Cayin employees, it seems, live on the well-known principle: "I came, I saw, I won." Having achieved success in "big Hi-Fi", they paid attention to the portable market and released one after another 3 very good players that won a noticeable niche. Relatively recently, the company decided to try themselves in the budget segment and introduced the N3.
In the player did not begin to save, it is equipped with a popular chip AK4490 in the role of the DAC, which immediately inspires timid optimism. For the amplifier did not regret the power and tried to make a low-power "mobile" solution, N3 gives a full 130 milliwatts per channel at a load of 32Ω. Equipped with a player and wireless Bluetooth interface with support for APT-X. There was a place for additional nice buns such as USB-C port. Despite the power, the N3 is compact and at the same time very long runs on battery (usually it turns out to achieve a maximum of two points of these three). Well, the cherry on the cake was the price, sold Cayin N3 for about $ 160 (may vary slightly depending on the country).
Specifications
- DAC: AK4490EN
- OU: OPA1652 + OPA1622
- Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz (± 0,3 dB), 5 Hz - 50 kHz (± 2 dB)
- Dynamic range: 108 dB
- Total harmonic distortion + noise: 0.03% @ 1 kHz
- Signal to noise ratio: 108 dB
- Power: 2 × 130 mW @ 32Ω
- Output Impedance: ≤1Ω
- Bluetooth: 4.0 with APT-X codec
- Memory Cards: MicroSD up to 256 GB
- Headphone output: 3.5 mm TRRS with CTIA headset support, S / PDIF with adapter via USB output
- Input: USB-C with USB DAC, USB Audio, USB OTG
- Supported formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, WMA (lossless and lossy), OGG, MP3
- Supported resolution: up to 384 kHz for WAV and AIFF, up to 192 kHz for FLAC, ALAC, APE, up to 96 kHz for APE and WMA Lossless
- DSD support: up to DSD256, DSF, DFF, SACD-ISO
- USB DAC: up to 192 kHz / 24 bit, DSD up to 128
- Operating time from one charge: up to 12 hours.
- Charging time: ~ 2 h.
- Screen: TFT 2.4 ", 400 × 360
- Dimensions: 100 mm × 54 mm × 13 mm
- Weight: ~ 100 g
Packing and delivery kit
Of course, in the budget segment to expect frills frankly silly, but Cayin tried to do everything to give the maximum possible for this money. The box is made of white cardboard, inside is a dense insert with the player and a box of accessories. The latter is very much for the price category: spare films on the screen, a rubber cover for protecting the player, USB-C-cable, instruction and even a pair of stickers "High Res" for fans of these golden rectangles.
In general, the kit contains all that is needed, and lovers of aesthetics can buy a leather jacket from kozhzam, the benefit is it is inexpensive. Also in addition are sold rubber covers of various bright colors (eh, how I miss the "Apple Socks").
Design and management
Do not say that N3 turned out to be some kind of masterpiece in terms of appearance, but for the budget segment it is quite good. The front part is made of aluminum, a choice of even several colors is offered, on the plastic rear panel for some reason placed an insert of artificial leather. Initially, it was spoiled by some ugly sticker, stuck in the bottom, but it is cleaned without problems, leaving no traces. Externally, the player resembles classic phones from good manufacturers - a neat bar of metal with rounded edges, high-quality paint, a screen insert on the front panel - all this causes nostalgia for your favorite Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
The controls are not stingy. On the left side there is a button for turning on and locking, as well as a double "rocker" for volume. On the right side there are three playback control buttons and a slot for MicroSD cards. On the bottom side there is a headphone output, combined with a linear (the function switches to the menu) and a USB-C jack. The last port is fully functional: charging, memory card access, USB DAC function, USB OTG USB flash drive, audio output to external DACs and even coaxial output with a special adapter. In general, in terms of external communications, the player simply has no equal. Also worth noting is that the player supports the control of the headset buttons, if the headphones are equipped with it, this significantly increases the usability.
Since I've started talking about charging, I can not help but note the impressive time of work. In the standard test (MEE Audio P1 in the role of load, low gain, volume 40, FLAC 44.1 kHz / 16 bit), the work time was 11 hours 35 minutes, the battery is charged in 2 hours 10 minutes, in general - the player is clearly good .
