[sstyle]

There is a possibility that your N6 have been sit in the reseller warehouse for quite some time, so the battery is in less then perfect condition when you received it

I think so too

If you look at earlier remarks again, several members in this thread has advice you don't push the battery too hard, just use it for a few months first and let the battery settle in, you didn't take their advice at that time.id


I strongly advice you use the N6 as usual, stick with short recharge cycle for a few months, maybe the battery will recover itself gradually. This is my final advice to you on Lithium battery practice, I really don't want to sound like a jerk and repeat myself on the same issue again and again.

I did about 20-30 0-99% cycles and everything was ok. Except 99-100% issue, but it is not so important for me.

But after I read your advice and began charge it from 20-50%, I get a big issue with not correct capacity on the screen. But I see a 100% capacity. I think that it is no coincidence. Looks like my N6 "remember"(calibrate) that 50-100% = 60% capacity is a 100%. That is why it power off at 40% and charge to 40% like to 100%.

I charge my FiiO X5 (2nd) from 0 to 100% for 6 month and no one issues. I charge my QLS-QA360 with no issues with that scheme too. Also I has an iphone, ipad with 300-400 cycles and everything is ok. Why N6 brake the battery? It has the same Li-pol battery I think. And again: when I charge it from 0% to 99%  for month (about 20 times) - everything was ok.

Yesterday I bought a Matek USB power monitor. It has a self-closedown feature. When Power dropdown is disconnect device from the charger and prevent from over-charge. Read more - http://www.mateksys.com/?portfolio=upm

 

[Andykong]

a couple questions

1) I just bought an OPPO HA2 dac amp.  
Is the 3.5 mm line out to 3.5 mm line in the desired route
is there a way to use the OPPO dac with a Cayin digital out?  I will use it with my ipod

2) I bought this when they first came out. How are the firmware updates?
Looking at the update page it shows a screen that is not nearly as nice as the turntable and old spinning wheel

3) I m having problems with artist album hierarchy, cover art import and format type
some folders are by album, some artist with imbedded albums

I load my micro chip on my pc and I see wav, high rez, flac, MVA files listed
but not MP3
but when I go to play the actual albums
there somehow are mp3 files imbedded in this

this is really disturbing

thanks for any help
you can pm me if you like

Tom

Sorry, I have missed your message completely, we just had a busy week, should be able to recover our routine operation very soon.

I am not family with Oppo HA2, but if you use the 3.5mm line in port of HA2, you'll by pass the internal DAC of HA2 and use the headphone amplifier function only, I can only guess this is not a preferred route from HA-2 point of view. You can compare the headphone out of N6 directly against headphone out of HA2 with N6 as line out source, and decision if there is performance different justify adding another piece of equipment in the chain and carry it around everyday. The same advice apply to N6 + C5DAC which offer similar functions.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/768094/new-portable-cayin-spark-c5-dac-amp-released-may-2015

According to the HA-2 specification, the digital input will accept USB A for iPod / iPhone / iPad; USB micro-B for smartphones with USB OTG feature and computers. This is actually overlapped with the USB-DAC function of N6, so you bought TWO USB-DAC devices and they are not suppose to work together through the USB connection.

N6 provided a 3.5 digital out if you want to connnect the DAC to an external DAC. Unfortunately HA-2 does not provide a coaxial input, so this is also a no-go situation.

You should be able to find the latest firmware in the download page of Cayin website:
http://en.cayin.cn/news.asp?keys=222

If you are using an earlier version of firmware, say v2.0 and before, I strongly suggest you try out the new N6 v4.0 firmware, there are quite a lot of new features in the V3.0 and V4.0 firmware including Folder playback, advanced power management, DoP, playlist, ... etc. You can check out the firmware upgrade notice and find out the detail of the new features and improvement of existing features for more detail. On the issue of UI, the new firmware offers THREE themes for you to choose from, and you can customise the UI by using the Theme DIY Tools, you can change the opening and closing animation if you so preferred.

