[CayinSupport]

Hi there.. Recently bought the n3 and loved it so much. Just one thing, how do i choose my songs and add it and create another playlist? For example, i play a song and want to create playlist2 but i dont want to put it under electronic, vocal, etc. I want to create my own playlist not under those category list (classical, rock, jazz, etc) and create my own. Because as far as the option goes there is only one "other" option can be chosen.. I want to choose songs and create my own playlists and like playlist2, playlist3 and not to put it under those categories "classical,rock, etc". Is that possible? Got the latest firmware version 3.1. I love this feature at my android poweramp app. Help please.. Thanks.

Hi, you can refer to this link to create a playlist: http://en.cayin.cn/download/show?id=13522

 

[ilcanzese]

working on this link : http://telecharger.cnet.com/windows/eric-nitzsche/3260-20_4-68955-1.html

 

[BuddyJBG]

Ijust got my N3, but when i use it as dac, it stopped, and the bluetooth connection cannot connect. Can anyone help me to show the way to solve the problem?

 

[bluchicboi]

Ijust got my N3, but when i use it as dac, it stopped, and the bluetooth connection cannot connect. Can anyone help me to show the way to solve the problem?

Ijust got my N3, but when i use it as dac, it stopped, and the bluetooth connection cannot connect. Can anyone help me to show the way to solve the problem?

Try downloading the latest windows usb driver. And for bluetooth, if your using hibylink as remote, try turning it off and connect bluetooth again.

 

[BuddyJBG]

Try downloading the latest windows usb driver. And for bluetooth, if your using hibylink as remote, try turning it off and connect bluetooth again.

Ok, bluetooth problem solved, thanks
For DAC, it is connected and played well at first, using foobar but at middle of songs it stopped, I have to play the song again then it sounds again
With movie, sometimes it sounds, sometimes off

 

[Le Stef]

Hi, I am a bit (actually a lot) frustrated about the Cayin N3's Equalizer; I know many of you do not use the EQ and I don't always use it neither, but I like to add some punch to some songs when required and I find the N3's EQ is just not working: increasing any band level reduces the volume considerably and distorts the sound without adding the expected punch or sparkle to the music, even with 16 Ohm IEMs. That is surprising, given the N3's output power. I own a few much, much less powerful Sony mp3 players and their EQ does a wonderful job in comparison, unfortunately with only 5 bands and not enough power.
I have tried different gain settings but the issue remains and is blatant, the N3 seems very weak in that respect (unless a software upgrade could fix this?)
Any input on that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bluchicboi]

Hi, I am a bit (actually a lot) frustrated about the Cayin N3's Equalizer; I know many of you do not use the EQ and I don't always use it neither, but I like to add some punch to some songs when required and I find the N3's EQ is just not working: increasing any band level reduces the volume considerably and distorts the sound without adding the expected punch or sparkle to the music, even with 16 Ohm IEMs. That is surprising, given the N3's output power. I own a few much, much less powerful Sony mp3 players and their EQ does a wonderful job in comparison, unfortunately with only 5 bands and not enough power.
I have tried different gain settings but the issue remains and is blatant, the N3 seems very weak in that respect (unless a software upgrade could fix this?)
Any input on that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Yes very true.. Equalizer is useless and unusable. Hope they will fix it.

 

[gLer]

Hi, I am a bit (actually a lot) frustrated about the Cayin N3's Equalizer; I know many of you do not use the EQ and I don't always use it neither, but I like to add some punch to some songs when required and I find the N3's EQ is just not working: increasing any band level reduces the volume considerably and distorts the sound without adding the expected punch or sparkle to the music, even with 16 Ohm IEMs. That is surprising, given the N3's output power. I own a few much, much less powerful Sony mp3 players and their EQ does a wonderful job in comparison, unfortunately with only 5 bands and not enough power.
I have tried different gain settings but the issue remains and is blatant, the N3 seems very weak in that respect (unless a software upgrade could fix this?)
Any input on that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

The best ‘EQ’ I’ve ever used is HiBy’s Magesound 8-ball in the HiBy R3. You can actually tweak by ear what you want to hear (eg. sibilance, female vocals, make vocals, air, bass impact). It makes so much more sense than frequency bands. Hope to see it implemented in a Cayin dap update next year (hint hint).

