[twister6]

  Getting difficult to recommend this player to people due to the issues with Tidal.  I do wonder if it's a hardware issue.

 
You mean, Getting difficult to recommend this player to people for whom Tidal support has the highest priority in a DAP

 

[McCol]

No mean't it how it reads.

Tidal is not my main priority, I don't even subscribe to it, just tried it on trial. However if you buy an Android based player with wifi you should expect it to work with no real issue, that can't be guaranteed with the I5.

 

[farizki29]

It's not an issue for me, I just haven't got to try that feature and was curious. Was thinking to swapping my i5 with Opus #1, since mine is returned and now thinking of the possibility of expanding the storage with the i5.

Can you please try the USB OTG when you received your i5.. So i can ensure my i5 defected.

 

[rymnd6c28]

Can you please try the USB OTG when you received your i5.. So i can ensure my i5 defected.

What? If it's not working than it's defected....why do you need me test it.... 

 also my post you quoted earlier have a link to a post to someone successfully use the feature... 

 

[farizki29]

Ok.. Thanks for u'r answer..

 

[nmatheis]

IIIRC, USB OTG was added as a feature after release. If so, then it's possible that a firmware update could fix the problem...

 

[PinkyPowers]

Pinky's review is up!

http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-i5/reviews/17361

Didn't expect to finish this so soon. But I just started writing today, and couldn't stop.

 

[darveniza]

Pinky, good detail. A few items

I tried OTA but it's a know issue and addressed by Andy K. OTA's are always a bit difficult on 1st generation products
Using their English website and doing it traditional way worked great

I like your comparison on the different IEM's. I found the best sound coming from HUM Pristine and Inear Stage diver 4s. Fitear and Unique Melody were given a much darker sound

I have started to migrate away from plain vanilla DAP's . Being able to run music apps like Spotify and Tiday is a great combo with my existing music collection. I spend time discovering music with these apps.

The use of Neutron is not optimal due to CPU and RAM , Hawaii BadBoy has addressed this

To certain extent I think we will see a lot of manufacturers coming up with an Android device within their product catalog

Music services is really the big market, it's proven so in the last 18 months and that is were the customers will be. AK, AR, Opus,etc cannot disregard this in particular with phones audio getting better and better.

The next couple of years should make for an exciting evolution in the DAP industry

Thanks again for your review

 

[ngoshawk]

Pinky's review is up!

http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-i5/reviews/17361

Didn't expect to finish this so soon. But I just started writing today, and couldn't stop.

A very good review with excellent photography. I will give the review a MUCH more thorough read as I listen to the same unit tomorrow. My IEM/headphone line up is "slightly" south of yours, though!

We share some of the same opinions, too.

 

[apaar123]

How is the Bluetooth connection?

 

[Andykong]

Cayin has attended the 2016 Guangzhou AV Fair, we have occupied three rooms in total, two rooms for traditional Hi-Fi, and one room for HeadFi products.



The Guangzhou show is by far the busiest (and probably most tiring as well) show I have ever attended, people line up for audition from early morning till the last minute of the show, i5 DAP is the major attention of the HeadFi room, show attendance are amazed by the sound performance, user experience and craftsmanship offered by this mid-priced DAP.

 

[Beethoven2008]

Perhaps, I miss the previous discussions but when playing the iso files, the soundtracks are not in sequence. Is there anything I am missing.

Help please.

 

[McCol]

After doing a factory reset and reinstalling Tidal the issue is still present with streaming and downloading for offline listening.
 
However it does appear it is only HiFi quality the I5 is struggling with.  Once set to normal or high quality there is no issue - works 100%.  Hopefully this means that Cayin will be able to remedy the issue or they may need to advertise it as a streaming device for low quality files!!! Lol

 

[gto88]

My review from i5 review  tour.
 
Look and feel:
   - i5 itself looks gorgeous, on hand, it feels very smooth and comortable, its build
     quality is one of the top among all mobile devices.

   - leather jacket fit perfectly, and very easy to put on and off to player body.
     the high quality of the leather is a plus on i5's look.
 
Operating Software/Human Interface:
   - I updated to new formware 2.0 when I got it.
     During my music playing, I got a frozen screen when I am browsing display information.
     I guess this is the OS issue not the firmware, but I am not 100% sure aboout it.
     I was using digital coaxial output at the time, not sure if it is related.
     In other playing mode, it has never happened again.

