[technobear]

The PAW doesn't have a full size SD slot.

I was thinking of Paw gold, didn't realize you were talking about Paw 5000. I should learn to read lol.

PAW Gold is crazy money. So is Calyx M.

QA360 is interesting but only available in China. I wish someone would import it to the UK.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

QA360 is interesting but only available in China. I wish someone would import it to the UK.

 
 
You can buy QA360 worldwide straight from their website. Some cheap dap's that have full size sd are Hifiman HM-603 and Aune M1. Both can be had for around $150 shipped, I own both, and QA360 also.

 

[Andykong]

I don't think micro sd will ever catch up to full size sd in storage space, and the pricing is very much on the side of full size sd, 200gb micro sd is $240, and 256g fullsize is $80. There are already 512gb full size sd for $450. There is a 512gb micro sd on the horizon, will have a rrp of 1k! It is likely a 1tb full size sd is on the way given how rapidly manufacturers are shrinking nand memory die size, we should see the price of 512gb full size sd drop. summary, full size sd will always be ahead in both capacity and value, and probably by about a two fold margin for both.

Your clip+ has a 4000 song limit, that's about 200gb of flac, so you could theoretically rock a 200gb micro sd in your clip+, but that would be the absolute limit for you due to song capacity.

The PAW has a 16,000 file limit, and full size sd are available in 512gb which you could rock in the Paw. So no, your clip+ is not at all on the level of the Paw capacity wise, especially when 1tb full size sd come around which the Paw could utilize due to 16,000 song limit.

I agree with you in absolute terms. At the extreme capacity sector, SD will beat TF hands down on storage per MB, but this advantage will quickly diminished when we move down the ladder slightly. For instance, I just checked the price of Sandisk cards from Amazon, 128GB TF card is priced at US$70, 256G SD card is $150, so the cost per MB are roughly the same at this storage capacity.

For the record, you should be able to store 7000+ 16/44.1 FLAC songs on 256B storage, or if you have 30% of your music library in Hi-Res such as 24/96, 256GB will be able to hold around 4000 CD quality songs and 1200 Hi-Res songs. If you can settle with these amount of storage on-the-move, then the unit storage cost will not be a significant factor.

Last but not least, from manufacturer point of view, if we can't change the norm, we probably have to conform and live with it. The fact is full size SD card will be less popular on DAP or similar devices, and TF card will on the rise, that means all the supply chain and market acceptance will flavor TF card down the road. We hope there is a game changer down the road, but the white knight will most likely comes from a different sector then DAP, as the production volume are too small to lead the trend.

 

[Andykong]

N5 high-quality line output, built a separate line output amplifier circuit, the output level of 2.1Vrms.

Your are correct that the line output of N5 by-passes the volume control, voltage amplification and headphone amplification stage complete and has its own Op-am and bias current control, but let me check with the engineer and come back to you on this, as last I heard, the llne out of N5 is 1.7V, and that is in line with N6.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I agree with you in absolute terms. At the extreme capacity sector, SD will beat TF hands down on storage per MB, but this advantage will quickly diminished when we move down the ladder slightly. For instance, I just checked the price of Sandisk cards from Amazon, 128GB TF card is priced at US$70, 256G SD card is $150, so the cost per MB are roughly the same at this storage capacity.

 
Sandisk are not the only brand, you must consider all brands. $80 for 256gb: http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-256GB-Speed/dp/B00FF90EZM
 
And to add insult to injury, that 256gb full size sd card is 90mb/s read speed, while the 128gb micro sd card your referring to is 30mb/s. Full size win in every way, not to mention less likely to break.
 
Anyway this is derailing the thread, so I'm out.

 

[Sagitis]

I also do like the full size, fast speed SD card but the only players that can take full advantage of it are fast interface players i.e qa360 and paw gold. But anyway as times go by micro SD card will catch up with full size card speed and storage, so implementing micro sd card still valid. Also music publisher is trying to sell an audio format called MSQ, i.e Hi-RES flac file in micro SD card, so having a dual micro SD card to change music on the go is a very neat thing.
 
One thing i am interested is will cayin dap sound changes if it is loaded with wav only firmware, similar to what qls did to qa360 demonstrating the less functions the better the sound revealing the potential of their beast.

 

[Andykong]

Sandisk are not the only brand, you must consider all brands. $80 for 256gb: http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Elite-Performance-256GB-Speed/dp/B00FF90EZM

And to add insult to injury, that 256gb full size sd card is 90mb/s read speed, while the 128gb micro sd card your referring to is 30mb/s. Full size win in every way, not to mention less likely to break.

Anyway this is derailing the thread, so I'm out.

So the dilemma will change if three months later brand XYZ come out with a 128GB TF card at $45?

The design concept of N5 was developed back in late 2014 when N6 is launched, and we need to sustain this concept till the end of N5 production, which hopefully will be sometime in later 2016 or early 2017 before we revise the product. So future trend might take a bigger part then the consumer's current decision.

We might not be the most accurate party in predicting the price of TF card, we played safe and hoped that we have fitted into the market and serve as many happy customer as possible. If we heard enough demand for a full size SD card instead of two TF card, we sure will listen to that and accommodate in our next product. Cayin does not invest in TF card technologies so we don't necessarily stand by it, we just meet the demands.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Then I will put forward my vote, I for one would prefer a single full size sd slot rather than two micro sd.

 

[Andykong]

Then I will put forward my vote, I for one would prefer a single full size sd slot rather than two micro sd.

Sure, you are the second vote I noted, and I shall keep a close eye on the storage market for that matters.

From what I know, unless there's a breakthrough on the 15nm technology, we won't see 256GB and 200GB TF will stay on high price for a very long time, this is not the barrier we want to live with, so let's hope something is happening soon.

 

[twister6]

N5 thread is heading in the direction of the last 20 pages of X7 thread, talking about flash card and storage
 
Forgot if it was mentioned, will N5 support USB OTG to expand the storage?  Either way, we are talking about slim compact DAP to take with you on the go, not a bigger brick to keep at home with your entire music library (a'la QA360 - which btw, I love but it's too damn big, even comes with it's own remote control ).

 

[Andykong]

N5 thread is heading in the direction of the last 20 pages of X7 thread, talking about flash card and storage

Forgot if it was mentioned, will N5 support USB OTG to expand the storage?  Either way, we are talking about slim compact DAP to take with you on the go, not a bigger brick to keep at home with your entire music library (a'la QA360 - which btw, I love but it's too damn big, even comes with it's own remote control ).

N5 doesn't support OTG, unfortunately！

 

[uzi2]

N5 doesn't support OTG, unfortunately！

What sort of transfer rates can be expected using a USB3 connection to the internal cards?

 

[Vartan]

N5 theme dark blue
 
 
 
 
and PCB


 
 
+Info.
High-quality line output (LINE OUT), built a separate line output amplifier circuit, the output level of 2.1Vrms, you can connect a variety of power amplifiers use; audiophile grade headphone output jack (PHONES OUT), output impedance of less than 0.26 Ω, the rated output power of 210mW + 210mW (at 32Ω load), easy to drive each type headphones. Along with the 2.5mm headphone output balance, the rated output power of 700mW + 700mW (at 32Ω load), high impedance big headphones can be easily driven.
 
Configure large capacity 512MB DDR memory to run the system firmware built 1GB NAND run more stable and smooth.
 
Built-in 1GB storage space (space reserved for system use part of the capacity, the remaining capacity will not consider open access).
 
 
source: http://www.leiyinaudio.com/780/

 

[hakushondaimao]

 

 
Curious about "Janpness"...

 

[peareye]

Good eyes....i missed that one....