Cayin N6iii: Nothing is Impossible with Gen2 User-replaceable Audio Motherboard

[tunes]

What is a NAS and how do I set up the NAS with tablet and TOSLINK to DAC?

 

[Andykong]

Does it have optical line out via the 3.5 mm jack?

If not does anyone know how to get a Digital Touch screen device to upload music files to use as a simple transport/digital server to select songs or albums and send via TOSLINK to my external DAC.

What is a NAS and how do I set up the NAS with tablet and TOSLINK to DAC?

I am just curious, can you provide some information regarding your DAC? Most standalone DACs will provide Toslink and Coaxial inputs because these are very common SPDIF digital inputs nowadays. That's why N6iii is equipped with one of these output formats but not both.

 

[Tabikinoya Cephas]

After E203, when will the next board comes out and any idea what is it?

 

[HTjapan]

After E203, when will the next board comes out and any idea what is it?

At the exhibition, they mentioned that the next step is R2R, followed by vacuum tubes.
It seems they intentionally made it larger to accommodate the vacuum tubes.
However, the information about the vacuum tubes comes from social media, so it's not certain.

 

[Dron86]

At the exhibition, they mentioned that the next step is R2R, followed by vacuum tubes.
It seems they intentionally made it larger to accommodate the vacuum tubes.
However, the information about the vacuum tubes comes from social media, so it's not certain.

I don’t think they would release r2r so early, as this is the module everyone is waiting for. For 90% N6iii owners, r2r will be the finish line.

Unless sales are so low that the situation needs to be corrected urgently. (I can believe this, as C201 is not interesting soundwise with absolutely average sound, compared to many cheaper analogues). E203 is on the way to me. Hope, it’s better than 201

 

[tunes]

Well actually my digital source that I now use is an iBasso DAP that has optical out via the 3.5 mm jack that is sent via a TOSLINK fiber optic cable to my Chord Hugo Upscaler that then feeds the DAVE DAC via dual BNC.

It looks like the upscaler has three options for digital input
Including optical in via TOSLINK, BNC IN, and USB IN. I decided to go with optical to reduce EMF and problems known with USB in.

I want to stay with optical in as it has worked well for me in the past. So I need a digital source like a DAP, iPad (not a laptop computer) etc that I can store my FLAC music files with software to allow albums and artists to be searched and then sent to the Upscaler. A simple user interface, a slot for a micro SD card and optical TOSLINK digital output is what I am after. At one point I had an expensive server that worked over WiFi to an iPad but it was just too complicated to have a LAN in my home.

 

[worten777]

Good afternoon, I have Focal radiance and Dali IO12 headphones. I plan to buy Fostex TH-900 MK2, ZDM Atrium(closed) in the future. Now I want to upgrade my Kann Alpha, and now I'm choosing between Ibasso DX340 and Cayin N6 mark3. I mainly listen to EDM and for me is very important a good, expressive and at the same time punchy bass. Some people complain and even sell their Ibasso DX340 because the bass is weak. Doesn't this level of devices allow you to tune anything and how you want? Please help me with my choice

 

[sparty09]

Does anyone have issues with the Cayin or Hiby app not being able to play audio at all? Running into this issue recently, it looks like it's trying to play the audio and the playback quality appears for a second at the top and then goes blank and no audio. I can play from streaming sources with no issue and Poweramp works, but is locked to 44.1K even when I play my Flac files. Oddly enough if I plug in a dongle like the Nunchaku, I get full playback and audio from Cayin app at 384k but Poweramp is still locked to 44.1k...wondering if there's some setting I'm missing that's causing these issues?

*Quick edit since Poweramp kept overriding my playback settings so in my frustration I uninstalled it and now the Cayin and Hiby app work perfect Not sure if there was something in the settings for that app I was messing up, but just a tip if folks also run into this issue*

 

[Gold Fox]

Here comes the review of the C201 & E203 from Headfonia by Berkhan!

 

[SCARTER]

Recently I became the owner of a Cayin N6III player with an E203 audio card. I really liked the sound. I immediately thought about selling the Shanling M7, which has long been my main player.
However, when listening to music, I encountered an unpleasant problem. When manually switching tracks, the sound starts playing with a crackle / crunch, I would even say it is similar to the sound of clipping. This problem appears randomly, I could not establish any pattern. It is very similar to the problem of an incorrectly configured audio buffer, if we compare it with desktop systems.
Initially, I got this problem on the UAPP player. And accordingly, I thought that UAPP was to blame. But I got a similar problem with the pre-installed Cayin Music and Hiby Music. At the same time, changing the size of the audio buffer in UAPP did not help to solve the problem.
What I did to try to solve the problem:
1) Reset data through the system settings;
2) Reset data through the recovery menu;
3) Updated the Hiby Music player to the latest version;
4) Removed power restrictions for UAPP, Hiby Music, Cayin Music players;
5) Turned off the MQA decoder;
6) Removed the E203 audio card, checked the contacts, inserted it back;
7) Reset the audio plugin settings in the developer settings.
None of this helped to solve the problem.