   - took me some times to play aorund with it to get familiar with all the operation.
     I didn't bother to look into manual come with it, it is not difficulty to figure out.
     Most people are using mobile device all the time, this should be easy for anyone to
     get used to it in no time.

connection Interface:
   - DLNA interface:
     I have a personal cloud which support DLNA streaming, and while setting it, Cayin found
     the server almost immediately after pressing search button.
     Then, I just player the selected music by browsing through those folders on my server.
     Everthyhing is smooth.
 
   - digital output (coaxial):
      Tour package includes a coaxial cable, which I connected to my Dr.DAC2 DX digital input.
      I had not used this connection before, and it works smoothly without any issue.
      To connect to portable amplifier with digital input, this will be a good feature.
      Per my understanding the cable is sold separately though.
 
   - USB to computer as a external DAC.
     To use in this mode, user needs to download USB driver for Windows, which I did.
     After installed, the driver is showed in the output list of my foobar2000.
     I set and play, and it just works like my other DACs, no issue at all.
 
   - Line out:
     I connected its line out to my Dr.DAC DX line in using 3.5mm to RCA, again, it works fine.
 
   - external SD card.
     I inserted a SD card, which I used to install the new firmware as instruction.
     And I played music on the SD card as well.
     This is a good feature for user when going mobile.
     Supporting up to 200GB is a great deal of space to store music.
 
   - external USB drive
     I don't have proper cable to connect it, but I see someone posted a successful connection
     to a desktop external drive provided with external power connection of the drive.
     It is said that Cayin i5 cannot provide sufficient power to a high speed external drive, but
     possible for a SSD.   I have not tried this.
     
   - All connection has a correspponding icon showing in main window.
     i5 interface designs are complete and smooth, eveything works as it should be.
     Even it is expected, I still give Cayin applause for the smoothness of all functionalities.

Amplifier:
   - The output 190mw/ch can drive my HE-1000 (V2) without problem.
     And it has more than enough power to drive my Beyerdynamic DT-770 80ohm headphone at office.
     I am sure it can drive many other headphones.
 
Sound Quality:
   - As a all in one unit like i5, its sound quality is pretty good to me.
   - When using as DAC+amp, it sounds better than my iFi idsd nano, better impact of bass.
   - With my Denon AH-D5000, it drives It in full potential that I have never heard before.
   - With my HE-1000, it can be loud, but doesn't drive it well in my opinion, after all
     HE-1000 requires more power to sound good.

Conclusion:
   - Cayin i5 DAP is equiped almost all possible connection one may need, and its DAC capability cover
     all popular music format, you can play everyhting you can get on hand with.
     It is a better to go mobile than using cellphone+dac+amp combo.
   - i5's variety connection offer a great dal of flexibility allowing you to easily plug into your
     desktop configuration.
     Use it as DAC or as pre-amp, it is up to your preference.
   - all in all, Cayin i5 DAP is a great unit for all purposes in head-hi world.
 
 
Addendum:
 
(2nd user report in my household)
 

1. The i5 was able to tell that the headphone out port was connected to the in-car AUX port, and will not output sound from the port when connected, it will only play through the dac out port.
2. Comparing the Michael Jackson - Billie Jean with 320kbps MP3 vs the DSD track was night and day difference. There was much more detail in the instruments. It’s immediately clear in the intro drum and snare section of the track that DSD was indeed much higher definition in comparison. Also, the extra dynamic and the cleanness with Michael’s voice in the DSD version was just spectacular.
3. The i5 drove the AKG702 amazingly well, the bass was extra meaty and punchy. It also highlights the amazing soundstage that the AKG702 delivers so well on.
4. UI navigation was smooth, if you’ve ever used any android based devices before you’ll feel right at home.
5. Pairing with bluetooth earphone was easy, although the i5 did not react to the pause and start button on the Brainwavz BLU-200 when my iPhone does, hopefully it’ll get address in a future firmware update.
6. Transferring file to the i5 was easy as well, simple drag and drop operation. After you’re done use the search for music function to get it to show up on the device UI. Although it does add their own meta data to your existing folder structure. Also there are probably important system folder and files that are easily modifiable if you’re not careful, since it basically acts as a usb drive.

