Cayin N5ii Android based Master Quality Digital Audio Player

[Andykong]

I think if you think of this unit as a fantastic player for music stored natively on the SD cards, then its great. I just when you start wanting to use the Android apps or feed an external DAC then you get into some difficulty.

For a stand-alone DAP, this is a very fine unit especially at the price point.

I personally am disappointed with the HiBy R3; I don’t think it can touch this Cayin. What is amazeballs for the price is the new Shanling M0.

But it you want a great sounding unit with the provisos above noted, for $300 US it is hard to beat this device.

There isn't a lot of choice when come to Android based DAP with Google play pre-installed. A large proportion of current smart DAPs, in regardless of price, are closed Android system or only allow a small list of pre-approved applications. The problem is Android based DAP are NOT generic Android device, the systems are heavily customized and there is no guaranteed that a certain app will work flawlessly and consistently. To certain extend, the more we customized the Android system, the more we suffer when come to third part application support, this is actually, .... logical.

While most open Android based DAP (i.e., allow you to install third party application on your discretion) will adopt an Android desktop design with the native music player function like an app. Cayin N5ii and N5iiS take a different approach by integrating the native player with the system permanently, you won't be able to access the Android desktop in our DAP. This is a design decision because we want to offer a Music Player experience rather than Android device experience. The concept might feel subtle but involve a higher level of customization, and to certain extend, increased the difficulties of third party application supported.

We are actively monitoring the situation, if third party applications are becoming more important, Cayin might drop our preference and fall back to a generic open-system approach in future products. Feel free to comment if you have a strong opinion toward this topic. We can't do that to existing product because that will involve a complete revamp of our system architecture, and the response might go to two different extremes: improving third party application support by compromising the original non-generic Android desktop design.

On the other hand, R6 is the DAP that I am very happy with if I am serious about using third party applications. Not 100% compatible like a decent Android mobile phone in 2018, but very close to that. I tried a few, and HiBy R6 gets my vote. If you are considering a new DAP and third party application support is on the top of your list, I'll suggest you consider R6 seriously.

 

[Andykong]

A short video chip to show you the features and aesthetic of N5iiS

 

[Dobrescu George]

better Engliush?

Sorry, can't resist that offer, I make similar mistakes and was on the other side of the joke most of the time.


That's N5ii with HiFiman RE2000? I prefer dynamic over BA IEMs in general. I tried N5ii with RE800 and love what I heard, so this is thge combo that I am looking forward to.

Oh, I didn't even notice that line misspell mistake

Posting reviews early in the morning surely doesn't do much good for this (?)

It sounds really sweet with both RE2000 and RE800, both pairings work well, and also IE800 works quite well with N5ii, I like how N5ii has a nice sparkle in the treble, but also good control over the lower registers with all those 3 IEMs

 

[Andykong]

Oh, I didn't even notice that line misspell mistake

Posting reviews early in the morning surely doesn't do much good for this (?)

It sounds really sweet with both RE2000 and RE800, both pairings work well, and also IE800 works quite well with N5ii, I like how N5ii has a nice sparkle in the treble, but also good control over the lower registers with all those 3 IEMs

Very good summary, I understand you selected Dunu, UM, ClearTune and Dita for very valid reason, but these one-sentence impression are meaningful sharing and probably works very well as part of the paring session of your review.

 

[ForgotPants]

Acknowledge, I'll take a look into this and come back to you later.

We know time-zone at Kolkata is having problem, so which location has you tried as well?

I switched it to Karachi and wiped cache. It has the same timezone.

 

[gazzington]

Saw one of these cheap as new, so pulled the trigger. Don't really need it, why do I do these things! I'll compare it to my dx150 and shanling m0 when it arrives!

 

[Isloo]

Saw one of these cheap as new, so pulled the trigger. Don't really need it, why do I do these things! I'll compare it to my dx150 and shanling m0 when it arrives!

Looking forward to reading your comparison. How do find the M0 compared to the dx150. I have the M0 and have been really impressed with it.

 

[gazzington]

I love the m0. Last night I streamed Spotify from phone to the m0 powering he400i. It handled it great. Genius gadget.
What's the n5ii like?

 

[Metalomaniac]

I love the m0. Last night I streamed Spotify from phone to the m0 powering he400i. It handled it great. Genius gadget.
What's the n5ii like?

The N5ii is marginal as a Spotify player. I bought it as it seemed like the only viable option within my budget to use with Spotify.

Browsing the Play store and using Spotify is realllllllllllllly slow and unresponsive. Even typing on the tiny keyboard causes constant dropped characters due to the CPU not being able to catch up. When you press pause even on the hardware button, it takes three seconds to pause. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it leads to pretty awkward social situations.

The player also loses my downloaded offline Spotify music collection quite often, and I'm forced to re-download 30+ gigs worth of music. Several other people have reported the same issue. It doesn't seem to be limited to the N5ii, though, as other devices have similar issues.

When music plays it's glorious, though. But if I were in the market for a Spotify player, I'd look elsewhere. But again, don't think there's anything worthwhile competition in this price point anymore.

 

[Metalomaniac]

For those who've had issues with lost Spotify offline collections, I may have a solution.

Spotify officially supports 3,333 songs in the offline collection. I used to download songs until Spotify wouldn't download more anymore. But recently I kept my downloads below 3k songs and my offline files have stayed put for a few weeks. I keep my songs on an external SD card, and otherwise haven't changed my behavior with the player.

Not sure if that's helping, but worth a try!

 

[gazzington]

These Spotify issues are also present on the dx150, hiby r6, fiio x5iii as I have owned all of them. I kept the dx150 as it sounded better. To use Spotify I either use my phone with shanling mo or iPod touch sixth gem with fiio q5ii. I’m intending to use n5ii just as a music player. Fill it with 2 micro sd cards. If it does that well then I’ll be happy

 

[eldss]

Does anyone know if Apple Music suffers from those issues of limit to songs that can be stored offline?

 

[EvilJesus]

I'm currenting still using a Pioneer xdp100 would the Cayin be a step up? Musictek has it for $300 with leather case and that's right in my budget range.

 

[PinkyPowers]

I'm currenting still using a Pioneer xdp100 would the Cayin be a step up? Musictek has it for $300 with leather case and that's right in my budget range.

Wish I could say. It's an awesome player, but I haven't heard the Pioneer.

 

[Signal2Noise]

I'm currenting still using a Pioneer xdp100 would the Cayin be a step up? Musictek has it for $300 with leather case and that's right in my budget range.

I have both. From a GUI standpoint the XDP100R is way better. Audio-wise it'll come down to the earphones used. I found it more difficult to pair the N5ii with my IEM collection. I like the smaller form-factor and volume cylinder on the Cayin. The XDP has been problem free although battery life is worsening over time. I use the Pioneer as my "everyday" dap on the go and at work since no-one in their right mind will steal it based on looks