[BartSimpson1976]

oh YES! That's exactly what I am looking for! A flashdrive you can keep connected while the i5 is in my pocket without
being worried about the port...

 

[Andykong]

I bought a Cayin I5 last week and I am really pleased to far.
The sound is great, and I am managing to stream Tidal lossless successfully.
I have not tried the Tidal download as yet.


I have just tried some RHA T20 In ear phones with the I5, and they are really good.
Coming from spme Soundmagic E10's they are a revelation.

I am now thinking of new open backed headphones to replace my very old Beyer DT331


Can anyone recommend and open backed headphones for home that have a similar type of sound as the RHA T20, at around $250?

Probably not exactly the type of sound as RHA T20, but at $250 open backed headphone to pair with i5, I think Philips X2 will be a good choice, they are discounted to $248 at Amazon right now.
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-X2-27-Fidelio-Headphones/dp/B00O2Y2MZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480569478&sr=8-1&keywords=Philips+x2

 

[Andykong]

oh YES! That's exactly what I am looking for! A flashdrive you can keep connected while the i5 is in my pocket without
being worried about the port...

Originally scheduled for 2016 Q3, but still no sign of it at ADATA website, but we can assume this will be round the corner

 

[BartSimpson1976]

will keep my eyes open. Was thinking recently of a thumbdrive or portable harddrive with built-in WiFi but I will hold my eyes open for that small pretty thing then. I mean basically I am fine with 200GB, just switching contents now from time to time. But with that thing I could keep the essentials of my library on the SD-card and if I wnat to hear something from the rest just connect that "cufflink".
 
Saying that for future DAPs it might be worth to think about having the USB-C port and the headphone ports on the same side of the player if technically feasible. 

 

[setavn]

Finally decided to splash the cash to get Cayin I5 today. I have to say i'm impress so far both with the sound quality and the finishing quality of the product. It will be a nice addition to my AK120. However is there anyway to reduce the hiss with sensitve ie ? the only ie i have that can pair satisfy with i5 is my old grado igi even then it still slightly hiss when i listen to classical music. 

 

[Sound Eq]

so i guess there is no root for i5 , hmmm bummer as this means no v4a

 

[Andykong]

Andykong, TIDAL is a music streaming service similar to Spotify ( 320 kbps). What makes them different is that they have a subscription level that give you access to HiFi , [COLOR=333333]It streams music differethe form of 16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files with a bitrate of 1411kbps. So for the purpose of really getting access to CD quality level music. Tidal is a great option ( library, access to new music,etc).[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]The TIDAL Android App is similar to Spotify App. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]a) Streaming works the same way between both platforms. No issues there. Except with i5 my limit is the DAP wi fi radio. I have found that I have to be within 25' of the router to keep a great connection[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]b) Offline works the same way, select what music you want to have offline and that is it. The main issues come on how the app and the player are communicating on what is main memory and what is the external memory. Both apps uner settings will show you options to were to store the offline content[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]I will explain:[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]-When I stream any music on Spotify and Tidal I do not see any real difference except the additional detail and depth of the Tidal HiFi stream. I am assuming that some buffering occurs but cannot tell where[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]-When I offline content to the external Micro SD ( Samsung EVO  80M/S read and 20 M/S write) , Spotify works great, Tidal does not as you have these blips. To be fair Pionerr and Onkyo had the same situation. The reason I think the blips are associated with the HiFi nature is that I had someone that only uses standard Tidal ( 320 kbps) and stores offline did not have blips. It is a very rough test but it gave me some clear indication[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Now the last piece is that the TIDAL app will only detect micro SD card and not the main memory ( at least on my i5). If I want to have my HiFi Tidal offline on the main memory I need to extract the Micro SD. Restart the i5, go into the TIDAL app Settings/OFFLINE Destination/ Memory Card, after that it remains connected to the external Micro SD[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Hopefully this answers the questions[/COLOR]

So you can maintain a good connection for Radio streaming at 25ft, but the signal will drop and become unstable when you go beyond that distance? Actually this is not bad already, we have had worse result with some router, good for 3m only. I know this is not ideal, but unfortunately due to the reason I have explained previously, we can't resolve this unless we are aiming at something with a much simplifier analog circuit design and a significantly larger user target group.

