Cayin N3Pro DAP: Dual AK4493 and MQA with Vacuum Tube
Nov 12, 2020 at 1:53 AM Post #1,592 of 2,511
as long as you don't use it when it's past the 100% mark for too long i believe. came up with a rule for myself only to use it as a DAC when it's low on battery/needs charging.

Is this true? It seems like a pretty significant design flaw if you damage your battery in USB DAC mode after charged. It charges in what 2-3 hours, so even if you only use it empty that really limits the time you should use it in USB DAC mode.
 
Nov 12, 2020 at 2:23 AM Post #1,593 of 2,511
Is this true? It seems like a pretty significant design flaw if you damage your battery in USB DAC mode after charged. It charges in what 2-3 hours, so even if you only use it empty that really limits the time you should use it in USB DAC mode.
Most devices have an over charge detection to minimise the damage.
I have no idea how this is designed though.
@Andykong
 
Nov 12, 2020 at 4:17 AM Post #1,595 of 2,511
Hi Andy,

This is more so rather than the main artists option showing you all artists and variations having the ability to group these by the album artist tag instead so going to say Chemical Brothers will show all their complete albums not just albums with 3-4 songs where they were the only artist involved.

Thankyou

If you want to group them into the same Artist sorting, you need to edit the metadata, we only sort the files according to the value of ID3 tags.
Even we created special routine to allow users to customise multiple Artist entries into one, it will only work for short terms only. When you scan your music again, we have to assume the music files are updated (including metadata), hence we need to generate a new index according to the current ID3 value, so all the customization will be resetted.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 4:37 AM Post #1,596 of 2,511
I have couple of things that don't affect my user experience all that much but if there are simple solutions then happy to hear:
1) I don't get album art for most of my albums. Most of my albums I have ripped with "Exact audio copy" program from my CD collection. The program uses a few metadata providers for album art etc. And if this fails, I have just put a relevant .jpg file to that album folder and that works perfectly in Ibasso DX160. Some of my albums (which are not ripped like this and have good metadata) show the album art fine. And then there's basically a handful of albums that I have ripped like the others and they show the art. Such as Depeche Mode-Violator. I don't get the logic here, because that CD and .jpg is just like those that don't show the album art. At some point I thought that it shows if the filename of the .jpg is exactly as the album...but then there's many where this logic doesn't apply.
2) If there's two (or more) albums with the same album name, then they get lumped together in Album view. Like I have "Timeless" by Goldie and Sergio Mendes and they are just shown together like it's one album. Not much of an issue since it's not common and I can just remember where that applies. (edit: well this actually worse on the DX160 since the tracks are mixed :grimacing: ...but I'll browse artist view for those)

Album Art display will follow the following criteria:
  1. Embedded: you can embedded a JPG file into the header of your music file, this is the best option as you can re-organize your music library anytime and yet the album art will also be available. You can use metedata management software such as MP3Tag to do this.
  2. Same Filename: In case you want to display a different album art to each song within a folder, you can rename the album art to the EXACT name of the music file, N6ii will change to different album art when they have identify a image file that is named after the music file.
  3. Predefined: Rename the album art to cover.jpg or folder.jpg (or bmp) and place it into the same folder of the music file, N6ii will look for the file and display it as the album art for all the music files in the same folder.
Please do not use exceedingly large graphic files as album art as they might cause short term CPU brust when loading the graphic file. We recommend jpeg at or below 1000x1000

If there's two (or more) albums with the same album name, the only way is to edit one of the album data to purposively create some different, such as adding an extra space or punctuation in the album name. Metedata management software such as MP3Tag can do this quite easily.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 5:07 AM Post #1,597 of 2,511
Album Art display will follow the following criteria:
(...)
Predefined: Rename the album art to cover.jpg or folder.jpg (or bmp) and place it into the same folder of the music file, N6ii N3Pro will look for the file and display it as the album art for all the music files in the same folder

Thanks @Andykong for remembering my post from a few weeks back. That "trick" with renaming to cover.jpg covers my issue pretty much entirely, tested it with a bunch of albums and it works :beerchug: Maybe at some point I will dive more into organizing my collection with better metadata and the relevant software, but this solution should work well enough until then...just need to check that I don't have overly large jpeg files.
 