Sorry that I couldn't undersatnd issue (3) you mentioned, can I ask other N6 users to contribute to the issue? or can you please further elaborate your problem? maybe with screen capture as example?

 

[sstyle]

 

 
My history:
 
1) Two times powered off automaticaly at 8-10%. And I never seen 100% status on all FW (3.1, 4.0)
2) Andy from head-fi gave me an advice to charge from 20-50% instead from 0%. I tried for 3 times and got a 100% status. Yeah!
3) Next discharge after that small win was very strange...I remember that capacity was about 60-65% but N6 powered off after 30min. Strange...I thought that I can made a mistake and capacity was less. Ok. Next discharge will the same. I powered on my N6. And I saw 40% left capacity at display. Ok. But after 5-7min I saw only 9%!!! And after 2min it power off at 3% automaticaly.
4) Ok. I connect my N6 to the USB charge monitor. It shows me that charged upload to N6 about 5600mA, but N6 shows me only 40% capacity. Photo: http://i.imgur.com/ItAF2mD.jpg
5) Ok. Let it to charge for all night. Charger upload 500mA and my N6 shows me a 99%. Yeah!
6) Ok. I tried to discharge it. Powered on at 10:29 AM. At  05:09 PM it shows me a 46% left capacity. So it works for ~7 hours. Good. But at 05:54 PM it was powered off. I turn on it again and see 17% left capacity. And it powered off again.
 
Summary:
a) Charger upload to N6 about 6000mA - that is correct.
b) N6 works about 7-7.5 hours. It is good too.
c) Capacity indicator lies...

 

[Andykong]

My history:

1) Two times powered off automaticaly at 8-10%. And I never seen 100% status on all FW (3.1, 4.0)

2) Andy from head-fi gave me an advice to charge from 20-50% instead from 0%. I tried for 3 times and got a 100% status. Yeah!

3) Next discharge after that small win was very strange...I remember that capacity was about 60-65% but N6 powered off after 30min. Strange...I thought that I can made a mistake and capacity was less. Ok. Next discharge will the same. I powered on my N6. And I saw 40% left capacity at display. Ok. But after 5-7min I saw only 9%!!! And after 2min it power off at 3% automaticaly.

4) Ok. I connect my N6 to the USB charge monitor. It shows me that charged upload to N6 about 5600mA, but N6 shows me only 40% capacity. Photo: http://i.imgur.com/ItAF2mD.jpg

5) Ok. Let it to charge for all night. Charger upload 500mA and my N6 shows me a 99%. Yeah!

6) Ok. I tried to discharge it. Powered on at 10:29 AM. At  05:09 PM it shows me a 46% left capacity. So it works for ~7 hours. Good. But at 05:54 PM it was powered off. I turn on it again and see 17% left capacity. And it powered off again.

Summary:

a) Charger upload to N6 about 6000mA - that is correct.

b) N6 works about 7-7.5 hours. It is good too.

c) Capacity indicator lies...

Looks like the battery parameter is ruined, this is the first suspicious case in N6, we had several cases reported in N5, I don't have a immediate solution if that is the case, we are looking as the N5 instances right now, if we can solved that, make the solution available to N6 should be straight forward.

The N5 battery parameters instances is as follows:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/771208/cayin-n5-dap-product-info-post-2-resources-post-3-and-discussion/1650#post_12412772

 

[Audiotomb]

Sorry, I have missed your message completely, we just had a busy week, should be able to recover our routine operation very soon.

I am not family with Oppo HA2, but if you use the 3.5mm line in port of HA2, you'll by pass the internal DAC of HA2 and use the headphone amplifier function only, I can only guess this is not a preferred route from HA-2 point of view. You can compare the headphone out of N6 directly against headphone out of HA2 with N6 as line out source, and decision if there is performance different justify adding another piece of equipment in the chain and carry it around everyday. The same advice apply to N6 + C5DAC which offer similar functions.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/768094/new-portable-cayin-spark-c5-dac-amp-released-may-2015

According to the HA-2 specification, the digital input will accept USB A for iPod / iPhone / iPad; USB micro-B for smartphones with USB OTG feature and computers. This is actually overlapped with the USB-DAC function of N6, so you bought TWO USB-DAC devices and they are not suppose to work together through the USB connection.

