[mayorblurps]

I've been testing out the new Neutron app on my i5 and have some likes/dislikes vs the stock Hiby player.

LIKES
True gapless
Hi-res support
Highly customizable sounds options

DISLIKES
Thinner, less dynamic sound vs stock Hiby player
Cluttered, outdated user interface
Finding the music library is confusing
Scanning the music library is slow

For now, I'm continuing to use the stock Hiby player because it just sounds better even though true gapless support is very important to me. Hopefully Neutron's sound will improve over time, coming into better alignment with the stock Hiby player. Just my two cents...

Those cons you posted about Neutron are exactly why I don't use it or like it, but nevertheless appreciate the opportunity to use it on my i5. I believe I bought the app years ago to use on my Android phones but the interface is awful. I found other music players (have been using GMMP) sounded a lot better, but at the expense of losing certain settings. I like the Hiby stock sound, and I like the warm musicality more than I care about true gapless support.

 

[archigius]

I apreciate that cayin put some efforts to give their customers an alternative.
Neutron perfectly works with hi-res and gapless.
As far as the sound, every app i tried with the i5 sounded slightly worse than the Hiby one, less clear and less dynamic.
The thing that i really don't like about Neutron is the interface, it's very "clogged" and has no alternative themes.
I'll try to use it for some time and see how it goes, gapless is very important to me and seems that, for the moment, Neutron is the only one with gapless+hi-res.
So kudos to Cayin for the i5 support.

 

[frost15]

I've been testing out the new Neutron app on my i5 and have some likes/dislikes vs the stock Hiby player.

LIKES
True gapless
Hi-res support
Highly customizable sounds options

DISLIKES
Thinner, less dynamic sound vs stock Hiby player
Cluttered, outdated user interface
Finding the music library is confusing
Scanning the music library is slow

For now, I'm continuing to use the stock Hiby player because it just sounds better even though true gapless support is very important to me. Hopefully Neutron's sound will improve over time, coming into better alignment with the stock Hiby player. Just my two cents...

Wow... To be sincere I did not know the audio app controlled the sound quality. I thought it was all about the device when it comes to audio output (xept for the eq tweaks). Actually I did not even bother to test the sound. How is it posible the audio is effected negatively by an app?

 

[nmatheis]

Wow... To be sincere I did not know the audio app controlled the sound quality. I thought it was all about the device when it comes to audio output (xept for the eq tweaks). Actually I did not even bother to test the sound. How is it posible the audio is effected negatively by an app?

Some apps rely on the massive sound processing code, whereas other apps have their own custom code for sound processing. Neutron is one of the apps that has its own custom code for sound processing, and I've found that while it often sounds superior to any sound processing code native to smartphones it falls behind Hiby's sound processing code in the i5.

 

[frost15]

Some apps rely on the massive sound processing code, whereas other apps have their own custom code for sound processing. Neutron is one of the apps that has its own custom code for sound processing, and I've found that while it often sounds superior to any sound processing code native to smartphones it falls behind Hiby's sound processing code in the i5.

Thank you very much for your answer explaining everything! And... as of now for neutron... what a shame!, yet if I understand correctly then Neutron should be able to improve the code and make it better so the i5 sound quality does not suffer, right?

 

[nmatheis]

Thank you very much for your answer explaining everything! And... as of now for neutron... what a shame!, yet if I understand correctly then Neutron should be able to improve the code and make it better so the i5 sound quality does not suffer, right?

I want to be fair to Neutron here, so let me clarify my statement. While I (and some others I've chatted with) feel that Neutron falls behind i5's stock app, I'm sure there will be others who prefer Neutron. It's personal and subjective, so please try for yourselves before judging. Don't merely rely on someone else's opinion...

 

[Brooko]

I prefer Neutron for its features and versatility, but don’t honestly hear much difference between the two in terms of default sound

 

[Andykong]

I prefer Neutron for its features and versatility, but don’t honestly hear much difference between the two in terms of default sound

Glad to see there are different opinion regarding Neutron Music Player in i5, this is indeed the reason why we seek help from Neutron: to provide more choices to i5 users, making i5 more "usable" to their users. We are sorry that we can't improve the native player further, but we are glad that Neutron is wiling to help out and provide an alternative solution that works great. Honestly, the gapless is a relieve, the savable custom EQ is a bonus, and the playlist management will impress some users that don't want to go through the M3U hazzels with their PC.

i5 will remain as an ongoing product for a short while, its 20 months old already so we probably is expecting an EOL status in next few months, but I'll hang around just like what we did to the N6 and N5. Cayin don't walk away from our product, that we can promised.

