[Luvdac]

Will give a try and report back on it.

Another nagging issue with the N6, is that nasty POP sound at the start of play and when powering down the player. 
As nostalgic as it gets (coming from a previous ibasso DX100 user), it is a concern for very sensitive iem ears. 
Suggest to press play and then plug them in.

Nasty POP sound? ....uh oh are we entering the same problematic Chinese DAP territory? At 600$ I want something that works well out of the box. The tech specs are impressive on the n6 but it seems the ghost of software bugs is starting to haunt the n6. Doubt if I'm willing to experiment with my 600 bucks.

 

[Ripvanlink]

Maybe if you pout long enough. ..

 

[twister6]

Nasty POP sound? ....uh oh are we entering the same problematic Chinese DAP territory? At 600$ I want something that works well out of the box. The tech specs are impressive on the n6 but it seems the ghost of software bugs is starting to haunt the n6. Doubt if I'm willing to experiment with my 600 bucks.

 
Just a few things to keep in mind.  This is their first DAP, so it's expected for an early firmware to have some bugs.  I wouldn't worry about it too much, which brings me to the most important point.  As long as the hardware is stable, you can always fix the rest with a firmware.  I seriously doubt anybody would be able to release their very first DAP with a perfect fw.  What we need is to hear more impressions and to have more people starting to use these and to report all the known bugs.  Unfortunately it's a reality of early adopters being beta testers

 

[royalsuen]

Nasty POP sound? ....uh oh are we entering the same problematic Chinese DAP territory? At 600$ I want something that works well out of the box. The tech specs are impressive on the n6 but it seems the ghost of software bugs is starting to haunt the n6. Doubt if I'm willing to experiment with my 600 bucks.

For me, it's still acceptable as it's just POP on the first song not very songs

 

[Andykong]

Will give a try and report back on it.

Another nagging issue with the N6, is that nasty POP sound at the start of play and when powering down the player. 
As nostalgic as it gets (coming from a previous ibasso DX100 user), it is a concern for very sensitive iem ears. 
Suggest to press play and then plug them in.

From what I know (via Cayin QQ Fan group), there are some machines in the first production batch that run into similar situation, Cayin will provide a replacement machine or factory repair as deem needed. Normally this kind of after-sales supported were delivered via retailer, but since N6 only launched in domestic market and has yet to appoint an international dealer, your situation is probably classified a s special case, I suggest you PM Thomas to check out what can be done, just take a photo on the serial number and screen capture the Sales transaction, I am sure Thomas will come back to you promptly.

By the way, Cayin is organizing a series of N6 demo shows at various major cities in mainland China, so he might not be able to visit HeadFi as often, so relax for the moment.

As mentioned previously, I only use Dynamic IEMs and they are frequently described as difficult to drive, so the pop sound at starting up or switching off the player is there, but is not really bothering me. In addition, I have been familiar with the drill to plug in after power on, and unplug before power off, so the only pop sound that is bothering me is the one when I start to play, which is a really mild pop in my system.

 

[M-83]

Guys can anyone compare n6 with fiio x5 & ak120? How do you think n6 will drive Mrspeakers alpha prime headphones without an additional portable amp eg cayin c5?
 
can u bypass dac if connected to a desktop app dac like my audiogd NFB15?
 
thx

 

[Andykong]

Guys can anyone compare n6 with fiio x5 & ak120? How do you think n6 will drive Mrspeakers alpha prime headphones without an additional portable amp eg cayin c5?

can u bypass dac if connected to a desktop app dac like my audiogd NFB15?

thx

I assume you are referring to the sound performance of these players.

We have discussed X5 briefly, you can check that out in page 2/page 3. I just took some photo for my X5 and plan to sell it out soon.

I have heard AK120 briefly, and that was way before the N6, so I won't comment on that.

