[jotaerre]

Of course, faced with such abundance and saturation of markets, we have gone from consumption to hyperconsumption. Thus supposedly each one will know what he wants or believes he needs. There is a lot of talk about whether the N3U or the M5U, but call me what you want, I don't care, I won't buy any DAP that has the headphone input on the top, for example.

 

[AnyDave]

I have no personal experience with JAN6418 tubes, the 1 to 3 year figure came from a friend of mine. He has experience using these tubes in his DIY tube preamps and amplifiers builds going back 15 years and I got this timing from another DIY site. This also falls in line with my own experience using tube preamplifiers and amplifiers going back decades. The other variable is how old are these tubes you are using in the R4? The JAN6418 tubes have been around for a long time and parts do start to breakdown if left on the shelf for a long time.

This all factors into my willingness to buy a DAP with non-replaceable tubes. As you say I need to be comfortable with my purchase and will look elsewhere.

When it comes to tubes, how they are implemented in a circuit does matter as it pertains to lifespan.

I'm a bit surprised that he only gets 1-3 years as most preamp tubes last way longer than that. But it does depend on how many hours per day are put on the tubes. The sub-mini tubes were designed to be used in the field without requiring replacement (which was made more difficult by the fact that they have leads instead of pins).

There is some interesting info here: https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/subminiature-tubes/

 

[vilders]

Oh well... Without hesitation, I pressed the button, and 24 hours later, the family "Ultra" was home...

 

[plakat]

Oh well... Without hesitation, I pressed the button, and 24 hours later, the family "Ultra" was home...

Would be very interested in hearing your comments on both…

 

[CarinTorment]

Oh well... Without hesitation, I pressed the button, and 24 hours later, the family "Ultra" was home...

Wow, congratulations, I will also join the Cayin family with this N3 ultra, it will arrive in a few weeks.

I was between those two models that came to you, but I decided on Cayin, we look forward to your comparisons of both teams.

My other two daps are the Sony Wm1a and Wm1am2.

 

[vilders]

Would be very interested in hearing your comments on both…

Wow, congratulations

Thanks. I'll try to say something this weekendbut I'm new in this regard with no experience

 

[AugustineNg]

You can disable the home button wake up by disabling the "Double Click Wake Up" feature through System >Gesturers menu.

The folder view is fairly reliable in our experience, can you provide more information regarding the folders that aren't available? You can drop me a PM with more photos if that makes it easier for you to explain your problem

I have sent a video by email to you almost a month ago. And I found that it actually skips quite a lot of new songs that I have recently added. The scanning jammed at around 8xxx/16xxx. For that I wish you could really test the capability of it to hold vast songs without a single bug.

 

[Andykong]

I have sent a video by email to you almost a month ago. And I found that it actually skips quite a lot of new songs that I have recently added. The scanning jammed at around 8xxx/16xxx. For that I wish you could really test the capability of it to hold vast songs without a single bug.

That probably means the scanning process ran into a music field that they can't process, reason varied from special symbols in filename or key ID3 field in metadata.

 

[fish1050]

When it comes to tubes, how they are implemented in a circuit does matter as it pertains to lifespan.

I'm a bit surprised that he only gets 1-3 years as most preamp tubes last way longer than that. But it does depend on how many hours per day are put on the tubes. The sub-mini tubes were designed to be used in the field without requiring replacement (which was made more difficult by the fact that they have leads instead of pins).

There is some interesting info here: https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/subminiature-tubes/

Yes you are correct but in terms of someone I know and trust and my own experiences I feel better with the known vs impressions given by people I don't know.

 

[mikaik]

Yes you are correct but in terms of someone I know and trust and my own experiences I feel better with the known vs impressions given by people I don't know.

I absolutely agree with you. I'd do the same in your place. Most of us are biased here, still in the honeymoon with a new player. I know I am. Come back in one year and see what's what. So far I was lucky with my purchases, but only time will tell.
Trust your instincts.
So many other good products and you can always add a small tube Schiit amp to your chain, no stress, just music.

