[gr8soundz]

@lithiumnk thanks for those pics.

No mention of the Nutube there and seems no hardware button for it so on/off must be in touchscreen menu. Unless the 'Playback' click for the triangle home button is for the Nutube, it appears to be a secondary control for play/pause/etc.

Gotta say I like navigation wheel. Color/size aside, might be easier skipping tracks without having to feel which button is the correct one to press.

 

[Andykong]

I was about to post the photo here, but since someone has helped me out already, so I'll post the Facebook link instead.:
https://www.facebook.com/CayinAudio/posts/407253073019258

I only go through the physical control and design features in this round, Most of the details have been mentioned/discussed in this thread previously, but if have any question regarding N8 along these lines, please feel free to raise your concern and I'll see if I can answer them ASAP.

 

[tienbasse]

I think that it would look more classy to make the steel chassis with a mat black finish so it pairs better with the golden wheels/buttons. This made for a wonderful result with the LPG Touch.

 

[Andykong]

@lithiumnk thanks for those pics.

No mention of the Nutube there and seems no hardware button for it so on/off must be in touchscreen menu. Unless the 'Playback' click for the triangle home button is for the Nutube, it appears to be a secondary control for play/pause/etc.

Gotta say I like navigation wheel. Color/size aside, might be easier skipping tracks without having to feel which button is the correct one to press.

Yes, the Tube/SS option is a pull down menu item, it will be covered later.

N8 is designed to operated the basic playback control by one hand or blind-controlled when you have it inside a bag. It is quite a big DAP but the volume knob and the navigation wheel are so obvious that you won't get it wrong once you tried it out.

 

[Andykong]

There are a lot of suggestion and comment regarding the choice of color and size of knobs. I'll try to response to them together:

(1) The size of knobs are fixed, it is a done deal. We cannot make it smaller because of the mechanical parts inside the knobs. If this is a deal breaker, sorry, I can only thank you for paying attention to our our product and we are looking forward to serve you better next round. We sincerely hope you get the chance of seeing/trying the Cayin N8 one day.

(2) The N8 is not painted in silver, that is the original color of stainless steel. We didn't plan to offer N8 in different color because that will involve covering up the stainless steel surface by paint. We do that quite often if we are using aluminum for DAP chassis, N3 is available in 3 colors, and our other DAPs are available in different shades of gray, but since N8 is in stainless steel, we believe the most appropriate presentation will be brushed or sandblast finishing. It is technically feasible to paint N8 into different colors, if there is an unanimously agreed color for N8, we'll consider that option seriously. So far we have seen a lot of suggestion and opinions, but far from unanimously. By the way, among the several DAP that are available in Stainless Steel, did any of them were painted into different color?

(3) The golden knobs seems to be the focus of the discussion. We have seen different shades of gold in DAP or even IEMs, the Sony NW-WM1Z is basically a golden DAP, the Questyle was available in both gray and gold and I think the golden version is a lot more popular, and the Lotoo Paw Gold also has a golden wheel in the front panel. So the problem is N8 has adopted an "inappropriate" shade of gold? or using the color "inappropriately" in certain location?
In fact, the original design of Cayin N5ii was having a "gold" volume wheel, we received a lot of negative feedback on this issue, so we changed it to silver instead of gold, that was the most popular suggestion at that time, but after we changed the Ni5ii volume to silver, we received over a dozen of request wanting to buy the gold volume version N5ii.

Anyway, to cut the story short (as this is almost 5 am in my side of the world), changing the color of the knobs or the Home button is not complicated, and it probably make more sense then covering the Stainless Steel chassis with blue or black paint. So go ahead and make your suggestion or Photoshop stimulation. If there is an unanimous or clear majority consent on the color of knobs and/or home button, I'll inform our Production Engineer and we shall investigate or try out the suggestion carefully.

 

[Pictograms]

It seems to me that people who are opposed to the design are going to be more vocal than those who do not have strong feelings.
Personally as I have said I really like it, I even like the gold knobs, even though I don’t normally (don’t even own) gold.
As long as it is done as a accent though I would probably like the knobs...just don’t make them the same stainless steel as the body.

 

[EagleWings]

Hi Andy, will the N8 have Parametric EQ?

 

[tienbasse]

Sure taste will vary between people, and between countries.
Keep the golden theme if you like, but this will mainly attract buyers in Asia.
Darker colors for knobs /buttons (black, bronze, dark blue, dark red) would make for a nice contrast as well, and would certainly sell better in Europ/America.