I have Alpha Dog and this is my day-to-day headphone among my collections. I have tried all my players with Alpha Dog before, N6 is definitely the better one among the DAP I tried, it does sound sweet and fluent, but lacking on dynamic, and everything are cramped into a small stage, so it isl far from satisfactory. In fact, I doubt if I'll change my mind even when I added a portable amp to the chain. I drive my Alpha Dog with a full balanced tube headphone amp, rated at around 5wpc, and I have tried Alpha Dog with better amps such as GS-X2, ALO Studio Six, Questyle CMA800R x2, and Violectric V281 etc, and I am confident to say 99% portable gears won't do justice on this, and the exception I find so far is iDSD Micro, this is indeed not a good headphone for portable gears.

The N6 has coaxial out, so you can bypass the internal DAC and connect the player to an external DAC. You need a tailored 3.5mm to RCA coaxial cable for that purpose, N6 package has come with an adapter for that, but I have custom make a coaxial cable (blue cable in the photo below) at $30.

 

[Thomas Cayin]

   
Will give a try and report back on it.
 
Another nagging issue with the N6, is that nasty POP sound at the start of play and when powering down the player. 
As nostalgic as it gets (coming from a previous ibasso DX100 user), it is a concern for very sensitive iem ears. 
Suggest to press play and then plug them in.

Dear friends, to say sorry because I travel among, please give me a little time, I will answer this question in detail in Chinese time Monday afternoon. (Maybe this time in advance, if I can find time)
 
As a consumer N6 first outside China, I am very grateful to you for the support and trust of CAYIN.
 
Also, thank ANDY, your great work through N6 test to know you are CAYIN and my honor, because your attention and expectations, we will work harder to do the product. Thank you.

 

[Bellyworshipper]

Hello, people. Andy, some time ago you asked me to name a DAP that supported playback through all the folders in sequence-xDuoo x2, allegedly supports this feature. At least, I read that it supported this feature in the relavant thread of the Russian player.ru forum.   
Can anyone write anything more or less detailed (lows, mids, treble) about N6's sound signature? Or draw a comparison with other DAPs, ibasso DX 90 for example? 
It's interesting also to hear someone's opinion about DSD playback on N6: is the difference between DSD and DSD->PCM converted material discernable?

 

[Luvdac]

 
Hello, people. Andy, some time ago you asked me to name a DAP that supported playback through all the folders in sequence-xDuoo x2, allegedly supports this feature. At least, I read that it supported this feature in the relavant thread of the Russian player.ru forum.   


Can anyone write anything more or less detailed (lows, mids, treble) about N6's sound signature? Or draw a comparison with other DAPs, ibasso DX 90 for example? 


It's interesting also to hear someone's opinion about DSD playback on N6: is the difference between DSD and DSD->PCM converted material discernable?

Can't comment on the n6's playback but I did do an experiment last year of converting dsf files to pcm and then A-B ing them. To my ears the files which were converted to 24/88 and 24/96 with or without dither sounded slightly compressed and had that tell tale metallic singe to the highs. Strangely (or maybe not so) the files with dither had more pronounced metallic artifacts. Files converted to higher sample rates (176 and 192) fared better. files at 192 (No dither) were difficult to tell apart from their dsd originals. (I am talking dsd 64 here). Dithering seemed to take away some aliveness from the conversions.


Portable players will do the conversions on the fly and by default dsd 64 will be sampled out at 24/88. I'm not a technical guy but I would expect on the fly conversions to suffer some degradation, but if this is audible or not I cannot say. Also, Doesnt n6 play dsd natively? It only outputs DoP thru the coax as I understand it. And DoP is not a conversion as such, it simply 'encapsulates' the dsd stream in a PCM jacket, so any outboard DAC should see it as DSD. If the native file is Double DSD, of course some down sampling will happen as currently 24 bit PCM doesnt support double DSD.
Agood read here: http://archimago.blogspot.in/2014/04/analysis-comparison-of-dsd-encoders.html. BTW, I used a friends's Weiss Saracon for the conversions.

 


As an aside I am happy to see that Cayin is responding positively to the POP sound issue, so I wont write them off just as yet!

 

[Thomas Cayin]

   
Will give a try and report back on it.
 
Another nagging issue with the N6, is that nasty POP sound at the start of play and when powering down the player. 
As nostalgic as it gets (coming from a previous ibasso DX100 user), it is a concern for very sensitive iem ears. 
Suggest to press play and then plug them in.

