[NateInBelgium]

@Francisk I haven't had any issues with CTIA functions. Maybe you have a faulty unit?

@Andykong I'm perfectly happy with my player and it's capabilities. I use it mostly as a portable device, via the aux output to my Yamaha home cinema and occasionally as a DAC from my laptop. It does what I want and it does it well. Cayin have indeed hit the sweet spot for price point versus features. Only thing I do have an issue with is connection via Bluetooth to my car and that isn't a fault of the N3! Only request I have is maybe a tidy up of the menu screens and start/shut down screens. Keep up with the good work.

 

[Francisk]

@Andykong thank you for your clarifications and answers! I know the specs say iOS is not supported, but anyway: Can the N3 works as an external dac/amp for my iPhone (using the CCK). Im interested in using my iphone as a music source and take adventage of N3 hardware. May another user has already tested this?

I know this might not be the ideal workaround but I've been using the Bluetooth with Apt-X streaming solution to connect to my iOS and Android devices without any issues but of course it's nothing like having true DAC/AMP support for iOS and Android devices via CCK and OTG respectively.

 

[Francisk]

@Francisk I haven't had any issues with CTIA functions. Maybe you have a faulty unit?

@NateInBelgium, I think my N3's CTIA remote function is faulty. I'll need to claim for warranty ASAP. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[Cyberpunk2077]

Hello guys, ı need a usb type c to type c cable for connecting n3 to my phone(xiaomi redmi pro) . Any recommendations?

 

[Andykong]

Welcome back Andykong, it's good to know that you take great interest in Cayin's users' experience. The first product that I purchased from Cayin several years ago was the C5 preamp which I'm very very happy with. The N3 is my second purchase and hopefully more to come. I've had an overall good experience with both my Cayin products but as usual, good products will only get better with users' honest feedback and Cayin's ongoing development of firmware updates to further improve the product.

Here's some of my honest feedback on N3 after using it for a week:

1.) A very good sounding and feature packed DAP for the price second to none as of now. My only suggestion is to minimse the digital edginess of the high frequencies around 9kHz and above without affecting the high frequency extension, something more in line with the Aune M1s' (slightly more expensive than N3) high frequency performance. I've tried all the 5 different filter settings but it's either a compromise of digital edginess or overly smoothed highs at the expense of losing the high frequency extension.

2.) Please get the CTIA remote function working. I'm not sure if other users are experiencing the same problem but my N3's CTIA remote function is definitely not working with all my IEMs' in-line remote's play/pause/skip function, which are working perfectly fine on either my Samsung S7 Edge, iPhone 4S and the rest of my iOS and Android devices.

I hope Cayin will continue to make further improvements to the N3 to make it a far greater product. Thank you.

The CITA remote function of N3 should be working alright, but please be reminded that N3 support both CITA and OMTP standard headphones on audio output, but only support the CITA headset on control protocol, so if your headphone is working alright on sound output but N3 fails to provide control playback, there is still a small chance that the handset is OMTP instead of CITA.

If you can confirm that the handset is indeed CITA compatible, I shall advice you to contact your seller regarding the malfunction of your N3 on this feature.

 

[Andykong]

Make a really good DAP at a reasonable price, and people will come!

BTW Andykong - Why is the menu for browsing by Artist, Album, Genre, etc is in "cover flow" style while all other menus are lists? Personally, I find that inconsistency a bit jarring. I think it would be better to maintain consistency, with all menus in list style. I'm curious what others think...

Thanks, have marked your suggestion on my record, will compile a list and submit to the software team late this week.

 

[Andykong]

Will the leather case appear at Cayin Aliexpress store? And Cayin cables?

Yes, the N3 case will be listed in Cayin Aliexpress store, please check next week for more detail.

