in our circuit design, both Tube and Solid State, Class A and Class AB are having very similar power rating, the difference are very minor so we didn't extend into different rows. There is a drawback here, the battery will drain very fast on demanding settings (and Class A will be run very hot), but you have to wait till we publish more information on our product design and battery duration table for full details.

 

[Giru]

Could you atleast give us a ball park figure of what to expect in terms of the pricing?

 

[davidmolliere]

Yes, in our circuit design, both Tube and Solid State, Class A and Class AB are having very similar power rating, the difference are very minor so we didn't extend into different rows. There is a drawback here, the battery will drain very fast on demanding settings (and Class A will be run very hot), but you have to wait till we publish more information on our product design and battery duration table for full details.

Excellent thanks Andy!

 

[arijitroy2]

I need this now!

 

[davidmolliere]

I need this now!

+1 getting one for sure...

This is some nice driving power especially in Tube mode, up to par with say Micro BL (and iDSD Signature) which was unexpected!