DAPS – Audio Reviews

Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Review – Back In the ESS R

Jürgen Kraus (Calgary, Canada) — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 20:22:40 +0000

Pros — Single-ended and balanced circuits; dynamic neutral, engaging sound; quality build; flexible OS.

Cons — Outdated Bluetooth 4.1; short battery life; no onboard storage for key files, no (more) radio; no case (available).

Executive Summary

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X is a versatile and enjoyable dap with a proven SoC sound that probably offers excellent value at its $180 price tag.

Introduction

Hidizs is an up and coming company out of China that recently scored hits with their S9, S3 Pro and particularly their S9 Pro dongle DAC/amps. The latter is one of the most popular dongles in the overcrowded $100-150 class. My review made it into the upper third of our Top 20 most read reviews of 2021. Hidizs also focus on portable music players, bluetooth receivers, and earphones, such as the MS1 Rainbow. The AP80 Pro-X is their latest DAP.

Our Top 20 List of Blog Articles of 2021…By Numbers Only

Find the Hidizs S9 Pro on this list.

Specifications

The ouput impedance is < 1 ohm…

Master Chip	Ingenic X1000
All-in-one DAC/amp Chip	ES9219C x2
OS	HiBy 3.0
Single-ended Headphone Output
Rated output power	70mW+70mW@32Ω
Frequency response (±3db）	20-90kHz
THD+N	0.0015
Dynamic Range	115dB
S/N ratio	119dB
Channel separation/Crosstalk rejection	110dB

Balanced Headphone Output
Rated Output Power	190mW + 190mW@32Ω
Frequency response (±3db）	20-90kHz
THD+N	0.0015
Dynamic Range	116dB
S/N ratio	120dB
Channel separation/Crosstalk rejection	117dB
Purchase Link: Hidizs.net

Differences between Hidizs AP80 Pro and Pro-X

The AP80 Pro-X is the update of the AP80 Pro. The main tech difference between the two is the chipset. The AP80 deploys two ESS ES9218P SoCs (introduced in late 2016; “System on Chip”), and the AP80 Pro-X features two ESS ES9219C SoCs (introduced in late 2019).

Both all-in-one DAC/amp chips have effectively the same specs, but the ES2919C features hardware-level MQA decoding and it has a lower battery consumption at standby/no load.

This results in essentially the same performance specifications between AP80 Pro and AP80 Pro-X with channel separation as apparent exemption. Hidizs lists a much improved channel separation for the AP80 Pro-X model. Upon further inspection, the AP80 Pro-X’s better value stems from a measurement at no load, whereas the AP80 Pro’s number was generated under load.

And since channel separation decreases with load, these two numbers cannot be compared. But even the AP80 Pro’s “worse number” is still very good. I speculate both models’ channel separation are identical.

Functional difference is a lack of radio and protective case, and a different shape in the AP80 Pro-X (the AP80 Pro’s case does not fit).

Not changed between models have operating system, buttons/potentiometer, and Samsung touchscreen.

In summary, although I have not auditioned the AP80 Pro, I do not expect any (significant) sonic differences between the two. In fact, there should not be any major difference between any model using these SoCs, as the engineer cannot manipulate the software (in contrast to a dedicated DAC chip). In other words, the sound is entirely made by ESS and not by Hidizs or whoever put their name on the dap.

The Hidizs AP 80 Pro and Pro-X have identical performance specs in terms of output power, frequency response, THD, dynamic range, and S/N ratio for both single-ended and balanced circuits (without MQA involved).

Physical Things and Usability

IN THE BOX…

Type-C cable
Type-C to Type-C OTG cable
User manual
2 Screen protectors
Warranty card

The design is an aluminum chassis sandwiched between two sheets of glass. Not sure whether I did it right, but I used one of the screen protectors in the front, and the other in the back :). The square shape is a bit odd to get used to, and the small size is traded for battery size.

The Samsung screen is responsive and of good resolution. The buttons are precise and the Japanese ALPS potentiometer is suspended. The overall build is very good. The AP80 Pro-X does not come with a protective shell, and there is currently no after-market one available.

Functionality and Operation

What it does

plays music through single-ended and balanced headphone circuits
works as wired DAC with computer and cellphones
features bi-directional Bluetooth 4.1
offers unique sound adjustments through “MSEB”
accepts micro SD card up to 512 mB
updates its music library blistering fast
lets you read ebooks
counts your footsteps (pedometer)

What it does not

play single-ended and balanced circuits simultaneously
does not feature the latest Bluetooth standard
have radio function anymore (lost with chip upgrade from AP80 Pro model)
has no accessible onboard storage for key files
have the greatest battery life between charges
no case available (at the time of writing)

Buttons (from L to R): Next, Play/Pause, Previous, Volume Scroll Wheel. All these functions can also be performed on the screen..

From L to R: 2.5 mm balanced jack, USB-C socket, 3.5 mm single-ended jack.

Micro SD card Slot. Up to 512 GB capacity is supported.

Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Quickguide

[collapse]

HiBy 3.0 OS

HiBy is a company that produces their own daps, but they started out as software designers. Their OS 3.0 is therefore a mature product that I learnt intuitively and quickly by trial and error. No manual needed.

Compared to other OS, the HIBy has a few special features, such as pedometer and ebook reader. Two-directional Bluetooth may be more common. It can also be used as DAC with your computer or phone/tablet.

MESB allows easy sound adjustments.

Unique to HiBy OS is the MESB, which stands for “Mage Sound 8-ball”. It is a parametric, very intuitive EQ. The OS also includes a standard EQ. Other remarkable features of the HiBy OS are low/high gain selection, crossfade, and antialiasing in the play settings.

Amplification and Battery Consumption

Hidizs states 6-8 hrs playtime balanced and 8-11 h single ended, with a 40-day standby. That’s not great considering the iPod Classic’s 36 h playtime and is a function of the AP80 Pro-X’s small form factor (which does not leave space for a larger battery). But you are compensated with a fast 1h recharging.

Most of my power-hungry headphones are single-ended and the AP80 Pro-X had plenty of juice left with the 150 ohm Sennheiser HD 25. The single-ended output also handles the demanding planar-magnetic KBEAR TRI3 Pro with ease so that the more powerful balanced circuit probably plays any iem you throw at it.

DAC Use with Computer

Using the AP80 Pro-X as a “dongle DAC” with my MacBook Air worked very well, too. Particularly, the balanced circuit provides lots of power. When connected, the AP80 Pro-X’s battery is charging during use. Sound quality wise, it corresponds to a $120-150 dongle such as the Hidizs S9 Pro (I actually prefer the AP80 Pro-X’s sound). I was pleasantly surprised overall.

Sound

Equipment used: Sennheiser HD 25, KBEAR TRI3 Pro, Final E3000, IKKO OH10.

Testing Details

My tonal preference and testing practice

My test tracks explained, including Spotify playlist

[collapse]

The AP80 Pro-X has its sound dictated by its prefabricated SoC. It will sound very similar to other devices using the same all-in-one chip. The presentation is neutral without being analytical or edgy. Nothing is boosted, which results in great midrange clarity. Staging is wide with good depth resulting in a decent headroom even with the single-ended circuit. Dynamics is great, the image is vivid. It also has good intimacy.

The single-ended output is good, but the balanced circuit is the star providing superb clarity and headroom…and a truly impressive listening experience. The clarity is adherent to the lack of USB noise in a dap – compared to a phone full of non-audio components. I find the overall sound better than that of my iPhone SE (1st gen.) with the Hidizs S9 Pro dongle.

Amazing what you get for $180 compared to iems at this price.

Hidizs recommends headphones/earphones between 8 and 200 ohm to be used with the AP80 Pro-X. It harmonizes perfectly well with the 150 ohm Sennheiser HD 25 (single ended circuit, high gain) doing justice to the headphone’s punchiness and dynamics. Lots of headroom.

