[Andykong]

Cayin is a China based audio company devoted to developing best-sounding audio equipment within budget. They have a comprehensive product collection ranging from CD players to speakers but their tube amplifier has been particularly well-received. Cayin ventured into personal audio on 2013 and launched a comprehensive headfi products ever since. Among these new products, the N6 DAP (2014) and N5 DAP (2016) has been particularly well received.

On mid-2016, Cayin has launched their third DAP, i5. Priced at US$499 (subject to local tax and logistic charges), the i5 is a fully customized Android based DA
P with WiFi and BT connectivity, support Dropbox cloud music and file sharing via DLNA. The international version of i5 has Google Play pre-installed, and user can installed audio-related applications such as online streaming and alternative music players to i5 conveniently. The audio performance of i5 maintained the overall Cayin sound signature, it is a perfect balanced among resolution, powerful, control and musicality for the target audience.

(Subsequent posts will provide detail information about the Cayin i5 DAP)



Cayin values the user experience and constructive feedback from HeadFi, we learned a lot from this community and we sure hope to get connected with as many dedicated and diversified DAP enthusiast as possible. In view of this, Cayin will organize a world tour as follow:

[COLOR=FF00AA]Tour arrangement:[/COLOR]

[COLOR=FF00AA]Tour Schedule:[/COLOR]

1. 7 October 2016: Tour Application Starts
2. 21 October 2016: Tour Application Ended
3. 25 October 2016: Tour Reviewers announced and mailing addresses confirmed
4. 28 October 2016: Tour Sample will be sent to the first reviewer

I have invited TWO headfier to join the tour in advance, they are nmatheis, thread starter of Cayin i5 discussion thread, and hakushondaimao, thread starter of N5 discussion thread, they have received the i5 already and will send out their tour sample unit on 31 October 2016 to next reviewer

[COLOR=FF00AA]Logistic Arrangement:[/COLOR]

• Cayin will cover the cost from China to first reviewer on the list.
• Each tour reviewer is responsible for paying the shipping costs to the next tour reviewer.
• The last reviewer in the list will be responsible to ship the combo to a designated US address to conclude the tour.
• Please use trackable mailing service with signature required.
• The tour reviewer should select the most cost effective mailing arrangement. If the package were to mail within the same country, we should expect the package to arrive within 4 days.
• We encourage Head-Fiers from the same city apply together, pass the equipment in person, and share the final logistic cost.

[COLOR=FF00AA]Terms and instruction[/COLOR]

• Each reviewer can keep the Tour sample for maximum 7 days, please plan your audition and be prepared to ship/pass the package on the 7th day.
• By signing up to the tour, you are agreed to post a formal review and/or some form of impressions within 14 days after your audition period, and Cayin can use your review of the i5 DAP for promotional purposes.
• We are particularly interested with the headphone/IEMs you used during the review, and is most appreciated if you can include photo of the i5 with associated equipment in your writing.
• We shall taking into consideration your past participation on tours, previous reviews, and reputation in HeadFi when we select our reviewer, Cayin reserves the right to select the reviewers in the tour,

[COLOR=FF00AA]Publication guideline [/COLOR]

Please do not post your impression in this thread, we want to make this an event management thread. Please direct all the discussion and sharing to the main i5 discussion thread and HeadFi head gears review pages, and post the link in this thread after you have uploaded your review/impression.
.
i5 Discussion thread
i5 Product page at Head Gear

• On top of the HeadFi forum, you are welcome to post your review/impression to your local HeadFi forum/blog/magazine etc., but please provide the link or electronic version of your writing in this thread as previously suggested.
• In your review/impression, please state that the i5 is a free loan unit from Cayin, and you have/shall return the unit to Cayin at the end of review period.
• You can free to write up your sharing or impression as long as it represents your true feeling and opinions toward the product.

If you’ve got any suggestions about the tour, feel free to raise your concern here and we shall try our best to enrich the Tour as much as possible.

We are really appreciated for your time and look forward to your participation.



__________________________________________________________________

Will Add Tour Updates and Announcement here:


Group 1: US (Washington + Oregon) status: nmatheis received Tour package on 19 November
Group 2: US (California) status: The Fed received Tour package on 6 December
Group 3: US (Colorado + Wisconsin) status: Hisoundfi received Tour package on 12 December
Group 4: US (Missouri + Minnesota) status: howdy received Tour package on 1 December
Group 5: US (East) status: Army-Firedawg received tour package on 12th December
Group 6: Asia status: noobandroid received tour package on 7 December
Group 7: Europe status: wirefriend received tour package on 10th November (suspended)
Group 8: Oceania status: emptymt received Tour package on 13 December

 

[Andykong]

Review for your reference:

The i5 DAP by Cayin (Headfonics)

The Cayin team will be managing a demo booth at CanJam RMAF from 7-9 October, 2016, we hereby provide some basic information of i5 for your reference, will enhance the product description with 1 week.

