You don't need to charge from 20% to 85% in every charge. Lithium battery-like swallow charges, which means you can charge from 20% to 4x% or 5x% and then start to use it until it reaches 20% again. That means you can listen to 4.5 hours continuously, take a ~1-hour break, and then use it for another 3 hours. I guess most users are willing to take a break after a 4.5-hour continuous music session.
Side note #1: 20% to 85% is one of the many recommendations to prolong the battery life, and 10% to 90% is another recommendation, I have seen ridiculous suggestions such as 20% to 50% per charge. We know for sure that partial discharge reduces stress and prolongs battery life, and so does a partial charge, that's why good practice is to avoid discharging your lithium battery too low (e.g. 3.3v) or charging it too high (exceeding 4.2V). I have yet to see reliable statistical evidence that 20% to 85% will deliver more charging cycles than 10% to 90%. You are taking a generalized guideline as a hard fact, sticking with it, and suffering by your belief. My personal practice is to keep the DAP between 20% to 85% in regular use, but I won't hesitate to extend the range to 10%>90% occasionally. These are guidelines for good practice, I don't see them as hard numbers.
Side note #2: Charging while you playback is technically safe, we do recommend against this if you do this too often because charging during playback will increase the temperature of the battery, but it won't cause a significant impact on your battery life if you are only doing this occasionally, especially when you provided decent ventilation to improve the efficient of the heat dispersion of the DAP. I have also noticed some users placed the DAP on top of a metal chuck or heat sink and reported that the DAP would run cool even in extreme conditions. So how often is it occasionally? Sorry, I didn't notice any meaningful statistic figures along this line, but in my previous consultation with users, I normally quoted once in every 5 charging cycles as a safe bet. For the record, if you stick with 20% to 85% charging practice, 5 charging cycles is equivalent to around 8 rounds of charging (7.7 to be exact). YMMV you don't need to treat this as a highly damaging practice.
Side note #3: If battery life is your main concern, maybe you can budget a battery replacement in advance. Just send in your DAP after 4 years of service, your biggest cost will be the shipping cost from your location to Zhuhai and return. Repair service, including but not limited to battery replacement cost is among the lowest you can expect. For the record, we charge US$35 (¥230 RMB to be exact) to replace an N8ii battery, and US$25 (¥160 RMB to be exact) to replace the N6ii battery. Since you only need to send in your DAP without the accessories and original package, the total logistic cost should be .... around $100 (??) Please be reminded that Cayin owns the manufacturing facilities and runs the production in-house, we even wind our own transformers and have a decent battery storage inventory in our own building. When you have the facilities, components, and technicians readily available, the maintenance cost of our DAPs is significantly lower than brands that heavily rely on outsourced manufacturing services
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