 

[Brooko]

Glad to see there are different opinion regarding Neutron Music Player in i5, this is indeed the reason why we seek help from Neutron: to provide more choices to i5 users, making i5 more "usable" to their users. We are sorry that we can't improve the native player further, but we are glad that Neutron is wiling to help out and provide an alternative solution that works great. Honestly, the gapless is a relieve, the savable custom EQ is a bonus, and the playlist management will impress some users that don't want to go through the M3U hazzels with their PC.

i5 will remain as an ongoing product for a short while, its 20 months old already so we probably is expecting an EOL status in next few months, but I'll hang around just like what we did to the N6 and N5. Cayin don't walk away from our product, that we can promised.

Very few DAPs are close to perfect Andy, and the i5 still has a beautiful tonality. The fact that users have a choice and it supplies many of the features people were asking for is an unexpected bonus. I sometimes think in this world of leaps and bounds in technology, and the "I want it right now" generation, we lose sight of how good things have become in a short time.

i5, no amp, HD600 - Neutron or Hiby (depending on your taste), a quiet Sunday afternoon and a good book. I can't think of too many better combinations

 

[frost15]

Very few DAPs are close to perfect Andy, and the i5 still has a beautiful tonality. The fact that users have a choice and it supplies many of the features people were asking for is an unexpected bonus. I sometimes think in this world of leaps and bounds in technology, and the "I want it right now" generation, we lose sight of how good things have become in a short time.

i5, no amp, HD600 - Neutron or Hiby (depending on your taste), a quiet Sunday afternoon and a good book. I can't think of too many better combinations

My favourite comment on this site so far! As I've repeatedly said the i5 is awesome (even with its flaws). I don't see myself changing DAPs for a few years.

 

[Andykong]

Very few DAPs are close to perfect Andy, and the i5 still has a beautiful tonality. The fact that users have a choice and it supplies many of the features people were asking for is an unexpected bonus. I sometimes think in this world of leaps and bounds in technology, and the "I want it right now" generation, we lose sight of how good things have become in a short time.

i5, no amp, HD600 - Neutron or Hiby (depending on your taste), a quiet Sunday afternoon and a good book. I can't think of too many better combinations

This is a sharing that touched our hearts at Cayin.

The i5 has been a tough battle to Cayin, we learned a lot in this product, a hard way, but on the other hand, we also meet a lot of sincere and considerate users and they become our friends. This is indeed a valuable experience to Cayin and to myself personally.

By the way, I am looking forward to try the HD660s, at 150 Ohm, it should be more DAP friendly then the HD600 and i5 should be able to drive it with more headroom and dynamic. Let's see if this will work out as I anticipated.

 

[Demard]

After more than 1 years and 3 month of constant using of Cayin i5 (cycle to work) now my cayin i5 had loose 3.5mm connection that lost audio to the left if it touched, Tested with different headphone/iem

i am now looking for external amp for my cayin i5, usb out or line-out

any suggestion ?

 

[indra040293]

I hope i'm not too late for the party ...

Bought i5 last week and love this dap's sound

Well even tho there is no bal jack is a bit minus to me, but not that much a problem anyway

Btw just finnish update it to v2.3 beta and it work smoother than the previous v2.2 and still didn't find anything strange here :3

@Demard : currently i'm trying walnut f1 here, well coz it's pretty cheap XD and had balanced jack ... Well i'm waiting for it to arrive at my home. It should be tomorow i think, i hope that thing can pair with i5 good

 

[nmatheis]

I hope i'm not too late for the party ...

Bought i5 last week and love this dap's sound

Well even tho there is no bal jack is a bit minus to me, but not that much a problem anyway

Btw just finnish update it to v2.3 beta and it work smoother than the previous v2.2 and still didn't find anything strange here :3

@Demard : currently i'm trying walnut f1 here, well coz it's pretty cheap XD and had balanced jack ... Well i'm waiting for it to arrive at my home. It should be tomorow i think, i hope that thing can pair with i5 good

Welcome to the club. I'm sure you'll enjoy your i5 for a long time to come!

Now on to the serious part... I'm having a hard time understanding why you would pair up something like Walnut F1 with the i5. While I haven't tried the F1, I have tried the Walnut DAP and the sound quality is in no way comparable to the i5. I think you'll be excited at first because the Walnut sound signature is quite bombastic, but it severely lacks in refinement compared to the i5. A better (albeit more expensive option) would be the iBasso PB3 which has a very clear, detailed sound signature from the balanced output. That would be an interesting contrast / complement to i5's stock sound while providing high sound quality I think you'll find lacking in the F1. Or just use i5 single-ended. There's certainly no problem with that given the i5's super sound quality. Just my two cents...

 

[Ziggomatic]

My i5 is really playing nice with her new friend, the Grado GR10.