Stepping over the upper limit with the 300 ohm Sennheiser HD 600, the headphone lost is smoothness and richness and became edgy sounding, while still playing loud enough.

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X drives the punchy 150 ohm Sennheiser HD 25 headphones perfectly well.

Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Compared

Two candidates for comparison are the $109 Shanling M0 and the $220 Sony NW-A55.

From left: Shanling M0, Hidizs AP80 Pro-X and Sony NW-A55.

The Shanling M0 features the same SoC as the original Hidizs AP80 Pro and sounds very similar to the “single-ended” AP80 Pro-X, too (I don’t have MQA). The Pro-X has bigger staging and more intimacy. But its balanced circuit with its much bigger headroom and dynamics removed any doubt and puts the Shanling to shame.

The Sony NW-A55 only features a single-ended circuit and sounds somewhat smoother and richer in the midrange, in comparison to the more brittle AP Pro-X. And it has a far superior battery life of >>20h owing to its larger size/bigger battery. The Sony can also be customized with Mr. Walkman firmware tailor the sound to the user’s particular taste.

Hidizs AP80 Pro Review – Value Proposition

Kazi’s review of the Hidizs AP80 Pro.

Concluding Remarks

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X is a versatile and competent dap with proven technology that provides me with lots of pleasure. Particularly its balanced circuit is impressive. As a DAC, it probably beats most budget dongles imo – including the Hidizs S9 Pro. The AP 80 Pro-X sits well in its price category – you probably cannot do better below $200 – which is a sweet spot for many.

Until next time…keep on listening!

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Disclaimer

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Hidizs AP80 Pro Review – Value Proposition

Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir (Munich, Germany) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Pros — Build quality and design
– Hiby OS is rather feature-rich
– Balanced output has good amount of power and no noticeable hiss
– Good staging and mostly neutral presentation
– Generally good value

Cons — Hidizs AP80 Pro has average battery life
– Finicky touch response
– MSEB implementation isn’t the best
– Somewhat dry tonality
– Stock silicone case is horrible

INTRODUCTION

Hidizs have been around the block for a while now, mostly focusing on portable DAC/Amps, dongles, and the occasional DAP/IEM. The AP80 Pro is their update to the original AP80, and it brings in a dual-DAC architecture and a balanced output. The rest of the device is rather intriguing too with DAC support, MQA decoding capabilities, and sporting Hiby OS which has a lot of bells and whistles to tweak the sound.

Without further ado, let’s see if the Hidizs AP80 Pro can justify its $170 price tag.

Note: the ratings given will be subjective to the price tier. Hidizs was kind enough to send me the AP80 Pro for evaluation.

Firmware version: 1.5

IEMs/Headphones used: Final FI-BA-SS/E5000/Sonorous III, Dunu Zen, Campfire Audio Holocene, Meze 12 Classics V2, Etymotic ER2XR

Price, while reviewed: $170. Can be bought from Hidizs website (please note: this is an affiliate link, proceedings will go to a charity of choice)

PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES

The packaging is fairly minimal but you get all that you need to get started: a type-C charging cable, an OTG cable, and a horrible looking silicone case. The case does its job but makes the entire device look ugly which is a shame given the great design. Nothing is left out, but nothing stands out either in terms of supplied accessories.
3.5/5

BUILD QUALITY AND HANDLING

The Hidizs AP80 Pro was quite a bit smaller than I assumed it to be. It fits right in the palm of your hand though the sharp edges can feel uncomfortable. The design is a popular one: aluminium frame sandwiched by two sheets of glass. The screen protectors are pre-applied and that’s a good thing.

The scroll wheel is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s rather sturdy (doesn’t wobble as much as many others) and has defined clicks. However, the clicks feel mushy and the movement has a scratchiness to it. I am nitpicking but hey – I am a bit too particular about rotating knobs.

The playback buttons have good feedback, however, and I love that Hidizs put all the ports at the bottom of the device (unlike many flagship DAPs out there). On the left side you’ll find the microSD card slot (up to 512GB+, absolutely necessary since the Hidizs AP80 Pro lacks in-built storage). The top is bereft of anything.

Overall, the Hidizs AP80 Pro has a good build and the design is rather unique indeed. I do wish the scroll wheel was better (despite using ALPS potentiometer).
4.5/5

DISPLAY AND USER INTERFACE (UI)

The display is a 2.45″ Samsung IPS panel (480*360) with capacitive touch layer underneath. Since the display isn’t laminated, it shows a loss of contrast when viewing from an angle (and not the best under direct sunlight). Display brightness is quite good though, and the pixel density is good enough to hide pixellation from working distance.

The display is good for the price, and Hiby OS is feature rich.

Hiby OS is what Hidizs is using here, and it’s a pretty solid DAP OS. It takes ~10 seconds to boot, and then you go straight into a “launcher” of sorts. Here, you can access the actual music player, or use the FM Radio/Pedometer/BT DAC/eBook reader (why?)/System Settings/About menus. It’s a pretty straightforward launcher though I wish there was a faster way to get back to the launcher screen from within the music player app (right now you have to exit the app and then only you can get to the launcher screen).

I think the most impressive/noteworthy part of the Hiby OS is its MSEB feature. It’s a sort of DSP/Parmetric EQ combo that allows you to fine tune aspects of the output such as warmth/brightness/bass rumble/male vocal thickness and so on. It’s fun to play with if you’re into tweaking the sound of your DAP, and can help in fixing some tonality issues in many IEMs.

However, the implementation here on the AP80 Pro isn’t as good as the one found on Hiby R6 2020, or even the Hiby R3 Pro Saber. Both of those had a more convincing tweak to the sound whereas on the AP80 Pro it feels like you’re just using a multi-band EQ and never really have the same control on shaping the sound.

Sliding up from the bottom of the screen brings a menu that’s not unlike iOS’ Control Center. Here you can adjust the volume/brightness, control playback, and switch Bluetooth on/off, select gain level (low/high), switch between DAC or Storage mode when connected to USB, and finally switch between line-out/headphone output mode. Use the last one with caution though since it just maxes out the volume to reach the nominal 2Vrms output level (it’s not a true line out where there is only voltage gain).

Speaking about the performance of the DAP, it’s pretty good and much better than a certain Fiio M6. However, you won’t get even low-end smartphone level of smoothness. There will be missed swipes and taps and the entire UI runs at 30fps or lower so things won’t be very smooth. It’s absolutely usable though and a far cry from non-touch DAPs like Questyle QP1R in terms of usability.
4/5

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life was about average especially from the balanced out. You get between 8-10 hours of playback based on the device/volume level used mostly due to the 800mAh battery used. This is far from the battery life you get from some competing DAPs, namely Sony NW-A55 (~35 hours) or the Cowon Plenue D (~90 hours, it’s not a typo). In AP80 Pro’s defense – those don’t have quite as much output power or balanced circuitry as the Hidizs DAP. However, we are considering raw battery life only, so it’s an area where Hidizs can do better. The battery charging speed is fairly good though and should top the DAP up within an hour and half.
3/5

PAIRING NOTES

The Hidizs AP80 Pro is not a powerhouse and won’t run the Sennheiser HD600 and the likes well. There’s a noticeable lack of bass extension and slam with the HD650, for example. Final Sonorous III fared much better though the bass wasn’t as well-controlled on the AP80 Pro as it is on desktop sources.

As for IEMs, even with the sensitive Final FI-BA-SS I couldn’t notice any hiss and the sound was fairly dynamic. Dunu Zen had a good pairing though the upper-mid glare was more noticeable here. Best pairing was with the Meze 12 Classics V2 and the Campfire Holocene.