 
 
Finally, I find a time to reply this question in detail, terrible terrible sorry for my late reply.
 
 
First, I want to declare that this problem was found and properly resolved.
 
 
We started the production of Cayin N6 from the beginning of Dec., 2014. We didn’t produce too much quantity before we confirm that the quality is all right and all the details are going well. Besides that, we decided to only sell these devices in domestic market. In such a way, if we found any problem, the devices we sold could be recalled immediately. We produced 200 sets of Cayin N6 Hifi Players in the 1^st pitch, because of too many orders which we got, these devices even usually have been shipped in less than 2 hours after production finished.
 
 
The “POP” sound usually happened during turn on / off the devices and the 1^st second of 1^st song after the users turn it on. In fact, after we got feedback from our clients in China, we and our dealers checked their devices carefully and recalled these N6 back for testing. We have also informed all the buyers of Cayin N6 in the same time. Till this moment, we have got 16 sets of N6 recalled. After testing, we found that the capacity value of a certain capacitance in filter circuit exceeds the allowed max. range.
 
 
Luckily, it only happened in small quanity, we have asked our dealers to inform all the buyers to check their devices carefull, and to send these devices back once they found such a problem happened. Till the moment we only found 16 sets among these 200 devices.
 
 
And we have already paid much more attention on more stringent inspection of these capacitances after we found such a problem.
 
 
In fact, this is also a very important reason for why we didn’t sell Cayin N6 to any other market except China, because the distance and time difference, such a problem might could not be replied and solved in time.
 
 
But anyway, please trust us, if you got an unqualified Cayin product, wherever you be, we will try our best to bring you same assurance and the corresponding service.
 
 
So, then, Kenz，please PM me, and keep me informed the name and link of the Taobao dealer from where you buy your device, in the same time, you may also contact with the TAOBAO dealer to change a new Cayin N6 instead of your item on hands. In case to make sure you can get a Cayin N6 without this problem, you may ask this seller to send you an device which S/N No. after or over 45530200.
 
 
Terrible sorry for all the troubles we brought again, and hope we could help solve this problem ASAP.
 
 
Thank you very much again on your feedback.

 

[kenz]

   
 
Finally, I find a time to reply this question in detail, terrible terrible sorry for my late reply.
 
 
First, I want to declare that this problem was found and properly resolved.
 
 
We started the production of Cayin N6 from the beginning of Dec., 2014. We didn’t produce too much quantity before we confirm that the quality is all right and all the details are going well. Besides that, we decided to only sell these devices in domestic market. In such a way, if we found any problem, the devices we sold could be recalled immediately. We produced 200 sets of Cayin N6 Hifi Players in the 1^st pitch, because of too many orders which we got, these devices even usually have been shipped in less than 2 hours after production finished.
 
 
The “POP” sound usually happened during turn on / off the devices and the 1^st second of 1^st song after the users turn it on. In fact, after we got feedback from our clients in China, we and our dealers checked their devices carefully and recalled these N6 back for testing. We have also informed all the buyers of Cayin N6 in the same time. Till this moment, we have got 16 sets of N6 recalled. After testing, we found that the capacity value of a certain capacitance in filter circuit exceeds the allowed max. range.
 
 
Luckily, it only happened in small quanity, we have asked our dealers to inform all the buyers to check their devices carefull, and to send these devices back once they found such a problem happened. Till the moment we only found 16 sets among these 200 devices.
 
 
And we have already paid much more attention on more stringent inspection of these capacitances after we found such a problem.
 
 
In fact, this is also a very important reason for why we didn’t sell Cayin N6 to any other market except China, because the distance and time difference, such a problem might could not be replied and solved in time.
 
 
But anyway, please trust us, if you got an unqualified Cayin product, wherever you be, we will try our best to bring you same assurance and the corresponding service.
 
 
So, then, Kenz，please PM me, and keep me informed the name and link of the Taobao dealer from where you buy your device, in the same time, you may also contact with the TAOBAO dealer to change a new Cayin N6 instead of your item on hands. In case to make sure you can get a Cayin N6 without this problem, you may ask this seller to send you an device which S/N No. after or over 45530200.
 
