[Andykong]

I am wondering if you guys find the N3 is powerful enough to drive most of your IEMs and headphones aside from some really hard to drive ones that you won't be using with portable DAP anyway. I am thinking of getting an external amp such as a FiiO A3 or A5 with it but based on the specs of the N3, it doesn't seem to need it for most headphones. What are your experiences? My current lineup of phones are UE900s, Ety HF5, HD600 and Beyerdynamic DT880.

N3 can't handle HD600 or DT880, you need an amplifier for that, and I doubt if portable headphone amp will handle these 250ohm and 300ohm full size headphone appropriate. Cayin C5 is probably one of the more powerful portable headphone amplifier, you can give it a try if you have to stick with portable solution.

 

[Brooko]

N3 can't handle HD600 or DT880, you need an amplifier for that, and I doubt if portable headphone amp will handle these 250ohm and 300ohm full size headphone appropriate. Cayin C5 is probably one of the more powerful portable headphone amplifier, you can give it a try if you have to stick with portable solution.

The Cayin C5 and also the FiiO A5 should easily handle both 250 ohm and 300 ohm. I can't speak for the C5 because you don't list the output into 300 ohms Andy. Both will put 800 mW into 32 ohms, and FiiO's A5 will put 150 mW into 300 ohms at almost 15 Vp-p (more than enough for either)

 

[skingg]

N3 can't handle HD600 or DT880, you need an amplifier for that, and I doubt if portable headphone amp will handle these 250ohm and 300ohm full size headphone appropriate. Cayin C5 is probably one of the more powerful portable headphone amplifier, you can give it a try if you have to stick with portable solution.

The Cayin C5 and also the FiiO A5 should easily handle both 250 ohm and 300 ohm. I can't speak for the C5 because you don't list the output into 300 ohms Andy. Both will put 800 mW into 32 ohms, and FiiO's A5 will put 150 mW into 300 ohms at almost 15 Vp-p (more than enough for either)

Cayin C5 can definitely drive the HD600s. I use it as both a portable and desktop solution for my HD650, the latter being PC > Hifime 9018D (Sabre ES9018K2M) dac > Cayin C5. I was totally blown away by the Cayin C5 from a couple year back that I gifted my friend the Cayin N3 dap for his birthday just last week

 

[gLer]

CUSTOM FIRMWARE v3.1 AVAILABLE NOW

Hi fellow N3 folks. Gives me great pleasure to present you with Custom Firmware v3.1 for the Cayin N3, thanks in no small part to the help of @captblaze.

You can download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hvg6bqafo1ivcv/update.upt?dl=0

Since v3.1 is only a minor update (but with important tweaks) to v3.0, so v3.1 custom is a minor update to v3.0 custom. It has all the new features and functions of the official v3.1 firmware, so if you're stressed about switching to custom firmware, don't be!

The only visual tweak to v3.1 custom is a new landing page image in the NSFW theme (Theme C), since a few folks mentioned it was a touch too risqué for their taste.

Enjoy your new custom firmware, and as always, feel free to shout if you have any questions.

gLer

 

[gLer]

You cannot use EQ with USB Audio Out, and there won't be any firmware change in the future to modify this setup.

When we launch N3, you can apply EQ and volume with digital output, we have a received a lot of complaint because of this, and the general opinion preferred a bit-perfect digital output, so we change the digital output to native volume and disabled all digital manipulation before the digital output.

The general opinion was EQ or digital filters should be performed by external DAC, digital transport should maintain bit-perfect output as much as possible.

Hi @Andykong, does this mean that USB output is now 100% bitperfect? In other words, plugging the N3 into a dac via USB, the N3 becomes a digital source like any other digital source (PC, CD player etc.) with no manipulation of the digital files on the N3 whatsoever? So changing the volume and any other settings on the N3 has no effect on the output?

 

[Andykong]

The Cayin C5 and also the FiiO A5 should easily handle both 250 ohm and 300 ohm. I can't speak for the C5 because you don't list the output into 300 ohms Andy. Both will put 800 mW into 32 ohms, and FiiO's A5 will put 150 mW into 300 ohms at almost 15 Vp-p (more than enough for either)

Cayin C5 can definitely drive the HD600s. I use it as both a portable and desktop solution for my HD650, the latter being PC > Hifime 9018D (Sabre ES9018K2M) dac > Cayin C5. I was totally blown away by the Cayin C5 from a couple year back that I gifted my friend the Cayin N3 dap for his birthday just last week

Thanks for the sharing, I am sure this is helpful to users who are considering portable solution with HD600/HD650/HD6xx.

