[Andykong]

I just purchased Vanuys VD958 bag from zenmarket.jp. Looks like Zenmarket does the proxy buy for us consumers who want
buy the stuffs only sold in JP. It does make N8 bulkier but I could try out the neck strap.

The VD958 is designed to use "with" the N8 factory leather case, so it is kind of bulkier, but the VanNuys is actually quite flexible, you can remove the N8 factory case, and tighten up the four Hook-and-loop fastener at the back of the VD958, its still bigger but not by a significant margin.

 

[arstango]

Any news about Dignis case release date?

 

[Andykong]

I was just as CanJam NY and I compared the N8, 1z, Lotoo Paw Gold and SP1000. I agree with Jmills8, the Cayin N8 (using 3.5mm connection and tube mode) just sounds better. The timbre of the music was more beautiful and possibly more accurate, there was more air around the presentation and I felt more incolved in the music. I also liked the interface once I got used to it. I actually liked the interface in the N8 better than on the 1Z. Now the others are all quality products as well. However the N8 has the best sound in my opinion. I used it with the noble Audio Khan and the Noble Audio Endore. My main concerns, no streaming and no MQA. If Cayin could commit to adding these, my mind would be made up.

I also visited the Cayin room itself and listened to their other products. You can purchase a gorgeous desktop stack of pre, dac and power amp for roughly 2500.00. This is 800.00 less than the N8!
I brought that up, but no really good response. All were of high quality. As I used the desktop stack to listen to what were $6,000.00 headphones, I cannot compare to the N8. Obviously that solution sounded better than my in-ears, but I am not comfortable in headphones. Good listening.

Thank you for your support to N8, its amazing that someone prefer the our interface, I think the keyword is "once I got used to it", right?

I might be able to guess who you are, the Susvara stays with the HA-300 setup most of the time, only a small number of visitors has tried the 83dB planar with our i-Series.

For the record, the Cayin i-Series is a three piece suit that occupied around 10" square footprint, the revised iDAC-6MK2 further enhanced the family look and integration.

 

[dhc0329]

Announcement of Cayin N8 firmware v2.2

We have received a lot of suggestion to the default background image after the v2.1 firmware, someone wants it black and simple, and someone want a bright sunny feel to light up their day, so we decided to make this user-definable. Here we go!



Firmware explained: https://en.cayin.cn/down1/show?id=13568

If you are familiar with N8 firmware update procedure, you can download the package from Google Drive here

OTA update will start tomorrow.

New Functions and System Optimization

1. Add new feature to enable user-defined background image. The new firmware will create a folder called “Picture” under Internal Storage. Users can store up to six photos as candidate of background image in this folder. These photos must be smaller than 1024x102 in BMP, PNG or JPG forma, and they must be named as pic1, pic2, pic3, … pic6 respectively. The “Background image” setting is available under System setting menu and there are two options available: Default and Custom. When Default is selected, N8 will display the system default background image when no album art is detected during playback. When custom is selected, N8 will pop up the Background Image picture list, and user can choose one of the picture in the list as user-defined background image, N8 will display this photo when no album art is detected during playback.
2. Modify Multi-color smart glowing LED (at Home button) to indicate sampling rate during playback at Single-end Vacuum Tube amplification.
3. Modify UI layout, relocate “Replay Gain” to Music Setting menu, and add “Bluetooth” control (click to turn on or off, press and hold to activate Bluetooth setup menu) to the Pulldown menu.
4. Bug fixed: click at the empty space of pull down menu underneath “About” will activate System setting or Music Setting.
5. Other Bug fix and optimizations

Firmware upgrades procedure

Cayin will release firmware upgrade to enhance and optimize N8 as deem required, the new firmware can be acquired through OTA or manual download, since the content of these firmware are identical, you can select whichever upgrade option that fit your needs.

Please make sure the device has sufficient battery power before you proceed. Please confirm the device has not less than 50% battery power; otherwise please charge up the player before you proceed to firmware upgrade.

Option 1: Local Upgrade Procedures

1. Download the latest firmware upgrade package from Cayin website (www.cayin.cn). We have provided two download links, you can either download the package from our website or through our Google Drive.
2. You should receive a compressed document N8 firmware XXXX.zip, decompress the zip file and extract the N8 firmware file (u8.upt)
3. Copy N8 firmware file into the root directory of N8 internal memory or TF card, insert the TF card into N8 before you proceed to next step.
4. Select System upgrade from System Setup menu, when prompted by the system, select “update via micro SD card”. You will be asked to confirm your selection, select OK to proceed.
5. The system will start the firmware upgrade immediately, you can monitor the process through the Updater progress bar.
6. The player will reboot into main menu when the firmware upgrade is completed. Please verify the firmware version number which is displayed under “About” option of pull down menu.

