[PinkyPowers]

even the warm 64 Audio U12 is beginning to pair well.

That was my hope. The U12 is my favorite IEM, but it felt too warm and veiled on the i5 during the BRIEF time I paired them together. I hoped this effect would subside after a prolonged period. It's good to know you are finding that to be the case.

 

[subguy812]

          

 

[audio123]

            

iem cable by rhapsodio?

 

[subguy812]

iem cable by rhapsodio?

Yes... RSD Silver Litz 4-braid

 

[darveniza]

I just posted a quick comparison between the new Onkyo DP X1A and the Cayin i5
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/780642/onkyo-dp-x1-dual-sabre-dacs-balanced-sabre-btl-amp-mqa-dsd-256-android-5/12750#post_13136456

 

[Septimus]

The delay from USB DAC is a different problem when compare to Youtube type application. This is kind of technical but since the issues has been raised again, I'll try my best to explain the situation.

i5's USB DAC is implemented in Asynchronous mode. This has been well-accepted as the only acceptable option for high fidelity audio application. In fact USB Audio used to be rejected by the audio community and the Asynchronous USB was the game changing technology, all of sudden everyone wants Asynchronous USB in their digital audio chain.

So what exactly is Asynchronous USB DAC?
Understanding Digital Music -- USB Audio Transfer Method from Soundstage.

So please do not expect the audio output of an Asynchronous USB DAC will synchronize with its source (a compute in this case), the technology has purposely make them independent from each other, a buffer is added into the chain deliberately, and this will inevitably delay the audio signal output with reference to the source computer.

The delay will not be "improved" by future firmware, because this is a correct implementation of Asynchronous USB DAC.

Hey, i totally get that and i dont really mind at this point anymore.
the i5 does what its supposed to do and it does it great. ive never listened to any source which sounded as good although this is my first mid to hi-fi dap.
my question really only had the goal to know if my i5 has some other issue as ive discribed before and the only thing i wanted to know was if someone could connect his i5, play the video i posted and check if the delay is on par with mine, or if the delay for my i5 is somehow even bigger because of the crash i discribed.
i would really appreciate it if you could test that for me as i dont have any possibility to test another i5 myself.
its not about making any negative point as i really love this device.
i only would like to know if the delay im having is the same as everyone elses or if it goes even deeper because of the crash.
also if i put some video on the i5's internal memory it should play without a big delay as its not using any of this asynchronus mode right?
 
also i would like to give some feedback for tidal use if that may help in fixing the stuttering.
i use tidal in offline mode with all files on the i5 internal storage as i dont even have an sd card in it atm.
the stuttering seems to be depending on the songs/albums played.
there are some albums which i can listen to for hours without any stuttering and then there are some albums/songs which have stuttering almost every 10 secs.
one bad example would be "i can't stop (ekali tribute)" by flux pavilion. first i thought it maybe has to do with the number of songs in the album as this was released as a single but when listening to the album "toxicity" by system of a down i also have pretty much stuttering. i dont know about all the songs but i just retested it with "deer dance" and "jet pilot" and there was a relative large amount of stuttering (not close to as much as with i cant stop though, which seems to be the king of stuttering).
some positive examples are the album "anything goes" by klaypex and the album "warlord" by yung lean. i think "reanimation" by linkin park also worked farely well.
im thinking that maybe the songs which have more stuttering may have higher bitrates or something as i dont know why else it should change so drastically from song to song.
i didnt checked the specific files yet though but i plan on doing some comparison between files which work great and those which dont work as good and check if they vary strongly in size/playtime as i dont think one can directly see the bitrate from the file details.
another thought i had was that maybe something with the download went wrong but i had done a factory reset inbetween and downloaded all songs again with similar results with the same songs which should throw that theory out.
i hope that this may help in some way!

 

[darveniza]

Septimus, I agree on your findings on Tidal. I have found the same and know of a few tracks that suffer a lot more of the stuttering.

 

[originalsnuffy]

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Marcus Downey​, Owner of Headfonics for his long term support to Cayin, we are privileged to have a friend like him during our difficult but exciting HeadFi venture. We shall continue to work with Headfonics and we are looking forward to share our last products through Marcus' comprehensive and unbiased reviews to our dear customers.
 

 
Well deserved Kudos. 
 
May I inquire what the "difficult" part was that is referred to?  Hope that is not too bold of a question.

