Success. 
It says something about what Cayin has done with the N30LE that you were willing to go thru TWO replacements in order to have one worry free.
Mark Gosdin
2 Likes
It is, admittedly, not my style … usually I’ll try one replacement and then call it. But the first two units worked to the point where they could be evaluated, and the sound was so engaging that I really didn’t want to give it up.
If I didn’t have all the desktop gear I do already, this would be enough that I’d probably not bother going there. And if I did, it’d probably just be an Atrium, Utopia, LCD-5 and an HM-1. And the N30LE drives all of those just fine (if not as well as the HM-1) … so it’s hard to say what I might.
It’ll be interesting to see what Cayin do with their latest Gen-3 Tube stage and amplifier. Still think it’ll make it into a C9ii and N8iii (or derivatives). It’s too good to keep to just one, 399 unit run, product.
4 Likes
Hi,
I am new to Cayin devices and ma seriously considering to replace my SP3000 with an N30LE, however, there is are two very important point that I haven’t been able to find out.
-
Roon:
At home I use Roon and would like to know if the N30LE can be used as a Roon endpoint (over wifi) that can be controlled by a Roon remote like an iPhone or Android phone. So will the core send the signal via RAAT directly to the N30LE and I can chose the tracks on my iPhone? -
I2S
I saw that the N30LE has an I2S over hdmi connector. How does this work?
Does the I2s bypass the internal DAC and the N30LE acts as a streamer? What pinout does it use?
Is it compatible to my Holo May KTE (PS Audio pinout).
Does it come with an cable for I2s?
Any help is most appreciated.
It seems that information about a device that is limited to 300 + 99 is kind of sparse a little. 
Best
Dirk
1 Like
No.
It’ll run the Roon “Client” - so you can choose and play tracks (etc.) on the device, but you can’t use it as an endpoint and control it as a zone from other Roon clients.
The Core ALWAYS sends its data via RAAT to native Roon clients (non-native can use other protocols, such as SongCast with Linn). Since the Core is where all EQ and other DSP are processed, that works too.
But you still can only control the unit from the device itself.
It’s an I2S digital output using a mini HDMI connector.
Yes, it bypasses the internal DAC.
A streamer would imply it’s working more like an endpoint - and is remotely controllable (it is, via the HiBy Link capability/app). It’s really more of a transport.
It uses the PS Audio pin-out (see below). Which I think is Alt2 option on the May (it’s been a long time since I played with one).
The PS Audio pin-out is the same as the native May I2S pinout with the channels swapped (for DSD playback). So it should work either way, but it’s best to run it as Alt2.
No.
1 Like
Hello Ian, thank you so much for your extended reply.
That DAP is quite a heavy purchase for me so I need to think well before I pull the trigger.
Which I somewhat failed to do when I bought the SP3000 because the SP3000 feels a little cold and lifeless to me. Technically it is good but missing out on the warmth of vocals and the midrange in general. I like a close-to-neutral, slightly mid-forward presentation.
My current IEMs are the EE Odin and Rai Penta. I used to have the U18t and Z1R but they were not the right fit.
My desktop rig is a May KTE into a Bliss KTE and a Malvalve Headamp 3 MK4a.
Headphones are Meze Elite, Meze Empyrean II, and ZMF Caldera (Empyrean II and Caldera are still on the way)
I like tube sound very much best paired with an R2R DAC. However, as far as I know, there is no DAP that offers both at the time. I read that L&P uses R2R DACs but their OS is dreadful and they do not have streaming options. The Hiby RS8 seems to be a possible R2R contender but if I had to choose between R2R and Tube I probably choose tubes.
I would be very happy to hear your opinion regarding the sound signatures.
The opinions of any other member are highly appreciated as well.
Last but not least. I was not quite sure how to quote only parts of my questions and your replies (the way you kindly did) so I posted my replies in bold and italic into the whole quote.
Thank you very much for helping out, it means a lot to me.
1 Like
When composing your response, select the text you want to quote and then click the " button in the little pop-up that’ll appear above the text you’re quoting.
