Just came from A1futureshop, which is only less than an hour away from me. N8 is a hot commodity and finding it this closeby me is just a little surreal.
I'll keep it short, the 1.1 FW has reduced the warmth sonic characteristic of the 4.4mm out.
The key sonic characteristic of N8 is how good the vocal timbre of various audiophile recording can sound. However, for me, the key feature of this DAP is the 3.5mm NuTube output. It soundstage is very natural and mature, something that one expects from a high-end tube setup. Sadly the ting noise that I hear from my NT-1 is still audible, I think it is something that plagues the Nu-Tube and is basically part of it, and just requires a lot of fine-tuning to illuminate completely.
The 4.4mm was also noisy but it is basically inaudible once music is playing.
Overall feeling regarding size: Do I like the N8 or the LPGT? Well, they are both too heavy to be something I consider feasible for daily commuting. N8 gets warm and I suspect it can get too warm for a tropical region. LPGT while still smaller and slightly lighter also isn't small enough for me to consider a feasible player for daily commuting. Basically, the only size I think is feasible for portable usage is DAP the size of AK120.
LPGT is basically the best Solid-State DAP out which has an excellent single ended and Pentaconn output. Ihas a lot of power and a slight tilt towards the warmer side and power to drive anything.
Who would want N8: Those who like the sound of the naturalness of tube amp without sounding too wet, or 'tubey', will love the N8. There isn't out there that does what N8 does. So if that is the sound you like you only have one and for now only one choice, the N8.
The price: Is it worth it? Who can say, for me sadly no? Despite how much I like the sound, and how capable it is, for the same reason, I did not like the SP1000 family, they are too big to be portable, and they cost the same as HUGOII which is basically on a different level than all the current high-end DAPs in the market. If you can carry the N8 or the LPGT or anything else of that size, you can easily carry the HUGO II and just use your phone, which now-days everyone has.
If Cayin can release a new dap, a simpler version of N8 which focuses only on the NuTube section, and price it in the more affordable region I will revisit this family, but at the price of the 4499 AUD (3200 USD) my money goes to HUGO II and use the spare cash and buy myself a decent IEM/headphone or better music albums.
My current favourite DAP: I find WM1A the best value, it has this holographic sound that I don't hear in any other dap. It is also not as portable as I like it to be but after the latest FW update for me, it has become the best value/feature packed DAP an audiophile can ask for. But my current reference DAP is still LPG which is slowly getting replaced by QLS QA361 which basically a DAP that an audiophile designs who happen to be an engineer.
Edit: I do not own the HUGO II, I'm prefectly happy with my first gen HUGO, and I disliked and own Chord Mojo, N8 sounds much better than Mojo.