Option 2: OTA Upgrade Procedure

1. Connect N8 to an Internet ready WiFi connection
2. Make sure your N8 internal memory has at least 100MB available storage
3. Select System upgrade from System Setup menu, when prompted by the system, select “OTA upgrade”. The player will detect if there is a new firmware available.
4. If a new firmware is available, the player will display “Found new firmware XXX” at the top of the screen, select Download to proceed.
5. At the end of the download process, the system will prompt you to confirm “Update firmware now?” Selecting “OK ” to proceed.
6. The system will start the firmware upgrade immediately, you can monitor the process through the Updater progress bar.
7. The player will reboot into main menu when the firmware upgrade is completed. Please verify the firmware version number which is displayed under “About” option of pull down menu.

Attention

• N8 can support FAT/FAT32/exFAT/NTFS formatted TF card during the firmware upgrade process.
• Do not operate the machine during firmware upgrade
• Please delete/remove the firmware file from the TF card after firmware upgrade
• Please scan your Music Library again after firmware upgrade
• If N8 is in charging status, the player will not reboot to main menu after firmware upgrade. It will stop at the battery charging page, you need to disconnect the USB charger to complete the firmware upgrade process.

Thanks for the new firmware. We get excited whenever new firmware's released. Have any idea if Cayin will ever add 'recently added song list' feature in the future?

 

[Andykong]

Text version of my review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/cayin-n8-dap.23470/reviews#review-21631​

Brilliant review. I am a text guy, I always prefer reading over watching, so I have to say your review works better for me.

 

[Andykong]

My best evening pair (with T1 2nd edition )

Wow, 600 ohm full size desktop headphones with N8? that's amazing. I haven't try the T1-2 seriously, but the original T1 was very tough and is definitely not portable friendly in my book.

 

[Andykong]

Andy, I thought I read in the reviews that LDAC does not work on the iPhones (I have iPhone XS Max). My iPhone does support Blue Tooth 5 which supports a bandwidth up to 2tb (so roughly double LDAC). Do you have plans to support BT 5 and the iPhone so that it can then be used as the streaming device?

Streaming on the N8 would still be better because then I could use it even when on the go as my phone can be the hotspot and I could stream in full quality. MQA would be another feature that should be included in a 3300.00 DAP. Will you support MQA in the future? Thank you for your responsiveness.

That's a valid point, the iOS is very persistent with their choice of BT technology, they stick with AAC so far, I sure hope they can provide a high-res option. As explained by my colleague, the hardware of N8 cannot support BTv5.0, and we don't see the need for that as well. the different between BTv4 and BTv5 are sending a file faster, reaching our further, provide better security and better power saving mode etc etc, it basically has nothing to do with improving audio quality. The key issue in here is the codec of transmission.

Photo with courtesy from amarinfotech

Cayin cannot provide any "promise" on MQA implementation because this is a licensed technology. We'll infringe the right of MQA if we make such claim. MQA has nothing to do with retail price of the DAP, it is more related to the hardware platform and availability of the MQA solution. Just perform a quick fact check on the MQA availability on "high price" DAP and you should notice higher priced doesn't necessarily mean MQA license is readily available.

Streaming service is, on the other hand, totally under our management, and we can tell you immediately that N8 will not have streaming app such as Tidal, Spotify or Qobuz available in its product life. We do not want to keep our customers on hook with false hope so we rather make ourselves clear. If N8 is an Android or IOS device, it probably is fairly straight forward to support all these streaming service because APP are readily available. As explained previously, N8 is developed on a System on Chip platform with a proprietary operation system, develop appropriate API to support these streaming service is a completely different story. Cayin has no plan to go into this direction.

 

[Andykong]

Spoiler

Hello, I bought my N8 in 2008 after demoing most of the top daps. My main focus was sound. This wasnt my first round of searching for "the dap", way back in 2006, I bought what was back then the top dap. I bought: Cowon, iAudio, Creative, Colorfly, Hifiman, and an Apple player. Then bought the iBasso DX100 , another Cowon , the the newer upgraded A&K daps like the 100 , 120 , and so on. Well since buying the N8 I bought daps that I demoed months before inorder to make sure Ill still like the N8. I bought a new A&K, a 3,000 USD dap, a new Colorfly dap, a new Cowon dap, a new dap that can play music from the internet etc. Well I ended up selling most of them. Why did I sell them ? Cause the N8 still sounds better to me.