TECH SPECS

Hidizs decided to use the tried and tested Sabre ES9218P DAC chips in dual-DAC configuration, and are using the built-in amp circuit of these DACs. This isn’t a bad thing really since it allows you to get reasonably good amp performance in a small package. I couldn’t find the output impedance figures anywhere though, bummer. Full specs are here.

Hidizs AP80 Pro Specs

TONALITY, TECHNICALITIES, AMP PERFORMANCE

The Hidizs AP80 Pro has a slightly colored tonal profile, with a bit more focus in the bass region and some emphasis in the upper-midrange (a common tonal trait of these ESS chips). There is some dryness in the midrange that makes male vocals sound a bit distant and coarse. This can be somewhat mitigated by the MSEB tweaks but I prefer not to use DSP/EQ too much myself. The bass and treble could be a bit more resolving given the competition.

The best part about the AP80 Pro’s sound signature has to be its soundstage which is quite wide and never feels closed-in even with IEMs that can feel narrow on some DAPs. Imaging isn’t as accurate as higher-tier DAPs but for the price I don’t expect much better. Separation is also very good provided you have a resolving enough IEM.

Speaking about amp performance, the balanced output was powerful enough to drive the Final E5000 quite loudly, but the E5000 didn’t have quite the bass control that you can get on something like Questyle QP1R/Apogee Groove. Also the balanced output won’t run pesky planars, though some low-end planars like Hifiman HE-400se sounded alright.

Still, for these headphones I’d recommend a desk amp. The balanced output also has better channel separation. I’d personally recommend using the balanced output on the AP80 Pro since it’s noticeably better than the single-ended output.

All in all, the Hidizs AP80 Pro is a good performer for the price bracket. It has good staging and separation capabilities but doesn’t stand out in the other performance criterion. The amp section is fairly powerful from the balanced out but won’t run high impedance headphones that well so it’s mostly for moderately sensitive IEMs and headphones.
4/5

SELECT COMPARISONS

vs Hiby R3 Pro Saber ($210): At $40 extra, the Hiby R3 Pro Saber gives you WiFI capabilities (supports Tidal playback) and a more powerful balanced out. It also noticeably increases the battery life. You do lose out on the superior industrial design of the AP80 Pro and the Hidizs DAP has a better display.

That’s all on paper though. In terms of absolute sound quality, I can’t really notice much difference between them. The Hiby R3 Pro Saber has a bit more sterile tone (not a good thing in my book) but counterbalances that with better MSEB implementation (also the OS is more feature-rich on the Hiby R3 Pro Saber). The extra output power is handy if you want to push some higher impedance headphones but with most IEMs this extra power didn’t really matter.

In terms of specs, the $40 extra for the R3 Pro Saber is well worth it. However, if you’re after absolute sound quality and not the extra bit of power and can live without Tidal playback, the Hidizs AP80 Pro will give similar performance at a lower cost.

vs Sony NW-A55 ($200): I’ll say it outright – the Sony NW-A55 is my most favorite DAP around the $200 price bracket. It’s got a great industrial design, the display is fabulous, the UI is snappy, and the sound signature is gorgeous (as Gordon Ramsey would say). The best part about them are the modded firmware by a certain MrWalkman and they bring different tuning to the stock signature.

The Sony DAP is hard to find (it’s biggest con), lacks balanced output, and doesn’t have a lot of output power. Oh, it also uses the forsaken WMPort so you gotta carry that cable around. Battery life is exceptional though at ~35-40 hours of playback. Standby times are also excellent as I rarely turn it off and still have enough juice left for on the go use.

As for sound, the Sony NW-A55 reigns supreme in midrange rendition. The mids on the Sony DAP is unlike anything you’ll hear in this range and has a analogue-ish feel to it. The bass and treble is about similar on both DAPs, though I felt the bass to have slightly better texture on the A55. Staging and separation is where the AP80 Pro pulled ahead. Also, Sony NW-A55 doesn’t have anything like MSEB (though it has Sony’s own proprietary DSP based tricks).

Between these two, I’ll personally pick the Sony NW-A55. If you need a balanced out and more bells and whistles – the Hidizs AP80 Pro may be a better fit for your use-case.

vs Fiio M6 ($150): The Fiio M6 is horrible in almost every aspect. The Hidizs AP80 Pro is far superior. Please avoid the Fiio and save yourself hours of frustration. Thank you.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Looking at the rest of the <$200 DAP market, the Hidizs AP80 Pro seems like a good value proposition. I don’t see a major weakness here. The issues I have are not really deal-breakers and competing DAPs have similar/worse problems. The display is good, the UI has quite a lot of features, and the design is a standout.

The middling battery life and the finicky touch response are the only sore points. Among its competitors, I do have a soft spot for the Sony NW-A55, but if you want better staging and separation over a more refined midrange tonality – the Hidizs AP80 Pro will serve you better than most other DAPs in this range.

MY VERDICT

4/5

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Cayin N6ii with E01/T01/A01 Motherboards – A Comprehensive Review

Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir (Munich, Germany) — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Pros — Build quality befitting the price-tag.
– Mostly Stock Android 8.1 with full Play Store support
– Swappable motherboards with new modules coming out even in 2021
– Overall excellent sound quality with ample output power, esp with the E01/T01 motherboards

Cons — Cayin N6ii has poor battery life with the E01/T01 motherboards exacerbated by standby battery drain
– Archaic SD425 CPU is neither frugal nor performant
– Very aggressive background process management renders 4GB of RAM useless
– New motherboards are pricey

INTRODUCTION

Cayin knows their stuff.

Unlike many recent Chinese brands, they have been around for quite a while. They’ve been focusing on the portable market recently, and the Cayin N6ii is their latest offering (which is a successor to the original N6).

The new model ditches the awkward look of the original and settles for a more traditional candybar style. Meanwhile, it also brings in an Android-based UI/UX, offers a properly modular ecosystem with swappable motherboards that change the entire DAC/Amp circuitry along with the available outputs, and bumps the price accordingly because of course.

Cayin was kind enough to send me the N6ii as part of the review tour (courtesy of Andy Kong), and it retails for ~1500 euros here in Germany. There are currently three motherboards available: A01, T01, and E01, with prices ranging from $300–400 or so.

Yeah, that’s quite a steep price of admission, but does the sound quality live up to it? Let’s find out.

N.B. All relevant specs are here. Don’t wanna bore y’all with walls of numbers.

Note: the ratings given will be subjective to the price tier. The Cayin N6ii was sent as part of a review tour kindly organized by Andy Kong. Disclaimer

Price, while reviewed: $1200 (with E02 motherboard)

IEMs/Headphones used: Final E5000/E4000/E3000/E1000, Cayin YB-04, Tin T4, IMR R1 Zenith, MeeAudio Pinnacle P1, Audeze iSine10, Dunu SA6/Zen, Sennheiser IE40 Pro/HD650.

CAYIN N6ii: PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES

Many seem to demand a premium unboxing experience when it comes to flagship/Top-of-the-Line product, and they do have a fair point: if you are spending a premium, you should expect a special treat. Cayin takes care of that rather well.

The box itself is quite big and heavy and has dense foam-padding inside to protect the device. You get all the necessities: a type-C charging cable, a leatherette case with red stitching (pretty cool in person), a 2.5mm-4.4mm balanced adapter, some plastic screen protectors (not a fan of those myself, looks cheap and gets smudgy after a while) along with a tempered one, and finally loads of paperwork for you to admire.

