[drftr]

@Andykong Andy, we've been discussing splitters more than just a little bit but that was always with the power going towards the phone. What would happen if instead the power goes to the RU6, as in putting the splitter in the dongle instead? We know it can take both signal and power through the same connection as that's what it takes from the phone. But what if we'd only feed it the signal from the phone (if possible) and the power from the socket? Would that work? Or would it refuse because the cable from the phone also keeps sending power? Just curious here.

drftr

 

[ssriram2791]

@Andykong Andy, we've been discussing splitters more than just a little bit but that was always with the power going towards the phone. What would happen if instead the power goes to the RU6, as in putting the splitter in the dongle instead? We know it can take both signal and power through the same connection as that's what it takes from the phone. But what if we'd only feed it the signal from the phone (if possible) and the power from the socket? Would that work? Or would it refuse because the cable from the phone also keeps sending power? Just curious here.

drftr

Could you explain some laws of physics to help me understand how this works ?

Phones have batteries which store energy and dissipate/transfer energy . I believe the batteries in phones are DC (direct current) when they are transferring energy (not in AC, the power that comes from wall charger would be AC).

So, the solution you are proposing seems to be we need AC power passing through dongle to keep it active, but it does not explain how the energy is converted.

The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another

 

[drftr]

Could you explain some laws of physics to help me understand how this works ?

Phones have batteries which store energy and dissipate/transfer energy . I believe the batteries in phones are DC (direct current) when they are transferring energy (not in AC, the power that comes from wall charger would be AC).

So, the solution you are proposing seems to be we need AC power passing through dongle to keep it active, but it does not explain how the energy is converted.

The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another

I'm exactly the last person on Earth you should ask questions like this...

drftr

 

[ssriram2791]

I'm exactly the last person on Earth you should ask questions like this...

drftr

Sorry to ask these questions, but I have seen enough of these posts asking for some solution where the smartphone just sends bits (digital data through USB-C), but no energy is lost in return.

In fact, I responded earlier to one of the posts asking if next iteration of this dongle will be self powered (that is in-built batteries) with this

I think we should either ask smartphone manufacturers to provide replaceable batteries again (because of their greed, we are suffering) or make choices that could be detrimental to our wallet, but still we will retain our smartphone battery.

 

[kumar402]

Over last few days I have been listening to ZMF VC and MDR Z1R out of Cayin RU6 and Shanling M3X And when I use ZMF I reach out for RU6 but with Sony I use M3X. I feel M3X has sweet vocal and is light in mid bass and that helps with Z1R.

 

[emilsoft]

Cayin RU6 has just about made most of my other sources irrelevant for now (at least with IEMs) - including Chord Qutest and RME ADI 2. At home i'm running the RU6 exclusively out of ifi iusb micro with dual usb for clean power and that bring the performance high enough to challenge most of my other d/s posh sources in terms of enjoyment.

I've just spent a good time comparing my RME ADI 2 with the RU6 (+ iusb) with my Sony IERM7 - the RU6 is essentially on it's own planet, the r2r planet; it's sound signature is so different to my d/s DACs that it's beyond comparison really; It has huge wide mids, each note has weight and space around it and is projected within it's own aura/reverb, and each element/space is somehow linked to the rest in the music - they all interact in unity with synchronised timing (it all kind of clicks together like lego). This is all without sheen or roughness. Essentially what vinyl rig sound like.

I do feel the RU6 has slightly forward mids so some paring consideration might be needed. Of course it has some shortcomings -little bit of mid forwardness, could use little more sub bass and driving power, could be a little cleaner perhaps and better defined... but it makes music so groovy and enjoyable that comparisons with d/s dacs become irrelevant. I've always though d/s sources sounded kind a similar - from 100$ dongle to a 500$ dac; the dac might be say 20-30% better than the dongle in terms of technicalities but it will still sound like it's from the same family.. it's refreshing to have something that just sounds like it's form a different family, and it's opened a can of r2r worms for me where I likely won't consider another d/s source in a long time

Keep in mind as i've mentioned before, for me the iusb micro elevates things significantly, from this is a nice enough sweet dongle to a how is this tiny thing producing this sound..

 

[sahmen]

Cayin RU6 has just about made most of my other sources irrelevant for now (at least with IEMs) - including Chord Qutest and RME ADI 2. At home i'm running the RU6 exclusively out of ifi iusb micro with dual usb for clean power and that bring the performance high enough to challenge most of my other d/s posh sources in terms of enjoyment.