The N8 sounds better at home where its quiet and sounds great outside where its crowded and very loud. Interesting that I noticed many of the top daps do sounds great when the enviroment is quiet but stop sounding great when the enviroment gets noisy. I am curious if Cayin could make a top portable amp ? Im using headphones and I do enjoy using a portable amp.

Cayin has started a project to develop a high quality portable amplifier, this is a not a project with a firm schedule, it can take a year or two before we can deliver a "demoable" product, All TOTL products take a long time in Cayin, the N8 was a four years project and the HA-300 was a three year project. On the other hand, when we work on a product product, we means literally for portable application. Even when we aim at TOTL level, we don't intend to end up with a desktop replacement product.

 

[Andykong]

Thanks for the new firmware. We get excited whenever new firmware's released. Have any idea if Cayin will ever add 'recently added song list' feature in the future?

Sorry, we don't have any plan on this feature.

 

[Andykong]

Any news about Dignis case release date?

I was told early April earlier on, but that's up to Dignis eventually.

 

[Frankie D]

Thank you for your support to N8, its amazing that someone prefer the our interface, I think the keyword is "once I got used to it", right?

I might be able to guess who you are, the Susvara stays with the HA-300 setup most of the time, only a small number of visitors has tried the 83dB planar with our i-Series.

For the record, the Cayin i-Series is a three piece suit that occupied around 10" square footprint, the revised iDAC-6MK2 further enhanced the family look and integration.

The interface was really easy to use and works for the N8. I agree that a recently added music list would be nice, but the interface suits the capabilities of the N8. It makes it easy to listen via tube or SS, for example, if you choose to switch. Tks.

 

[Frankie D]

That's a valid point, the iOS is very persistent with their choice of BT technology, they stick with AAC so far, I sure hope they can provide a high-res option. As explained by my colleague, the hardware of N8 cannot support BTv5.0, and we don't see the need for that as well. the different between BTv4 and BTv5 are sending a file faster, reaching our further, provide better security and better power saving mode etc etc, it basically has nothing to do with improving audio quality. The key issue in here is the codec of transmission.

Photo with courtesy from amarinfotech

Cayin cannot provide any "promise" on MQA implementation because this is a licensed technology. We'll infringe the right of MQA if we make such claim. MQA has nothing to do with retail price of the DAP, it is more related to the hardware platform and availability of the MQA solution. Just perform a quick fact check on the MQA availability on "high price" DAP and you should notice higher priced doesn't necessarily mean MQA license is readily available.

Streaming service is, on the other hand, totally under our management, and we can tell you immediately that N8 will not have streaming app such as Tidal, Spotify or Qobuz available in its product life. We do not want to keep our customers on hook with false hope so we rather make ourselves clear. If N8 is an Android or IOS device, it probably is fairly straight forward to support all these streaming service because APP are readily available. As explained previously, N8 is developed on a System on Chip platform with a proprietary operation system, develop appropriate API to support these streaming service is a completely different story. Cayin has no plan to go into this direction.

Andy, thank you for the updated information. I agree with you if you use an android phone. As the IPhone does not support LDAC, already supports BT 5 which is superior, and I am sure apple is not about to decide to support LDAC, I will be without the ability to stream in any meaningful way. Now, I may still opt for the N8 because it sounds the best to me, and that is what I value the most. But it would have been nice to have both. In any event, thank you for the clarification. The N8 is about music. And as I said, I was very impressed by it at the show.

On another topic, will you be providing physical upgrades to its internal storage capacity in the future? Also, does it support the 1tb SD Card that was mentioned in an earlier post? Thank you.

 

[jonstatt]

I tried using an iPhone connected to the N8 in USB DAC mode (using Apple CCK cable) and it only works with power connected to the iPhone because the N8 tries to charge itself and draws too much power from the phone.

Sony dealt with this issue on the WM1Z by allowing the user to turn off charging in USB DAC mode. This allowed the iPhone to work with no extra power source.

Could the same be implemented on the N8?

 

[fabduf69]

I tried using an iPhone connected to the N8 in USB DAC mode (using Apple CCK cable) and it only works with power connected to the iPhone because the N8 tries to charge itself and draws too much power from the phone.

Sony dealt with this issue on the WM1Z by allowing the user to turn off charging in USB DAC mode. This allowed the iPhone to work with no extra power source.

Could the same be implemented on the N8?

Yes it will be nice !!!

 

[jmills8]

Hello, whats the purpose of pressing "scan music"? When I transfer music onto my SD card the dap reads the music even if I didnt press "Scan Music".