I can’t seem to think any other major omissions, and while the accessories are not of exceptionally high quality (the tempered glass protector doesn’t cover the entire display) they do the job just fine.
4/5

BUILD QUALITY

For such a high price tag, you expect impeccable build and fortunately Cayin delivers, for the most part. The whole device feels very dense, premium, *enter words synonymous to luxury*. Both the front and back of the device is covered by tempered glass (not the premium Corning Glass, which is a bummer) and this ensures RF transparency. Unfortunately, I found the applied oleophobic coating to be inadequate as the device started to get smudgy real quick without the screen protector, which you should be using anyways due to the top display being slightly curved and lifted off of the side-rails (thus making it more vulnerable to face-down drops).

At this point, I should mention that the sand-blasted finish that Cayin opted for is absolutely awesome. It feels great in the hand and adds some character to the otherwise (subjectively) boring design.

On the right side you get all the buttons: a circular volume dial flanked by ridges to avoid accidental activation (which doesn’t work well, as we shall see soon), and it also doubles as a lock/power switch (activated via pressing inwards).

Then, you get the row of forward/play-pause/backward buttons. On the left side, you get the solitary micro-SD slot. I can already hear groans of those who prefer two SD card slots, so tough luck mates. The bottom of the device houses the type-C (thankfully!) port and the I2S (Inter-IC Sound) port, which is rarely seen on DAPs. This can be very handy if you intend to use the Cayin N6ii as a transport, as I2S doesn’t suffer from jitter issues that plague optical outputs. More info on I2S here.

One thing to note on the back is the two Torx T5 screws on the top left/right corners. These can be taken out to pull the motherboard out of the device (by pressing against the small ridge). Do make sure to turn the device off before doing so to avoid possible bricking/other issues.

Finally, we get to the top — and here are all those nifty output jacks, or jack if you are using the E01 motherboard (spoiler: my favorite one of the bunch).
While I like the overall build quality and port selections, I have a few qualms with overall attention to detail, which you expect in such a flagship. The bezels around the display, for one, are asymmetric, and it triggers my OCD right away.

Then there is the motherboard swapping mechanism. It is not the most user-friendly as the motherboard doesn’t slide on any rails and it’s basically very stiff overall. The T01 motherboard can be easily removed via attaching a headphone jack and then pulling against the jack itself, but the E01 motherboard doesn’t offer such hack and you have to struggle to get it out. This stiffness somewhat mars the otherwise excellently executed modularity aspect of the device. Perhaps a spring-loaded/assisted mechanism could have had helped here, but obviously that would make the inner design more complicated.
4.5/5

DISPLAY

The display at 4.2″ and 1280*768 pixels won’t blow you away if you are using a mid-range smartphone, but considering the DAPs of yesteryear this is a major improvement. It’s IPS, got decent viewing angles, has very good sunlight legibility and also has a pretty dim minimum brightness as to not blind you while using in the dark. The pixel density of 355ppi is enough for most I’d say (it’s above what Apple used to tout as Retina for those keeping count) and while the colors seem a bit washed out — this is a marked improvement. There is a small circular dot beneath the display that acts as a home-button/back key combo of sorts. It also houses a white LED that breathes while charging.

My biggest peeve here: those bezels on the side. It irks me every time I notice them in the daylight. Perhaps I’m too used to the ever-shrinking bezels of the smartphones, but I still think the DAP manufacturers can use better screens on their flagships products, esp AMOLED displays might provide some benefit with battery life as long as dark mode is used throughout.
4/5

Cayin N6ii has a pretty good display

HANDLING

At ~290gm, the Cayin N6ii will make its presence known — be it in your pocket or in the palms of your hand. The smaller footprint (compared to most smartphones nowadays) somewhat helps in handling, though it is counterbalanced by the 22mm thickness which reminds me of the good ol’ Nokia phones.

That thickness is required it seems with the modular motherboards and everything, so I won’t be too picky about that. There are other bones to pick, as it stands, with the prime culprit being those playback control button cluster on the right side. They are too trigger-happy and gets pressed randomly (esp when inside the case). Due to the weight of the device, you may often put pressure on the buttons during general handling and as a result it becomes rather annoying.

Fortunately, you can turn them off when the device is locked via Settings (Settings -> Lockscreen Button Settings -> Play/next/prev -> Turn off). This, however, is a poor solution since one of the reasons why many enjoy using their DAPs is that button trio.

Another issue is the volume wheel that scrolls often when, again, trying to pull them out of the pocket. They are fine while using the device in hand. However, I have turned off both these buttons while the device is locked to preserve my sanity. At least the buttons are clicky with good feedback and the volume wheel has satisfyingly crisp steps.

Finally, the positioning of the headphone out. Putting it on top means that the wire adds extra strain on the port while handling the device, and also a readjustment of grip is mandatory every time you pull it out of the pocket. Minor issue, but these niggles add over time.
3.5/5

UI/RESPONSIVENESS

Welcome to Android, everyone! Which means, welcome to all its flexibility, functions and the pain-points it brings along. Cayin is using Android 8.1 which would be unacceptable on any phone in 2020 but since it’s a DAP — all is well. /s

First up: boot times. It takes about 22 seconds to go from cold boot to fully mounting the SD card and being ready to go. This is not too bad by any means given there is a paltry Snapdragon 425 CPU here along with 4GB of RAM (my LG G7 for example takes ~15s to boot up, running an SD845). This, however, doesn’t bode well to those who prefer to turn the DAP off when not using it and turning it on again to conserve battery. This is part of the trade-off of running Android though and one I guess many won’t mind.

Next up: navigation, and this is where I encountered the first hurdle. Cayin apparently wants you to go with “one-button navigation” with the small circle at the bottom acting as a home/back button combo. A short press takes you back one level, and a long press takes you back home.

Simple, innit?

Not really.

Because to go into multitasking view, guess what, you have to swipe up from the bottom edge. This inconsistency leads to a somewhat jarring experience for those who’ve been using Android for a while with the traditional navigational cluster. The button is also placed awkwardly around the bottom edge of the front with a large blank space between itself and the display and that definitely spoils the aesthetic somewhat.

Fortunately Cayin allowed full access to Google Play Store services by default (unlike certain other manufacturers) and it works as expected. I could easily log in to my Google account, install Tidal and call it a day. It also comes with HiBy Music preinstalled which many seem to prefer. And that’s about it. No bloatware (though that odd browser named Via is a potential candidate) and mostly stock-ish build of Android apart from some curious omissions (no search function in Settings, for example).

The overall operation is mostly smooth, but issues crop up every now and then. Despite having such large amount of RAM, apps often disappear/relaunch due to aggressive background task management (likely employed to conserve battery, still a giant pain). Initially there were a lot of bugs in the SW but Cayin has ironed out most of the kinks over time via OTA firmware upgrades. I really wish Cayin used a better processor instead of the SD425 though, something like SD636 would have increased the overall fluidity many folds.
4/5

CONNECTIVITY

You get the much needed Wi-FI (dual-band ac, of course) and Bluetooth (sadly of the 4.2 variety and not 5.0). Reception is decent, and BT range is satisfactory and supports LDAC. There’s type-C and S/PDIF and the aforementioned I2S. All bases are covered and unless you really need 4G/cellular support for some reason this is kind of as complete as it gets (barring BT 5.0).
4.5/5

BATTERY LIFE

Prima facie, one would expect N6 II to have great battery life given the mammoth ~6000mAh battery. That’s almost twice as much as most smartphones and, on paper, should see you throw at least half a week.

Reality is different, sadly. First up, the standby batter drain is quite odd as the phone seemingly drains battery even when turned off. Secondly, during regular operation, depending on the motherboard, the battery can go flat within 6–7 hrs of playback.

If you want the best battery life, you gotta stick to the A01 motherboard as both the (sonically superior, IMO) T01 and E01 motherboards suck the juice faster than a honey-bee. Typically you should last around 3 days on a charge if you listen to music/stream them online via Tidal/Spotify on the A01. The T01 is the worst of the bunch from my experience, with the older design chipset being a total power-hog and I had to run to the charger barely a day and half later. The E01 fared slightly better and you might get an additional hour of playback’s worth, but even then it’s mostly around the 7–8 hours of playback mark.