 

[Andykong]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/822302/reviewers-wanted-world-tour-for-cayin-i5-android-based-ak4490-dap-with-wifi-dropbox-and-google-play/180#post_13012186

Some photos with 2 of my IEMs above. My initial impressions:

(1) The build is very good and the color is very good in person. Decent size screen.

(2) It is thick but not bulky. It is hefty but not heavy. It can be easily carried in the pant pocket.

(3) The user interface is decent and intuitive for anybody coming from Android world. The touch screen is very responsive. No issues there.

(4) 32 GB onboard storage and has 29GB available out of the box. Uses Android 4.4. 

(5) The volume control is tight in a good way. the line out and headphone sockets are good quality. Overall the device screams premium quality.

(6) I hooked up the line out with my car stereo and it was awesome. 

(7) I was using my earphones on the headphone out port and once plugged it wrongly into the line out port. My ear drums should have been blown away. But it didn't. The volume was very low and increasing the volume didn't do much. And then I realized the mistake and changed the port. On my Fiio X3 ii, i would've had my ear drums blown out by now. I don't know how Cayin prevented such a  thing from happening. But I was thankful for the feature

(8) The sound signature is not reference neutral. But is very close to neutral and slightly on the warmish side. Sparkle at the top. And it extends very well in the lows. The layering and separation is quite good. Nothing extraordinary. The soundstage is average in width and it is also suitably deep. the vocals are in the center where it needs to be and then there are instruments playing to the sides and behind the vocals in another layer. 

(9) The noise is pretty much non-existent and the background is black. Cayin has almost nailed the sound. And definitely they'll improve upon it in the future models (if any). But I like this sound signature very very much. all the frequencies are presented with good detail and clarity.

(10) The drums are a treat to hear on this device. Sounds very natural, has impact, texture and clarity without getting bassy. The bass is there if it's there in the song. The sound is enjoyable, addictive and pleasing. Cayin can be proud of pulling it off nicely with i5.

Drawbacks:

(1) Play by folder doesn't have the feature of playing all sub folders. If there's one, I didn't see it. In Onkyo DP-X1 and my android phones, I can easily play randomly all songs in all folders from any level I'm at. I didn't try installing a 3rd party app to see how it fared.

(2) The MacBook external Dac feature didn't work. It mightn't be a problem of this unit as AK Jr also did the same and I had to try different cables before one worked. This unit has USB Type C port and I don't have any cables to hook up to my Mac. Have to try it on windows.

Thanks linux4ever for the prompt and informative impression. If this is your "initial impressions", I'll definitely been looking forwards to your final impression after your audition period.

Just a few respond to fill in the gaps.

(7). There are two reasons that contributed to the relatively low-level in the line out. First of all, the line out from i5 is dedicated signal path detoured from the Low Pass Filter AD712, i.e, before the volume control and headphone amplification. The line out signal tends to be fairly clean and will not be exceedingly loud when headphone is plugged in. The other option to implement line out in a DAP is to extract a fixed value output AFTER the headphone amplification op-amps (e.g., Cayin N5), the line out from these design will tends to be very loud when headphone is plugged in "accidentally" and Cayin has incorporated special UI feature and warning to minimize this from happening.



The second issue is the rated output of line out. The de facto industrial standard for line output is 2Vrms, not surprised that a lot of manufacturer will try to stick with this output rating. Cayin take a different approach, we recognize the limitation of portable gears and aim at the best quality output (in terms of lowest distortion and best sound quality) instead of pushing the limit to achieve a higher rated output. As a result of that, our flagship N6 is rated at 1.7Vrms, and the i5 is rated at 1Vrms only. The relatively lower rated output results in a relatively low volume when headphone is plugged in "accidentally".

(8) Cayin has a long history in traditional HiFi industry and we have developed our own understanding of sound reproduction, aka. the Cayin house sound. We want musics to sound pleasant instead of absolutely neutral. Having said that, we don't make all our DAP sounds exactly the same, that's not our take on house sounds. we tuned the sound signature alongside a certain direction (i.e., our preferred direction), but we'll make some assumptions on gears and music that need to accommodate, and fine tune the sound signature accordingly. For example, N6 is neutral-cold, and i5 (and N5) are neutral-warm.

(1) Play by folder: we have a feature called Play through Folders, and you can turn on (or off) this playback contrl at the HiBy menu (wipe from left to right).