Andy, I think you're a bit misled with golden DAPs and sales.
WM1Z is all golden, and I can tell it certainly doesn't sell because of its color but because of its SQ. First thing I did when I got was covering with a leather case to hide this ugly golden powder coating. I actually prefer WM1A black color, but SQ-wise, WM1Z bass won me over.
In the case of N5ii, going silver instead of gold for the wheel actually made it look more bland because you lost contrast between the chassis and the wheel.
Gold color can look nice if it's limited to small parts. Knobs in N8 are pretty big, which is why I don't like the shiny golden finish. A mat golden powder coating would at least look less bling-bling, as in the N5ii picture above.

 

[Andykong]

Front view of the leather case

These are not offical leather cases of N8, at least not yet. We make half a dozen of prototypes with different color, material, thickness, and designs for evaluation purpose. We used them to protect the N8 engineering samples when we hand carry them from Hotel to MOC and vice versa. These are irreplaceable items right now.

 

[Andykong]

Hi Andy, will the N8 have Parametric EQ?

Sorry, N8 doesn't has PMEQ.

 

[Andykong]

Sure taste will vary between people, and between countries.
Keep the golden theme if you like, but this will mainly attract buyers in Asia.
Darker colors for knobs /buttons (black, bronze, dark blue, dark red) would make for a nice contrast as well, and would certainly sell better in Europ/America.

Andy, I think you're a bit misled with golden DAPs and sales.
WM1Z is all golden, and I can tell it certainly doesn't sell because of its color but because of its SQ. First thing I did when I got was covering with a leather case to hide this ugly golden powder coating. I actually prefer WM1A black color, but SQ-wise, WM1Z bass won me over.
In the case of N5ii, going silver instead of gold for the wheel actually made it look more bland because you lost contrast between the chassis and the wheel.
Gold color can look nice if it's limited to small parts. Knobs in N8 are pretty big, which is why I don't like the shiny golden finish. A mat golden powder coating would at least look less bling-bling, as in the N5ii picture above.

The main purpose of my previous post was to described what can be changed and what can't, arguing whether gold DAP sells is not the main intention, I apologize if I confused you or anyone else.


I am not directing to anyone in particular but I sincerely don't want to waste the time of my potential users. There are numerous posts stating that if we don't change this and that, they don't buy it (although that doesn't imply that if we change this and that, they'll buy it because the should audition. The N8 before they make that decision), so I think it makes sense to spell out the issues clearly so that they can stand down for the moment, instead of complaining Cayin don't take their advice after 3 months of discussion.

In short, we can't change the size of knob, we are hesitated to paint the stainless steel, and we have no problem to change the color if the knobs if there is a good suggestion.

 

[gr8soundz]

Sorry, N8 doesn't has PMEQ.

Does it have any EQ settings and/or filter adjustments for the 4497 chips?

 

[Dobrescu George]

The main purpose of my previous post was to described what can be changed and what can't, I am not directing to anyone in particular but I sincerely don't want to waste the time of my potential users. There are numerous posts stating that if we don't change this and that, they don't buy it (although that doesn't imply that if we change this and that, they'll buy it because the should audition. The N8 before they make that decision), so I think it makes sense to spell out the issues clearly so that they can stand down for the moment, instead of complaining Cayin don't take their advice after 3 months of discussion.

In short, we can't change the size of knob, we are hesitated to paint the stainless steel, and we have no problem to change the color if the knobs if there is a good suggestion.

I actually am getting more and more respect for Cayin because of this, I like answers to be straightforward and decisive, helps people make their decisions with more ease

 

[Andykong]

Does it have any EQ settings and/or filter adjustments for the 4497 chips?

Yes, N8 will have multi-bands EQ and selected digital filters from AK4497, but numbers of filters are yet to decided.

 

[Cagin]

Got a question for you Andy:
If I put my 4.4mm TRRRS balanced cable in the N8, if I understand correctly, it would be the twin solid state amps for symmetrical/balanced Headphone Output. But can the N8 also allow for the NuTube to ouput in a non balanced (SE) through the same cable? Allowing you to just switch sounds from the UI wihout changing cables/gear. Or do we have to switch cables to a 3.5mm SE output jack exclusively in order to hear the NuTubes?
I ask because from my limited understanding, it was one of the advantage of the 5pin out pentaconn standard over the 2.5mm or 3.5mm TRRS that you could use the same jack for SE, or balanced, without causing a short.