They are.
I just added the “digital” part since you were asking if it bypassed the DAC (if it didn’t, and you thought it was possible not to, it would also have to support analog).
There may be, but OS-level mirroring is not something I’m aware of for the N30LE and iPhone specifically - it’d have to be some general Android->iPhone “Remote Access” or “VNC” solution.
What I was referring to, HiByLink, just lets you use the HiBy Music app on one device to control, over Bluetooth, HiBy Music on another device.
You cannot use it to control other native streaming clients (TIDAL, Qobuz, Apple Music nor Roon etc.) or apps - just whatever functionality in HiBy Music (which is included on the N30LE as well as a “branded” and cut-down version which is the native “Cayin Music” app) they currently support.
Does it work well? I thought it was a bit pointless (for me).
It’s limited to Bluetooth range, does NOT show album art on the phone when browsing your library (or at least did not, maybe its changed … I haven’t looked) - though the art for an album that is currently playing will show up, and was missing other features.
But, again, I’ve not used it in a couple of years (and then only to determine it wasn’t useful to me) so it could be very different today (I’m not really inclined to install stuff I’m not going to use or I’d test it and see).
The pin-out is a function of the I2S output port on the source and destination devices, not the cable. Per Cayin, you just use a standard, good-quality (i.e. spec-compliant) mini-HDMI to HDMI cable - there are lots of options on Amazon from about $9 and up.
1 Like
Thank you Ian, that worked like a charm.
2 Likes
Yes, I see. Sure, if it weren’t bypassing the DAC it would be already analog. That makes sense.
That doesn’t sound very encouraging for my application. Do you still have your N30LE? Does the sound quality outweigh all the downsides like limited connectivity, no real Roon etc?
I understand so the pins are always connected in the same way in any cable. Like Pin1 IN is also Pin1 OUT. There is no crossover between the pins. Meaning if the pinout of the source and the recipient match it works. So any decent-quality HDMI cable will do the trick then as you wrote.
I am happy that I have asked here, rather than buying the N30LE blind.
My current impression is SOUND = Great but FUNCTIONALITY for my usage scenario = mediocre
Thank you so much.
You can do it multiple times, too, so you don’t need to make a separate post for each quote/item you want to respond to.
If you need a DAP to act as a true Roon endpoint, then you’re limited to certain A&K models (or possibly FiiO - I seem to recall them making an update to enable this … though I’ve never tried it/seen it work).
I do.
And I will be keeping it until Cayin manage to come up with something better. Not that I wouldn’t consider other brands in the future (have in the past, but that’s a longer story).
For me, by far.
I’m not sure what you mean by “limited connectivity”. I don’t think there’s a current, flagship, DAP that has better connectivity. You have USB DAC/transport (in/out), I2S output, S/PDIF output, and bi-directional Bluetooth covering all interesting/relevant protocols. Then you have physically separate SE and BAL headphone and line/pre-out connections (and paths) in both 3.5mm TRS and 4.4mm Pentaconn.
The N30LE not being a Roon endpoint doesn’t bother me. It was a “nice” feature on the SP2000 … but I didn’t use it that way a great deal - mostly just straight off the device using the appropriate native client.
A cheap, external, Roon endpoint connected via USB would address that - anything from a bare-bones Rpi build to an iFi Zen Stream. But if it is important to you to have it native to the DAP then, again, you’re pretty much stuck looking at A&K.
It’s two months and a day since I mentioned doing an FLIR shot of the N30LE. Turns out Apple make a USB-C to Lightning cable that lets my FLIR One work with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I grabbed one, fired up the N30LE and let it drive my lowest-impedance (highest-current-demand) IEM (EE Odin, at 3 ohms).
After listening to all of Peter Gabriel’s “i/o”, streaming from Qobuz (at 24/96), (Hyper, Tube: Classic, Low Gain) … you get this:
Definitely cooler running on firmware 1.3 than 1.0 or 1.1 (and probably 1.2, but I think that’s where the temperatures dropped … as I had it up to 116F on 1.0/1.0).
4 Likes