[Tom75]

Hello everyone. Looking for next step in SQ improvement with my n8ii. I have lcd-x and campfire solaris right now. What would you do : buy something like meze elite or he1000se or buy desktop amp like ferrum orr or auris audio ha-2sf. What would be a big step forward in terms of SQ . Thank you for opinions.

From my perspective, the Elite's SQ increased with the Oor/Hypsos. The N8ii is excellent with my Phoenix amd EXT, but for the Elite, I prefer the Ferrum stack (which does not means, that the Elite sounds bad with the N8ii, but the soundstage is wider and the music is more around the head)..

 

[Alexzander]

Hello everyone. Looking for next step in SQ improvement with my n8ii. I have lcd-x and campfire solaris right now. What would you do : buy something like meze elite or he1000se or buy desktop amp like ferrum orr or auris audio ha-2sf. What would be a big step forward in terms of SQ . Thank you for opinions.

I would suggest to buy Traillii

 

[Andykong]

Hello everyone. Looking for next step in SQ improvement with my n8ii. I have lcd-x and campfire solaris right now. What would you do : buy something like meze elite or he1000se or buy desktop amp like ferrum orr or auris audio ha-2sf. What would be a big step forward in terms of SQ . Thank you for opinions.

Since you mentioned Elite, HE1000se, or desktop amplifier, I assume you prefer full-size headphones over IEMs down the road.

Let's start with several questions:

Will you stay in a special location when you listen to music?

• IF yes, then go for the desktop headphone amplifier and use N8ii as your source.
• IF no, but you are willing to carry slightly bigger items around, then you should add a portable headphone amplifier and use N8ii as your source.
• IF no, portability is a must, then you should look for TOTL full-size headphones that can sound good with N8ii.

If you will go for a desktop headphone amplifier, do you prefer the Tube timbre or the Solid-Sate timbre of N8ii?

• If Tube timbre, consider vacuum tube headphone amplifier when you look for a desktop option.
• If Solid-state, consider solid-state headphone amplifier when you look for a desktop option.

If you will go for a portable headphone amplifier, do you prefer the Tube timbre or the Solid-Sate timbre of N8ii?

• If Tube timbre, consider vacuum tube portable headphone amplifier such as C9, WA8
• If Solid-state, consider solid-state portable headphone amplifier such as C9, Masskobo 428, XiAudio Broadway/S
• You can also consider DAC/Amp such as Chord Hugo and use N8ii as digital Transport, but then the sound signature will deviate from your current system significantly.

If you will look for TOTL full-size headphones, do you need a sound-proof headphone or you can live with an open-back and it won't disturb other family members (or disturbed by others)?

• If open-back, you can consider Meze Elite, HiFiman HE1000SE, Audeze LCD-MX4/LCD-4z, Focal Utopia, Beyer T1v3, ...
• If closed-back, you can consider Meze Liric, HiFiman HE-R10P, Denon 9000, Focal Stella, Audio Technica ATH-AWKT, ...

 

[111MilesToGo]

Since some reports on peculiar battery behavior have shown up recently, I would like to report on my observations here. I'd like to ask you fellow N8ii owners whether you have similar observations. I can already say that recent posts by @littlexx26 and @Donald ZH indeed indicate a similar behavior to mine.

Short summary:
I see two different behaviors of the battery percentage indicator, which I will call A (the good and expected one) and B (a weird and unexpected one). I have no clue at all whether B in particular is due to the physical battery itself, or to the battery percentage indication as measured / calculated by Android, or to an additional battery management by Cayin/HiBy if such latter thing exists at all. I did everything I could imagine to ensure that I am not subject to false external factors, cf. at the bottom of this post.

Behavior A - The good and expected one:

• A full charge with QC 3.0 (cf. below) takes like 4 to 4.5 hours.
• Battery lifetime can be estimated at 6 hours or so for 80->20%, i.e. one hour of playing 16/44.1 PCM FLAC files from SD card eats like 10-12%. A bit less than advertized, but fine.
• Battery level holds pretty well when the N8ii sits idle (i.e. screen has gone off) or is switched off. In general, I observe drops of 1% per 24 hours, most recently I even got a 0% drop over 6 days.
• However, the expected behavior A does NOT always show up as it should. I could single out one condition to get this good behavior type A: The last thing before letting the N8ii get idle or switch it off MUST NOT be playing music. The last thing MUST be partial or full charging. Thereafter, I can use some non-audio apps (like file managers or just the system settings), and keep seeing the good behavior type A.

