[Andykong]

Hi All,

I very recently purchased a new N8ii, and I listen to Tidal exclusively when I'm streaming.

Oddly, the N8ii will not play all songs in Tidal (while every other device I own can), and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. When I first received the DAP, it played all songs just fine, but a couple of days in, and when selecting Beethoven's 5 Secrets (large file size) it just beach-balled in an endless loop. I now have this behavior on many more songs (about 40%). I have tried clearing cache, per Tidal, I've re-installed the app, I've even wiped the DAP and did a refresh install per Andy K.'s instructions in this thread. I am also up to date on firmware, and my wireless lan is fiber optic, and runs great. None of it helps.

Further, the HiBy app that comes with the DAP, will play the very same songs when I channel Tidal through the HyBy app. Unfortunately, that app is not without issue either. Last night it was shocked when the DAP dropped the music in the middle of a song, and was going dark, and coming back over and over. Of course, I shut the app off.

Anyone with similar experiences, or insights, I would appreciate any thoughts, before I demand an exchange or refund. I want to love this DAP, but I cannot abide issues on a unit that is only a week old. I have also seen some musings on router pairing, but I'm not familiar if that applies to a device like this.

Thanks,

Bill

Quick question: the songs (Beethoven's 5 Secrets) that caused the N8ii to loop back continuously, is it MQA? or one of the recent Hi-Res FLAC after Tidal gave up MQA?

We have noticed that after Tidal announced their migration from MQA to lossless HiRes streaming, some of their new FLAC files have caused incompatible problems, and to the best of my knowledge, the problem has affected other DAPs under the same HiBy platform. HiBy is trying to resolve the compatibility problem, and we believe Tidal is aware of the situation and is working on their fix as well.

 

[BillyCoop]

Quick question: the songs (Beethoven's 5 Secrets) that caused the N8ii to loop back continuously, is it MQA? or one of the recent Hi-Res FLAC after Tidal gave up MQA?

We have noticed that after Tidal announced their migration from MQA to lossless HiRes streaming, some of their new FLAC files have caused incompatible problems, and to the best of my knowledge, the problem has affected other DAPs under the same HiBy platform. HiBy is trying to resolve the compatibility problem, and we believe Tidal is aware of the situation and is working on their fix as well.

"MQA Studio, 44.1khz/24bits/1466kps" This is as reported by the HyBy app, as I cannot open the song in the Tidal app at all to determine what format it plays at.

I also tried streaming again last night, in the HyBY app, and at about a half hour into streaming the app began dropping the song in and out again continuously. If I "scrolled" to the next song, it also would drop in and out. This does not feel like the issue I am having with the Tidal app, as the issues are completely different (Tidal refused to play/HyBy drops in and out).

This, w/gain @ M, tubes on, class A

Thank you for your insight. Also, you are probably way ahead of me on this, but I also found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TIdaL/comments/15rmdbc/latest_tidal_app_not_working_in_hiby_hires_players/

Looks like the Tidal player issue is out in the wild.

 

[111MilesToGo]

Does someone use Roon ARC with his Cayin?

I could not get Arc to work with my N8ii. Could not login. Just Roon works on the N8ii. The sound is amazing on the N8ii even with the Roon limitations. can you get it to work? I am wondering whether I need to reconfigure my router since it’s suppose to work outside of home right?

Let me provide some partial feedback, too.

Yes, Roon Arc runs on my N8ii. The N8ii is on my home WiFi, as is my Windows PC which acts as Roon Core. Roon Arc connects properly to the core, and I can log in properly. All software updated to the latest versions.

Yes, I get all Roon display pages on the N8ii.

But: Yes and no regarding audio output on the N8ii from Roon Arc to e.g. an IEM. Yes, it plays the audio from Roon. No, it is not bit-perfect yet, just what Roon calls High Quality. All audio gets resampled to 44.1 or 48 kHz.

Unfortunately, I didn‘t find the time yet to get deeper into this issue. I fiddled with Muse in Roon Arc a bit, their proprietary audio engine, but no success yet. I need more time. There is another possibility, i.e. I might imagine that Roon‘s audio engine isn‘t compatible with the DTA (Direct Transport Audio, HiBy’s audio engine for bypassing the Android SRC) in the N8ii. Maybe others here have more insight into all this.

Final remark: My consolation is that running Roon Arc on a DAP like the N8ii is a bit awkward as a use case. No big screen etc. When I‘m moving around in the house, I find myself using Arc more on my iPhone plus a TWS …

 

[111MilesToGo]

BTW, did we hear / read anything new yet regarding Roon Ready/Tested for the N8ii?

