Cayin N5ii Android based Master Quality Digital Audio Player
Mar 23, 2018 at 5:06 PM Post #1,850 of 4,108
Yesterday some test with Tidal (firmware 3.1EN).
The player was extremely unstable: at the first launch of the app the system crashed and reboot itself.
The second time playing stopped after few seconds: after touch "Play" the system crashed again and reboot itself.
The third time I was able to play an album (with a very high battery consumption!).

I hope that the next firmware can fix this instability.
I also hope that Tidal will gives the support to Cayin to be able to select also an external microsd for downloading the offline tracks.

I was about to ask about Tidal use on this DAP, but it seems that there are still many firmware issues to solve. If it cannot save downloaded music to the MicroSd card is useless for me. I´m currently using a Pioneer XDP-300R for this purpose, but I´m not happy with the hiss, electric buzz and noises that sounds even with lower gain options selected, but at least I can use the 1st MicroSd slot (it does not work with the 2nd one) for storing offline music. Maybe the Ibasso DX150 could be the best solution.
 
Mar 23, 2018 at 9:16 PM Post #1,851 of 4,108
I tried out tidal on mine and it ran smoothly. Smoother than YouTube (video drops frames, audio is smooth though)

It did consume battery faster than usual though, I'd say it drops 1% every 2.5 minutes.
 
Mar 24, 2018 at 11:44 AM Post #1,852 of 4,108
I was about to ask about Tidal use on this DAP, but it seems that there are still many firmware issues to solve. If it cannot save downloaded music to the MicroSd card is useless for me. I´m currently using a Pioneer XDP-300R for this purpose, but I´m not happy with the hiss, electric buzz and noises that sounds even with lower gain options selected, but at least I can use the 1st MicroSd slot (it does not work with the 2nd one) for storing offline music. Maybe the Ibasso DX150 could be the best solution.
Ibasso DX150? Can't find any information about it.
 
Mar 24, 2018 at 11:46 AM Post #1,853 of 4,108
Mar 25, 2018 at 10:34 AM Post #1,854 of 4,108
Hello everyone. Decided to drop in and visit from the i5 thread!

I have Finally given up on my cayin i5 and have returned it to amazon. So need something to replace it. This is very tempting as i really would've loved the i5 if it wasn't for the constant crashes. So the million dollar questions are:
1.How does the sound quality match up to the i5?
2. How is the reliability and bug situation?
3. How well does the bluetooth work?
 
Mar 25, 2018 at 10:49 AM Post #1,855 of 4,108
Its been a long time since I listened to the i5. I think the sound signatures are similar but the i5 is slightly warmer. I think the N5II straddles the line between accuracy and smoothness quite well.

With regard to reliability and bugs; the software is not fully stable. The latest firmware revision is much better than before, but the units still suffer from random pauses.

I think the USB / memory card bus implementation is also not up to speed. Specifically, transferring files in and out of the machine can be touch and go. I have to reboot periodically when doing file transfers. With any luck the next firmware revision will be better.

They are somewhat reliant on HiBy for firmware which is not ideal in my opinion. Nobody in the industry will say much; but I think its interesting that Shanling's latest unit does not use HiBy. Not sure of this but I think other manufacturers are heading that way also. HiBy seems to be focused on their own machines right now and not their software customers. I would very much like to be proven dead wrong on this by the way. But proof equals solid firmware releases.

No comment on bluetooth for me; I like full resolution sound. Others can pipe in.

Overall due to firmware issues I would give this unit a B grade not an A grade. But it is capable of being an A grade machine.
 
Last edited:
Mar 25, 2018 at 11:04 AM Post #1,856 of 4,108
Most of us are looking forward to receiving the new firmware update which is expected and said to be released at the end of this month. It is better to make a decision after trying the new firmware. But it may not be the last firmware to solve all the issues.. I hope they can sove all the issues but it seems less probable to me.

Currently, it has some annoying problems like random pauses, noise on usb out etc as most of N5II users had reported in this thread before.
It will make more sense if you have time to wait and see the reviews of Ibasso DX150 which has been launched,recently. A better CPU/MCU seems to be used on DX150 without SRC limitation of Android as it is on Hiby R6.. As sound is more important than any other attribute, it is better to wait and see the reviews.
 
Mar 25, 2018 at 11:26 AM Post #1,857 of 4,108
Most of us are looking forward to receiving the new firmware update which is expected and said to be released at the end of this month. It is better to make a decision after trying the new firmware. But it may not be the last firmware to solve all the issues.. I hope they can sove all the issues but it seems less probable to me.

Currently, it has some annoying problems like random pauses, noise on usb out etc as most of N5II users had reported in this thread before.
It will make more sense if you have time to wait and see the reviews of Ibasso DX150 which has been launched,recently. A better CPU/MCU seems to be used on DX150 without SRC limitation of Android as it is on Hiby R6.. As sound is more important than any other attribute, it is better to wait and see the reviews.
Actually, although the RK3368 is newer than the RK3188, the DX200(same cpu and ram as DX150) was actually slower than the X5iii, which is in turn slower than the N5ii in actual use. This was speculated to be due to the use of android 6.0 on the Ibasso rather than 5.1 like on the FiiO and Cayin.

The HiBy R6 is way faster than all these though.
 
Mar 25, 2018 at 2:33 PM Post #1,858 of 4,108
Hi, N5ii doesn't have reply gain option. But it has gain settings and DSD gain compensation options under music settings

Hello. Are there any plans to implement a replay gain feature? It is useful when listening to tracks on random from diffferent albums. They will all have different sound levels, so you have to continually adjust the volume.

Implementing this would be great. I see the N3 has it.
 
Last edited:
Mar 26, 2018 at 2:29 AM Post #1,860 of 4,108
Dear CayinSupport!
Please, fix this screwing seeking speed! I listen to lot of music every day and track seeking is too fast. It works well only "on the paper" but in real life it is unable to use this function. And don't advice me to use progress-bar and touch screen: this palyer has very-very bad touch sensor and if you want to skip few minutes of long song (like disk image) it is unreal. I'm talking about basic functionality, not about something extra ordinary. Please, make it useful!!! Make it exacly like in N3 and we will happy.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top