I quite enjoy my HD650 and I prefer using the tube HA-1Amk2 instead the Solid State iHA-6, and that's the reference I used when I compared C5 driving HD650.

 

[mbwilson111]

CUSTOM FIRMWARE v3.1 AVAILABLE NOW

Hi fellow N3 folks. Gives me great pleasure to present you with Custom Firmware v3.1 for the Cayin N3, thanks in no small part to the help of @captblaze.

You can download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hvg6bqafo1ivcv/update.upt?dl=0

Since v3.1 is only a minor update (but with important tweaks) to v3.0, so v3.1 custom is a minor update to v3.0 custom. It has all the new features and functions of the official v3.1 firmware, so if you're stressed about switching to custom firmware, don't be!

The only visual tweak to v3.1 custom is a new landing page image in the NSFW theme (Theme C), since a few folks mentioned it was a touch too risqué for their taste.

Enjoy your new custom firmware, and as always, feel free to shout if you have any questions.

gLer

Thanks, I will do that tonight. I had not yet updated from V3.0 because I did not want to give up the custom look that you created

 

[gLer]

Thanks, I will do that tonight. I had not yet updated from V3.0 because I did not want to give up the custom look that you created

Likewise! Finally had a breather so got it done. Enjoy it.

 

[mbwilson111]

Likewise! Finally had a breather so got it done. Enjoy it.

I have updated and am now using the C theme. Love the dark background and the new image is very artistic. Really appreciate your efforts.

 

[gLer]

I have updated and am now using the C theme. Love the dark background and the new image is very artistic. Really appreciate your efforts.

Only and always my pleasure.

 

[Andykong]

To clarified the issue of digital output, we have tested the N3 under the latest v3.1 firmware and this is our final finding:

• When playback PCM files, Volume and Gain setting are disabled, but EQ is working, you can turn off the EQ if you want to opt our from EQ usage.
• When playback DSD file (both DoP and D2P setting), Volume, Gain and EQ are all disabled.

These are applicable to both USB Audio Out and S/PDIF Coaxial output.

We do not recommend user to fall back to previous firmware because of the digital output issue because you need to go all the way back to v2.0. There are bugs and modification that believe far more important.

To be honest, we are still not 100% sure if we have done the right thing because we have received numerous inquiry or requests to reinstate the volume and EQ feature in Digital output. As of the current status, we'll not claim N3 as bit perfect. We find the term vague and is more conceptual or marketing featured instead of precise and well-defined like other engineering trems. There isn't a well-defined list on what can or can't be done on digital level before we can still be considered as bit perfect. We have eliminated all unnecessary digital manipulation to achieve a high quality digital output but it is not RAW bitstream either, we

For the record, the request for bit-perfect output start all the way back in April 2017 (page 80):
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cay...coax-out-for-150.833932/page-80#post-13416400

I had make an official explanation to this issue on 1 May 2017, I was a bit upset when I wrote this reply because some users accused Cayin for not being honest and silent on the bit-perfect issue. That was the time when I was traveling to US for CanJam SoCal and HeadFi had a complete site redesign so things were slowed down because of that.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cay...oax-out-for-150.833932/page-108#post-13463244

 

[mbwilson111]

I had make an official explanation to this issue on 1 May 2017, I was a bit upset when I wrote this reply because some users accused Cayin for not being honest and silent on the bit-perfect issue. That was the time when I was traveling to US for CanJam SoCal and HeadFi had a complete site redesign so things were slowed down because of that.

I am not really involved with this issue but I just want to say that I am sorry that you were upset. Many of us appreciate all that you do and are happy that you participate in this thread.

 

[gLer]

I am not really involved with this issue but I just want to say that I am sorry that you were upset. Many of us appreciate all that you do and are happy that you participate in this thread.

+1

 

[Andykong]

I am not really involved with this issue but I just want to say that I am sorry that you were upset. Many of us appreciate all that you do and are happy that you participate in this thread.

Most manufacturer won't response to users or hobbyist inquiry on public forum, and users will not blame them for being silent or accuse them for not being honest when their public questions were ignored.

On the other hand, Cayin is one of the few manufactures who takes the initiative to exchange with users and hobbyist actively. Unfortunately some users had taken this for granted, so they don't receive formal response from me officially, they will jump to the conclusion that Cayin is hiding something. This is unfair to Cayin. I learn a hard lesson last year so when I start my 2018 rounds of Shows and events, I have to remind everyone repeatedly that I'll not be showing up in forum when I need to take care of several shows in a row.

 

[mbwilson111]

Unfortunately some users had taken this for granted

We should never take anyone or anything for granted.

I have other daps, some more expensive, but the N3 is my favorite overall.