The battery also takes quite a while to charge due to the massive capacity. It apparently supports Quick Charge 3.0 as per Cayin, but AFAIK the SD425 supported only QC 2.0. Either way, there is some form of Quick Charging so I can’t complain, albeit it still takes ages to get to 100% and something akin to Xiaomi or Oppo/OnePlus’ ultra-fast charging tech would likely be needed in similar future products.

Granted, the E01 is running a desktop DAC chip (ESS 9038Pro) and also operating in discrete class-A (switching to the A/B mode improves battery life by a further hour and half or so). Still, that doesn’t explain the standby battery drain and overall poor standby power management. For such a massive battery, this is a disappointing performer.
3/5

AMP MODULES

We gotta talk about them amp modules.

The A01 is running the AK4497EQ chipset, the T01 is using a dual PCM1792A (similar to the original N6) and the E01 has the highest specced DAC-chip of them all: the ESS9038Pro.

Each module comes with a T5 screwdriver to help in unmounting the old motherboard and installing the new one. The motherboard themselves only go in one way, so no option to mess up the direction. They use a connector that’s eerily similar to the Mini PCI-E connectors of the old.

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The T01 motherboard with dual Burr-brown DAC chip

Each motherboard also comes with their own set of output array and reconstruction filter settings. The T01, running the oldest chipset, has the least amount of reconstruction filter options, while the E01 has too many of them to keep count of. A01 is in somewhat the middle of the road in terms of options. The E01 lacks balanced out, while both the A01 and T01 has a 4.4mm balanced out (that has more output power and apparently better “separation”, though I couldn’t quite hear any improvement on that regard).

I initially decided not to try and describe the “sound” of each motherboard because frankly, it’s quite impossible (for me at least) to “remember” the sonic characteristics of each of them as just swapping the motherboard itself takes at least a few minutes. Auditory memory is hardly reliable and thus I decided to go with the highest specced and seemingly “best sounding” motherboard — the E01. Even then, I’d try to rummage through some notes I made about each motherboard.

A01 IMPRESSIONS

A01 didn’t sound anything special, frankly, so it was out after 10 minutes or so. It was too warm and colored sounding to my ears. Some may like it with specific IEM/headphone pairings (e.g. bright ones) but in general I found it to be the weakest offering among the three motherboards.

T01 IMPRESSIONS

T01 had the most dynamic presentation and definitely has a very fun signature. The coloration here is akin to the ones A&K players have: north of neutral yet tastefully done. The balanced out also has a lot of power in tow. Staging is widest with this motherboard as well (from memory, take with some salt). However, this motherboard is very power hungry, esp from the balanced out.

E01 IMPRESSIONS

E01 had the “smoothest” signature of them all, and I love myself some class-A goodness. It’s also got a bit of warmth to the overall signature but doesn’t veer too far off of neutrality and pairs well with any IEM. The power is lower than the T01 in terms of absolute volume but frankly it drives most headphones and IEMs excellently (barring those pesky inefficient planars). The E01 also sounds different between class-A and class-A/B mode. The A/B mode had a bit more dynamism but didn’t sound as tone-neutral as the class-A mode and also sounded a bit edgier in the treble region to my ears.

For the rest of the review, I will mostly describe the sound with the E01 motherboard as it is the one I liked the most and given the short tour period, the only one I could assess in a long-term nature.

SOUND SIGNATURE ANALYSIS

Motherboard used: E01
Filter used: Apodizing
Gain: High

Most of the critical listening was done with the HD650.

The first thing you notice with these is the lack of hiss. Even with my most sensitive IEM (JVC FX700) I could barely hear a very faint white noise when pushing the volume up very high. Job well done, Cayin, though for that price — it better be well done!

Next up is the quality of the mid-range rendition. I am very particular about vocals and Cayin doesn’t disappoint. No oddities in the vocal texture/breathing and everything sounds as it should, though there is a certain emphasis on the mid-range that’s difficult to miss. Instrument separation is good, but doesn’t stand out like certain desktop setups. The best thing about its sound though is how addictive it gets with the E01 motherboard after a while. It’s also not too revealing of poorly mastered tracks, which might or might not be a good thing depending on your preference and associated gears.

Frankly, if you are going by measurements alone, the Cayin N6ii gets trounced by the likes of iBasso DX160. However, that player doesn’t quite sound as enjoyable as the N6ii does with the E01/T01 motherboard. Dynamics are on a different level on the Cayin and I believe that’s what Cayin focused the most on while tuning this one.

Despite all this, you might feel disappointed with the lack of good PEQ support, or lack of any DSP effects like JetEffects (Cowon got that one absolutely nailed down). If you want to change the sonic profile, aside from swapping out the entire motherboard you’re straight outta luck, and that’s a massive bummer. Changing filters help, but lack of DSP options that competition offers is a slight letdown.
4.5/5

AMP PERFORMANCE

The amp performance varies depending upon which motherboard you install.

And then it also depends on the app you’re using. Talk about oddities.

On the stock music player, the amp seems to have a higher/full gain, while on other apps like Tidal/YT Music the amp gain is reduced. I don’t know why this behavior is there as apparently Cayin bypasses the resampling of stock Android audio pipeline via something they call Direct Transport Audio (DTA). Nonetheless, it’s yet another peculiarity to add to the growing list.

The volume scale is out of 100, which is good. I don’t get the point of 120/140 volume steps for the most part, so kudos Cayin. Using the HD650, on the stock player, I need about 62/100 to get to good listening volumes. This value reaches to ~72 on Tidal/YT Music. On the Final E5000, I need ~45 on the stock player, while ~55 steps seem to take care of it in Tidal. It’s quite annoying really to have to switch volumes the moment you switch apps and something I hope Cayin sorts out in a future FW upgrade.

If you need more power, the balanced output on A01/T01 will cater you better, even though those as well fall short of driving power-hungry planars perfectly. Stuff like HE4XX will run just fine, but more inefficient planar designs won’t reach their full potential. For such a portable device, however, I guess I can’t really complain with the power output here. It’s not exceptional, but it’s plenty for the most part.
4/5

SELECT COMPARISONS

vs Questyle QP1R (discontinued): The QP1R is my personal go-to DAP for daily use, and is one of the few DAPs with class-A amplification built-in. It uses an older chipset, however, being almost four years old. I personally like the design on the QP1R more, and there are reasons for that. The volume knob is nearly impossible to activate accidentally, and it’s build even better than the Cayin N6ii in a sense with the Gorilla glass panels on the back and front (instead of regular tempered glass on the Cayin) being “embossed” into the aluminium casing itself. However, the navigation and overall operation is archaic and cumbersome compared to the far more modern N6ii. It also lacks the Balanced output (A01) and A/B amplification mode switching (E01) of the Cayin DAP, along with the modularity aspect.

In terms of sound, the E01 motherboard has more output power than the QP1R, though it’s not as huge a difference as it shows on the specs. Both can drive low sensitivity IEMs or high impedance headphones like the HD650 to satisfying volumes and plenty of bass punch. What they can’t do, however, is deal with inefficient planars, at least not that well. Sound signature is largely similar on them, and the slight differences I noticed at times may be attributed to the slightly higher output impedance on the Cayin N6ii (0.15ohm vs 0.6ohm). Sonically, both are very similar when volume matched in class-A. In A/B mode the Cayin has more energetic albeit a tad unrefined signature, so it’s the class-A mode that I cared about.

