I had no expectations about the N8ii. In fact, I didn’t even know that it existed because I was on a “detox” phase from audiophile devices. I was just enjoying my speaker system which I invested a significant amount of money and time since 2018.
That being said, I read about the N8ii in a recent review and drove to meet Andy from Musicteck. He happened to have one demo unit that I tried for 30 mins with my Tia Fourte. I was really curious to hear the tubes on this combo of DAC/Amp.
I have used and owned several hi end units, from DCS Bartok to Chord Dave (my current DAC) and the Hugo2. The N8ii caught me off guard and I was floored by the capabilities of this little “brick”. The transparency above all things was the most impactful aspect in my opinion. As I mentioned, most of the gear I own or have listened to are extremely capable and things like soundstage, low/mid/hi end clarity, black background , those were all very familiar to me and no portable unit that came out over the last 10 years impressed me. But Cayin added something in this piece that is extremely difficult to execute and somehow impossible to measure once is a subjective feeling: they added so much musicality to the N8ii.
I usually don’t write long comments like this and to be honest my portable rig was accumulating dust lately (I am very happy with my Wilson Audio Sabrina X speakers) but THIS dac is just keeping me busy while I rediscover the musical feeling of my library instead of just listening to audiophile tracks to test my system.
Kudos to all the engineering & product teams at Cayin . The N8ii is not a small feat.
And if you are looking to buy a new dac in that price range, or even if you are in this never ending journey for the sound nirvana, you should make yourself a favor and test the N8ii. Really.