I've just spent a good time comparing my RME ADI 2 with the RU6 (+ iusb) with my Sony IERM7 - the RU6 is essentially on it's own planet, the r2r planet; it's sound signature is so different to my d/s DACs that it's beyond comparison really; It has huge wide mids, each note has weight and space around it and is projected within it's own aura/reverb, and each element/space is somehow linked to the rest in the music - they all interact in unity with synchronised timing (it all kind of clicks together like lego). This is all without sheen or roughness. Essentially what vinyl rig sound like.

I do feel the RU6 has slightly forward mids so some paring consideration might be needed. Of course it has some shortcomings -little bit of mid forwardness, could use little more sub bass and driving power, could be a little cleaner perhaps and better defined... but it makes music so groovy and enjoyable that comparisons with d/s dacs become irrelevant. I've always though d/s sources sounded kind a similar - from 100$ dongle to a 500$ dac; the dac might be say 20-30% better than the dongle in terms of technicalities but it will still sound like it's from the same family.. it's refreshing to have something that just sounds like it's form a different family, and it's opened a can of r2r worms for me where I likely won't consider another d/s source in a long time

Keep in mind as i've mentioned before, for me the iusb micro elevates things significantly, from this is a nice enough sweet dongle to a how is this tiny thing producing this sound..

If this is the Ifi Micro iUSB3.0 you're referring to, a photo of the whole set up would be nice. I would like to see how the connections between the RU6, the iUSB, and the source (computer/tablet/phone or DAP) are all rigged up, with cables and all, if it is not too much trouble... Sorry in advance for the inconvenience

 

[emilsoft]

If this is the Ifi Micro iUSB3.0 you're referring to, a photo of the whole set up would be nice. I would like to see how the connections between the RU6, the iUSB, and the source (computer/tablet/phone or DAP) are all rigged up, with cables and all, if it is not too much trouble... Sorry in advance for the inconvenience

Sure no problem - I have a dual usb cable - two usb ends going to iusb (one slot for which is just for the power), and the other end of the cable is one usb slot - i plug the RU6 in here with another short usb cable.

 

[sahmen]

Sure no problem - I have a dual usb cable - two usb ends going to iusb (one slot for which is just for the power), and the other end of the cable is one usb slot - i plug the RU6 in here with another short usb cable.

Nice! Thanks. I take it that only one of the three pictured silver-metallic Ifi boxes forms part of this rig; Is that assumption correct, or are the other two part of this particular RU6 chain as well?

 

[econaut]

What are your experiences concerning warm up and sound quality with the RU6?

I have done only one test which was inconclusive.

 

[Andykong]

@Andykong Andy, we've been discussing splitters more than just a little bit but that was always with the power going towards the phone. What would happen if instead the power goes to the RU6, as in putting the splitter in the dongle instead? We know it can take both signal and power through the same connection as that's what it takes from the phone. But what if we'd only feed it the signal from the phone (if possible) and the power from the socket? Would that work? Or would it refuse because the cable from the phone also keeps sending power? Just curious here.

drftr

I don't know enough about what's going opn inside the USB-C connector, so I have no idea if this is technically correct.

Assuming we have a USB-C to 2xUSB-C spliiter adapter. There are 6 wires inside the two USB-C cable. If you can open the PVC cover of the USB cable that will connect RU6 to your mobile phone, and cut the two power conductors, this will stop the power supply from your phone to the RU6 "physically". Theoretically if you connect a power bank to the another USB-C of the splitter adapter, RU6 will draw power from the power bank and data from your mobile phone. If this experiement failed, you lost your splitter, not a vey high cost experiment to play with.

 

[NewEve]

Cayin's RU6 write-up (and two others) is up as well as here on Head-Fi.

 

[Johnfg465vd]

IMHO, the USB digital audio qualtiy is a more important factor then USB-C power supply. When I compare a Cayin DAP (N3Pro and N6ii) to my desktop PC as USB Audio source to RU6, I prefer DAP almost exclusively. The USB-C of Cayin DAP will limit power output to 300mA only, so more power is not necessarily the winner in this case

The xDuoo X10T II should pair with RU6 nicely then.

 

[emilsoft]

I don't know enough about what's going opn inside the USB-C connector, so I have no idea if this is technically correct.



Assuming we have a USB-C to 2xUSB-C spliiter adapter. There are 6 wires inside the two USB-C cable. If you can open the PVC cover of the USB cable that will connect RU6 to your mobile phone, and cut the two power conductors, this will stop the power supply from your phone to the RU6 "physically". Theoretically if you connect a power bank to the another USB-C of the splitter adapter, RU6 will draw power from the power bank and data from your mobile phone. If this experiement failed, you lost your splitter, not a vey high cost experiment to play with.

