[NNewman]

Hello. Can anybody compare N6 to Onkyo dp-x1 in SQ? Just thinking of making this change...

 

[audio123]

Hello. Can anybody compare N6 to Onkyo dp-x1 in SQ? Just thinking of making this change...

no competition at all. n6 wins for sound but dpx1 wins for functionalities.

 

[NNewman]

no competition at all. n6 wins for sound but dpx1 wins for functionalities.

Even dp x1 balanced out???

 

[pred1973]

I am curious about this too, have a N6, thinking of upgrading, considering something with balanced out. The DP-X1A was top of my list.

 

[NNewman]

I am curious about this too, have a N6, thinking of upgrading, considering something with balanced out. The DP-X1A was top of my list.

Can teade you dp-x1 to your N6. Im considering this apgrade and N6 is on the top of my list.

 

[Sotiris]

 

[Sotiris]

Can i ask how to improve perfomance when exploring micro sd card? When returning from one folder to the folder explorer then it takes 4 sec to load. i use sandisk ultra 64G. With 32G i dont have any issue.

 

[Andykong]

The N6 has been Cayin’s flagship DAP since 18th December 2014, quite a long duration in current DAP market. Cayin has been planning for a new flagship for quite some time but the progress is very slow. One of the requirements of the new flagship DAP is to bring the audio performance our DAP to the next level, and to do that, we have used the N6 as a platform to explore all sorts of possibilities.

The project N6 mod was started way back in Q3 of 2016, it was an internal R&D project commissioned to the original N6 Design Engineer, it is a cost-no-object study to “improve” the audio performance of N6. After several months of devoted testing and experiments, the final N6mod incorporated quite a lot of dramatic changes and Cayin believes we have established the baes line for the audio performance of our next flagship. We anticipated that the new flagship will exceed this base line significantly given we can incorporated these new audio design technique and have the flexibility to adopt better chipset and components that is not possible in the N6mod project.

The followings are some of the changes (the exhaustive list will be too technical and lengthy):

1. Lower the Internal resistance by replacing a large number of capacitors to premium components, improves the high frequency extension and transparency.
2. Upgrade the transistors in RC Network and feedback circuit, re-calibrate the parameters of power supply circuit for LPF and amplification, improves frequency respond to 18Hz~42K Hz (±0.1dB);
3. Upgraded Op-Amp (OPA627)
4. Upgrade to customized military grade Crystal Oscillator
5. Reinforced power management and fine tune impedance, voltage, and/or bias current of key components.
6. Redesign power supply circuit to all high-voltage Op-Amps.

We only make 10 units of N6mod, 5 of them were built for the special event of 15th Anniversary of erji.net (the largest HeadFi forum in China), and the other 5 were used for internal testing and audition only. Since Cayin has no intention to sell any of these, so the N6mod are non-commercial items.

I will attend the Los Angeles Audio Show (2-4 June 2017) and I’ll carry a N6mod with me, if you happen to attend the LAAS later this week, drop by and check out the N6mod, I am confident you’ll like what you hear.

 

[JaeYoon]

The N6 has been Cayin’s flagship DAP since 18th December 2014, quite a long duration in current DAP market. Cayin has been planning for a new flagship for quite some time but the progress is very slow. One of the requirements of the new flagship DAP is to bring the audio performance our DAP to the next level, and to do that, we have used the N6 as a platform to explore all sorts of possibilities.

The project N6 mod was started way back in Q3 of 2016, it was an internal R&D project commissioned to the original N6 Design Engineer, it is a cost-no-object study to “improve” the audio performance of N6. After several months of devoted testing and experiments, the final N6mod incorporated quite a lot of dramatic changes and Cayin believes we have established the baes line for the audio performance of our next flagship. We anticipated that the new flagship will exceed this base line significantly given we can incorporated these new audio design technique and have the flexibility to adopt better chipset and components that is not possible in the N6mod project.

The followings are some of the changes (the exhaustive list will be too technical and lengthy):

1. Lower the Internal resistance by replacing a large number of capacitors to premium components, improves the high frequency extension and transparency.
2. Upgrade the transistors in RC Network and feedback circuit, re-calibrate the parameters of power supply circuit for LPF and amplification, improves frequency respond to 18Hz~42K Hz (±0.1dB);
3. Upgraded Op-Amp (OPA627)
4. Upgrade to customized military grade Crystal Oscillator
5. Reinforced power management and fine tune impedance, voltage, and/or bias current of key components.
6. Redesign power supply circuit to all high-voltage Op-Amps.

We only make 10 units of N6mod, 5 of them were built for the special event of 15th Anniversary of erji.net (the largest HeadFi forum in China), and the other 5 were used for internal testing and audition only. Since Cayin has no intention to sell any of these, so the N6mod are non-commercial items.

I will attend the Los Angeles Audio Show (2-4 June 2017) and I’ll carry a N6mod with me, if you happen to attend the LAAS later this week, drop by and check out the N6mod, I am confident you’ll like what you hear.

Good luck Andy! I hope Cayin succeeds in this new flagship!

 

[ltanasom]

I have been happily using N6 for the past 2 years.
Hope Cayin come up with new flagship product which is better than N6 soon.

 

[appleidappleid]

Andy, Thanks for your update. The N6 and i5 are both great players for their price point. Would you be able to confirm whether the new flagship would have a 2.5mm or 4.4mm balanced output? I am planning to order a couple of new cables and am just wondering whether I should get a 2.5mm or 4.4mm termination. Thanks!

 

[Sotiris]

Warning. For the hot summer days Cayin gets too hot. So much that if you put you cup of coffee on it will keep it warm.And keeping it with you hands its annoying.And the temperature here is not even 30 yet....

 

[Andykong]

Good luck Andy! I hope Cayin succeeds in this new flagship!

I have been happily using N6 for the past 2 years.
Hope Cayin come up with new flagship product which is better than N6 soon.

We are very confident that the flagship DAP that we are working on right now will outperform N6 in every aspects, will keep everyone informed when we have a more realistic schedule.

 

[Andykong]

Andy, Thanks for your update. The N6 and i5 are both great players for their price point. Would you be able to confirm whether the new flagship would have a 2.5mm or 4.4mm balanced output? I am planning to order a couple of new cables and am just wondering whether I should get a 2.5mm or 4.4mm termination. Thanks!

All our current DAP projects that involve balanced headphone output are 2.5mm based, we do not have any plan to bring in 4.4mm balanced output at this stage.

 

[Andykong]

Warning. For the hot summer days Cayin gets too hot. So much that if you put you cup of coffee on it will keep it warm.And keeping it with you hands its annoying.And the temperature here is not even 30 yet....

I like your analogy, I used to say that we can fry an egg on the carbon fiber back of N6 but that's not really practical. Putting a cup of coffee on N6 is actually "workable"

The key to lower N6 temperature is ventilation. The CNC aluminum chassis of N6 serve like a heat sink, it'll disperse as much heat as possible, so keeping the N6 in properly ventilated environment will certainly help.