The front panel houses a screen and navigation buttons. The screen is not bad for its price category, it has a normal resolution and color rendering, but the behavior in the sun and small viewing angles betray its budget. True, taking into account the price level, it is not necessary to demand much more.
The controls on the player are touchscreen, and this, perhaps, is its biggest drawback. These buttons are exactly 5, the central round serves to confirm the selection, the two lower ones for navigation, the upper left opens the submenu on the playback screen, the upper right one is needed to return back. Unfortunately, the buttons are not backlit, so it's hard to hit them in the dark, and at first there may be slips. To add responsiveness buttons, Cayin built in the player a vibration feedback, of course this is not Apple's haptic feedback, but fortunately this function is disabled in the settings menu. In general, after some accustoming to use these buttons is quite possible, but this is clearly not the most ergonomic solution. I do not know what prevented all the buttons from being made "real", it would remove all claims to the player, but, apparently, "they wanted it better, but it turned out as always". However, thanks to Cayin for the fact that the volume and playback control are made on separate hardware buttons on the ends of the device, this greatly brightens the situation.
The menu as a whole is familiar to users of most Chinese players in general and devices from Cayin in particular. Almost certainly for the firmware all the same outsourcers from Hiby answered, the menu items and the logic of work remained the same. In Cayin a little refreshed graphics, and this clearly improves the perception of the player (which is only a scale of volume control).
The first three menu items in the views do not need, this is a return to the playback screen, a media library with all the usual groupings (artists, albums, genres, etc.) and viewing music in folders. It scans the card quickly enough, in general there's nothing to paint, everything works exactly as expected.
Next, according to tradition, there is a point of sound settings. There is almost everything you can ever want: a three-level gain switch, the inclusion of replay gain, an equalizer, the choice of one of the 5 digital filters, the playback mode, gapeless, remembering the current track and position, and other settings related to the sound.
The next section in the menu is Bluetooth. Here, the wireless interface is expected to be turned on and configured. A separate switch can include an APT-X codec. By tradition, the Cayin N3 can not only connect to external speakers and headphones, but also serve as a wireless receiver. This is convenient if you, for example, want to listen to Tidal from your smartphone.
The last point is the system settings. There is a choice of language (Russian is available, but the inscriptions are printed with spaces), selecting one of three themes, turning off the vibration feedback of the buttons, controlling the sleep timers, auto-off and backlighting, updating the software and other options not directly related to the sound.
In general, the firmware of the N3 is quite stable, it lacks pronounced "childhood sores", the player works very stably.
Sound
To listen to the device used the following headphones: iBasso IT03, Meze 99 Classics, Audio Zenith PMx2, Noble Kaiser Encore, Campfire Audio Andromeda, 64 Audio U12, HUM Pristine and others.
Well, let's be logical. I do not know who should be to blame the player for $ 150 for non-ideal attacks or, say, not the most biting bass, apparently, a very close and limited person. No matter how much we want to get away from the price in the reviews, it is the core on which the future of any device is built. In this case, we have a budget segment player, and there is no point in approaching it from the point of view of even the "middle class". Does this mean that N3 is bad? Of course not, moreover, in its price category and even slightly more expensive it can be considered the best (or one of the best, depending on taste preferences). Engineers Cayin made a really nice, very musical and non-irritating sound that can fall in love with itself.
LFs are slightly accented in the middle bass region. The accent is small, it does not lead to deterioration of readability, but adds a bit of pleasant warmth to the player's input. Of course, the bass here is average in speed and biting, but it's not smeared, it normally transmits textures and has good weight. Due to this, it manifests a universality that is so rare in the budget segment, of course, within its capabilities.
Medium frequencies are also fed in a fashionable manner now - they are slightly smoothed to reduce the micro-contrast and create a feed that is tolerant of not the best quality records. Although the player is not very smooth to name the player, it almost completely transfers everything that is embedded in the record - from emotions to the characteristic features of the instruments. The imaginary scene is medium in width, the depth is slightly more than average, the separation of plans is not strict, their boundaries are slightly blurred. In general, the midrange player is built exactly so that in N3 I would like to listen to music "in general", without dividing it into separate sounds.
The RFs are not bad at the resolution, just as they have attenuation work (they are rare in this price segment), but the attacks are smoothened, either to create a "comfortable" sound, or without any intent, so the player is clearly not for listening to the attenuation of overtones complex tools. However, remembering the price, we will understand that fault-finding here is at least unreasonable.