 

[Le Stef]

The best ‘EQ’ I’ve ever used is HiBy’s Magesound 8-ball in the HiBy R3. You can actually tweak by ear what you want to hear (eg. sibilance, female vocals, make vocals, air, bass impact). It makes so much more sense than frequency bands. Hope to see it implemented in a Cayin dap update next year (hint hint).

I've heard a lot about it and it apparently works wonders Do you own the R3? How is the overall sound, clarity and bass power on this player? Its output power is not huge, do you feel any "punch" in the bass? Also, how is the 10 band equalizer on this one, any loss of power when you use it? Thanks

 

[Le Stef]

Oh, and to give you a different perspective. Most of the music that is out there isn't engineered to the "best" that it can be. It's actually engineered down the middle, so that it'll sound good on a 1980s Honda stereo just as much as a large PA system or high-end stereo. It's designed to be plug-n-play so that anybody who plays it gets the general idea of what it should be. If you've ever heard it played live (or went to a live show) that sounded amazingly better than the recording, it means that the engineer at that venue was really in tune with their environment and "optimized" certain aspects to be cleaner. It's also what some of the "hi-res" files (remaster/remixed/re-released) is...just the same original recording, but mixed and mastered for modern gear and moving it away from the average. If you were to play these hi-res files back on cheap gear, they'd usually sound worse (typically tinny or nasally).

Thank you DocHolliday for this post; I don't understand neither why so many people are turned down by EQ; besides, I don't think ALL artists stand beside the sound engineer in the studio to give their opinion to the sound and some albums just sound awful the way they were recorded. I don't think SADE wanted their album Love Deluxe to sound as low, bassy and somewhat muffled; without good volume and an EQ to lower the bass, you may not enjoy the album as much as adjusted to your gear with the help of an EQ. I've always thought something must have happened during the recording of that album There are plenty of other examples. The supposed "audiophiles" who are turning down EQ because it "kills" the natural sounding of the music don't use EQ to adjust the sound but, instead, they often own several DAPs and will listen to a song on one DAP instead of the other because the DAP sounds different, "better for this type of music"... And they will also use different earphones! Now how is that?? Isn't that "cheating" with the natural sound neither, just in a way more complicated way? Lol, don't lie to yourself: sometimes you want some adjustments, you just need a good EQ with precise settings to bring the best of every song, on every player. That, I admit, is very hard to find on portable players.

 

[gLer]

I've heard a lot about it and it apparently works wonders Do you own the R3? How is the overall sound, clarity and bass power on this player? Its output power is not huge, do you feel any "punch" in the bass? Also, how is the 10 band equalizer on this one, any loss of power when you use it? Thanks

Hi - I don’t own the R3 but had a chance to compare it to the N3 a while ago. While I love the touchscreen and interface, and the 8-ball EQ, the R3 is underpowered compared to the N3. The R3 I’m balanced mode is about equivalent to the N3 in medium gain, so if you have harder to drive IEMs the R3 is not for you. I didn’t try the 10-band EQ - I generally don’t like EQ, but the special R3 version should be standard on all players in my opinion. Hopefully we’ll see some similar innovations from Cayin at this price point next year.