Last edited:
Nov 12, 2020 at 5:36 AM Post #1,598 of 2,511
A few things that should be fixed:
(1) Thumbnail images on artist and album view does not display for item on bottom of screen. This is always true for an artist folder in which number of albums is >5 and scrolling is needed to see additional ones. Even when scrolled, those thumbnails will not display.
(2) Alphabetized bulk scroll column is too difficult to engage.
(3) Album songs in AIFF format always list alphabetically despite correct numerical order tagging. Issue disappears when AIFF is converted to FLAC.
Thanks

I just submitted item (1) and (3) to the Engineering team, they'll come back to me after their investigation. My gut feeling is, if the album will display when you scroll the list slowly, this is a design compromise, not a bug. For instance, the album art in the main playback screen will have around 2 second delays, we give priority to data buffering and delayed the display of album art deliberately.

The Alphabetic quick access bar works fine without the leather case, but the leather case does make it very difficult to use. We can't enlarge the abcd buttons but fortunately the new search function in v1.2 firmware will increase the efficiency to locate an album, artist or a track.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 5:48 AM Post #1,599 of 2,511
I received my N3 Pro today. It seems after trying out the Fiio M11 and the Ibasso DX160 I found my new DAP. Until now no freeze or reboots and no strange tube noice. My N3 Pro works well with a 512 GB card. The UI is suprisingly fast and the sound is very good.

I still have 2 questions:

1. The volumen wheel doesn't feel convincing. If the wheel breaks after the warranty ends can I adjust the volume via the UI/software?

2. The player does not show the album art of the songs. I had the same problem with the Hiby Music App.The album art is embedded in every song and the image resolution is 1000x1000 or more. I guess the cover files are too big or the resolution is too high?

I just described the album art criteria in an earlier post (HERE), try reduce your album art jpeg file to 1000x1000, if this doesn't work, the the only reason will be the progressive encoding used by the graphic software, we run into this problem very occasionally, disable the progressive encoding box and save the file again, it should work.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 6:07 AM Post #1,600 of 2,511
Just want to consult with community. My Cayin N3pro sometimes freezed and rebooth after that.

In original firmware, it happenned only for tube mode, then I think should be overheat problem due to tube operation. I contacted my local dealer in VN, and they answered that problem can be fixed by the next firmware.

But after I upgraded new firmware, still sometimes reboot and I'm very confused with that problem, cause after double check with some local N3pro users, they dont have that symptom as my once.

Any suggestions will be much appreciated, thank you!

Can you please elaborate on the freeze/rebooth conditions? Does it happens more often with certain file format? or a particular album? with standard CD format (16Bit/44.1kHz) or more often with high resolution files? during the middle of playback? or when you browsing through your music database and payback at background? do you start your playback at folder view? or from album/artist? or you have created your playlist? ...
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 6:23 AM Post #1,601 of 2,511
I have only had it for half a day but have tried it with Dt880, beyer tygr and a pair of shozy form 1.1.

It doesn’t quite drive the dt880 but it has plenty of volume and sounds nice enough. I like the dt880 on triode
The tygr are probably my favourite so far and sound amazing with linear mode.
The shozy iems sound ok. I prefer them on solid state but they aren’t the best match. They don’t sound bad as such but not amazing.


It’s been pretty good. It could be a folder structure or meta data thing. Who knows. I will get it sorted :)

yeah sadly the dt880 is non detachable single ended. I suppose I could check to see how it’s cabled. Might be able to reterminate. Don’t really want to put them apart and re-wire the drivers but if it’s a cable nip tuck it could be worth doing.

I assume you are using 250 ohm version of DT880. I don't recall there is any 80 ohm version like DT770. If that is the case, te N3Pro single-ended phone out definitely can't drive it satisfactory. It is not designed for that kind of loading. The 4.4mm balanced phone out is better, but still not comparable to a decent desktop amplifier at the same price range.

To the best of my knowledge, you need to recable the headphone instead of just changing the 6.35mm connector to 4.4mm, so this is a very complicated task, you can search DT880 balanced mod for more detail.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 6:46 AM Post #1,602 of 2,511
I understand your need to get your DAP out to the masses, but when the first thing a review states is:

" Disclaimer: The Cayin N3Pro was sent to us by Cayin directly, in exchange for our honest opinion. The unit doesn’t need to be returned."