Behavior B - A weird and unexpected battery percentage behavior:

• The weird behavior B occurs when the last thing before letting the N8ii get idle or switch it off has been playing audio for a reasonably long time (like a couple of songs, I did not try to find out whether there exists a certain threshold). Then do a full exit from the player app.
• So I was playing audio, exited the player app completely, then noted the battery percentage, then let the N8ii sit idle for a good time like say at least 30 mins or an hour or switch it off completely. Checking back at anything like a couple of hours or a day later, i.e. wake it up from idling or switch it on again, I do consistently observe the weird and unexpected behavior B: THE BATTERY PERCENTAGE KEEPS RUNNING DOWN CONTINUOUSLY, AT A RATE OF APPROX. 2 to 3% PER HOUR, WITH THE DAP IDLE OR EVEN SWITCHED OFF COMPLETELY. This continues "infinitely", in real life I checked it over a couple of hours to a day.
• Only when I then charge my N8ii with a reasonable amount (say several 10s %, I didn't check whether a threshold exists), the bad behavior B is turned into good behavior A. This "shot in the arm" makes the N8ii keep the new battery percentage without further unreasonable loss.
• The annoying thing of course is: Play music and then idle or switch the DAP off is the most usual practice - then I unfortunately get the bad behavior B, the battery keeps running down. I have not tested whether such running down ends up in a full drain. It is annyoing to always watch out for what one did last before putting the DAP away for a longer time, maybe even for one night only. A careful but annyoing procedure of mine is to always give it a charge in the evening or before going to bed. But there might be unpredictable events like forget to charge as the last thing of a listening day, or be unable to pick it up the next day - would such events cause a full battery drain and thus lead to unnecessary hits to battery lifetime?

My checks into external factors:

• Everything is done in Flight Mode, i.e. no WiFi and no Bluetooth.
• Disconnect headphones/IEMs when N8ii is idle or off.
• Make sure the behaviors are identical without and with SD card. For the record: My card is a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1 TB, which works perfectly here and had done so already in my previous DAP N6ii.
• I am running my N8ii without its case, and I ensure enough ventilation as well as place it on a metallic plate for heat dissipation. Actually, its temperature stays far away from anything uncomfortable.
• I use a standard QC 3.0 quick charger (18 W) with the stock USB A-to-C cable. Works perfectly. Usually, I have the battery cap set to 80%, and I run it down to some 20% or say 10 to 15% at the minimum. I once did a full cycle of running down to close to 0%, then charge to 97%, then run down again.
• I never charge and play simultaneously. Actually, "never" should read "only once" for about an hour up to now.
• I have played music on my N8ii for 125 hours up to now, so burn-in is not finished yet. I have quite a number of charging cycles 20->80% on my N8ii by now, corresponding to the 125 hours of use.
• My playing conditions mostly are the "burn-in" ones: Balanced headphone out (to an IEM), P, any gain L/M/H, Tube, A/B. I did not do extended observations in Solid State Mode. I did some Tube with A, too.
• My N8ii came to me mid-May. For distinction, the stock leather case fits snug, i.e. the case is from a later batch.
• For players, I mostly used UAPP, sometimes Neutron. Finally, I repeated many checks with the Cayin Music App to make sure that my observations are the same in all cases. They are. (I didn't check what audio or video replay via an internet browser do.)
• Most of my tests were performed with firmware 1.4, some with 1.3. I didn't install 1.5 yet in order to not introduce a new variable.
• The Android Battery Settings used are: Most of the time with cap at 80%, sometimes 90 or 95%. Battery management was ON (default) first, then OFF; no change.
• I have not done anything to the software or hardware of my N8ii. Just registered with Google Play and installed Qobuz, Tidal, UAPP, Neutron, Total Commander.

Any comments, similar or different observations are highly welcome. Remember: I got no clue as to what is the root cause. I don't even know whether this is a physical battery behavior, or just a numeric or programming artefact by Android or Cayin/HiBy battery manager.

Remark: My previous experience with serious DAPs is limited to the N6ii, which did NOT show anything like this. The Android 8.1 of the N6ii and Android 9 of the N8ii are my only experiences with this OS, no Android phone.

 

[blotmouse]

^^^ I'll try and pay closer attention to the state of my player between sessions, set it up like you've mentioned, and see if this happens to me or not. I 'm on 1.5 fw.

 

[pkcpga]

Anyone else do the recent update to their N8ii? I just did and now when listening to Tidal MQA the N8ii gets hot very quickly, under an hour and even the screen becomes hot enough to be inoperable. Some I’m unable to even turn it off with grabbing an ice pack wrapped in a towel to lay it on for a minute. Never had a heat related issue with my N8ii and I bought it at first release until this last update. Anyone else notice this issue or @Andykong is this a known issue with this update?