 

[Francisk]

The CITA remote function of N3 should be working alright, but please be reminded that N3 support both CITA and OMTP standard headphones on audio output, but only support the CITA headset on control protocol, so if your headphone is working alright on sound output but N3 fails to provide control playback, there is still a small chance that the handset is OMTP instead of CITA.

If you can confirm that the handset is indeed CITA compatible, I shall advice you to contact your seller regarding the malfunction of your N3 on this feature.

Thanks for the response Andykong, looks like my N3's CTIA remote is faulty because like I said, all my in-line remote IEMs' (CTIA and OMTP) play/pause/skip function are working perfectly fine with my Samsung S7 Edge, iPhone 4S and iPad.

 

[Andykong]

Two things, last night my shoulder was hurting (pinched nerve) so I had a big glass of red wine and took a walk. I brought n3 and just shuffled all my orb albums and my god they sounded good. I was waking around the lake by my house ( they have sidewalks ) and I took my n3 out to fiddle with the dac filter and I dropped it face down on the sidewalk

Now I work for the township and I know those sidewalks are a composite of concrete, silica, quartz, and various ground up scrap minerals that some have a hardness of 8.5 on the mohs scale to prolong the life of said sidewalk.

Anyways I had taken my screen saver off the other day and I thought the screen was scratched to hell because I dropped my iphone 6s on the same sidewalk and it scratched the screen.

Imagine my surprise then when I got home and found zero scratches on the plastic? screen. I was really impressed because the surface of the sidewalk is very abrasive as to not be slippery when wet. Good stuff!

The second thing is if Cayin would ever make a tiny dap like this that sounds this good and had a touchscreen and a separate line out with a little better build quality- like i5, well that would be my ultimate dap and I would pay a pretty penny for it!

As it is though I love this little beast, walking around the lake late at night and hearing the orb in all their glory, I got so many of those 'I never heard that before' moments that it was just what the doctor ordered. I came home more relaxed and was able to sleep.

I really think it was the area I was listening in and the absolute quiet of late night that helped my mind concentrate on the music In was listening to. And because the n3 has good resolution

That's an interesting experience, and I am glad that N3 has proved to be your worthy companion.

Apparently I can file this as one of our drop test, I assume the drop is more then 1m height.

I agree with nmatheis that the relatively light weight is the main reason for N3 to survive from the drop, and we can't guarantee that the N3 will survive another drop accidentally, so I shall remind all N3 users that Drop Test is a dangerous act, please don't attempt this without proper supervision.

 

[Andykong]

Thanks for the response Andykong, looks like my N3's CTIA remote is faulty because like I said, all my in-line remote IEMs' (CTIA and OMTP) play/pause/skip function are working perfectly fine with my Samsung S7 Edge, iPhone 4S and iPad.

I am not familiar with the line control support of these phones/device, but if they can support both CITA and OMTP inline control but N3 only support CITA inline control, then the cross-reference might not be an adequate observation.

 

[Andykong]

I know that this is bound to happen to all batteries. As much as i am really interested in this DAP, is there any way of being able to purchase a replaceable battery from Cayin if it dies or possibly a battery replacement service? Or are we pretty much SOL once the battery dies? I intend to keep using this DAP for a long time.

The N3 battery is a custom design Lithium battery, you can only buy that from us. We sell replacement battery to our customers in China and Hong Kong if they are close enough for land mailing. We can't find any flight carrier who will be willing to accept a bare Lithium battery nowadays. Sending a DAP with a battery installed is the best we can do right now. So the only way to get around this limitation is for you to send the DAP to us by air mail, we replace the battery for you, and then we send the DAP back to you by air mail.

Maybe you can check the flight carrier service at your side and if you can find a reliable service provide who is willing to accept a bare Lithium battery, I can sell you a N3 battery at hefty discount (how about below US$10) just to try it out.

 

[actorlife]

New Colors? come on DudeNess AK.

