[peripheralsdealer]

What about battery change in the future? How difficult is it? How much does it cost with Cayin, how easy is it to do it by yourself?

My sole question about N8II too.

Have you guys found answers for those yet? Honestly wonder as well.

 

[BlueA]

Nope. Seems like the only response is sending back your DAP to Cayin but I do not know what the process and costs looks like.
Also is there a date after which support drops?

 

[Andykong]

Have you guys found answers for those yet? Honestly wonder as well.

Nope. Seems like the only response is sending back your DAP to Cayin but I do not know what the process and costs looks like.
Also is there a date after which support drops?

I have explained the battery replacement process in side note #3 of this replay in the N30LE thread., and I shall copy and paste here for your reference.

Side note #3: If battery life is your main concern, maybe you can budget a battery replacement in advance. Just send in your DAP after 4 years of service, your biggest cost will be the shipping cost from your location to Zhuhai and return. Repair service, including but not limited to battery replacement cost is among the lowest you can expect. For the record, we charge US$35 (¥230 RMB to be exact) to replace an N8ii battery, and US$25 (¥160 RMB to be exact) to replace the N6ii battery. Since you only need to send in your DAP without the accessories and original package, the total logistic cost should be .... around $100 (??) Please be reminded that Cayin owns the manufacturing facilities and runs the production in-house, we even wind our own transformers and have a decent battery storage inventory in our own building. When you have the facilities, components, and technicians readily available, the maintenance cost of our DAPs is significantly lower than brands that heavily rely on outsourced manufacturing services

 

[Leto Dal]

I have explained the battery replacement process in side note #3 of this replay in the N30LE thread., and I shall copy and paste here for your reference.

Side note #3: If battery life is your main concern, maybe you can budget a battery replacement in advance. Just send in your DAP after 4 years of service, your biggest cost will be the shipping cost from your location to Zhuhai and return. Repair service, including but not limited to battery replacement cost is among the lowest you can expect. For the record, we charge US$35 (¥230 RMB to be exact) to replace an N8ii battery, and US$25 (¥160 RMB to be exact) to replace the N6ii battery. Since you only need to send in your DAP without the accessories and original package, the total logistic cost should be .... around $100 (??) Please be reminded that Cayin owns the manufacturing facilities and runs the production in-house, we even wind our own transformers and have a decent battery storage inventory in our own building. When you have the facilities, components, and technicians readily available, the maintenance cost of our DAPs is significantly lower than brands that heavily rely on outsourced manufacturing services

Thats good to know, thanks for pointing it out. German Cayin retailer claimed it would cost around 400 EU to replace the battery, sicne they need to send it in and your fee being high. Guess I work directly with you in China in the future.

 

[BlueA]

German Cayin retailer claimed it would cost around 400 EU

Thanks for the info. Looks like an abusive process.
If european cayin's clients are not aware they can deal directly with the mother brand it is dissuasive.
On the contrario a full reset for 100$ port included is totally reassuring.

 

[Leto Dal]

Yep. Dont want to generalize, but german audio vendors are often trying to cut some extra piece of the pie on every occasion.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Yep. Dont want to generalize, but german audio vendors are often trying to cut some extra piece of the pie on every occasion.

Some of them certainly. The Cayin distributor in particular does that to an insane degree.

Just look at the HA-6A.
3500€ inkl. VAT (~3800$) in germany.
2400$ w/o VAT (~2850$ with 19% VAT) imported directly.

That's like 1 grand on top as Profit margin for the distributor. Absolutely disgusting and throws a bad light on the Cayin brand imho.

Unfortunately Cayin doesn't sell directly to gemany, so people would have to go via french dealers.

 

[Leto Dal]

Some of them certainly. The Cayin distributor in particular does that to an insane degree.

Just look at the HA-6A.
3500€ inkl. VAT (~3800$) in germany.
2400$ w/o VAT (~2850$ with 19% VAT) imported directly.

That's like 1 grand on top as Profit margin for the distributor. Absolutely disgusting and throws a bad light on the Cayin brand imho.

Unfortunately Cayin doesn't sell directly to gemany, so people would have to go via french dealers.

French dealer is fine with great support btw too. German Cayin vendors are just abusing customers trust, yep.

 

[ThanatosVI]

@Andykong I just saw that Hiby uses Alcantara on the backplate of their flagship DAP. I quite like the idea of that.

Any chance that a future Cayin DAP might incorporate that as well?

