Ok Andy I'll rephrase it: I5 does not perform in lower bass spectrum as some of us expected and certainly can not match (in the bass department) any of the other players that I have, ie. FiiO X5, FiiO X5lll, Cowon PM2, Cowon PD, Opus #1, AK Jr, AK70, IBasso DX50 and IBasso DX90. I5 simply distorts way to much if you try to crank the bass up and none of the above mentioned players do. Now, as I've said before I like I5 for it's design, clarity and awesome midds, but bass is the flaw of this player. Still, it is one of my favourite players, even if occasionally I have to hook it up to FiiO A5 or E12 Mount Blanc to rectify issue with the bass.
Thank you very much for your clarification, I am sure we didn't emphasized on the bass performance in our advertisement, I just worry than local dealer has done that and mislead customer unintentionally.
I seldom comment on the audio performance of Cayin DAP because that is a subjective experience, so everyone is entitle to their opinion except me for obvious reason. Cayin has a very good reputation to receive both positive and negative feedback. The impression from
@Soundtrap has been very consistent and represent his genuine feeling towards i5, for that I want to express my sincerely gratitude, I think we should focused on his comment on the lacking in bass performance but appreciate his complete picture. To be honest, I missed the i5, and I prefer the sound signature of i5 over N5ii (I must emphasis again that this is a personal preference).
If I might, I would like to quote the opinion from other i5 impression to demonstrate my point:
- kamcok: The added bass made it unsuitable for already bassy earphones. My Flare Audio R2S' bass felt overwhelming and uncomfortable to listen to.
- twister6: The bass in i5 is more layered with a better articulation, while X5iii bass sounds a little more one dimensional in comparison. Both have a very similar bass extension and impact.
- nmatheis: Bass is well-controlled and punchy, lower mids are full and satisfying, upper mids are restrained and sound quite refined as a result, treble is smooth but detailed, and soundstage is wider than previous fw. If you couldn't tell, I'm really liking i5's sound after the last fw update. X5 v3 in comparison has softer bass, thinner lower mids, more prominent upper mids, and less detailed treble.
- professor55: The "burned" one sounds effortless on the densely packed choruses. You can hear the bass notes separate from the keyboards, and pick out the background vocals. Amazing!
These impressions are listed in chronological order, and the only conclusion we can draw here is "inconclusive": someone said i5 has too much bass, someone like the bass performance and someone consider i5 has insufficient bass, they want to add more bass through EQ and it failed.
By the way, C5 is the only portable product from Cayin that carry a bass boost features, the feature is generally well accepted and some users even claimed that this is the best best boost they have ever encountered in regardless of price, but we still run into users that cried for more bass and go all the way to customize an EQ curve on his Rockboxed iPod Classic so that he can get a lot more bass out of the C5, you can read the story
here. So can we agree the quantity and shape of bass response is a very personal thing, so we probably need to look for a special match in order to fulfill a special need.