 

[Andykong]

27 October update

Sorry for the delay in announcing the finalized reviewer list. We have received over 50 applicants in the i5 tour, some of them are applied through PM or referral. The response is way beyond my expectation, so I need more time to shortlist, group and assign tour sequence in each sub-tour. To cut the long story short, this is the reviewer list for i5 World Tour:

Group 1: US (Washington + Oregon)

1. Soundsgoodtome (Seattle, WA)
2. Barra (Seattle, WA)
3. alpha421 (Bellevue, WA)
4. nmatheis (Portland, OR)

This is a self-help group because the reviewers are personal friends of each other, and they have served as reviews for the US Tour of Cayin iDAC-6/iHA-6 previously.

Group 2: US (California)

1. hakushondaimao (Calgary, Canada)
2. gto88 (Bay area, CA)
3. Alypius (Monterey, CA)
4. The Fed (Long Beach, CA)
5. fleasbaby (Redlands CA)
6. miceblue (Los Angeles, CA)

We have 6 reviewers application from California, and one of the applicants has bought the i5 before the tour is started. I have send the Tour unit to hakushondaimao in advance, assuming we'll have a Canada group in the i5 tour. I was wrong, so hakushondaimao need to send his tour unit to California now.

Group 3: US (Colorado + Wisconsin)

1. DJ The Rocket (Colorado)
2. Voxata (Northern Colorado)
3. verbositynow (Lakewood, CO)
4. Hisoundfi (Wisconsin)

The sequence of reviewers in Colorado might subject to change as I don't have enough information to determine an optimized route for them. Will conform this email later on.

Group 4: US (Missouri + Minnesota)

1. PinkyPowers (Kansas City, MO)
2. ngoshawk (Warrensburg, MO)
3. howdy (Minnesota)
4. originalsnuffy (Minneapolis MN)

Group 5: US: East

1. shotgunshane (Atlanta, GA)
2. linux4ever (Northern Virginia, DC metro area)
3. chef8489 (Asheville NC)
4. Army-Firedawg (Charlotte, NC)

Group 6: Asia

1. Hawaiibadboy (Japan)
2. oneguy (Japan)
3. noobandroid (East Malaysia)
4. tobias89 (Singapore)
5. earfonia (Singapore)

This group will involve international mailing, I want to thank them sincerely for their extra effort to make this group happen.

Group 7: Europe

1. wirefriend (Kraków Poland)
2. OSiRiSsk (Brno Czech Republic)
3. mark2410 (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)
4. Q Mass (Scotland, UK)
5. glassmonkey (Southampton, UK)
6. Ithilstone
7. CraftyClown (London, UK)
8. Krisman (Suffolk - UK)
9. Takeanidea (Liskeard, England, UK)

We have a group within group in this case and Takeanidea will be the UK sub-tour group coordinator. In fact most of the reviewers in the UK group are invited by Takeanidea, so I shall hands off the tour arrangement to Takeanidea when the Tour unit arrived UK. He can add new members to the UK tour, and arrange the tour sequence, or whatever he consider necessary.

This group will involve international mailing, I want to thank them sincerely for their extra effort to make this group happen.

Group 8: Oceania

1. H20Fidelity (Australia)
2. gikigill (Melbourne. Australia)
3. emptymt (Melbourne, Australia)
4. kamcok (Melbourne, VIC, Australia)
5. Brooko (New Zealand)

Brooko is the group coordinator of the Oceania group. He is in the process of lining up more members to the tour, so we might adjust the sequence later on. RIght now I can only confirm H2OFidelity will be the first reviewer of the group, and I shall send the Tour unit to him as scheduled. We shall finalise the tour planning before H2OFidelity finish his 2-weeks audition.

This group will involve international mailing, I want to thank them sincerely for their extra effort to make this group happen.


*****************************************

Since a new i5 firmware will be available in next few days, I shall defer the tour schedule to take advantages of the new firmware. The Tour unit will send out on 3rd November instead of 28th October.

Unless otherwise agreed, at the end of the tour, Group 1 to 5 will send the tour unit to our US authorized dealer MusicTeck in New Jersey. Group 6 to 8 will send the tour unit back to Hong Kong at our expenses.


16 October update:

I want to thank Brooko sincerely for his kind support to the tour, he will serve as the Group leader for the Australia/New Zealand i5 Tour, and will have complete flexibility to arrange the tour schedule as he see fit. For those who are interested in the i5 tour, you can contact Brooko directly, or sign up in this thread as-is, I'll forward your information to Brooko as well. He is occupied in next two days, so please be patient when you try to contact him.

