[originalsnuffy]

Andy,

Thank you for the candid and honest answers to both my questions and those of others. As people have noted, honest answers from vendors are rare and you are a great exception. I may not always like the answer, but I understand your logic and business reasons for not always agreeing with suggestions that I or others might make.

In particular I appreciate your answers about the the data bus and the two card slots. I was sort of guessing what you explained was going on, but its great to have that verified.

Say, when should we expect the next firmware updates for the current model N5II?

Keep up the good work.

 

[Andykong]

Andy,

Thank you for the candid and honest answers to both my questions and those of others. As people have noted, honest answers from vendors are rare and you are a great exception. I may not always like the answer, but I understand your logic and business reasons for not always agreeing with suggestions that I or others might make.

In particular I appreciate your answers about the the data bus and the two card slots. I was sort of guessing what you explained was going on, but its great to have that verified.

Say, when should we expect the next firmware updates for the current model N5II?

Keep up the good work.

I position myself as the bridge between corporate and user, balancing between sustainable business and consumer expectation, so I am not a Sales guy and our Sales team don't like that occasionally.

On the other hand, I am glad that this community can live with the reality that I presented. I am lucky so far, didn't run into a lot of difficult super-customers or I-know-it-all masters, so I am enjoying myself in this role.

We slipped in last round of N5ii firmware, the beta firmware failed to fix the USB Audio problem and the team was subsequently detoured to the N5iiS on a short notice, hopefully when the dust (of N5iiS) is settled, the team can go back to resume their task. I get a lot of PM and email when we failed to roll out a firmware update last time, so I prefer not to predict a firmware schedule until our internal audit issue a green light. So unfortunately I can't suggest any date at this moment, but I can promise again that whatever available to N5iiS, will be available to N5ii as well.

 

[Andykong]

I look this same like @maira DAP with good flat, organic sound with very good details and no big and heavy. Cayin N5II will be amazing for me if he have more resolutions and details, and no moody bass. I like N5II for clarity, little brighter and crispy treble, and weight of instrument.

@maira Shozy Alien+ will be good for you, but he have very short battery life.

Given N5ii is developed as an all-rounder DAP instead of a purist DAP, I consider this a compliment.

Adding resolution and detail to N5ii will involve more internal space and higher cost for better digital circuit. In fact, the original N5ii plan has considered dual AK4490 option, which is a natural extension of the original N5 with single piece of AK4490. At the end of the day, we couldn't fit in two DAC chipset in limited internal space, features like dual TF card + bus and independent 3.5 and 2.5 amplification circuit takes up a lot of space relatively, so we resolved to single ESS9018K2m instead.

 

[Andykong]

Thanks for the honest reply. I know that I was being unrealistic in my thinking. But it's fun to imagine the future of this hobby anyways.

Thank you for your understanding. R2R has its strength and it will appeal to certain users, I particularly enjoy live acoustic instruments with R2R DAC, their natural presentation and rich harmonic are irreplaceable. On the other hand, I can see why others prefer the resolution and dynamic when they playback hi-res files with AK4497/ESS9038. The technical merit of R2R is there, but not necessarily attractive enough to safeguard R&D to implement it in portable applications. So sadly, it probably will remain as a very niche product. The semiconductor business are very calculative, they are not passion driven and definitely not in terms of high fidelity in audio reproduction.

 

[Wyville]

Anyone will head to CanJam London tomorrow?

Be reminded that our UK dealer AdvancedMP3 will host a table at Westminster 41 on our behalf, please look for Cayin's booth and check out the latest N5iiS. This is first time ever N5iiS showcase outside China, don't miss this opportunity to compare N5ii and N5iiS side by side in CanJam London.

By the way, N8 will also be displayed at the same time, this is a show stopper, you'll be regret if you were at CanJam London but missed the Cayin table in this round.

I am really disappointed to have to miss Canjam London again this year. Had hoped to hear the N5ii, and now the N5iiS looks even more interesting. Still considering what I want to do DAP-wise (I’m in no rush) and I think the N5iiS is a really interesting, more budget friendly option that offers the type of build quality I love. I like it when gear is built in a way that inspires confidence and don’t mind the extra weight.