Also the new Hiby DAPs can load Convolution Filters on System level in their DSP Engine.
That‘s a feature I always wanted in a DAP, so please tell your RnD Team that customers would like that feature on Cayin DAPs as well

 

[ChisChas]

I got my blue case also very beautiful, and the fit is awesome. For those who may be looking for a better cable to further enhance your enjoyment check out the new Arctic Cable Pallas Silver+Copper cable

I got my Pallas Arctic Cable late last week with the Oyaide connector, wasn't aware of the cuTech when I ordered. These cables are fantastic, extremely good.
First impression is a huge sound stage and superior bass extension and punch everywhere in the frequency spectrum.
As you burn it in more about the 3rd or 4th day
Then you realize that 1: The Bass is very deep and rich not just bloat and properly positioned in the extended Soundstage with enough resolution to let you know what instrument was generating the notes. 2: The Midrange creaminess again not syrupy but rich and textured and fleshed out, not thick but with details providing a more realistic image of the instruments be it violins, voice, violas etc. 3: Definition of acoustic space around each instrument such that the correct harmonic character of the instrument develops, not marred by other instruments, now this is not a clinical sound by Any means, it's just that the cable defines a good enough Soundstage to accommodate each instrument all properly spread out and layered. There is a lot of detail retrieved, the extension in the bass also reveals more detail, orchestral music will benefit a lot from this. 4: The trebles have body and silky especially on the high notes of the Violins...this Cable is a great bargain you may spend very near $3k to outperform or equal this product.
I was listening with my Cayin N8ii Tube mode class A and Single-Ended because the HIFIMAN HE-R10P is tremendously efficient

Sorry I have been away from this Forum for a while, my N8ii arrived this week (I have a N8 Brass Black which was great, the N8ii is better) and my Hifiman R10p's arrived a few weeks ago. My OIDIO Sound Mongrel Balanced 4.4mm Pentaconn cable arrived yesterday so quite of lot of 'running in' going on but I knew my R10P's needed a bit of brightness from the N8ii (my N8 didn't provide this but it was great with my Utopias mk 1). I am hugely enjoying my R10P's, I'm listening to TIDAL using my T + A HA200 headphone amplifier/DAC as I type and enjoying a wonderful sound, thank you Cayin Audio for another superb DAP, thank you T + A for a superb HA200. I still have my Hugo 2 but the HA200 is another league, chose it over a Hugo TT2 + MScaler combo.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Sorry I have been away from this Forum for a while, my N8ii arrived this week (I have a N8 Brass Black which was great, the N8ii is better) and my Hifiman R10p's arrived a few weeks ago. My OIDIO Sound Mongrel Balanced 4.4mm Pentaconn cable arrived yesterday so quite of lot of 'running in' going on but I knew my R10P's needed a bit of brightness from the N8ii (my N8 didn't provide this but it was great with my Utopias mk 1). I am hugely enjoying my R10P's, I'm listening to TIDAL using my T + A HA200 headphone amplifier/DAC as I type and enjoying a wonderful sound, thank you Cayin Audio for another superb DAP, thank you T + A for a superb HA200. I still have my Hugo 2 but the HA200 is another league, chose it over a Hugo TT2 + MScaler combo.

Certainly the right choice with the T+A Ha200

 

[audionewbi]

I'm still liking my N8ii very much. Recently LP, one of my other favorite DAP maker updated their Firmware which sonically improved the sound alot. It altered the sound but significantly removing the digital edge, which before firwmare release I was not aware of them.
What are the downside? The DAP now uses more battery, reducing the battery life by 30 minutes

@Andykong will there be anymore firmware release to push the FPGA more to maximize sonic performance even more?

 

[Chronos]

Does anyone know what the max size Micro SD card the N8ii can read up to? Also someone mentioned using a SDXC card with their N8ii, I thought these were micro SD only, it can read SDXC cards?

 

[urs]

My German manual states:
Der TF-Kartensteckplatz unterstützt TF-Karten des Typs SDHC und SHXC und wurde
auf Kompatibilität mit 512GB TF-Karten getestet

Google translates to
"The TF card slot supports SDHC and SHXC type TF cards and has been
Tested for compatibility with 512GB TF cards"

? Follow-up Question:
Does quality / speed of such cards have an impact on the performance ?


Regards
Urs

PS: Just noticed that the (older !) N7 was tested with 1 TB cards ?

 

[blotmouse]

i've got a 1TB in mine.