[Zeppo19]

I have been thinning my on the go music, i could do with two bands if i really need to but, yeah, I am at 14.000 songs now, and looking to go Under 10k (one "Album is the complete top 2000 (in NL), which is a little over 4000 songs).

In short, i dont need more choice, i need a better choice. of course, this is personal, other people cannot leave the house w/o their 100k plus songs collection of music...

N8ii will land soon! yay

 

[DaYooper]

the mobile phone industry is shippint 512G or 1T on their "premium" models, but that system doesn't seems to work very well.

I dunno, the memory on my phone seems to work just fine, using USB Audio Player Pro.

 

[Whitigir]

Honestly, I don't know. The FPGA is supplied by our soluttion provider, we didn't source it with our supply chain, so we don't have the raw data of the FPGA, but we were told the FPGA in N8ii is significantly faster then the FPGA in N6ii.

That was what I thought. Thank you!!

 

[Andykong]

If Cayin wants to capture this market they should look to the R2R implementation of LP6 TI and see if they can improve on this. They have already cornered the Tube market on DAP with the N8ii. But LP7 is reported to come out and on the horizon. It's gonna be hard to beat this one. Also the price of this one would definitely mean you need to sell more than a left kidney; most probably a left test*cle as well

When I start working for Cayin back in 2015, I spend a lot of time to support N6 and N5 DAP, we haven't start our Android DAP nightmere yet. I run into comment like "if Cayin wants to capture this market, they should learn from Fiio ..."

When we announce N8 back in 2018, which was our first DAP over US$1000, I run into comment like "if Cayin wants to capture this market, they should learn from AK, ...

I think every DAP brand has been working very hard in past few years, Cayin, AK, FIio and L&P included. We start from a dozen of new DAP per year to uncountable new models per year, we won't survuve if we don't work extremely hard and develop our own competitive edge. However, reverse engineering of your competitor is not a well accepted nor a noble route in the long run. I strongly believe that we should team up to make the cake bigger instead of fighting for the same piece of cake.

 

[scottm18]

Also the price of this one would definitely mean you need to sell more than a left kidney; most probably a left test*cle as well

Yeah.. in other words, along with the "leave your wallet at the door" comment...you could say a lot of head-fi'ers in general have some quite a bit of disposable income to play with. Good for them

Auricon, you pretty much confirmed my exact thoughts--& exact wording actually. But remember the Cayin is double the cost of the M17.. does it sound *that* much better?

M17 is a dynamic powerhouses, N8ii slides into 1st with its transparency, soundstage, fine tune ability, and refinement.

Wish it was 2055...so I could teleport you my Final Sonorous X cans to try with both of them

 

[Andykong]

Performance aside, my modest library of 24k WAV and FLAC files is right at .99tb. That will not fit on a 1TB card. And it grows fast enough that 128gb would soon be inadequate. Heck, I paid a lot extra to get my Galaxy (android 12) with 1tb on board storage and a card slot that takes 512gb cards. Like wise I would pay extra for a DAP with similar storage. I've already culled my DAP collection of several very good devices that could not hold the library and no matter how good the N8ii is I will not purchase it solely because of the storage issue.

But what happen when your music library grow to 3TB?

I think Cayin need to work within our contraint, that includes supply chain, pricing strategy and priority. We are not the best on everything, we couldn't for sure, so we definitely will miss some of our users or potential customer for whatever reason. Let's just hope when we continue to strive for our best, we'l meet again sometime down the road.

 

[Whitigir]

But what happen when your music library grow to 3TB?

I think Cayin need to work within our contraint, that includes supply chain, pricing strategy and priority. We are not the best on everything, we couldn't for sure, so we definitely will miss some of our users or potential customer for whatever reason. Let's just hope when we continue to strive for our best, we'l meet again sometime down the road.

Don’t the N8ii has the ability to drive and read directly from SDD that has OTG USB-C ?

 

[TomKorn]

If Cayin wants to capture this market they should look to the R2R implementation of LP6 TI and see if they can improve on this. They have already cornered the Tube market on DAP with the N8ii. But LP7 is reported to come out and on the horizon. It's gonna be hard to beat this one. Also the price of this one would definitely mean you need to sell more than a left kidney; most probably a left test*cle as well

Yes. But the LP7 will not be an Android DAP. So only for a smaller audience that don't do streaming. Most customers do want to stream. Like more than 90%. So releasing a new DAP without that capabilities in this price range is ridiculous tbh. Even if it sounds amazing. I don't stream personally and love the LP P6pro. But N8II showed it's possible to have amazing sound and the flexibility of Android.

 

[TomKorn]

Don’t the N8ii has the ability to drive and read directly from SDD that has OTG USB-C ?

Yeah. Just strap on a big external drive.
Wait. Is that possible? I mean it's Android.

 

[TomKorn]

When I start working for Cayin back in 2015, I spend a lot of time to support N6 and N5 DAP, we haven't start our Android DAP nightmere yet. I run into comment like "if Cayin wants to capture this market, they should learn from Fiio ...