 

[Andykong]

Anyone else do the recent update to their N8ii? I just did and now when listening to Tidal MQA the N8ii gets hot very quickly, under an hour and even the screen becomes hot enough to be inoperable. Some I’m unable to even turn it off with grabbing an ice pack wrapped in a towel to lay it on for a minute. Never had a heat related issue with my N8ii and I bought it at first release until this last update. Anyone else notice this issue or @Andykong is this a known issue with this update?

This is not a known issue. It didn't happen on my N8ii, please contact your dealer and report the instance to them promptly.

 

[pkcpga]

This is not a known issue. It didn't happen on my N8ii, please contact your dealer and report the instance to them promptly.

Sure it’s Andrew from Musictek, I’ll email him. This was my first listen after the last update and I was using Tidal with MQA playlist since the update stated that what it was mainly for.

 

[ECKHUAAA]

after update the battery drains faster and at the same time sounds better. that means they may increase the cpu frequency or assign more cores to work

Thumbs up for the better sound after v1.5
My battery consumption is fine

 

[AnalogandDigital]

Tuesday night
Still working but no one says you can't enjoy
Being a fan of Placebo listening to Happy Birthday in the Sky
You all have a great night and for some already a wonderful morning ...
.

 

[111MilesToGo]

Since some reports on peculiar battery behavior have shown up recently, I would like to report on my observations here. I'd like to ask you fellow N8ii owners whether you have similar observations. I can already say that recent posts by @littlexx26 and @Donald ZH indeed indicate a similar behavior to mine.

Short summary:
I see two different behaviors of the battery percentage indicator, which I will call A (the good and expected one) and B (a weird and unexpected one). I have no clue at all whether B in particular is due to the physical battery itself, or to the battery percentage indication as measured / calculated by Android, or to an additional battery management by Cayin/HiBy if such latter thing exists at all. I did everything I could imagine to ensure that I am not subject to false external factors, cf. at the bottom of this post.

Behavior A - The good and expected one:

• A full charge with QC 3.0 (cf. below) takes like 4 to 4.5 hours.
• Battery lifetime can be estimated at 6 hours or so for 80->20%, i.e. one hour of playing 16/44.1 PCM FLAC files from SD card eats like 10-12%. A bit less than advertized, but fine.
• Battery level holds pretty well when the N8ii sits idle (i.e. screen has gone off) or is switched off. In general, I observe drops of 1% per 24 hours, most recently I even got a 0% drop over 6 days.
• However, the expected behavior A does NOT always show up as it should. I could single out one condition to get this good behavior type A: The last thing before letting the N8ii get idle or switch it off MUST NOT be playing music. The last thing MUST be partial or full charging. Thereafter, I can use some non-audio apps (like file managers or just the system settings), and keep seeing the good behavior type A.

Behavior B - A weird and unexpected battery percentage behavior:

• The weird behavior B occurs when the last thing before letting the N8ii get idle or switch it off has been playing audio for a reasonably long time (like a couple of songs, I did not try to find out whether there exists a certain threshold). Then do a full exit from the player app.
• So I was playing audio, exited the player app completely, then noted the battery percentage, then let the N8ii sit idle for a good time like say at least 30 mins or an hour or switch it off completely. Checking back at anything like a couple of hours or a day later, i.e. wake it up from idling or switch it on again, I do consistently observe the weird and unexpected behavior B: THE BATTERY PERCENTAGE KEEPS RUNNING DOWN CONTINUOUSLY, AT A RATE OF APPROX. 2 to 3% PER HOUR, WITH THE DAP IDLE OR EVEN SWITCHED OFF COMPLETELY. This continues "infinitely", in real life I checked it over a couple of hours to a day.
• Only when I then charge my N8ii with a reasonable amount (say several 10s %, I didn't check whether a threshold exists), the bad behavior B is turned into good behavior A. This "shot in the arm" makes the N8ii keep the new battery percentage without further unreasonable loss.
• The annoying thing of course is: Play music and then idle or switch the DAP off is the most usual practice - then I unfortunately get the bad behavior B, the battery keeps running down. I have not tested whether such running down ends up in a full drain. It is annyoing to always watch out for what one did last before putting the DAP away for a longer time, maybe even for one night only. A careful but annyoing procedure of mine is to always give it a charge in the evening or before going to bed. But there might be unpredictable events like forget to charge as the last thing of a listening day, or be unable to pick it up the next day - would such events cause a full battery drain and thus lead to unnecessary hits to battery lifetime?