 

[fish1050]

I absolutely agree with you. I'd do the same in your place. Most of us are biased here, still in the honeymoon with a new player. I know I am. Come back in one year and see what's what. So far I was lucky with my purchases, but only time will tell.
Trust your instincts.
So many other good products and you can always add a small tube Schiit amp to your chain, no stress, just music.

I need for some funds to become available before I can buy another DAP so there is plenty of time to watch and wait to see how the N3 Ultra and other new DAP's mature with updates and more user feedback before the actual purchase.

Yes I am also investigating some desktop tube amps to possibly pair with a cheaper DAP and a safer path to tube sound nirvana.

 

[AnyDave]

Yes you are correct but in terms of someone I know and trust and my own experiences I feel better with the known vs impressions given by people I don't know.

Can you ask your friend how hard his designs ran the tubes? I've just never heard of sub-mini tubes having that short of a lifespan. Obviously, with tubes, premature failures can occur, but that seems a bit out of the norm. Obviously, your friend's data has value, but it is a singular data point that might be an edge case for tubes rated at 5,000 hours plus. I suppose if the tubes are run 5+ hours a day over 3 years, that would hit the 5k hours, but I'm guessing most people don't use their DAP that way.

I don't have access to IEEE anymore, but if you or your friend does, here is an article from 1951 that specifically looks at longevity of sub-mini tubes:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1701438/metrics#metrics

That said, I completely understand wanting to pursue a path where you can swap tubes. Desktop tube amps are great for swapping tubes. Not only for reliability reasons, but for dialing in the sound to your preference. But that's a different application than what the N3Ultra is trying to do.

 

[fish1050]

Can you ask your friend how hard his designs ran the tubes? I've just never heard of sub-mini tubes having that short of a lifespan. Obviously, with tubes, premature failures can occur, but that seems a bit out of the norm. Obviously, your friend's data has value, but it is a singular data point that might be an edge case for tubes rated at 5,000 hours plus. I suppose if the tubes are run 5+ hours a day over 3 years, that would hit the 5k hours, but I'm guessing most people don't use their DAP that way.

I don't have access to IEEE anymore, but if you or your friend does, here is an article from 1951 that specifically looks at longevity of sub-mini tubes:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1701438/metrics#metrics

That said, I completely understand wanting to pursue a path where you can swap tubes. Desktop tube amps are great for swapping tubes. Not only for reliability reasons, but for dialing in the sound to your preference. But that's a different application than what the N3Ultra is trying to do.

Yes the ability to swap out tubes to change the sound tuning is a nice bonus to getting a desktop tube amp. I certainly can't comment on his DIY design implementations going back 15 years. He is a bit of a mad scientist and may have abused the tubes quite a bit. Ultimately though the apprehension about not being able to replace the tubes has me moving on to another DAP.

 

[jotaerre]

I ask this based on my ignorance: if the tubes fail, does it continue to function in Solid-Estate mode?

 

[twister6]

Just a personal observation, but from a reviewer perspective, rather than a consumer, I find it interesting how, for example, the L&P DAPs thread has hardly any complaints about their $3.5k-$4.5k audio players with a more primitive user interface (in comparison to N3U) or their lack of wi-fi/streaming. And the same with LPGT and lack of wi-fi/streaming. Or SP3000T with the same dual JAN6418 tubes having a similar battery performance of 10+ hrs with a solid opamp and 6.5-7hrs with tubes (while I'm getting about 7.5hrs with N3U under the same playback conditions, Tubes).

So, could it be that customers of the upper-end flagship daps are less critical than customers or potential buyers of the entry-level dap models like N3U? Or maybe a different level of expectations? I would think the opposite, because, tbh, I'm very impressed by the sound of N3U in Classic Tube mode.