When we announce N8 back in 2018, which is our first DAP over US$1000, I run into comment like "if Cayin wants to capture this market, they should learn from AK, ...

I think every DAP brand has been working very hard in past few years, Cayin, AK, FIio and L&P included. We start from a dozen of new DAP per year to uncountable new models per years, we won't survuve if we don't work extremely hard and develop our own competitive edge. However, reverse engineering of your competitor is not a well accepted nor a noble route in the long run. I strongly believe that we should team up to make the cake bigger instead of fighting for the same piece of cake.

You guys are doing a great job. Thank you!

 

[Auricon]

Amazing that N8ii has beaten out your other daps, especially DX300 Max

Can’t wait to hear it for myself!

After 8 hours of sleep, revisited 3MAX SS with identical albums (FFXIV Endwalker OST 16/44 320, Mozart Divertimento KV563 in DSD512, Zero 7 Shadows EP) and mix of Tidal and Apple Music streaming. I should preface that 3MAX SS is still my bae - iBasso's warm tuning, technical capabilities and implementation of AKM4499 esp. in Ultimate mode.

Immediate difference on how I hear the differences between the two are soundstage, listening position and experience:
- 3MAX SS soundstage sounds more defined compared to N8ii's expansiveness - if 3MAX was a sea, N8ii is an ocean
- 3MAX SS hearing music from the audience of a concert versus being on stage with N8ii
- 3MAX SS has a warm signature, it's addictive - N8ii is transparent, a natural honesty to it's sound

Personally, I think the 3MAX is outstanding, yet there's something special about N8ii in how I hear music that goes beyond its technical specs - it's allows you to experience all of your music in an expansive, engaging, detailed and emotive way. For this moment, my planetary DAP-IEM-cable have aligned and achieved audio nirvana, for now, LOL.

PS I don't consider myself well versed in audio nomenclature or review, which is why I suck at sharing listening impressions.

 

[Donald ZH]

Can see alot of interests in N8ii, while it only just drop for sale, already 106 pages for this thread. Can't wait for mine to come next week, although I did an audition at Zepp already. Really something special with N8ii.

 

[Andykong]

Don’t the N8ii has the ability to drive and read directly from SDD that has OTG USB-C ?

Yes, upto 300mA, so you can add a M.2 SSD to increase your local storage, but most uers will only accept this as in intrim storage solution instead of a longerm local storage.

I'll prefer multiple 1TB TF card, keep 1TB as my current "active" music library, and overflow those infrequently visited album to another TF card and stored there securely in IEM/eartip box, but that's my personal practise only.

 

[Whitigir]

I have been burning in my N8ii overnight, to wake up and faced a 0% N8ii....well, it was still warm, so I knew then it just got shut down within 20 minutes or so. So I had a nice and long burn in of a well 20 hours or so. Anyways, the point is that I hooked it to a charger, and the IPhone Pro little charger couldn’t do it. I am using the IPad Pro charger now.

well, that isn’t the point either. The point I am trying to get at is that, after couple hours of charging, the player has totally cooled down, and I started listening again. Trying to compile notes here and there, and to my surprises.....I will have to say this.

Previously, I got that joke about “do not listen until 30 minutes warmup“ ? From a shop with screen shot ? That joke is only half a joke, and half of it is true. The N8ii do perhaps get better after 30 minutes, and the “Do not listen until then” is the joke . It sounds wonderful as soon as turning it up, but after 30 minutes, the dynamic and tonal density is just better. Upper treble is more defined and more vivid compared to when it was cold, dynamic is higher in both senses of the pitches, timbres density together with slamming prowess. Noticeably better, after 30 minutes with Tubes/AB/M-gain

 

[twister6]

I have been burning in my N8ii overnight, to wake up and faced a 0% N8ii....well, it was still warm, so I knew then it just got shut down within 20 minutes or so. So I had a nice and long burn in of a well 20 hours or so. Anyways, the point is that I hooked it to a charger, and the IPhone Pro little charger couldn’t do it. I am using the IPad Pro charger now.

well, that isn’t the point either. The point I am trying to get at is that, after couple hours of charging, the player has totally cooled down, and I started listening again. Trying to compile notes here and there, and to my surprises.....I will have to say this.

Previously, I got that joke about “do not listen until 30 minutes warmup“ ? From a shop with screen shot ? That joke is only half a joke, and half of it is true. The N8ii do perhaps get better after 30 minutes, and the “Do not listen until then” is the joke . It sounds wonderful as soon as turning it up, but after 30 minutes, the dynamic and tonal density is just better. Upper treble is more defined and more vivid compared to when it was cold, dynamic is higher in both senses of the pitches, timbres density together with slamming prowess. Noticeably better, after 30 minutes with Tubes/AB/M-gain

but you also have to factor in 30min of brain burn-in after listening for half an hour