 

[Steranko]

Dear N8ii users, I ned your advice : At CanJam UK, I discovered the 30th Aniversary Cayin N30LE (and the "bundle" N30LE Amber pearl). My initial plan was to purchase the Lotoo Mjölnir, but now I am very tempted by this Cayin N30LE. But... since the Demo version of the N30LE was not working properly, I could not audition it

So, since no one I believe has auditioned seriously a final version of this Uber Cayin, I think that may be one possibility is to consider that it is a "super N8ii", and therefore I will be interested to hear from you how good is the N8ii compared to the comppetition like A&K SP3000 and iBasso 320 MAx which are also on my radar.

I have an "old" A&KSP1000, and so far I did not find the SP3000 enough better to justify the upgrade. So, based on the N8ii experience, can we extrapole how good will be the N30LE compared to the other big guys, including the BIG 2.5Kg Lotoo Mjôlnir ?

thanks in advance for your estimated advices... including the experience with CAYIN as a company?


PS: I also wonder if this description of the modification made to the N30LE "amber pearl" version and to the UM Amber pearl IEM to optimize the Synergy between the DAP and the IEM is a real ingenior thing or... just marketing buls__it ?

I can only speak from my personal perspective. I think the N8ii beats the SP3000 and iBasso 320 max in terms of the sound I like. I sold the N8ii and bought it back again because I missed this sound. It is very specific to Cayin this sound but maybe not to everyone's liking. It was a major breakthrough for Cayin with the Nutubes, Class A/AB amp, balanced.Dual Rohm enhanced TOTL DAC, adjustable gain P & P+, etc,. Even AK couldn't do this with the SP2000T and it flopped badly. Cayin really exceeded themselves on the N8ii in my personal opinion. But you really need to get a very nice TOTL IEM with them. I heard the N30LE briefly for 20 minutes at the AV Show. Yes it is better in terms of the sound definition but I heard it with the AP IEM. I wish I brought my other IEMS to test it further. I personally would prefer the N30LE over the SP3000 and the iBasso 320 max. But would I spend another $xxx for it over the N8ii? I am holding out for the LP7 since I don't have unlimited funds.

 

[yasick]

Hello friends! who noticed the bug?
if you turn on the music using the power button and the screen of the device, the player wakes up normally and turning on the music allows the amplifier to wake up normally. if you touch the "play" side buttons, then pausing the music and after 2-3 minutes when the amplifier turns off, playback using the "play" button does not give the player a normal awakening, protection is triggered and the sound disappears.

another point: after the bug with the transition to the line output 4.4 and the reverse transition to the headphones, the sound appears. BUT! if you pause the music, no matter how, and after 5 seconds, for example, turn the music back on, no matter how, from the screen or from the button, then everything is fine, but if you let the player pause for 2+ minutes, then the sound disappears again and you need to do this before rebooting. I have now disabled the side play buttons in the settings when the screen is not active, this will avoid the bug

 

[ThanatosVI]

One of the few things Cayin DAPs are missing is System wide EQ.

Does anyone know if Wavelet works on Cayin DAPs, including the AutoEQ feature?

 

[BlueA]

Will there be any update to the OS or is N8II considered a definitive 'good enough' product?

 

[Mike C]

I would not use the N8ii internal storage for music
Just buy a very good microSD card 1tb
Use the cartridge to load it in your computer
Rip your CDs with Mediaplayer with lossless flac option, go to the folder where these CDs are copy all to the MicroSD. When you are done put the SD card in your N8ii microSD slot dark side facing up. Turn on N8ii load the cayin app, top left click the gear , select scan for music files, then the folder bottom left click scan all
Wait for it to finish the scan and cataloging, you may need to touch the screen to keep it going till end or else it may go to sleep

Then all you music will appear and ready to be selected to play

Sincere thanks!
Excellent, in that I understand it all and it gives me the full info; I'll try it ASAP.
Also I guess it may be worth trying a full reset, which I have not done as I'll lose the internally stored music; but as I go to card storage this will not matter.
Sorry I'm late replying, been very busy on other things.
Best regards, Mike

 

[gordec]

Basically anything hires have trouble streaming at this point. All the old downloaded MQA tracks on Tidal play just fine. Hopefully Tidal fixes this soon. Tidal is unusable on N8ii right now.