12 October Update:

I have received numerous PM regarding the Tour arrangement, I have clarify them through PM but I think they are relevant to other HeadFier who are interested in the i5, so I'll orgainze them into Q&A for your reference.

(1) Is it possible if I want like to keep the tour sample for longer then 1 week in order to do a more thorough review?

Yes, this is possible and we have accommodated this in previous DAP tour. Normally the FIRST reviewer in a Tour group can keep the Tour unit for TWO weeks, and subsequent reviewer can keep the unit for 1 week. We offer a slightly longer review period to our first reviewer of each group because we expect he/she need more time to explore the basic feature of the player, and subsequent reviewers will take advantages of the aging and writing of the first reviewer.

The last reviewer of the group will also have the flexibility to keep the Test unit for longer period because the delay in completing the review will no longer affect other participants in the tour.

Therefore if you planned to do a comprehensive review report for i5 during the tour and would like to have more time to complete your test, please drop me a PM to discuss the arrangement and I'll consider your writing plan and previous review record during my Tour scheduling.

(2) I am not proficient in writing a review in English, can I publish in non-English forum instead?

The rules of the tour actually has facilitated leeway for non-English publication. Under Terms and instruction, we have stated:

By signing up to the tour, you are agreed to post a formal review and/or some form of impressions within 14 days after your audition period, and Cayin can use your review of the i5 DAP for promotional purposes.

We deliberately do not mentioned HeadFi at this stage. And then under Publication guideline:

On top of the HeadFi forum, you are welcome to post your review/impression to your local HeadFi forum/blog/magazine etc., but please provide the link or electronic version of your writing in this thread as previously suggested.

HeadFi is our preferred forum so if you were to can write in English, please include HeadFi as one of your publication platform, but we have also stated that HeadFi forum is not the only platform and you can fulfill the publication requirement by posting your review/impression in your local forum. The only requirement is to provide a link to the publication so that we can at least try to check it out with Google Translation. In case we run into difficulty in accessing the link you have provided, we might request a PDF version of your review for our reference.

(3) HeadFi forum is not popular in my country, what happen if I am the only one in my country apply for the tour?

Whenever we send a DAP out of a country during a tour, this will involve high mailing cost and potential tax consequence, so this can be a problem indeed. We have had similar issue in previous tour and I have to turn down a review application, or the reviewer back out after he find out the logistic cost he/she might involved. I'll try my best to take geographical considerations into account when I plan the tour schedule. I have also encourage sharing of logistic cost in the same location in this tour announcement. I can further elaborate the arrangement as follow:

• If we have 2-4 tour applicants from one country, and the last reviewer of the country will be required to send the item out of the country, we should split the final logistic cost among the 2-4 tour reviewers.
• If we have 5 or more applicants from one country, we can form a tour group for the country and Cayin will be responsible for all the international shipping cost by default under this arrangement, so please try your best to bring your friends or peers on board the tour, this might result in a win-win result for everyone.

If you have any question or suggestion regarding the tour, please feel free to raise your concern and I shall try my best to accommodate your request if we can minimize the disturb to other tour reviewer.

 

[Army-Firedawg]

Good morning, I would very much like to take part in your tour for this unit is extremely interesting. 
 
Username: Army-Firedawg
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA
Past reviews: YouTube, Head-Fi
Equipment to be used: Sennheiser HD650, B&W P7, Empire Ears Hermes VI, any other gear I may be reviewing during my time w/ this unit.
 
I agree to all terms and conditions you've set forth for this tour. Thank you for your consideration. 

 

[shotgunshane]

I'd be interested in trying out the i5. I'd be using it exclusely with iems of all types, from custom to universal, dynamic to multi-armature, from normal sensitivity to uber sensitive. Located in ATL, Georgia.

 

[willyfri]

Hello, I have a doubt in the digital filter option, I do not notice the difference in effect, someone can tell me, if very slight change, or if relamente affects the sound,, thanks

 

[nmatheis]

Hello, I have a doubt in the digital filter option, I do not notice the difference in effect, someone can tell me, if very slight change, or if relamente affects the sound,, thanks

Questions about the i5 should be directed to the main i5 thread I started awhile back (LINK). This thread is just for signing up for the tour.

 

[earfonia]

Hi Andy, thanks for organizing the tour review!
May I know how to sign-up to this Cayin i5 tour review?  
I would like to join if the tour is also open for Singapore. Thanks!
 