Well, as usual - comparison. Traditionally, I will try to do without incomparable pairs, models, which I have long forgotten and questions from the series "if the elephant gets on the whale - who fetches whom?". Also, I will not always tell the difference in price, and in this segment the role is played every 20-30 dollars, but I do not see much sense repeating it all the time.
Shanling M2s . Perhaps the closest competitor of N3 in terms of specifications and used iron. The player from Shanling immediately impresses with the design and a more stylish look (although the control "is not so unambiguous"), but the sound of Cayin slightly ahead: a little deeper than LF, a little better resolution for HF - the difference is not very large, but it is present .
Fiio X3-2 . Of course, Fiio it's high time to update its main sales model, but, apparently, the line has not yet reached it. Functionally Fiio loses, although running the wheel, perhaps, is more convenient. By the sound of the Fiio a little less effective, but with a drop is better in resolving and working out the HF.
Fiio X1-II . The current budget model from Fiio is slightly better in management and more "okay" is collected. By the sound of the same Cayin bypasses it, especially it is noticeable in the transmission of emotions and the study of HF.
Shanling M1 . Despite the close price, M1 on sound is much simpler than N3, which is not surprising considering its microsize. Less power is known in the study of frequencies (especially low), just as M1 is worse in constructing an imaginary volume.
xDuoo X10 . The case where the output of one player (I'm talking about N3) deprives the second of almost any meaning. Of course, the hardware buttons and xDuoo wheel are more convenient, and 2 memory cards can be an advantage, but the sound of Cayin is noticeably better, even in basic things like RF processing and resolution.
Hidizs AP100 . Of course, Hidizs is no longer a beginner, he is devoid of fashionable chips, but the sound is still quite good, especially if you want a greater emphasis on LF and better attack on HF.
Compatibility
In my opinion, 120-150 milliwatts per 32Ω load is just the most reasonable optimum for portable devices. This is sufficient for almost all IEM and for normal full-size. Tighter isodines and multi-core dynamic models still require a hospital for their work. The Cayin N3 is not prone to headphones, although the lowest-resisting and sensitive models should be avoided with it; on the same CA Andromeda, the noise is still heard.
The genre player is universal (within its price range, of course), the sensitivity to the quality of records is average, somewhere by 6 points out of 10.
By tradition, several sample tracks
Postmodern Jukebox - Bad Romance . Scott Bradley's favorite project (not that he composed music for "Tom and Jerry") shows that any song can be turned into a masterpiece, just playing it in the spirit of classical jazz and swing. In general, the Postmodern Jukebox is as beautiful as the prolific ones (and 4 albums a year for them is not the limit), and any track after them gets better than it was before. But I chose this one because of the beautifully recorded tapping sound, beat off in the middle of this track. Cayin N3 gives an excellent volume effect, so this track sounds very natural.
Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn . On the twenty-sixth (oh!) Album, the classic of so many genres that I can not even enumerate, I decided to return to my mega-popular album of the year 75 and make it a sequel (oh, this mass culture of the beginning of the 21st century ...). But, of course, it turned out well. Calm, pacifying, but not boring 40-minute record, essentially consisting of one composition pleases hearing, especially if the player, like Cayin N3, allows you to hear all the nuances.
Roger Waters - Déjà Vu . Could someone have thought I was going to miss a new album from Waters? Naturally, I could not do it. What do we have here? Yes, in fact, what Waters is best at is a profound melancholy about the imperfection of the world in which there is suffering and misery that plunges Roger into sorrow. Fortunately, Waters is not a bluesman, and the presence of many millions of dollars does not prevent him from telling about the sufferings of the poor, looking at them from a respectful distance. However, putting aside the jokes aside, the album turned out to be normal, clearly in the spirit of the Floyd Waters era, but what else do you need? As usual, the music is good, the quality of the recording is much more (although, horror, there is a track with DR4!), It remains to add a player like the hero of our review and enjoy the journey "through the waves of memory".
conclusions
A very balanced player for those who want to combine at once a lot of incompatible things: compact size, good sound, long battery life and rich functionality. Cayin managed, perhaps, to give out the most for the most affordable price, and now, before the release of other competitors, N3 can easily be listed among the leaders of this price segment.
The article is based on materials .
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