N6 provided a 3.5 digital out if you want to connnect the DAC to an external DAC. Unfortunately HA-2 does not provide a coaxial input, so this is also a no-go situation.

You should be able to find the latest firmware in the download page of Cayin website:
http://en.cayin.cn/news.asp?keys=222

If you are using an earlier version of firmware, say v2.0 and before, I strongly suggest you try out the new N6 v4.0 firmware, there are quite a lot of new features in the V3.0 and V4.0 firmware including Folder playback, advanced power management, DoP, playlist, ... etc. You can check out the firmware upgrade notice and find out the detail of the new features and improvement of existing features for more detail. On the issue of UI, the new firmware offers THREE themes for you to choose from, and you can customise the UI by using the Theme DIY Tools, you can change the opening and closing animation if you so preferred.

Sorry that I couldn't undersatnd issue (3) you mentioned, can I ask other N6 users to contribute to the issue? or can you please further elaborate your problem? maybe with screen capture as example?

Andy

Thanks for your detailed response

I am using the analog 3 1/2 out to analog in

The N6 with the HA2 gives a very clean powerful sound. The extra amp allows for cleaner sound with sharp dynamics at louder volumes.
At lower volumes the N6 alone sounds better.

The HA2 is also used for my Ipad.

I didn't know the N6 did the imput dac function. How much amplification?

Is it better to turn the volume up on the seperate amp or make the big volume changes on the N6?

I will check out the system updates
I really like the turntable interface

Thanks

Tom

 

[Andykong]

Andy

Thanks for your detailed response

I am using the analog 3 1/2 out to analog in

The N6 with the HA2 gives a very clean powerful sound. The extra amp allows for cleaner sound with sharp dynamics at louder volumes.
At lower volumes the N6 alone sounds better.

The HA2 is also used for my Ipad.

I didn't know the N6 did the imput dac function. How much amplification?

Is it better to turn the volume up on the seperate amp or make the big volume changes on the N6?

I will check out the system updates
I really like the turntable interface

Thanks

Tom

Very Good, this is a good start.

In my opinion, line out to an external amplifier should always generate some advantages because most headphone will be benefited by the additional amplifier which runs on its own power supply, you should experienced better body, sound is full and rich, better bass and soundstage become wider or deeper etc. Unfortunately, there are also some shortcoming at the same time, such as *for example) transparency, too upfront, not as refined on vocal or treble, etc, so it is a matter of trade off in different synergy.

If you look at the product specification at page 1, you should be able to find the following description:

USB-DAC Asynchronous USB up to 24bit/192kHz

What it mean is you can input digital signal upto 24bit/192kHz to N6 via USB (from computer or appropriate mobile device), the digital signal will go through the two PCM1792 DAC chipset in N6, and then the analogue circuit including headphone amplifier of N6, outputting 220mW+220mW *@32ohm) at the 3.5mm headphone output.

If you are connecting N6 to HA2 via the 3.5mm ananlogue connectors, you should use LINE OUT (Leftmost 3.5mm output at the top when you looking at the front of N6), not the headphone output of N6. The LINE will bypass the volume control of N6, leaving the volume control function to HA2 completely. The overall system should improved in clarity when compare to connecting headphone output of N6 to HA2.

 

[eargasam]

Very Good, this is a good start.

In my opinion, line out to an external amplifier should always generate some advantages because most headphone will be benefited by the additional amplifier which runs on its own power supply, you should experienced better body, sound is full and rich, better bass and soundstage become wider or deeper etc. Unfortunately, there are also some shortcoming at the same time, such as *for example) transparency, too upfront, not as refined on vocal or treble, etc, so it is a matter of trade off in different synergy.