My checks into external factors:

• Everything is done in Flight Mode, i.e. no WiFi and no Bluetooth.
• Disconnect headphones/IEMs when N8ii is idle or off.
• Make sure the behaviors are identical without and with SD card. For the record: My card is a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1 TB, which works perfectly here and had done so already in my previous DAP N6ii.
• I am running my N8ii without its case, and I ensure enough ventilation as well as place it on a metallic plate for heat dissipation. Actually, its temperature stays far away from anything uncomfortable.
• I use a standard QC 3.0 quick charger (18 W) with the stock USB A-to-C cable. Works perfectly. Usually, I have the battery cap set to 80%, and I run it down to some 20% or say 10 to 15% at the minimum. I once did a full cycle of running down to close to 0%, then charge to 97%, then run down again.
• I never charge and play simultaneously. Actually, "never" should read "only once" for about an hour up to now.
• I have played music on my N8ii for 125 hours up to now, so burn-in is not finished yet. I have quite a number of charging cycles 20->80% on my N8ii by now, corresponding to the 125 hours of use.
• My playing conditions mostly are the "burn-in" ones: Balanced headphone out (to an IEM), P, any gain L/M/H, Tube, A/B. I did not do extended observations in Solid State Mode. I did some Tube with A, too.
• My N8ii came to me mid-May. For distinction, the stock leather case fits snug, i.e. the case is from a later batch.
• For players, I mostly used UAPP, sometimes Neutron. Finally, I repeated many checks with the Cayin Music App to make sure that my observations are the same in all cases. They are. (I didn't check what audio or video replay via an internet browser do.)
• Most of my tests were performed with firmware 1.4, some with 1.3. I didn't install 1.5 yet in order to not introduce a new variable.
• The Android Battery Settings used are: Most of the time with cap at 80%, sometimes 90 or 95%. Battery management was ON (default) first, then OFF; no change.
• I have not done anything to the software or hardware of my N8ii. Just registered with Google Play and installed Qobuz, Tidal, UAPP, Neutron, Total Commander.

Any comments, similar or different observations are highly welcome. Remember: I got no clue as to what is the root cause. I don't even know whether this is a physical battery behavior, or just a numeric or programming artefact by Android or Cayin/HiBy battery manager.

Remark: My previous experience with serious DAPs is limited to the N6ii, which did NOT show anything like this. The Android 8.1 of the N6ii and Android 9 of the N8ii are my only experiences with this OS, no Android phone.

^^^ I'll try and pay closer attention to the state of my player between sessions, set it up like you've mentioned, and see if this happens to me or not. I 'm on 1.5 fw.

Continuing: I installed FW 1.5. The battery behavior described above - in particular behavior type B with its 2% per hour loss even when OFF - remains the same. I was sort of expecting this.

Bug report on FW 1.5: The mixture of German (my language) and Greek on the Device Info page under Settings has NOT been cleaned up yet …

On sound quality after updating to FW 1.5: I cannot hear a change as of now. Maybe my old ears aren‘t good enough in general or I am suffering from a ”bad ear day“ (you know, music lover’s analogy to ”bad hair day“ of our beloved ones ), maybe my IEM (Sennheiser IE 900) isn‘t good enough, maybe anything else.

 

[Sovsroc]

Tuesday night
Still working but no one says you can't enjoy
Being a fan of Placebo listening to Happy Birthday in the Sky
You all have a great night and for some already a wonderful morning ...
.

 

[Sovsroc]

Good Afternoon could i possibly pick your brains please ?
I am currently looking into a set of IEM u18t or s not sure yet or the sharona but my question is what connector would i use ?
I now have meze elites with a 4.4mm balanced for headphones what is best for IEM'S of this ilk ?
Thank you in advance for any feedback.
Regards
Sovsroc

 

[Allears79]

I am still (negatively) mesmerized by the unreasonable amount of N8 listed for sale. Honestly I never came across such a great portable dac/ amp. What are these people actually looking for???

 

[Shawnb]

I am still (negatively) mesmerized by the unreasonable amount of N8 listed for sale. Honestly I never came across such a great portable dac/ amp. What are these people actually looking for???

Finding that perfect setup is different for everyone. From IEM's to Headphones, to insanely expensive cables. It can all play a difference. Besides if you have cash to burn why not try the newest and best thing, sure you take a loss but that's the cost of getting to try it out personally. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a place to test out different gear so sometimes you have to pay to try it and hope to make back enough if you don't like it.