In short, the Cayin N6ii seems like a natural upgrade to the Questyle QP1R. As Questyle has stuck with their awkward-at-best navigation system even on the latest QPM, the Cayin N6ii will offer a viable upgrade path to those who want to use streaming services without losing the sound quality of the Questyle player(s).

vs A&K KANN Alpha ($1000): The A&K KANN Alpha is a very interesting A&K offering in the sense that it doesn’t cost “as much” as their other premium DAPs and manages to sound nearly as good as those higher-tier offerings. A&K offers an unique coloration (their house sound) which is more of a love/hate thing. I personally love that particular take on sound and the KANN Alpha is indeed one of my most favorite DAPs in the price range.

In terms of build quality, both are excellent. UI/Responsiveness goes to Cayin N6ii though as the Kann Alpha can be a bit of a pain to use. Handling is awkward with both of these DAPs due to their sheer weight and size. Battery life is better on the Kann Alpha, however.

As for the sound, the Cayin N6ii+E01 is a more balanced, neutral presentation compared to the larger-than-life presentation that the KANN Alpha offers. Staging is wider on the KANN Alpha and the background details are slightly pushed forward. Dynamics are similar on both. Where the Cayin N6ii wins is the bass texture and midrange rendition. Vocals on the N6ii are an absolute treat. Treble was also extremely natural on the Cayin N6ii where coloration was more evident on the Kann Alpha. Output power is also higher on the KANN Alpha and if you want to drive full size cans the KANN Alpha is a better option. I did find the N6ii to have slightly better layering with the E01 motherboard.

Overall, I like both of these DAPs and find the Cayin N6ii + E01 combo more of a compliment to the A&K KANN Alpha than a competitor. The T01 module is another story though and given the overall increase in battery life I prefer the KANN Alpha to the Cayin N6ii + T01 combo. Do keep in mind that the modularity of the N6ii ensures that you can try different motherboards for different pairings, something the KANN Alpha doesn’t offer (you need to go for the A&K Futura SE180).

vs Lotoo PAW 6000 ($1500): The Lotoo player is positioned differently from the Cayin N6ii. It doesn’t have a smart OS, it doesn’t have swappable motherboards, and it doesn’t have as much output power as the Cayin player. it does, however, have much faster boot times, better battery life/handling, and a near-reference presentation. The way the Lotoo PAW 6000 delivers bass notes is something unique to it: rich, full of texture, and every subtlety can be felt (given a suitable headphone/earphone of course). Staging is also wider on the LP6K and its ability to portray micro-details is simply unmatched in the price class. Moreover, the DSP effects and PEQ options are very handy.

The Cayin N6ii on the other hand goes for a more relaxed presentation (with E01) and pairs better with brighter IEMs/heapdhones than the Lotoo PAW 6000. Microdynamics are also slightly better on the N6ii though these are marginal, negligible differences.

It’s hard to pick one for me since I like both of these DAPs. If offline playback is what you do mostly I’d probably pick the Lotoo PAW 6000 since it’s focused solely towards music playback with no smartphone-like distractions. For the streamers out there, N6ii with E01/E02/T01 can be more appealing. In terms of sheer sound quality though, you won’t go wrong with either.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In the end, the Cayin N6ii faces all the trials and tribulations any flagship device faces, and is accursed by the fruitless exercise of chasing perfection. So, Cayin focused on the sound tuning, and while this is not a benchmark champ, I can’t quite find any faults with it sound signature, no matter which IEM/Headphone I throw at it. Barring a few notoriously difficult to drive headphones — this will make your gears sound as well as they are capable of with more than enough volume. The switchable motherboards also bring lots of possibilities. Not to mention: the stellar build quality. This is definitely one of the best sounding players out there under the $1500 mark.

While I can’t fault N6ii in the sound and build department, the rest of it is rather bland. The design is mundane and with the asymmetrical bezels and home button placement this is far from a trend-setter. Some may scoff at just one microSD slot (though 500GB+ SD cards are available), while others like me might have issues with the trigger-happy playback button cluster/headphone out location.

The biggest issue might arise with the battery and the OS though. Also, using a rather old 28nm(!) node obviously doesn’t help with power management. A much newer SoC e.g. SD636 would not only have made the DAP much faster while operating, but also have cut down the power draw by quite a margin.

Despite all the caveats, I crave for the N6ii. It doesn’t check all the boxes, but it checks the most important one — sound quality.

The Cayin N6ii will likely suit them who are willing to pay the price for one of the best sounding portable devices out there. The competition is stiff, but given the overall sound quality and flexibility on offer, it’s hard to go wrong with the Cayin N6ii (with E01 motherboard, for me).

MY VERDICT

4.25/5

Recommended with the E01/T01 motherboards

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Questyle QP1R – Welcome In!

Alberto Pittaluga (Bologna, Italy) — Tue, 11 May 2021 04:00:00 +0000

The $899 Questyle QP1R is one of those very few products that go beyond the expectation built around them – which is double as significant if I consider I was spoken quite highly of it before acquiring it. This article is about my practical experience with it, and why it will very likely stay as a cornerstone of my audiophile infrastructure for quite a long while I reckon.

At-a-glance Card

PROs	CONs
High end DAC competence featuring top clean, detailed, micro-dynamized analog-timbred presentation	Prehistoric-age UI / UX
Class-A amplifier operations delivering spectacular sound quality	Buggy battery status indication and EQ modules
Proprietary Current Mode Amplification technology yielding superior biasing competence on IEMs including high demanding ones	Very limited connectivity features
Crystalline quality coax/optical line out option	Unenticing battery autonomy
Dual TF card support

Do I need a DAP?

Audio life after owning an Apogee Groove becomes a bit more complicated in a sense. Do I want to go back to lower quality output, even in exchange for better portability, or more collateral features?

The question actually admits more answers than it might seem at first tought, in consideration of what one really wants or needs.

In my specific case I don’t commute on my way to/from work for one. Also, I currently suspended all business travel due the pandemic and it will take quite longtime before I resume that. My job doesn’t allow me to listen to music while working. For all these reasons I’m sharply inclined to get the real best audio quality out of the always-too-short-time I can dedicate to music listening, which most frequently happens in a quite, controlled space such as at home, in the evenings, or at work, during lunchbreak, or few other instances.

So in short: while at home Apogee Groove it is. What else? If something, I might need to add a desktop amp to that but that’s another story. But no need for a DAP at home, really.

How about on the go?

Well… Apogee Groove is a relatively power-demanding battery-less dac-amp, a “fat dongle” I might call it, and as such a still quite compact and lightweight thing. So option #1 for mobile use is… still the Groove! Wherever my laptop can follow me, that’s a very viable option, the main one really.

How about something actually pocketable? Like a DAP, in facts.

I used to own an Hiby R5 but that’s not an option anymore. Don’t take me wrong, I still believe R5 is worth its money as a complete device – mostly due to its huge feature set, connectivity, etc, all at a reasonably moderate price. It’s just me: simply put, I grew past it. Sound quality off the Groove is just so uncomparably better I just can’t listen to something so obviously less clean, resolved, detailed, and musical anymore.

So I sold the R5. The guy who grabbed it from ebay scored a good deal, I tell ya.

And before you ask: no, I still do prefer not to use my phone as an all-in-one device. I use the smartphone as a phone and an internet device and I prefer to keep it as is. Also, I don’t really care about Tidal or other subscription based music streaming service, as most of the music I like is not there anyway, which takes away a very solid reason to a smartphone being directly or indirectly involved in the game. I’m not there, no.

It needs to be a(nother) DAP.

Not the tinyest, I don’t care about ultra-pocketablity – I’m a couch potato, I don’t go jogging or gymming anyway.

Not the widest connected either – see above.

It “just” needs to sound superbly well while playing lossless hires “stuff” from local TF cards. For as little as it seems, this is not easy – if the minimum reference is a Groove. As a matter of facts I auditioned quite a few mainstream brand (Hiby, Shanling, Fiio) models in the sub-€1000 arena. Nothing good for my “new” tastes there.

