[warrior1975]

I like sexy players so I just got a Cowon P1...but I am truly interested in the Lotoo...but I find it too expensive for the design and UI..;

Completely agree, I love sexy players too. I am tempted to buy an ak120ii just because I love the looks and form. Lotoo is an ugly sucker... Cowon not bad, calyx m I like too. N6...kind of confused about.

 

[Andykong]

Just too big for me but looks like a very nice product. I'm with you on beating the X5 not making it special at it's likely high price but of course it's just opinion. Nice to have more good things to choose from. Any idea if they have something smaller planned in their future?

From what I was told, Cayin plans for more then one DAP in their product roadmap, but right now they are devoted to deliver N6 to market, so all their DAP development resource have been tied up. From what I see, not until they start to draw up a meaningful framework, the new DAP just don't exist, and its too much wait and uncertainty to look forwards to.

But I'll love to see Thomas pop in and proved me wrong but promise something that is attractive, lets see if he'll do that next week after they finished the Audio Show.

 

[Andykong]

Andykong, any news on when it might be retailing in the asia region?

They are supposed to make some sort of announcement during the Audio Show, but I haven't been able to get in touch with them today, so I guess we just need to be patient and wait till they get back to their office after the show, which will end tomorrow later afternoon.

 

[Andykong]

I like sexy players so I just got a Cowon P1...but I am truly interested in the Lotoo...but I find it too expensive for the design and UI..;

Completely agree, I love sexy players too. I am tempted to buy an ak120ii just because I love the looks and form. Lotoo is an ugly sucker... Cowon not bad, calyx m I like too. N6...kind of confused about.

Well, I doubt anyone will say NO to a sexy DAP, definitely not with those who read this post, right.

The question is, seeing them on photo can be quite different from holding the real things on hand, so did you get a chance to try out all these player for real (except N6 for obvious reason)?

 

[warrior1975]

I own an AK240, had ak120ii which is my favorite. Also had the old 120 and still own X3 and X1 (neither of which is very sexy). 120ii is the sexiest!!!

 

[Andykong]

I own an AK240, had ak120ii which is my favorite. Also had the old 120 and still own X3 and X1 (neither of which is very sexy). 120ii is the sexiest!!!

Well, there is an ocean between your Fiio and AKs, looks like N6 can fill up the gap perfectly.

 

[warrior1975]

Very valid point... And I am itching for a middle ground. This is definitely up there as a s possibility.

 

[Andykong]

Have met with a headfier yesterday to check out his Calyx M, I have always wanted to compare the N6 against the Calyx M side by side, simply can’t feel for the AK120II or AK240 for its pricing strategy, so Calyx M is what I looks up to as one of the reference DAP in current market, especially when put into the appropriate context and price consideration.

I used Flat4 Kuro and Beyer T5P to compare N6 with Calyx M. The two players are on the same level in terms of sound quality, I can enjoy my music with either one. There are more similar then different, but I’ll pick on the different particular for sharing purpose, so please bear this in mind and don’t assume the two players are night and day after reading this impression. I won’t go into track by track comparison as I only spend about an hour with Calyx M, but since I used the same 10 songs to compare the players, so you can easily compare my thoughts and observation against my detail impression I shared previously

• Calyx M is easy listening, N6 offer more HiFi excitement
• Calyx M has better high frequency extension, but N6 offers better air and ambiance (I am a little bit puzzled on this, but this is what I heard).
• Calyx M has excellent vocal, you can feel the emotion of the singer through every note. N6 vocals are slightly prettified, the singers are slightly younger, and you can hear more details on the background as they are a bit standout and separated.
• N6 is excellent with instruments, the fidelity presentation offers more body and harmonic, and placed the instruments right next to you. The Calyx M instruments are solid but slightly distanced when compare to N6.
• Both players are not punchy and forceful type, bass control is the strong suit of N6, Calyx M is a bit loose especially when paired with Flat4 Kuro.
• Classical with Calyx M is wonderful, everything is neat and unity, you can easily listen to the complete movement without feeling fatigue. On the other hand, N6 recreated the stage and orchestra in front of you, the separation and imaging is hard to beat on portable system, and you don’t need to worry about complexity of music as N6 has everything under control even at the toughest moment.

The user interface of Calyx M is very well organised, and I love the dynamic playlist feature which makes a lot of sense to a Foobar2000 user like me. But the control is not as fast/smooth as N6, Calyx M's MUSE system is a deeply modded Android, I guess it took up more resource then the N6 operating system.