Switching from TF to internal memory (eMMC) will improve performance, that I can understand. Will this affect online streaming as well? Does that mean Tidal will use TF card for Application Data/working Cache during on-iine streaming?

The part that I don't understand is " to extract the Micro SD", will give it a try and later and probably I'll figure this out when I hangs on the Tidal app.

 

[petrovsky13]

Finally decided to splash the cash to get Cayin I5 today. I have to say i'm impress so far both with the sound quality and the finishing quality of the product. It will be a nice addition to my AK120. However is there anyway to reduce the hiss with sensitve ie ? the only ie i have that can pair satisfy with i5 is my old grado igi even then it still slightly hiss when i listen to classical music. 

Updating the firmware is the right thing to do. Hiss is gone starting from 1.81 (well, mostly gone)

 

[audio123]

which fw is the best? currently using 1.81

 

[Andykong]

Update:
Sorry, it is the screen after this screen. I just went through the whole process again. It will pop up a confirmation dialog. When music is playing, it usually will take a few tries for the device to take the input.

I do not know what is HiBy player, I use the music player comes with the i5.

If you tune EQ during music playback, sometimes it becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. Sometimes the Android dialog will pop up telling me the app is not responding and offer me to close the app. I always deny closing the app and wait a few more seconds for the player to "come back". During the whole process, the music is still playing.

The two level power off UI is a standard Android feature, I don't like it on my phone either, but have to live with it so far. I have even run into a double confirmation design for Flight mode on a particular phone, almost drive me nuts.

"When music is playing, it usually will take a few tries for the device to take the input.", if this happens all the time, I would say this is unusual because my i5 is fairly responsive, I only have UI lag when I use third party applications, or when I scroll up and down on the Album tag (involve lot of album art update), For regular touchscreen operation, the UI are quite accurate and responsive, the only problem is pinpointing the small icons or labels on the screen.

I do suggest you perform a double wipe and factory reset on your i5, maybe this will improve the responsiveness of your DAP.

 

[smy1]

I swapped my i5 to my friend's x5ii for about a week and I easily missed having my i5 back.  I mean, yes, the i5's signature is really for me.  The x5ii sounded a bit grainy and bright, tends to lack in bass for neutral to bright IEMs and headphones.  I was craving for the i5's bass slam for a week.  Though the x5ii wasn't all that bad.  It just wasn't for me and my tastes.  You'll also get plenty of advantages on i5 over the x5ii.  There's the fast music scanning compared to x5ii's slower process, wifi and bluetooth from i5, aesthetically better with a dedicated volume pot, better decoding of higher music formats (DSD in ISO, DSF, and DFF).  This is just to name a few.  What I liked with the x5ii is the dual sd slot versus i5's single slot.

So you would say the i5 is a upgrade to the x5 2nd gen?

Evertime i think of i5 it reminds me of the intel i5 processor.

 

[petrovsky13]

  which fw is the best? currently using 1.81

Better stay with this, unless you need DAP functionality and like brighter sound (the difference is slightly audible, but I noticed it immediately, imho, of course)

 

[kel77]

I noticed that my unit has this problem last night when I was running my HE-400i on it.

On High Gain, when I play around (turn up and down) with the volume knob and adjust past 56, it causes song played to break and sometimes volume totally gets cut off until I pause track and start again.

When screen is turned off or when I adjust the volume from touchscreen has no such problem.

 

[nautinut]

Hi i must buy a DAP with Bluetooth connection.
 
I can buy, at about the same price, the following ones:
- Pioneer XDP 100-R
- Cayin I5
- AK Jr (50$ less)
 
Or, saving few money, Sony NW-A25 in a special offer.
 
Considering overall quality and expecially the quality of sound (via bluetooth too) which one is the best solution in your experience?
 
thank you

 

[BartSimpson1976]

not to forget the Shanling M1.