 
Terrible sorry for all the troubles we brought again, and hope we could help solve this problem ASAP.
 
 
Thank you very much again on your feedback.

 
Hi Thomas,
 
Thank you for giving such a detailed reply despite your busy schedule. Am very appreciative of your time and reply.
 
The nature of the pop sound is exactly as you've described. Also, given the serial number of my unit, it likely falls within the first 200 units mention as well.
Will pm you shortly the details of my N6 unit.
 
Despite this matter, i do wish to encourage anyone who is keen on the Cayin N6, to get them. 
In the short time of 20 hours of burn in, they already sound magnificent. And agree with Andy on his assessment of the N6 along with the other music players today. 
The N6 truly deserves its place as among the top-of-the-line music players of today. Personally, in terms of the sound quality and technical proficiency, it stands along the line of Hifiman HM-901, iRiver AK240 and Calyx M. If you're coming from the popular Fiio X5, thee N6 will take the sound quality you're familiar with to a much higher level. The N6 is deserving of its price tag and then some.

 

[552388]

looks like a really cool product. the only question is that whether the internal system works well as the sound quality. But I do not read too much on the subject in the review.

 

[M-83]

   
Hi Thomas,
 
Thank you for giving such a detailed reply despite your busy schedule. Am very appreciative of your time and reply.
 
The nature of the pop sound is exactly as you've described. Also, given the serial number of my unit, it likely falls within the first 200 units mention as well.
Will pm you shortly the details of my N6 unit.
 
Despite this matter, i do wish to encourage anyone who is keen on the Cayin N6, to get them. 
In the short time of 20 hours of burn in, they already sound magnificent. And agree with Andy on his assessment of the N6 along with the other music players today. 
The N6 truly deserves its place as among the top-of-the-line music players of today. Personally, in terms of the sound quality and technical proficiency, it stands along the line of Hifiman HM-901, iRiver AK240 and Calyx M. If you're coming from the popular Fiio X5, thee N6 will take the sound quality you're familiar with to a much higher level. The N6 is deserving of its price tag and then some.

That's interesting reading. I'm just weighing up between n6 & ak100 I can get both at similar price.

 

[Bellyworshipper]

  ...Also, Doesnt n6 play dsd natively? It only outputs DoP thru the coax as I understand it. And DoP is not a conversion as such, it simply 'encapsulates' the dsd stream in a PCM jacket, so any outboard DAC should see it as DSD. If the native file is Double DSD, of course some down sampling will happen as currently 24 bit PCM doesnt support double DSD.

Hello, Luvdac. Thanks for sharing your experience with DSD and DSD->PCM converted files
Yes, you are right about encapsulation of DSD data in PCM jacket (or marking, if to be more precise). Actually, I wrote about this and presented a link to the relevant article (http://dsd-guide.com/dop-open-standard) which also explains why 24 bit/176.4 kHz PCM is enough for x64 DSD and could be enough even for x128 DSD using DoP.
As for DSD native support on N6-the vendor claims native DSD up to x128 (or double DSD) support in DAP mode and DSD x64 in DAC mode (DoP via usb connection), as well as x64 DSD coax output.
 
 

   
Despite this matter, i do wish to encourage anyone who is keen on the Cayin N6, to get them. 
In the short time of 20 hours of burn in, they already sound magnificent. And agree with Andy on his assessment of the N6 along with the other music players today. 
The N6 truly deserves its place as among the top-of-the-line music players of today. Personally, in terms of the sound quality and technical proficiency, it stands along the line of Hifiman HM-901, iRiver AK240 and Calyx M. If you're coming from the popular Fiio X5, thee N6 will take the sound quality you're familiar with to a much higher level. The N6 is deserving of its price tag and then some.

kenz, could you please tell whether N6 has a punchy and controlled enough bass (in comparison with X5 or DX90, which bass is less pronounced) and what is the treble on N6; is it "hot" or more "cold" and neutral? Have you experienced any sibilance or fatigue while listening so any genres?