So there isn’t a clear winner in this comparison, they just fit different people at different occasion, I sure want to keep both but my wife and banker probably won’t like that idea, I shall wait and see as I won’t be making the final decision utill I get my hands on the production version of N6.







(Photo from mobile phone at a street cafe, please pardon the below-par image quality)

 

[shakur1996]

Andykong, did you have a chance to listen to QLS QA360? If yes, how does it compare to N6?

 

[Andykong]

Andykong, did you have a chance to listen to QLS QA360? If yes, how does it compare to N6?

Yes, I have listened to the QA360 twice, the first time was right when it was launched, I was listening to the first production batch with initial firmware. The second time was about two weeks ago, I was in the middle of testing N6 and I get a short moment with my friend's QA360 just to check things out. I won't call this a detail audition, so please take my comment with a grain of salt (and that's why I didn't mention it in the first place).

I think QA360 is a surprisingly good sounding DAP at its price. It beats DX90 and X5 on audio performance, the moment I put on my favorite test track, I notice QA360 has very good high end extension, very forceful presentation, and the bass is slamming hard. When I gone through my basic 10-tracks audition list, I appreciate the hard core quality of the player, but the emotion of the music is not there. It is not cold but certainly feel hard and a little bit dry when I compare the female vocal tracks with N6 Beta. In addition, the decay is shorter, and the low level details is not as conveying, so I prefer N6 Beta over QA360 for sure, but will N6 justified the extra dollar? I think we'll have to wait and see as (1) We don't exactly know the price different, and (2) Will the production version N6 sounds a lot better then N6 Beta?

QA360 can sound very different when you applied different firmware, and the WAV-only version claims to sound superior, but since I am a FLAC guy, so that is not in my equation when I am comparing DAP.

That's the comparison base on audio performance only, the situation might be different if I factor in other issues such ad the 27mm thick body, text based interface, and click-based control button which is kind of inefficient when I run into a folder with 30 or 50 songs in it. There is one thing I really like about QA360 is that they used SD card instead of the smaller TF (or microSD) card.

 

[shakur1996]

Andykong, thanks for the response. 
 
And how would you compare QLS QA360 to dx100?
 
AFAIK Caying already told somewhere that N6 will cost USD 599.

 

[Andykong]

Andykong, thanks for the response. 

And how would compare QLS QA360 vs dx100?

AFAIK Caying already told somewhere that N6 will cost USD 599.

The QA360 and DX100 share similar sound signature, if I have to pick one base on sound only, I still hand on with my DX100 because of its excellent detail and authoritative presentation.

QA360 offers longer battery life and USB charging, touch-based-control, DSD64, SACD ISO, and faster respond in overall control interface, these are all features that I am looking forwards after using the DX100 for more than a year, so if I read into a good deal (nice and clean second hand at low price), I'll likely switch my DX100 for a QA360.

 

[shakur1996]

I'm looking for a great sounding DAP (on pair in the sound performance with dx100) which is less bulky than dx100 and has longer battery life. Although dx100 has primitive UI I did not have any major problems with it (I'm just playing music and sometimes jump between folders to find specific tracks).

 

[Andykong]

I'm looking for a great sounding DAP (on pair in the sound performance with dx100) which is less bulky than dx100 and has longer battery life. Although dx100 has primitive UI I did not have any major problems with it (I'm just playing music and sometimes jump between foldes to find tracks).

I looked at my comment again and I would like to elaborate on the sound performance on QA360 vs DX100 further.

When I said I still prefer DX100 over QA360 on audio performance, I am referring to playing the same PCM track on both players, but if we switch to DSD on QA360 vs PCM on DX100, the result will be the other way round. QA360 handles DSD very well, easily outperform its PCM performance by an arm distance. So if you have a decent collection of DSD library, or intend to go into the DSD domain, the I'll recommend the QA360 as a replacement of DX100.

Last but not least, N6 plays DSD fairly well too, so that's another candidate. The different is N6 handles DSD and PCM equally well, but QA360 has a strong preference to DSD over PCM.

I talked to "the old man" @ iBasso back in Mid-September at an HeadFi Show, he told me that he is working on a DX100 replacement now, I was excited but immediately I beg him to provide more control button instead of 100% screen based control, and to the least, volume control is a must while everything else can be optional, so that tells you how I feel about the control interface of DX100.

 

[shakur1996]

Nope, I don't have DSD libary and I don't plan to have one. Only 16bit/44.1kHz FLAC files.