Cayin N8 - First Impressions (Stream of Consciousness)
Thanks to @andrew and @taronlissimore and headphones.com, I have the new, limited edition (300 units for the international market) black brass N8 in my hands to audition and review. As usual, I’ll post some stream-of-consciousness impressions as I explore the thing, ahead of a proper, formal, review.
I’ve been interested in this unit ever since I first heard about it. And that interest was further heightened after spending some time playing with the Pete Millet NuTube Hybrid headphone amplifier (we have a thread on it here), which uses the same Korg NuTube as the N8.
If you look closely at the above picture, the two green glowing rectangles are actually the NuTube, visible through the bottom third of the display whenever the unit is in tube mode and actually playing. This is a nice touch!
Sound
It is much too early to say anything substantive, or detailed, about how this thing sounds … but I will say that a) first impressions are excellent and b) in tube mode it definitely exhibits the same kind of euphonic, sweet, delivery that I got from the NuTube Hybrid - and with the IEMs I’ve tried so far no audible hiss! While that euphonic sweetness means there is likely to be higher levels of even-order harmonic distortion in the tube output, if it sounded the same as the solid-state mode there wouldn’t be much point in it!
Much more listening to do … but what I’ve heard so far just makes me want to hear more.
Form-Factor, Size & Weight
This is a big unit … larger than the relative brick that is the Sony NW-WM1Z, and it’s quite weighty too - albeit lighter than the Sony unit coming in at 394g vs. the WM1Z’s 455g.
The N8 dwarfs the A&K SP1000m (which is quite a bit thinner but you really have to have them side by side to appreciate just how different they are) and the SR15.
If you were the type that didn’t mind carrying the WM1Z around, then I expect you’d be okay with the N8 too. The extra bulk is offset by the somewhat lower weight.
UX/UI
The N8 is primarily touch-screen driven. Responsiveness is good, if not quite as fluid and snappy as the WM1Z and SP1000m. It has the usual niceties such as accelerative scrolling and nicely “damped” deceleration.
The OS is a Hiby-derived implementation, so there’s no installing Android streaming clients on the thing. It is a highly-focused music player first and last. Navigation is pretty intuitive, with the usual metadata driven modes for browsing by Album, Artist, Song and so on, as well as a folder-browsing mode.
Scanning your music library is initiated manually (as far as I can tell there isn’t an automatic option, or its off by default), and with 16/44.1 FLAC files proceeds at a rate of about 1,000 tracks per 40 seconds using a 512GB Sandisk microSDXC card in ExFat format.
Swiping down from the top of the display brings up various on/off options for everything from gain and amplifier mode to output formats. Swiping up from the bottom access settings for music, display and overall system behavior. I’ll cover all of these in more detail in a subsequent post.
The screen is small compared to most current touch-screen DAPs, with the bottom third being dedicated to the NuTube. The screen is bright and crisp with good contrast. It isn’t going to rival a flagship smartphone’s display, but it holds its own nicely with the Sony and A&K unit in terms fo quality. It is FAR better than the screen on the QP2R.
There are three tactile controls. The power/volume control (top dial), the play/pause/next/previous control (lower dial/rocker) and then the big gold triangle on the front that calls up the “main” display for whatever you’re doing (so if you’re listening to music, pressing it brings up the main “playing now” display, which has all the relevant details for the currently playing song, including things like file format and bit rate).
The UX is, so far, effective and gets out of the way to do the job it is intended to do, without being something you’ll want to fiddle with for the sake of it,
Charging
This took a couple of hours from it’s initial delivery-charge state of 38%, using the (very nice) supplied USB-A to USB-C cable and an Anker QuickCharge 2.0/3.0 compatible charger. A full charge is supposed to take 4.5 hours in quick-charge mode, and 8+ off a standard 5v/2A charger. This is largely due to the huge 7000 mHa battery … necessary to provide the high-output power and to drive the tube stage.
Aesthetics & Build
This is a VERY pretty unit and is built like the proverbial tank. Fit and finish is excellent. It feels like a true luxury product, and the Teflon coating over the brass chassis has a unique feel which is hard to describe yet very “touchable”.
Nothing rattles or moves when it shouldn’t nor feels sloppy and nothing grates. One niggle was that the second, rocker, “dial” wasn’t returning fully to center when pushed up initially (it’s sprung), but a dozen or so actuations of it and that stopped, so it probably just needed to settle a bit.
…
So those are my first thoughts … more as I spend more time with it …
I’ve read that there are only 300 of these Black Brass units being made for the international market. If the sound equals the experience of the rest of the unit, and assuming I don’t uncover issues in other areas, there’s a good chance that that 300 is actually going to be 299 … once I’m through the “new toy” phase …