If you look at the product specification at page 1, you should be able to find the following description:

USB-DAC Asynchronous USB up to 24bit/192kHz

What it mean is you can input digital signal upto 24bit/192kHz to N6 via USB (from computer or appropriate mobile device), the digital signal will go through the two PCM1792 DAC chipset in N6, and then the analogue circuit including headphone amplifier of N6, outputting 220mW+220mW *@32ohm) at the 3.5mm headphone output.

If you are connecting N6 to HA2 via the 3.5mm ananlogue connectors, you should use LINE OUT (Leftmost 3.5mm output at the top when you looking at the front of N6), not the headphone output of N6. The LINE will bypass the volume control of N6, leaving the volume control function to HA2 completely. The overall system should improved in clarity when compare to connecting headphone output of N6 to HA2.

Let me ask you does this apply to something like the cayin c5 as well and does the sound improve when paired this way in your opinion with the c5?

 

[Andykong]

Let me ask you does this apply to something like the cayin c5 as well and does the sound improve when paired this way in your opinion with the c5?

Yes, the improvement are similar but C5 can be too powerful for sensitive IEM, so there is a chance that you'll over-drive your IEM when you use N6+C5 together, but if you are using a demanding IEMs such as IE800, then the improvement should be obvious.

 

[eargasam]

Even on low gain?

 

[Andykong]

Even on low gain?

Yes, C5 can over-power sensitivity IEM even at low gain.

 

[eargasam]

I was thinking of using that combo with something like the fostex th600 and the Ultrasone sig djs...

 

[Andykong]

I was thinking of using that combo with something like the fostex th600 and the Ultrasone sig djs...

I was referred to sensitive IEMs, I think headphones are significantly better, even with TH600 and Signature DJ, I have tried the combo with D7000 with favorable result, the D7000 is definitely a low impedance high sensitive headphone.

 

[eargasam]

I guess something like the final audio Pandora vi's wouldn't fair well since it has a impendence of only 8ohms would it???

 

[Andykong]

I guess something like the final audio Pandora vi's wouldn't fair well since it has a impendence of only 8ohms would it???

Haven't had the opportunity to test this headphone yet, 8 ohms with 105 dB sensitivity? I think this one will eat up a lot of current, easy to sound loud, but not easy to control its bass, the C5 should be able to do well on that, worth a try.

 

[Audiotomb]

Very Good, this is a good start.

In my opinion, line out to an external amplifier should always generate some advantages because most headphone will be benefited by the additional amplifier which runs on its own power supply, you should experienced better body, sound is full and rich, better bass and soundstage become wider or deeper etc. Unfortunately, there are also some shortcoming at the same time, such as *for example) transparency, too upfront, not as refined on vocal or treble, etc, so it is a matter of trade off in different synergy.

If you look at the product specification at page 1, you should be able to find the following description:

USB-DAC Asynchronous USB up to 24bit/192kHz

What it mean is you can input digital signal upto 24bit/192kHz to N6 via USB (from computer or appropriate mobile device), the digital signal will go through the two PCM1792 DAC chipset in N6, and then the analogue circuit including headphone amplifier of N6, outputting 220mW+220mW *@32ohm) at the 3.5mm headphone output.

If you are connecting N6 to HA2 via the 3.5mm ananlogue connectors, you should use LINE OUT (Leftmost 3.5mm output at the top when you looking at the front of N6), not the headphone output of N6. The LINE will bypass the volume control of N6, leaving the volume control function to HA2 completely. The overall system should improved in clarity when compare to connecting headphone output of N6 to HA2.

Thanks Andy
 
I am using the line out and not the headphone out to the HA2
 
You are right about the sound quality being more refined with just the N6
 
I have Sennheiser HD600s which require a lot more power and just bought OPPO P3's.
The Sennheisers have a more airy nature but are best at lower amplification on the N6 if N6 alone (don't clip it)
 
What is more desirable? Having the larger amount of amplification come from the N6 or the HA2?
 
thanks

Tom