I move on and don't bother reading any further

Product review is a two way selection. I can select my reviewers and reviewers has their freedom to accept to decline an review offer. There are a lot of good reviewers out of my reach, but I have done my best to shortlist reviewers who are experienced, with proven track record (and traffic statistic), and last but not least, not a yes man. I have stay out of their review process completely other then providing necessary documentations and accessories. Even when I work with reviewers who submit draft review before publication, I'll stay at fact check level and have never interfered with their opinion towards our product. I respect reviewers and their opinions because I join the audio business through reviewer route. I was an audio magazine reviewer 20+ years ago and I hated being manipulated when I was performing my product review duty, so I didn't get into their way when I am on the other side of table.

I understand product reviews are not necessarily meaningful to everyone, but I hope you won't tarred with the same brush.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Nov 12, 2020 at 7:00 AM Post #1,603 of 2,511
Product review is a two way selection. I can select my reviewers and reviewers has their freedom to accept to decline an review offer. There are a lot of good reviewers out of my reach, but I have done my best to shortlist reviewers who are experienced, with proven track record (and traffic statistic), and last but not least, not a yes man. I have stay out of their review process completely other then providing necessary documentations and accessories. Even when I work with reviewers who submit draft review before publication, I'll stay at fact check level and have never interfered with their opinion towards our product. I respect reviewers and their opinions because I join the audio business through reviewer route. I was an audio magazine reviewer 20+ years ago and I hated being manipulated when I was performing my product review duty, so I didn't get into their way when I am on the other side of table.

I understand product reviews are not necessarily meaningful to everyone, but I hope you won't tarred with the same brush.

I own an N3 and N3 Pro, so no tarring. Perhaps having many years (and dollars invested) has jaded my thought process? Either way I am enjoying your latest creation and look forward to what is coming in the future
 
Nov 12, 2020 at 7:38 AM Post #1,604 of 2,511
Between Dx160 and N3 pro, which one do you like better?

Honestly what you prefer is highly subjective. For example many people say the DX160 is the best in it's price class and competes with 700 EUR DAPs.

My findings are ( I can hear this tendencies with different headphones):

I highly appreciated the sound of Fiio M11. The sound quality was spectacular with good recordings. But for my personal requirements it was not ideal. I hear alot of normal to bad produced stuff (like all kind of rock genres). And for this kind of music the analytical sound doesn't work so well. Another thing I don't liked was that the voices were a bit cold and lacked emotions.

The Ibasso DX160 was a big dissapointment. For ME the DX160 sounded underwhelming like a 100 EUR DAP. Look at all the praise and the good reviews. I think these guys really like the Ibasso but it's not my cup of tea. It sounded aggressiv all the time. The voices especially the male ones were hidden behind the music and lacked body and thickness. The whole sound picture felt a bit distant and unbalanced.

The Cayin N3 Pros the best allrounder even it is also not perfect.

Only my humble opinion which probably differrs from yours.
 
Nov 12, 2020 at 7:48 AM Post #1,605 of 2,511
I assume you are using 250 ohm version of DT880. I don't recall there is any 80 ohm version like DT770. If that is the case, te N3Pro single-ended phone out definitely can't drive it satisfactory. It is not designed for that kind of loading. The 4.4mm balanced phone out is better, but still not comparable to a decent desktop amplifier at the same price range.

To the best of my knowledge, you need to recable the headphone instead of just changing the 6.35mm connector to 4.4mm, so this is a very complicated task, you can search DT880 balanced mod for more detail.

Hey Andy,

Yeah you are correct. It is not driving them well, but I didn’t expect it to. But thought why not try hahhaa. Truth be told they sound reasonably good considering.

the tygr at 32ohm sounds much better driven. Really enjoying the n3pro.
Having owned the n6 and n5 in the past I must say laying in bed listening to the dt880 in bed at low volumes was really just a nice sound.

Regarding the balanced mod, you are correct the entire cable is only 3 wire so I will need to rewire the headphone. I have some similar before but it will just depend if I can be motivated hahaha.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top