 

[originalsnuffy]

So what exactly is Asynchronous USB DAC?
Understanding Digital Music -- USB Audio Transfer Method from Soundstage.

So please do not expect the audio output of an Asynchronous USB DAC will synchronize with its source (a compute in this case), the technology has purposely make them independent from each other, a buffer is added into the chain deliberately, and this will inevitably delay the audio signal output with reference to the source computer.

The delay will not be "improved" by future firmware, because this is a correct implementation of Asynchronous USB DAC.

 
Whoa, I am so glad I read this discussion.  
 
I have long wondered why I get a lag when playing a video on my iphone and the audio goes through the iphone circuit in my car.  It must be exactly this! 
 
There is no lag if I go through the auxiliary input.
 
Well, that is my theory.  The stereo in the car was designed by Meridian.

 

[BartSimpson1976]

anybody came across a matt screen protector for the i5 yet?

 

[kel77]

  anybody came across a matt screen protector for the i5 yet?

You can actually have a DIY one done for you cut to spec at Sim Lim Square Level 1. Just request for a matt screen one. I did one previously for my Plenue 1.

 

[BartSimpson1976]

ok, thanks! Will try that when visiting Zeppelin next time!

 

[Andykong]

My initial impression of the sound on the i5 was that it is very warm. Like cozy blanket warm, especially in the bass. Every AK4490 implementation I've heard before has had a more incisive brighter sound, so the warm sound coming out of the i5 caught me a bit by surprise. The warmth smooths over some bass detail and gives the sound a little bit slower quality. So far it isn't my preferred signature, but I still need more time to let the system and my ears burn-in. I think that this DAP will need to be paired with bright headphones to have a more balanced sound, luckily I've got the Noble Encore on hand, and it qualifies in that regard.

Obviously, my i5 is brand new and the initial impressions were a bit warm. I am adjusting to the sound and beginning to hear some real quality here. As stated previously, I have always liked the Ak dap's. The thing I wrestle with is "perceived value". I really don't like when folks say for the money, however this dap is really starting to grow on me, at a price of at least 1/2 of the cost of what I am accustomed to. I am beginning to also find my way around some of the firmware annoyances. I am still experimenting with various iem's and headphones, even the warm 64 Audio U12 is beginning to pair well.

I normally don't comment on the listening experience of customers as I need to keep my role impartial, but I would like to comment on the issue of detail and warm sounding briefly, please bear with me for a moment.

To human ears, warm (or something the perception of thick sounding) didn't go along with detail (sense of high resolution) very well, and its indeed easier to develop a HiFi device to excel in resolution when we use a more neutral or neutral cold type of sound signature. This is actually very good for speaker based sound system, but"might" result in fatigue or unpleasant listening experience after prolonged listening session with headphone. In fact if someone compared i5 to our flagship N6 DAP, you'll notice the i5 is indeed warmer then the N6. This is because N6, being a reference DAP, is designed around a dual flagship DAC chipset (PCM1792) and satisfactory the toughest requirements of audiophile. On the other hand, i5 is developed for music lovers, one of the main objectives of i5 is "Music anytime, anywhere", so we want to make sure i5 is suitable for long listening hours, hence a slightly different direction in sound tuning.

On the other hand, we have spend a lot of effort to achieve warm sounding and high resolution at the same time. I won't say i5 is the most high resolution DAP with AK4490, but it certainly is above average on this aspect, but the i5 sound signature indeed can be misleading, so it might take a while before you can notice the details preserved behind the warm and smooth sound of i5.

Last but not least, it is important to differentiate detail and sharpness. Its like apply Unshartp Mask (USM) in photoshop will increase the sharpness of a photo, but it won't enhance its detail, its a perception game, and is changing the world's appreciation of true detail. Sometime when the "details" are too obvious, that is a warning side of USM effect already. To me, genuine high resolution audio should offer details that are natural and seamingless, the low level details are playing an important part here

Spend more hour with i5 and you'll re-discover your music collection, that I promised personally.

 

[pr0b3r]

Anybody here noticed the alarming battery drain of the i5?  There were instances that I had it fully charged, turned it on, kept it in my drawer, after a couple of days, the battery is drained again.  I tried the same routine at another time but after some minutes, I checked it and it was playing.  Not sure if it played automatically after I turned it on.  But still, even if it's not playing and I keep it in the drawer, the battery discharge was high.  It's as if there's no sleep mode implemented.

 

[Demard]

is i5 3.5mm phone out 3 pole or 4 pole ?