Thanks for sharing some of the background story behind the N5iiS Andy, really interesting to read!

 

[zabin29]

I position myself as the bridge between corporate and user, balancing between sustainable business and consumer expectation, so I am not a Sales guy and our Sales team don't like that occasionally.

On the other hand, I am glad that this community can live with the reality that I presented. I am lucky so far, didn't run into a lot of difficult super-customers or I-know-it-all masters, so I am enjoying myself in this role.

We slipped in last round of N5ii firmware, the beta firmware failed to fix the USB Audio problem and the team was subsequently detoured to the N5iiS on a short notice, hopefully when the dust (of N5iiS) is settled, the team can go back to resume their task. I get a lot of PM and email when we failed to roll out a firmware update last time, so I prefer not to predict a firmware schedule until our internal audit issue a green light. So unfortunately I can't suggest any date at this moment, but I can promise again that whatever available to N5iiS, will be available to N5ii as well.

I am also patiently waiting for the usb output fix since i bought the n5ii when it first came out and would be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

 

[Signal2Noise]

Thank you for your understanding. R2R has its strength and it will appeal to certain users, I particularly enjoy live acoustic instruments with R2R DAC, ...

I'm trying to determine what the acronym "R2R" is. Please enlighten me. I have only suddenly come across this term reading this thread. Thanks! And apologies in advance if I'm noobish to this.

 

[oldmate]

Resistor to resistor.

 

[Signal2Noise]

^
Thanks. Now I'll go off and figure out what that means. I'll delete my Ready to Rock search term.

 

[oldmate]

I'll delete my Ready to Rock search term

I like that one better!! Also check out Delta Sigma DAC's.

 

[ForgotPants]

I got this great DAP recently and have a query. The music seek for all my tracks starts at 30:00 instead of 0:00 and it ends in the same way. For example, if a track is 4 mins and 9 seconds long, on the player it shows as 30:00 to 34:09

Not sure why this is happening and I've gone through the settings with no luck.

 

[Andykong]

I got this great DAP recently and have a query. The music seek for all my tracks starts at 30:00 instead of 0:00 and it ends in the same way. For example, if a track is 4 mins and 9 seconds long, on the player it shows as 30:00 to 34:09

Not sure why this is happening and I've gone through the settings with no luck.

Oh, the Singapore bug has returned? I though this was not a done deal.

Did you set your geography location to Singapore? Try to set the location to a different city in the same time zone, to to recover menu and wipe all cache, reboot and see if the bug has gone.

 

[Andykong]

I'm trying to determine what the acronym "R2R" is. Please enlighten me. I have only suddenly come across this term reading this thread. Thanks! And apologies in advance if I'm noobish to this.

Photo courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:R2r-ladder.png

The name R2R, was originally written as R/2R, and refers to a resistor ladder network consisting of resistors of two values, R and 2R. Using only those values a ladder is constructed of resistors (either as discrete components or within a silicon chip). The ladder results in a voltage output of a fraction of a reference voltage depending on the bit value of a digital input, which is all you need for digital to analog conversion.
cf: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/what-exactly-is-an-r2r-dac/22735

 

[ForgotPants]

Oh, the Singapore bug has returned? I though this was not a done deal.

Did you set your geography location to Singapore? Try to set the location to a different city in the same time zone, to to recover menu and wipe all cache, reboot and see if the bug has gone.

Thanks for your reply Andy! I'm actually in the Indian timezone, have set it to Kolkata +05:30. I did a cache wipe from recovery and it didn't fix it. I'll try changing it to a nearby country and see.

 

[Andykong]

Thanks for your reply Andy! I'm actually in the Indian timezone, have set it to Kolkata +05:30. I did a cache wipe from recovery and it didn't fix it. I'll try changing it to a nearby country and see.

Change location and then wipe cache, hope that will work out for you.