 

[docholliday]

Thank you DocHolliday for this post; I don't understand neither why so many people are turned down by EQ; besides, I don't think ALL artists stand beside the sound engineer in the studio to give their opinion to the sound and some albums just sound awful the way they were recorded. I don't think SADE wanted their album Love Deluxe to sound as low, bassy and somewhat muffled; without good volume and an EQ to lower the bass, you may not enjoy the album as much as adjusted to your gear with the help of an EQ. I've always thought something must have happened during the recording of that album There are plenty of other examples. The supposed "audiophiles" who are turning down EQ because it "kills" the natural sounding of the music don't use EQ to adjust the sound but, instead, they often own several DAPs and will listen to a song on one DAP instead of the other because the DAP sounds different, "better for this type of music"... And they will also use different earphones! Now how is that?? Isn't that "cheating" with the natural sound neither, just in a way more complicated way? Lol, don't lie to yourself: sometimes you want some adjustments, you just need a good EQ with precise settings to bring the best of every song, on every player. That, I admit, is very hard to find on portable players.

I think it's because most people misunderstand what EQ is used for. In many recording situations, you'll find EQ both in the pre and post mix chains. I've used EQ to smooth out and clean up mic vocals, remove feedback from instruments, and warm/cool micings of drums on the inbound chain. Then there's the outbound EQ on mixes to clean up harmonics and over-packed frequencies. The first thing I do when working live is use the EQ to clean up a room, getting rid of the feedback prone frequencies of the room and making the sound "neutral". During the show, the same EQ could be used to further remove/tune/enahnce frequencies caused by all the bodies in the room to clarify the sound. I'd expect the same from my portable gear. The EQ should be used carefully to get the best out of speakers/phones in the same manner.

Very few artists are intimately involved with the recording/mixing/mastering process. Most artists pick their engineers because they know they can trust them to do justice to the music and have the same vision. A few I've worked with have sat in with me, but didn't do too much more than saying "can we get the snare's a bit more clear?" and then leaving it to me to make it happen. They have no idea how I did it, whether through effects, EQ, or mix levels. And most listeners have no idea how many "cooks" the audio chain has been through. I've done some where I've recorded, mixed, and mastered from the start. Other's I've only recorded and then somebody else mixed before sending off for mastering. There's also the ones where I've only did final mastering but had no idea what the original recording and mixing sounded like. So for somebody to say that EQ "destroys the artist's intention" is complete and utter nonsense. I use EQ judiciously in many situations, in the car, at my desk, and with my portable gear.

The N3's EQ works great, as long as one understand how it is designed...and is willing to take the time and patience to set it. The first thing to remember is that it will automatically cut 6db from the levels as soon as it is engaged (even before moving anything off the middle 0db line). That is so that it can get the necessary headroom to do adjustments. That is why it sounds like the levels drop. So turn it up another 6db to get the same volume level. If you didn't cut level out before EQ'ing, you'd get distortion as anything you pushed near max would try to go above 0db (and since it's digital, would clip into a square wave). The second thing is that it's usually best to push the volume higher and then *cut* out frequencies to make it sound good, as not be creating sound that doesn't exist (since this is a single channel mix, you can't just add more snare; you have to try and increase the snare's freq range, which may also correspond with other frequencies, like vocals or guitars and make it sound muddy or tinny). You could also then pull just the frequencies that your output device (phones/speakers) are good at so that they drop below 0db before enhancing the freqs that are weak.

The N3's design is very customizable and fairly good at doing exactly what you want it to. Other devices where the EQ doesn't seem to make a volume level difference does some black magic behind your back. Typically, it's just automatically biasing the level with that 6db for you as soon as you turn the EQ on.

 

[Le Stef]

Hi - I don’t own the R3 but had a chance to compare it to the N3 a while ago. While I love the touchscreen and interface, and the 8-ball EQ, the R3 is underpowered compared to the N3. The R3 I’m balanced mode is about equivalent to the N3 in medium gain, so if you have harder to drive IEMs the R3 is not for you. I didn’t try the 10-band EQ - I generally don’t like EQ, but the special R3 version should be standard on all players in my opinion. Hopefully we’ll see some similar innovations from Cayin at this price point next year.

Thank you Gler, that is very informative! Most of my IEMs are not hard to drive, but I guess in order to bring real punch, a DAP needs as much power as possible; if the R# is weak, even though the Ball EQ might be really good, it might be to weak to sound really nice. Thanks again !

