[McCol]

   
I gotta be honest with you, I was pleasantly surprised.  As someone who has access to many new DAPs and constantly tests and compares, I already reached the conclusion that with latest releases from many different manufacturers the gap between mid-fi and summit-fi DAP sound quality is very narrow.  And as a result, you will end up paying a hefty premium with diminishing returns to squeeze every last ounce of performance to have the absolute best flagship sound quality.  The gap is bigger when you go down to a budget-fi releases where people just care for something simple and convenient on the go.
 
Right now the mid-fi DAP market is the most exciting to watch, to see how close they get to flagship sound quality, how much functionality gets squeezed in, how original the design looks, how well the GUI is executed, the battery life, the storage capacity, touch screen interface, etc.  So far, I see i5 getting checkmarks next to many of these features.  Just played around with Google Play, and really like the app integration.  So far, i5 experience doesn't feel like an audio app on top of a fully open Android, but instead it's a self-integrated music interface with 3rd party apps you can load on top of it.  Within minutes I had YouTube and Spotify running without a problem.  Yeah, I do see what others mean about slower network connection, in terms of app download, but there are no hiccups in music streaming.  Really like the clever design of the interface where you are not dealing with fully open Android.  This is a music DAP, while Android apps are an add-on, not the other way around.

 
Spot on with your comment about Android intergration, Cayin really have this well implemented.

 

[tienbasse]

   
I gotta be honest with you, I was pleasantly surprised.  As someone who has access to many new DAPs and constantly tests and compares, I already reached the conclusion that with latest releases from many different manufacturers the gap between mid-fi and summit-fi DAP sound quality is very narrow.  And as a result, you will end up paying a hefty premium with diminishing returns to squeeze every last ounce of performance to have the absolute best flagship sound quality.  The gap is bigger when you go down to a budget-fi releases where people just care for something simple and convenient on the go.
 
Right now the mid-fi DAP market is the most exciting to watch, to see how close they get to flagship sound quality, how much functionality gets squeezed in, how original the design looks, how well the GUI is exécutante, the battery life, the storage capacity, touch screen interface, etc.  So far, I see i5 getting checkmarks next to many of these features.

Although I agree awith your comments regarding Cayin i5 (and N5), I wouldn't generalize so easily.
There has been a galore of "unfinished" DAPs in the mid-fi market recently. Playing beta testers for 6 months (if not more) is not my idea of a finished product.
Unfinished UIs, doubtful usability and no new feature whatsoever, you name it, you have it.
 
Regarding support, upgrades, bug solving, there's Cayin, and there's the rest. The fact that they're not afraid to come here and expose themselves to critics is exemplary.

 

[Soundtrap]

Agree with you. So far Cayin is beside Cowon the only manufacturer that I experienced that with updates actually improve their players and not introduce new issues, unlike Ibasso and FiiO. Absolutely thrilled with my I5.

 

[Andykong]

I gotta be honest with you, I was pleasantly surprised.  As someone who has access to many new DAPs and constantly tests and compares, I already reached the conclusion that with latest releases from many different manufacturers the gap between mid-fi and summit-fi DAP sound quality is very narrow.  And as a result, you will end up paying a hefty premium with diminishing returns to squeeze every last ounce of performance to have the absolute best flagship sound quality.  The gap is bigger when you go down to a budget-fi releases where people just care for something simple and convenient on the go.

Right now the mid-fi DAP market is the most exciting to watch, to see how close they get to flagship sound quality, how much functionality gets squeezed in, how original the design looks, how well the GUI is executed, the battery life, the storage capacity, touch screen interface, etc.  So far, I see i5 getting checkmarks next to many of these features.  Just played around with Google Play, and really like the app integration.  So far, i5 experience doesn't feel like an audio app on top of a fully open Android, but instead it's a self-integrated music interface with 3rd party apps you can load on top of it.  Within minutes I had YouTube and Spotify running without a problem.  Yeah, I do see what others mean about slower network connection, in terms of app download, but there are no hiccups in music streaming.  Really like the clever design of the interface where you are not dealing with fully open Android.  This is a music DAP, while Android apps are an add-on, not the other way around.

Exactly the issue that we have discussed during the conceptual period of i5: should we build a DAP that takes advantages of Android? or should we build a Android appliance that play music very well? I think you know our final decision on that discussion.

I think both approach can end up with first class products, but they probably will serve different group of customer better. Cayin has take our stand, and we'll try our best to deliver in the direction we have opted for.

 

[Andykong]

You won't regret buying when you get back plus I'm pretty sure AMP3 always have either that or another 10% code that is valid.

The I5 itself is from early impressions very good.  Main thing for me was not to have the interference I experienced when using any streaming modes with the Fiio X7 which thankfully the I5 doesn't suffer from.  No hiss or interference with so far.  
The UI on this is excellent, I can imagine that if you wanted to use the full Android experience it could be laggy but that's not the point of this for me.  I want a DAP that can do my Spotify and other streaming which in my brief session this afternoon and evening it does with ease. Video's, web browsing and all other functions can be done on my phone.

The Hiby music player is nice and easy to use and it works flawlessly with my Spotify.  