Then I followed a friend’s rec, and I eyed a recently discontinued model by a chinese manufacturer of higher-end equipment: Questyle. After some watching around I eventually landed a good deal on a pre-loved QP1R unit, a model originally released back in 2015. A very well cared-of sample in spite of its 4 years of age… and here I am.

What the … !

It takes 10 seconds listen to determine that sound-wise QP1R runs circles around all other “chifi” DAPs I ever tried. Double-circles, actually, around my previous R5.

For almost everything else – usability, connectivity, features – instead, the exact opposite is the case. But let’s keep this for later.

Sound reconstruction superiority vs low and mid-tier chifi DAPs is so huge that comparing QP1R to them seems by and large inappropriate, useless and misleading. The difference in terms of clarity, detail, stage, imaging is gigantic. QP1R’s DAC belongs to a totally different quality league, period.

From the DAC performance standpoint, the cheapest DAP device I auditioned which I can honestly call comparable to QP1R is Lotoo Paw 6000. A much cheaper one – Sony NW-A55, upgraded with Mr Walkman’s firmware – is not playing in the same ballpark with QP1R, yet solidly in the one just below. All other “usual suspects” fall instead into the just-forget-about-this category, in comparison.

Taking DAC-AMP devices in considerations, I’d say QP1R comes accross almost as clean and similarly musical compared to Apogee Groove, which still has the lead in terms of spatial drawing though.

QP1R is also detailing approximately at Chord Mojo level. Another similarity vs Mojo is on tonality, which is warm-ish.

QP1R sound is clean, impactful, detailed but most of all unbelievably dynamic. Amongst all its numerous positive sound features micro dynamism is no doubt QP1R’s most stunning and possibly unique point. After auditioning devices 5 times its historical list price I still have to find something “really” superior on that aspect.

“Musicality” is also a very evident feature of QP1R voicing, and that’s an effect that comes out even a tad more evident than from the Groove, and that’s saying something.

QP1R reconstruction filter’s ringing envelope is quite elongated after the pulse. That’s the origin for its mellow timbre.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/questyle-audio-qp1r-hi-rez-portable-player-measurements

Someone labelled that “analogue”, which in lack of more precise wordage I feel can give a good hint into what I’m trying to convey. Going back to Mojo, that is by comparison edgier – not sharply and offensive overall, it never is, I’m just saying relative to QP1R or Groove – thus offering a “higher detailing sensation”.

Also, Mojo’s very special ability on closing the sound level gap between front and back sound lines by comparison makes the latter on QP1R come through as less loud and therefore detailed. This is Mojo’s kinda unique specialty though, not the other way around.

In terms of spatiality QP1R is I’d say on par with the Mojo, which is good, miles better than more ordinary devices, although still quite a pretty step south of Groove’s totally special capacity to render the impalpable sensation of the actual stage size. I’ll have to live with that I’m afraid.

Current Mode Amplification

What I described until now is mainly QP1R’s capabilities as a DAC.

Oh by the way: a very nice feat is also QP1R’s line out option. By just connecting a 3.5mm cable into it the device automatically switches into Line Out mode (1.9V RMS), no need to click/tap any options in the GUI – very handy! Also, the port itself is a multi-mode port: it accepts both copper and optical connections, depending on the adapter which is being used.

Coming to the headphone output option, QP1R only offers single-ended connectivity. Its superior quality nudges me to give justice to those more expert than me who noted “you’ll find balanced output better than single ended only until you’ll start attaining higher-tier devices, where single ended output is implemented competently enough in the first place”. Balanced topology, in other words, is often adopted on mobile and/or budget-tier devices to partially overcome some structural limitations, so to say, and it becomes way less important once you build the foundation better from day one.

Fact is: QP1R 3.5mm phone out sounds lovely. Clean and transparent in respect to what its internal DAC module is offering, and superbly competent in coping even with the most capricious IEMs on the opposite end.

Of course by sound cleanness I’m not referring to lack of audible background noise, which is kind of obvious and after all quite common, even on lower tier devices. Clean sound decodes into QP1R’s ability to pass the whopping soundstage expansion and spectacular separation and imaging which the DAC module is capable of along to the drivers, unharmed.

This is certainly due to its well engineered class-A amp module, adopting Questyle’s own proprietary (and patented) technology called Current Mode Amplification. A description can be found here: https://www.questyle.com/en/technology. It’s an interesting read, I do recommend you take it.

These are the official specs:

Gain = High
Max Output Amplitude: Vout=1.9V rms
Output Power: 40mW@32Ω

Gain = Middle
Max Output Amplitude: Vout=1V rms
Output Power: 31mW@32Ω

Gain = Low
Max Output Amplitude: Vout=0.53V rms
Output Power: 8.8mW@32Ω

Output Impedance: 0.15 Ω

Apart for the very low Output Impedance, which is of course a major plus when dealing with IEMs, these output power figures appear nothing less than “ridiculous” (8,8mW on a 32Ω load??) compared to those of many low end daps, and of some phones too.

Nothing could be more misleading. I frequently rotate a total of 7 different IEMs on QP1R and the sole one which hints me to choose Mid gain is – you guessed it – final E5000. All the others are perfectly & fully dynamically driven by Low gain.

As too few people still know, an amp’s cability is not even remotely completely described by its “(milli) Watts” power figure. I won’t write a treaty here. Long story short: headphones (all of them) require current to make their transducers vibrate and produce sound. High impedance drivers require relatively little current, but higher voltages to work best. Low (sub 32 Ohm) impedance drivers – like those inside IEMs – require more current in comparison and they must be applied very low voltages to work best (or at all!). QP1R’s Continuous Current Drive technology is designed to deliver the right “form” of amplification to the various different drivers, with particular regards to low impedance ones.

While I’m at it, High Gain is the least desireable option on QP1R: dynamic range is perceivably contracted there, so it’s good that it turns out not to be vital to exploit it, at least for my selected drivers’ range. Luckily, I encountered no IEM (yes, planars included) really requiring High Gain from QP1R.

Everything else

All of the above said about sound, QP1R is – simply put – the antithesis of modernity and convenience in terms of connectivity, features and ergonomics. On all these counts, it’s actually a fossil if there’s one, let’s say it clearly.

Connectivity:

No Wifi: so forget OTA upgrades, DLNA access to servers, Tidal, Qobuz etc
Outdated BT, and exclusively dedicated to TWS driver connectivity
USB DAC-IN available: QP1R can be connected to a USB host and be used as an external DAC-AMP
No digital output (not even USB DAC-OUT) available
No analog input available
3.5mm single ended phone output
3.5mm multi-mode (Coax/Toslink) line out

Storage

Internal memory. Capacity depends on model release. My unit has 32GB available. USB connection to a PC is required to read/write files on that partition, at an incredibly sluggish, turtle-level speed, too.
Dual TF card. Officially supporting 128GB cards, I could successfully use 512GB cards though. Database reconstruction after card swap is quite fast, at least that.

UI / UX and sw features

Calling it primitive is making a big and honeestly undeserved compliment.
No touch screen
An infuriatingly badly engineered scrollwheel (where’s my iPod1?)
A totally buggy visual battery charge indicator (even on latest firmware)
Very limited Graphical EQ capabilities, and not well working either
No Parametric EQ nor any other sound shaping features

Battery

Dramatically undersized
No more than 8 hours autonomy (with a brand-new battery…)
A short sleep timeout setting is recommended, as the Class-A amp will equally consume juice while playing or not…

Apogee Groove Review – Changing The Budget Game For Good (since 2015)

Conclusions

QP1R sounds unbelievably good. I extended the most sincere thanks to the friend who recommended it to me. He anticipated I would find it good, indeed I found it much more than good.