 

[Le Stef]

I think it's because most people misunderstand what EQ is used for. In many recording situations, you'll find EQ both in the pre and post mix chains. I've used EQ to smooth out and clean up mic vocals, remove feedback from instruments, and warm/cool micings of drums on the inbound chain. Then there's the outbound EQ on mixes to clean up harmonics and over-packed frequencies. The first thing I do when working live is use the EQ to clean up a room, getting rid of the feedback prone frequencies of the room and making the sound "neutral". During the show, the same EQ could be used to further remove/tune/enahnce frequencies caused by all the bodies in the room to clarify the sound. I'd expect the same from my portable gear. The EQ should be used carefully to get the best out of speakers/phones in the same manner.

Very few artists are intimately involved with the recording/mixing/mastering process. Most artists pick their engineers because they know they can trust them to do justice to the music and have the same vision. A few I've worked with have sat in with me, but didn't do too much more than saying "can we get the snare's a bit more clear?" and then leaving it to me to make it happen. They have no idea how I did it, whether through effects, EQ, or mix levels. And most listeners have no idea how many "cooks" the audio chain has been through. I've done some where I've recorded, mixed, and mastered from the start. Other's I've only recorded and then somebody else mixed before sending off for mastering. There's also the ones where I've only did final mastering but had no idea what the original recording and mixing sounded like. So for somebody to say that EQ "destroys the artist's intention" is complete and utter nonsense. I use EQ judiciously in many situations, in the car, at my desk, and with my portable gear.

The N3's EQ works great, as long as one understand how it is designed...and is willing to take the time and patience to set it. The first thing to remember is that it will automatically cut 6db from the levels as soon as it is engaged (even before moving anything off the middle 0db line). That is so that it can get the necessary headroom to do adjustments. That is why it sounds like the levels drop. So turn it up another 6db to get the same volume level. If you didn't cut level out before EQ'ing, you'd get distortion as anything you pushed near max would try to go above 0db (and since it's digital, would clip into a square wave). The second thing is that it's usually best to push the volume higher and then *cut* out frequencies to make it sound good, as not be creating sound that doesn't exist (since this is a single channel mix, you can't just add more snare; you have to try and increase the snare's freq range, which may also correspond with other frequencies, like vocals or guitars and make it sound muddy or tinny). You could also then pull just the frequencies that your output device (phones/speakers) are good at so that they drop below 0db before enhancing the freqs that are weak.

The N3's design is very customizable and fairly good at doing exactly what you want it to. Other devices where the EQ doesn't seem to make a volume level difference does some black magic behind your back. Typically, it's just automatically biasing the level with that 6db for you as soon as you turn the EQ on.

YES! I forgot to mention the fact that you can actually clean sound with EQ, at times even by using 2 EQ for the same frequencies: one to "clean" the sound, the other one to enhance the frequency. So true, thanks for the nice, exhaustive and professional explanation about the EQ use, I would love as many people as possible to read it...
In regards to the N3 EQ, thank you for the explanation as well; I will try again the method of pulling the "good" freqs, I didn't really believe in that and tried it just a few times, didn't find it satisfactory. I need to use it with more songs and get used to it. I have set the NS to low gain, as I've read that it might have more punch it it works at almost full volume, I will check how the EQ works that way (But I must admit, I like when the black magic happens behind my back!) You have what I consider a dream job, I should have followed my instinct and follow that path as well, but instead went to a Business school, lol... Thanks for taking the time to share your valuable skills

 

[gLer]

Thank you Gler, that is very informative! Most of my IEMs are not hard to drive, but I guess in order to bring real punch, a DAP needs as much power as possible; if the R# is weak, even though the Ball EQ might be really good, it might be to weak to sound really nice. Thanks again !

No problem, but also don’t get me wrong - if you have sensitive IEMs the R3 will drive them with plenty of power, just with less headroom than the N3. I did find the R3 a touch brighter than the N3, but that’s a preference as opposed to a flaw - people will prefer one or the other, and either can be corrected with a touch of eq if need be.