 

[hssong85]

Basically anything hires have trouble streaming at this point. All the old downloaded MQA tracks on Tidal play just fine. Hopefully Tidal fixes this soon. Tidal is unusable on N8ii right now.

my old download is on MQA and I think it got converted to FLAC. Old or new, I cant play anything.

I guess I have to delete everything and download it as 320kbps.

I hope they fix this soon. It is not just Cayin but many other DAPs

 

[scottm18]

How many of you guys regularly use the N8ii with full-sized headphones? What do you think of it?

I'm just now back from a nasty foot surgery recovery so catching up on this board many pages back. Someone asked this earlier and it appears 99% of the people here use IEMs...but not me.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately considering there's like a billion variations), I simply cannot stand putting anything like that in my ear canal for any length of time. Its possibly having something to do with having tinnitus (although still good hearing), but it's just an absolute no-go for me. The only option I can use is Final's Forte model which are kind of like little ear speakers that sit in the ear conch not the canal-- and I have the top dog X model of those.

That said, I have used the N8ii with several quality cans: Final Audio Sonorous X/VI/Forte X), Pioneer Master SE1/Monitor 5, and HiFiMan Edition X--and they all sound great. By far the best is the totally underrated and underappreciated meticulously made in Japan Sonorous X...which an audiophile friend of mine said the N8ii/Final combo made for the best headphone listening he's ever heard. They are also a paltry 16 ohms so can be driven with just about anything. Some people have a real issue with the tight earpad fit though...doesn't bother me though (nor my friend apparently).


Someone on here also said they prefer the sound of the N7 to the N8ii with DSD, which nearly 100% of my non-streaming collection is. Probably the one-bit DSD encoding is a really good synergy for the N7's one-bit DAC ...so it's tempting to try that one and see the difference for myself. Anybody happen to have or heard both with high quality DSD files...what are your thoughts?

 

[Andykong]

How many of you guys regularly use the N8ii with full-sized headphones? What do you think of it?

I'm just now back from a nasty foot surgery recovery so catching up on this board many pages back. Someone asked this earlier and it appears 99% of the people here use IEMs...but not me.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately considering there's like a billion variations), I simply cannot stand putting anything like that in my ear canal for any length of time. Its possibly having something to do with having tinnitus (although still good hearing), but it's just an absolute no-go for me. The only option I can use is Final's Forte model which are kind of like little ear speakers that sit in the ear conch not the canal-- and I have the top dog X model of those.

That said, I have used the N8ii with several quality cans: Final Audio Sonorous X/VI/Forte X), Pioneer Master SE1/Monitor 5, and HiFiMan Edition X--and they all sound great. By far the best is the totally underrated and underappreciated meticulously made in Japan Sonorous X...which an audiophile friend of mine said the N8ii/Final combo made for the best headphone listening he's ever heard. They are also a paltry 16 ohms so can be driven with just about anything. Some people have a real issue with the tight earpad fit though...doesn't bother me though (nor my friend apparently).


Someone on here also said they prefer the sound of the N7 to the N8ii with DSD, which nearly 100% of my non-streaming collection is. Probably the one-bit DSD encoding is a really good synergy for the N7's one-bit DAC ...so it's tempting to try that one and see the difference for myself. Anybody happen to have or heard both with high quality DSD files...what are your thoughts?

There are several full-size headphones that I enjoyed with N8ii such as HE1000se and Meze Elite, unfortunately, a lot of other headphones are only good for certain music when driven by N8ii. For example, one of my beloved closed-back Kennerton Rognir needs a final push with more demanding music, but if I were to listen to folks or vocals, then it works pretty well, so I think it depends on your choice of music and the loudness of playback.

 

[hannysaxon]

100% agree N8ii more pleasent and no fatigue like Ak sp3000

I am still using my Sony NW-WM1Z and Lotoo Paw Gold Touch.

 

[Andykong]

Announcement of N8ii Firmware V1.8EN

New Functions and System Optimisation

1. Add new function HibyCast to facilitate systemwide remote control.
2. Enhance third-party application support to playback Tidal MAX content properly.
3. Other bug fixes and optimisation.

Users can update to the latest firmware through OTA updating or manually local updating. For more information and detailed instructions, please check out v1.8EN Announcement on the Cayin website.

We have to rely on Qualcomm's OTA service to deliver the firmware update to N8ii users, therefore OTA is not necessarily available to all users simultaneously. If you are familiar with the N8ii manual update procedure, you can download the full version of v1.8EN from our Google Drive (HERE).