The way I do it - get a two way usb cable, on one of the usb plugs (the one that will be used for data transfer from source), cover the data line using a scotch tape https://www.instructables.com/USB-Condom/ - this example is how to make it power only, but you are interested in data only, so cover that data line explained here ( think it's the far right one in the usb plug).

This way you end up with one data and one for power transfer, the data one will not use the dirty power and for the other usb power only plug you can use battery or ifi iusb micro special usb slot that does clean power only

 

[Currawong]

I'm also on the fence of pulling the trigger, but I also realize I have very specific taste so a lot of the time buying new dac/amp is like buying lottery for me LOL.

Some background information, I'm currently using Dragonfly Red with Denon D5200. Recently acquired Burson Playmate 2 and also bought the V6 Vivids and V6 Classic opamp to try. End up using the Playmate 2 stock opamp (LOL I know, I'll admit I have cheap taste, I think I like the ESS glare LOL, and I'll probably be the first one in history to admit this).

My music preference is a lot of female vocal (need to be very in your face like you can feel the singer spitting on your face) and a lot of rich acoustic guitar / violin / piano. Though I also realize I watch movie trailers on my PC a lot so nice midbass and subbass rumble is appreciated (also I'm using Denon...... it's like almost a requirement LOL).

That being said, is there enough treble to make female vocal / guitar / piano / violin interesting while still having enough bass rumble for movie trailers? I end up selling a lot of my past gear generally due to not forward enough vocal (too far or veiled). I'll admit it could be partially due to Denon D5200 is not very vocal centric headphone so I'm compensating for it I think. Oh I also realize I like a bit aggressive sound (kind of like Grado sound) for rock. Some of the dac / amp I tried are too smooth (V6 Vivid and Classic) and making rock kind of bland? (guitar distortion and snare drum hits doesn't have enough bite)

All things considered, would this be something for me or I'm totally looking at the wrong thing? As I previously said maybe I just have cheap taste???

Again I'm pretty sure RU6 is amazing but I'm trying to see if fits my preference as to there is no right or wrong (kind of like picking food). I suspect my taste might be towards ESS sound but I did liked the Modi Multibit so it's hard to say. Figure I'd ask anyway LOL.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!

I'd say you need different headphones. Trying to fix something you don't like about a pair of headphones with the amp and DAC is just not a good plan IMO.

I don't know if I am the odd one out, I had two USB-C connectors failure out of 3 previous mobile phones. In both case. the problem started to surfaced after 1 year of extensive usage and the charging speed slowed down noticeablely. Sometime I need to plug/unplug several time to engage quick charge. That was a very high failure rate and all three mobile phones have dedicated 3.5mm phone out, so the USB port are used for charging primarily. I was kind of worrying when I switch to Samsung S20 lately, this is my first mobile phone without 3.5mm phone out, so the USB-C port will cover both audio and charging. I need a solution to slow down the tear and wear of the USB-C connector, to me the obvious choices are (Bluetooth headphone + wired charging) vs (Dongle DAC + wirelss charging). I believe this is a straight forward choice, especially when I have the RU6 at my disposal.

One thing that annoys me about the EU directive to get Apple to replace the Lightning connector with USB-C is that the latter is simply such a weak connector in comparison. The USB-C connector on my 2016 MacBook is in poor condition, yet I have an iPhone 5 here that has an absolutely solid Lightning socket.

I think we should either ask smartphone manufacturers to provide replaceable batteries again (because of their greed, we are suffering) or make choices that could be detrimental to our wallet, but still we will retain our smartphone battery.

They wont, because customers will swap in dodgy, cheap batteries from China, and then complain to the phone manufacturer when things stop working well. Not to mention warranty claims which people make. It's easier and way more cost-effective to restrict it.

Back to the RU6 though, it didn't want to play well with my iPhone 12 Pro Max, cutting out repeatedly. The W2 didn't fare much better though. I'm using the included Lightning to USB-C cable. I wonder if it is because the battery is below 50%, as it worked fine before, and it works fine out of my iPad Mini.

But it has been fun comparing it with the W2, albeit from a Hiby R6 2020. I've been managing to drive the DCA Stealth from both. I prefer the slightly more bloomy sound from the RU6 for preference, even if the W2 sounds a bit more precise, it's a touch less engaging for me.