Username: Earfonia
Location: Singapore
 
Past reviews: 
http://www.head-fi.org/users/150501/reviews
http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-spark-c5-dac-portable-usb-dac-headphone-amplifier/reviews/14132
 
Equipment to be used: 
http://www.head-fi.org/u/150501/earfonia
Main IEMs for review: AK T8iE Mk2, 1964 Ears V3, DUNU DN-2000J.

 

[Andykong]

Good morning, I would very much like to take part in your tour for this unit is extremely interesting. 

Username: Army-Firedawg
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA
Past reviews: YouTube, Head-Fi
Equipment to be used: Sennheiser HD650, B&W P7, Empire Ears Hermes VI, any other gear I may be reviewing during my time w/ this unit.

I agree to all terms and conditions you've set forth for this tour. Thank you for your consideration. 

That's quick and welcome on board. Just back on my PC after a long day in RMAF.

You have something that I really want to find out if it paired well with Cayin i5: the beautiful B^W P7. I only tried this briefly in the past and like it very much. Can't wait to how if this is a pair that can work out.

 

[Andykong]

I'd be interested in trying out the i5. I'd be using it exclusely with iems of all types, from custom to universal, dynamic to multi-armature, from normal sensitivity to uber sensitive. Located in ATL, Georgia.

I assume you are referring to the impressive list of ciem and ueim in your profile.

As a UERM user, I sure hope to find out if it is worth pulling the triggler for the UERR if I am using i5 as my day-to-day DAP. I have demoed the universal UERR, heard the improvement but is not convinced to click the button,

I meet the Campfire audio team Hong Kong High End Audio-visual show and have tried their andromeda briefly. I agree with Campire team that the Andromeda sounds pretty amazing when driven by the i5. Too bad the show place is too noisy to conduct any serious listening, so I'd love to find out more from an andromeda user.

 

[Andykong]

Questions about the i5 should be directed to the main i5 thread I started awhile back (LINK). This thread is just for signing up for the tour.

Many thanks for nmatheis' respond, sorry for didn't clarify this arrangement in the opening thread. I would like to keep this thread as a tour-management to promote and administer the i5 World Tour, All product related discussion and questions should be raised at the main i5 discussion thread instead.

Hello, I have a doubt in the digital filter option, I do not notice the difference in effect, someone can tell me, if very slight change, or if relamente affects the sound,, thanks

You raised a good question before I clarified the scope of the thread, so I'll make this exception. I have respond to a similar question in the N5 thread, I am sure the content is relevant as the digital filters of i5 and N5 are identical implementation from the AK4490 DAC chipset, so please take a look on that:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/771208/cayin-n5-dap-product-info-post-2-resources-post-3-and-discussion/2280#post_12913496

 

[Andykong]

Hi Andy, thanks for organizing the tour review!
May I know how to sign-up to this Cayin i5 tour review?  
I would like to join if the tour is also open for Singapore. Thanks!

Username: Earfonia
Location: Singapore

Past reviews: 
http://www.head-fi.org/users/150501/reviews
http://www.head-fi.org/products/cayin-spark-c5-dac-portable-usb-dac-headphone-amplifier/reviews/14132

Equipment to be used: 
http://www.head-fi.org/u/150501/earfonia
Main IEMs for review: AK T8iE Mk2, 1964 Ears V3, DUNU DN-2000J.

My friend, you have signed up already.

Singapore is definitely in our scope, I hope we can attract more Singapore HeadFier to join the tour and make it a mini-hub for the event.

 

[shotgunshane]

I assume you are referring to the impressive list of ciem and ueim in your profile.

As a UERM user, I sure hope to find out if it is worth pulling the triggler for the UERR if I am using i5 as my day-to-day DAP. I have demoed the universal UERR, heard the improvement but is not convinced to click the button,

I meet the Campfire audio team Hong Kong High End Audio-visual show and have tried their andromeda briefly. I agree with Campire team that the Andromeda sounds pretty amazing when driven by the i5. Too bad the show place is too noisy to conduct any serious listening, so I'd love to find out more from an andromeda user.

I can PM you some UERR thoughts if you'd like. I much prefer the UERM. I sold my UERR and replaced it with the Perfect Seal Deca.

 

[wirefriend]

I would love to join in if possible.
 
Username: wirefriend
Location: Kraków, Poland, EU

Past reviews: 
http://www.head-fi.org/users/387194/reviews.

Equipment to be used:
Headphones: VSonic GR07 IEM, 64 Ears Adel A12 CIEM, Audeze Sine (portable), Denon AH-D5000 Lawton Level 1 (full size)
Sources: Samsung Galaxy S6, Sony ZX2, iBasso DX100.

 

[Andykong]

HeadFonics has just onlined the first major review of the i5 DAP, please take a look if you want to find out more about the i5 DAP before you commit to the Tour

The i5 DAP by Cayin