Since the problem has a random manifestation, I think the error is software. But due to the fact that this error exists, it seems to me that even with normal playback there is a micro crackle / crunch in the sound and the ear catches these moments in the music.

And I can't understand whether this is a problem with my Cayin N6III player or a software error that will be fixed with a regular update.

I also ask users of the Cayin N6III player with the E203 audio card to check for this problem. How to do it:
1) Select an audio file in your library that starts with a low-frequency hum. (For example, I use the Noisecream - Entropy composition. And I got the error more often on compositions with a sampling frequency of 48 kHz.) Because it is on the low-frequency hum that this crackling/crunching sound is heard most clearly/loudly.
2) Play the file using the Cayin Music or Hiby Music player. 1-2 seconds is enough to immediately understand whether there is a crackling sound or not.
3) Pause or stop playback.
4) Wait until the sampling frequency display disappears on the top curtain and the color indicator on the volume control goes out.
5) Start playing the file again.
6) Repeat steps 3, 4, 5 until a crackling/crunching sound appears.
For me, the crackling/crunching sound appears about once every 20 playbacks.

 

[leylandi]

Here comes the review of the C201 & E203 from Headfonics by Berkhan!

headfonia

 

[Dron86]

Here comes the review of the C201 & E203 from Headfonics by Berkhan!

Very good review. I have similar view almost in all the aspects.

 

[Gold Fox]

headfonia

Thanks for reminding me pal!!! Their names are so similar that I sometimes mix them up while writing

 

[hehee]

Recently I became the owner of a Cayin N6III player with an E203 audio card. I really liked the sound. I immediately thought about selling the Shanling M7, which has long been my main player.
However, when listening to music, I encountered an unpleasant problem. When manually switching tracks, the sound starts playing with a crackle / crunch, I would even say it is similar to the sound of clipping. This problem appears randomly, I could not establish any pattern. It is very similar to the problem of an incorrectly configured audio buffer, if we compare it with desktop systems.
Initially, I got this problem on the UAPP player. And accordingly, I thought that UAPP was to blame. But I got a similar problem with the pre-installed Cayin Music and Hiby Music. At the same time, changing the size of the audio buffer in UAPP did not help to solve the problem.
What I did to try to solve the problem:
1) Reset data through the system settings;
2) Reset data through the recovery menu;
3) Updated the Hiby Music player to the latest version;
4) Removed power restrictions for UAPP, Hiby Music, Cayin Music players;
5) Turned off the MQA decoder;
6) Removed the E203 audio card, checked the contacts, inserted it back;
7) Reset the audio plugin settings in the developer settings.
None of this helped to solve the problem.

Since the problem has a random manifestation, I think the error is software. But due to the fact that this error exists, it seems to me that even with normal playback there is a micro crackle / crunch in the sound and the ear catches these moments in the music.

And I can't understand whether this is a problem with my Cayin N6III player or a software error that will be fixed with a regular update.

I also ask users of the Cayin N6III player with the E203 audio card to check for this problem. How to do it:
1) Select an audio file in your library that starts with a low-frequency hum. (For example, I use the Noisecream - Entropy composition. And I got the error more often on compositions with a sampling frequency of 48 kHz.) Because it is on the low-frequency hum that this crackling/crunching sound is heard most clearly/loudly.
2) Play the file using the Cayin Music or Hiby Music player. 1-2 seconds is enough to immediately understand whether there is a crackling sound or not.
3) Pause or stop playback.
4) Wait until the sampling frequency display disappears on the top curtain and the color indicator on the volume control goes out.
5) Start playing the file again.
6) Repeat steps 3, 4, 5 until a crackling/crunching sound appears.
For me, the crackling/crunching sound appears about once every 20 playbacks.

Unplug the jack and plug on again . Repeat of the problem still occur ,repeat until the issue goes away. Happens to me.

 

[SCARTER]

Unplug the jack and plug on again . Repeat of the problem still occur ,repeat until the issue goes away. Happens to me.

Thanks for the tip. I felt some relief because I'm not the only one with the problem with crackling when playing music on the Cayin N6III player with E203. There is hope that the error is software and is a flaw on the part of the Cayin developers, and not a defect in a specific unit of the Cayin N6III player or the E203 audio card. I would like to receive some kind of answer from Cayin representatives on this issue. Perhaps they are already aware of this problem in the Cayin N6III player and are trying to solve it.

I will note that your approach to disconnecting the jack is most likely the same hardware disconnection of the audio circuit as in the method I proposed. After all, when the sampling frequency indication in the upper tray disappears and the color indicator on the volume control wheel is turned off, the audio output is muted (on highly sensitive headphones, a pop-up is heard, as if the relay has disconnected the audio output). I think the audio circuit is hardware disabled at this point. And perhaps this is the reason for this crackling, as if the audio circuit is not turned on correctly during the next playback. Other players from other developers provide for the audio circuit warm-up time when turning it on, but this entails that the beginning of the musical composition is not played on the headphones if you use the UAPP software player (However, recently an option appeared in UAPP that allows you to take into account the warm-up time and the beginning of the composition is not lost). This is all just my suggestion, I do not know how everything actually works inside the Cayin N6III player.