Build quality seems excellent, it really is a very nice unit, feels solid in the hand with a nice weighty feel to the whole unit.

SQ wise I would be guessing from memory but I would say it isn't quite as warm as I found the Fiio(which is a good thing for me), I often found the Fiio to be a bit too warm for my liking.  I also recently owned the DP-X1 and again from memory I would say this has a similar kind of sound but take that with a pinch of salt.

Only tried with my Flare R2Pro's and they match very well with the I5, will try my Ety's over the weekend.

The original corporate plan was to launch the i5 on Q1 of 2016, we were optimistic by late 2015 and have planned to debut the DAP at CanJam SoCal. We were 3 months late and the main reason behind that is the handling of WiFi interference. Those were the dark age for our development team, work round the clock for months before we can control the interference problem to an acceptable level. It is not dead silent, but in most cases, it shouldn't affect music playback, that's the bottom line Cayin has been insisted since 1993, we are glad that the result is appreciated by our customers.

 

[Andykong]

Although I agree awith your comments regarding Cayin i5 (and N5), I wouldn't generalize so easily.
There has been a galore of "unfinished" DAPs in the mid-fi market recently. Playing beta testers for 6 months if not more is my idea of a finished product.
Ufinished UIs, doubtful usability and no new feature whatsoever, you name it, you have it.

Regarding support, upgrades, bug solving, there's Cayin, and there's the rest. The fact that they're not afraid to come here and expose themselves to critics is exemplary.

Agree with you. So far Cayin is beside Cowon the only manufacturer that I experienced that with updates actually improve their players and not introduce new issues, unlike Ibasso and FiiO. Absolutely thrilled with my I5.

I think corporate culture plays a role in this part. Cayin is not the fastest in terms of reaction to market, but we move on steadily. That's how we formulate our product plan, and that's how we deliver our product. We are "slow" in firmware update according to a lot of customers, somehow the market has used to the weekly or bi-weekly firmware release schedule. We might have slipped occasionally, but we do internal validation before we release our firmware and we are dead serious on that. The DSD problem in v1.5 has been a major setback to our team but other then that, I don't recall any serious setback on firmware release on our DAP products since N6.

 

[ronnel0918]

For those who have tried the bluetooth connection of i5, how was it? Is the connection stable within 3-5 meters? Planning to pair it with Sony MDR-1000X once it's available.

 

[BartSimpson1976]

Bluetooth connection works fine. I have it every day hooked up to Creative Roar at night with the i5 approx 3m away.
No stuttering at all, only initial pairing needed three attempts. No issues ever since.

 

[ChadW215]

Tried pairing to my Jaybird x2's and it didn't recognize them. I need to try my kenwood car stereo.
I am getting a little pause or laps in play when listening to tidal. Both offline or streaming via wifi. No difference when using lower quality stream vs hifi

 

[nmatheis]

This is quite surprising. I have been using Tidal and download speed is OK for me. Granted, not as fast as my cell phone but still decent. A typical track takes may be 1-2 mins to download. 

The issue I am facing with Tidal is a very consistent micro stuttering, even while playing offline tracks. Spotify works pretty good though, both for streaming and offline listening.

Just tried downloading an album with Tidal app but got an "unauthorized device" error even though this is the only device linked to that Tidal account. This is with fw 1.81. Play Music albums download just fine. Going to reinstall Tidal and try again...

 

[nmatheis]

Rozenberg: I toggled Idle Shutdown on after listening last night. Just a few percentage points lost overnight. Unless I'm missing something, it would be nice to have some System Settings.

Figured this out just now. Must be getting old. Didn't see the Settings gear when I pulled down the quick settings shade before. Got the i5 all set up just the way I want it and haven't opened the manual yet. That's a very good sign. Great job making i5's firmware intuitive Cayin!

And reinstalling Tidal + i5 restart got Tidal downloads working. Downloading is a bit slow with HiFi (FLAC) files, but it's not that bad - less than a minute per song on my home wifi network.

 

[audio123]

i like how the i5 tag dsd files

 

[DNG A SPTRA]

For those who have tried the bluetooth connection of i5, how was it? Is the connection stable within 3-5 meters? Planning to pair it with Sony MDR-1000X once it's available.

Bluetooth connection works fine. I have it every day hooked up to Creative Roar at night with the i5 approx 3m away.
No stuttering at all, only initial pairing needed three attempts. No issues ever since.

Hi my friend, I would like to ask, I want my i5 cayin grouping with my speaker bluetooth but yoobao appear the words like that "Couldn't pair with YBL 202 because of an incorrect PIN or Passkey". What should I do?

 

[omastic]

And reinstalling Tidal + i5 restart got Tidal downloads working. Downloading is a bit slow with HiFi (FLAC) files, but it's not that bad - less than a minute per song on my home wifi network.

 
Is the Tidal playback working correctly for you? I am experiencing a constant micro stuttering both in offline and online mode.  

 

[nmatheis]

Is the Tidal playback working correctly for you? I am experiencing a constant micro stuttering both in offline and online mode.  

Haven't gotten to try yet. Darn kids

I'll give it a try with downloaded vs streaming HiFi Tidal content later and report back.