 

[Andykong]

I've just noticed a weird behaviour when connected to the PC in USB-DAC mode: the sound has delays on both Facebook and YouTube videos using the Chrome or Edge browsers on Win 10. On Chrome the delay is more severe that on Edge. The same delay is present when playing a Mkv or mp4 file using the PotPlayer on the same Win 10 PC.
This never happened with my previous FiiO E10K....so it must be the N3 or the Cayin driver...probably can be fixed with the next N3 firmware update or Cayin PC driver version.

It seems I am the only one using it as DAC, and it behaves differently comparing to when it is used as a portable player. The bass suffers as well even if I am using the Foobar2000 with the Real Bass Exciter, SOX Resampler and Meier Crossfeed DSPs applied.
My setting are:





Otherwise, as a portable player, the sound is great with both my CKS990 and MSR7 headphones, so no problems there.

The thing is my Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 is very neutral and the bass needs some EQ....I am considering replacing them with something more on the bass side ( absolutely no rubbish headphones like Bose or Dr Beats). Maybe JVC HA-SZ2000 OR V-MODA Crossfade M-100.

Thank you for your positive feedback on N3. I don't exactly have an scientific explanation but I do agree that N3 will sound better after 1 week of regular usage. I have experienced that myself, and several members of this thread has similar observation.

The ATH headphones are well-known for it sweat female vocal, but bass response is not its strong suit unless you are going for DJ or bass-head targeted models such as ATH-M50x. The closed wood cans can offer lots of bass relatively, but they aren't the headphones that I'll recommend if you are looking for linear, articulated, and punchy bass response. I am not sure if you are really should go for the basshead cans. From what I read, you are more bass from your ATH and something that can go lower. I would suggest you to add Meze 99Classic to your candidate list, or 99 Neo if you need something to compare against the JVC at similar price range. I haven't heard the 99Neo yet, but the 99Classic was one of the most loved headphone with Cayin DAP since I collected them at Munich High End Show 2016.

Regarding the video delay issue, I can basically claim that the problem is inevitable because N3 is using asynchronous usb transmission. I shall quote the following explanation on asynchronous USB for discussion purpose:

Asynchronous USB (not to be confused with asynchronous samplerate conversion) uses a clock housed near the dac (usually in the external dac’s casing) and allows it to drive the converter directly, thereby not relying on the instable computer’s clock. It is called asynchronous because the DAC’s master clock isn’t synchronized directly to any clocks within the computer. Instead, the DAC is controlled by a (potentially high-precision) fixed-frequency clock. This clock controls the datastream from the computer to a buffer near the DA converter.

I would like to draw your attention to two issues:

1. the DAC’s master clock isn’t synchronized directly to any clocks within the computer
2. This clock controls the datastream from the computer to a buffer near the DA converter

In other word, the audio signal processing is deliberately "disconnected" from the computer clock but the video display remain connected to the computer clock, so the video and audio are not synchronized by nature. In addition, we need to create a data buffer in the audio circuit in order to hold the audio datastream from the computer, and the buffer will inevitably caused delays in the audio signal with reference to the non-buffered video signal.

If you must achieve audio and video synchronization, you can only do that by adding a delay in the video reproduction. Most Home Theater system will have to handle similar issue and they call it lip-sync, this can be a DSP feature in the Audio-Visual Control Center (Receiver) or a video delay adjustment in the LCD TV or projector, so please check your computer monitor to see if similar feature is in place.

 

[Andykong]

New Colors? come on DudeNess AK.

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/c...oax-out-for-150.833932/page-104#post-13449958

 

[Andykong]

So, just to bring it to the forefront again...will replacement screen protectors for the N3 be forthcoming?

Every N3 comes with two screen protectors, one pre-applied, and another provided as spare.

We didn't put the screen protector up as a for sale item, we could but the price will be unreasonably high because the logistic and handling charge will be exponentially higher then original cost of the screen protector. We suggest you look for similar sized screen protector from local mobile accessories shop and trim it into the correct size for N3.