Thanks for sharing. FYI, you call the DAP R8ii throughout your review.
As a former M17 owner, I don't think that the N8ii can be compared with it easily. Yes, the former has much better driving power when plugged in but the N8ii just beats it in sound hands down. The M17 was too sterile sounding at times.
As for the Hugo 2 comparison- the N8ii is only the second DAP I have heard along with the SP2000 that doesn't sound like a compromise versus the Hugo 2.
Don't know about the 1st one but if you wanted to charge and use as external DAC you would need to use I2s for data and have an I2s card in the rig, or possibly audio over hdmi through the gpu or chipset (not a good idea due to noise I would think).
As a former M17 owner, I don't think that the N8ii can be compared with it easily. Yes, the former has much better driving power when plugged in but the N8ii just beats it in sound hands down. The M17 was too sterile sounding at times.
It was between these two for me too...
and I also heard the only way the M17 got close to the Cayin sound it's when it was plugged in. So that's obviously a major inconvenience/hassle difference... and I just can't see it out doing the tube sound in the N8ii in any capacity.
The Tube/Ss difference should be immediately obvious even before burn-in
The A/AB will depend on the efficiency of your headphones how easy to drive but difference not much because of superb design from Cayin, typically AB should be less pure but they did it so perfectly you could hardly tell
So if you don't perceive any of these check headphones/ cables ...just my opinion
From my experience you won't hear much of any change in audio level when you go from A to AB (by delicate design so you can invoke P+ mode if needed without much loss)...but you should see the indicator change in the upper left corner.
As far as SS vs Tube, you should see a countdown saying it's turning on the tubes in 4 seconds and then you should hear a minor blip as it switches over (and the side indicators will light). Depending on your listening equipment and media, the sound should be noticeable when it does.
Mine's not a blink but it gradually adjusts the brightness after the Cayin script - dim to settling to the brightness set in your brightness settings. The transition from dim to set brightness varies. Pressing the power button, slightly dims the display and brights the Power off/Restart/Screenshot UI modal.
Could anyone with a N8ii check if there’s any sound latency when used as a usb dac hooked up to a windows pc? Watching a video like even a YouTube video or playing a game would tell it easily.
To the person that couldn't tell the difference between A/AB amplifier settings and Tube / Solid State modes, there are indicators for *both* to make sure it's actually working. I already mentioned the A/AB indicator but there's also a Tube/SS one as it will change between a taller tube-looking icon and a shorter microchip looking icon (see attached pic). If you don't see these icons changing when you toggle those buttons, something is wrong with the DAP
Please Add the HIFIMAN HE-R10P closed back planar to this list, it's synergy with the N8ii is phenomenal...very easy to drive but phenomenal Sound, details tone sound stage ease, what ever you may have wanted it's there
Check out my review of it on this thread earlier
Yes, someone suggested R10P and Gjallarhorn JM as well, because you asked for the list I proposed, so I didn't add other users' suggestions to the list.
Okay so here's my initial impressions of this player--but I won't have a lot of listening time until next weekend.
So...I am fortunate enough to have some of the best full size cans around but all sadly discontinued and virtually unobtainable now...that being bothMaster (SE1) & Monitor (5) Pioneers as well as Final Audio's glorious Sonorous X. I first tried the Sonorous but as great as they sound (and look) they're just a little too rolled off for my taste (likely my 50s hearing isn't the greatest anymore)...so they will take a little more getting used to.
However, the N8ii really comes to life with the Pioneer SE-Monitor 5 closed-back headphones... one of the most unappreciated & underrated headphones I've ever experienced. They have a stunning build quality and low-end capability but a sound signature ever so slightly bright...so the N8ii's tube & Class A setting calms them down just enough to really make them sing beautifully. Just a joy to go through all my DSD files and hear all the subtle nuances.
That said, I had a few random questions about the N8ii that hopefully someone here can answer
1. Charging. Originally, I would have asked about not having the red pulsating light when the player is off but Andrew clarified to a previous question that it has to be on to see that due to live circuits. So my question is I have a "cheapo" QC3.0 charger but it still takes an eternity for it to charge a 10k battery I think after an hour and a half it was like 19% or something. If anyone have a link for the best charger brick they've found to quicken that as much as possible? Also, do the owners here set the max battery setting to 85 or 90% vs the full 100% as I've heard is advisable?
Well this certainly explains why it's a little slow. Again I got this for a phone charger and I'm not very knowledgeable in the charging world
So I can use anything that QC 3.0 at any wattage (like 65) I can find to quick charge the N8ii--and it's over 3x larger battery? You can't "over wattage" charge it?
Correct, 65W is only meaningful when you are using PD charging or when you are charging multiple devices at the same time. In fact, a decent 18W QC3.0 is all you need with N8ii. However, not all 18W QC3.0 are equal, some of the low-cost implementations fail to deliver 18W charging continuously.
On the other hand, when you said "after an hour and a half it was like 19% or something", are you charging and playback at the same time? or you have disconnected all headphone connections from the DAP and the player was in idle status when you charge it for an hour and a half? The status of N8ii makes a lot of difference in the charging efficiency. To test whether the charging is up to standard, I suggest you stop all applications, disconnect your headphones, offline your BT or WiFi, ..., and then charged it for 2 hours. You should get around 60% battery capacity with a proper 18W QC3.0 charging. If you get less than 20% in 1.5 hours, that is roughly equal to standard 5V2A charging only.
5. Also...Most people here use IEMs but I loathe putting something like that in my "sensitive" ears & just use regular cans. That said, what general ohm rating would the different L/M/H gains be used for? For example, all the main headphones I mentioned are under 100 ohms...the Pioneer 5's being 60 and the Sonorous coming in at incredibly sensitive 16 ohms. Would everything I have be most suited to low gain?
6. Finally...There is both the Hiby music app and the Cayin music app pre-installed. Are they virtually identical? I know the Hiby version has the slick MSEB sound-shaper which some people swear by (but it's not going to work with my DSD media anyway)... but apparently the Cayin app is more sound-tuned towards this particular player. Is that pretty much the differences? They are both pretty impressive apps, but I personally use UAPP and it is certified to play native DSD on the N8ii without conversion, which not even player can say. Still would like to know the "pre-installed" differences though between the me Hiby & Cayin.
Each gain control step offers extra 6dB headroom (or volume). We can't recommend a setting based on the impednace of your earphone because this is a combination of impednace loading, sensitivity, music genre and whether you used to listen at loud or quiet level. Technically, I suggest you start at low gain and only move up to M or H when you need to push the volume to 80/100. Some users prefer the sound signature of High Gain (especially on some music genres), yes, they sound slightly different but if you can't hear the different between tube vs SS, its unlikely that you won't be bothered with the subtle different between different gain stage.
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