QP1R sound is nothing short than gorgeous. It’s clean, detailed, extended, musical. It also features a quite unique “analogue” timbre. In terms of amping it supports all low or moderate impedance loads I tried on it with the sole exception of my Shure SRH1540 – which are a bad client per se honestly.

Stunning sound quality apart, as I mentioned above pretty much all the rest … requires a lot of patience! QP1R is a sort of dinosaur, pretty much that.

I was looking for a no-compromise, higher-end-sounding DAP at a still reasonably affordable price, and that’s what I got. QP1R delivers that, only that, and I’m totally fine with it.

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Cayin N3Pro Full Review: The Chameleon

Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir (Munich, Germany) — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 07:02:00 +0000

Pros — Great build quality and ergonomics
– Tube mode offers a very different flavor of sound: colored yet engaging/fun
– Little hiss in tube mode suitable for sensitive IEMs
– Good connectivity options and MQA full unfolding

Cons — Average battery life
– Display could be better
– People looking for a neutral sound will be disappointed/not for neutralheads
– Poor EQ options and average output power

INTRODUCTION

Tube amplification is a rather divisive topic.

For some, it’s the holy grail and a step closer to the “analogue” feel. For others, it’s just gooey warmth that robs instruments of detail and also introduces coloration by adding distortion products.

Cayin, in their usual out-of-the-box manner, decided to give listeners the best of both worlds. This is not the first DAP with tubes from them, that would be the flagship Cayin N8. However, it’s the first somewhat affordable one, and thus carves itself a niche in an otherwise highly competitive price segment. Does it perform up to expectations though? Let’s find out.

Note: the ratings given will be subjective to the price tier. The Cayin N3Pro was sent part of Cayin’s review tour (thanks Andy Kong). Disclaimer

IEMs/Headphones used: Final E5000/FI-BA-SS/Sonorous III, Dunu Studio SA6, IMR R1 Zenith, Reecho Insects Awaken, Sennheiser HD650

Firmware version: 2.0 (MQA support enabled)

Price, while reviewed: $480.

PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY

IN THE BOX…

The Cayin N3Pro comes with most of the stuff you’ll need out of the box. The screen protectors are pre-applied, for one, and you also get a silicone bumper case. Lastly there is the USB type-C cable. It’s nothing fancy but all these are fairly usable and of pretty decent quality. However, I would recommend spending a bit extra for the Dignis Leather case. At ~35 euros it’s fairly affordable given it’s a Dignis case. The color palette isn’t my favorite but it’s not that offensive a hue either.
4/5

APPEARANCE, HAPTIC, AND BUILD QUALITY

Cayin always have had great build quality and the N3Pro is no exception. The entire frame is sandblasted aluminium, sandwiched between glass (tempered?) front and back. At 195gm it’s not the lightest DAP but the weight does add a reassuring heft in-hand. There is nothing on the top of the player. On the right side there are the three playback buttons and a volume-wheel/power button combo. The buttons have a nice feedback with no mushiness. The volume/power button combo can feel a bit wobbly but the overall scrolling is quite smooth. On the left side you find the micro-SD slot (up to 1TB capacity). On the front there is a touch-sensitive button at the bottom which by default takes you to the Now Playing screen and acts as an indicator LED, which RGB colors representing various sampling rates/file types (e.g. purple for MQA). Up top is the 3.2″ IPS display. Between the display and the button there is a small window through which you can see the tubes with a red underglow during playback.

At the bottom of the unit you’ll find the three output ports (3.5mm headphone out, 3.5mm line out, 4.4mm balanced out) and the type-C charging cable. This is where I encounter my first gripe with the N3Pro: the location of the lineout port. As it stands it’s quite easy to mistake the headphone jack for the lineout jack in the dark (and the Dignis case hides the markings altogether). Mistakenly plugging your sensitive headphones/IEMs to the very powerful line out won’t be a pretty picture and might damage the drivers. I’d have preferred better physical separation, perhaps slotting the balanced port in the middle and flanking the phone-out/line-out on either side. Or just do it like many others do and make line-out an option from the menu by combining line-out/3.5mm out.

Apart from the rant regarding the port orientation: I have no qualms about the N3Pro’s build. It feels positively dense, the buttons have good feedback, and the ports are at the bottom for once.
4.5/5

DISPLAY, UI, HANDLING

Display: The Cayin N3Pro has a 3.2″ IPS display with 480*360 resolution (~180ppi). It’s nothing groundbreaking and the IPS display doesn’t have the best of contrast/color accuracy. However, viewing angles are good and it’s moderately sharp. Side and top bezels are fairly slim and symmetric unlike the TOTL Cayin N6ii (reviewed here) so that’s a plus.
3.5/5

UI/Responsiveness: Cayin decided to not go the Android route this time around and that’s a welcome change IMO. The OS here is Hiby OS with some bits and pieces customized especially for Cayin (e.g. the tube mode selector). By default you are taken to a launcher of sorts with all the most used menus available at a glance. Swiping up from bottom will show additional settings for playback (gapless, repeat, EQ, filters etc.) and device (wifi, BT, firmware upgrade etc.). Swiping down from the top will slide down a notification shade where you can select various tube modes, gain level, USB/DAC modes, tube/solid state selector etc. along with the handy brightness slider. It’s a very well-thought out design and improves the usability of the N3Pro by a margin.

The UI is fairly pedestrian all in all but has good responsiveness. Scrolling through the library is fast and also has fast/alphabetical scrolling. The album art thumbnails aren’t cached though (or takes a while to load from memory) so they appear a bit late. Some high resolution album arts weren’t even displayed which was a bit of a letdown. Lyrics support was also a hit-or-miss. There was no proper PEQ support, only a basic 10-band EQ support which was a letdown. The biggest offense of the UI is that the iconography looks like something designed back in 2006. Other than that it’s a functional UI that gets the job done without getting in the way.
4/5

Connectivity: BT 5.0 with LDAC, WiFi (no 5GHz sadly), USB type-C with SPDIF functionality— it’s got all the stuff I will possibly need. Given there is no direct support for streaming I am fine without 5GHz wifi (not that 2.4GHz isn’t enough). You can also use the N3Pro as a BT amplifier to stream music from your smartphone (via the Hiby Music app). Using as a DAC was also very straightforward: select USB mode as “DAC” from the dropdown menu (swipe down from top) and you’re good to go (ideally install the Cayin USB driver as well from here). Bitperfect playback was also possible. I couldn’t make it unfold MQA from the Windows Tidal app though, but offline Tidal files were supported with full MQA unfold.

Solid connectivity overall. No glaring gaps whatsoever.
5/5

Battery Life: The N3Pro utilizes a 4100mAh battery which last ~8hrs of real-world uses (in tube mode). This figure will vary depending on the file format and how much volume/output power you require. Nonetheless, I’d call this about average for the price class. Standby battery drain is pretty good however and setting up idle shut-off saves even more battery. As an aside, it takes ~15 seconds to boot from cold so powering it off when not in use is a viable option. It takes ~3+ hours to fully charge the battery. No fast charging here.

There are DAPs with far better battery life at this price bracket, but I’m gonna cut Cayin some slack because of the tubes.
3/5

TECH INSIDE

Tubes: The N3Pro houses two matched Raytheon JAN6418 miniature tubes which are suspended inside a silicone housing. As per Cayin these increases shock absorption. Despite that, there is a high-frequency ping every time you put the N3Pro on a solid surface with some force, or just walk around briskly with them in the pocket. The ringing noise isn’t distracting during busy music passages but in quite passages it can stand out quite a bit. Just an eccentricity you gotta live with if you want the tube goodness I guess.

The miniature tubes and the SIlicone chassis for mounting them

The tubes are not in the typical OTL setup, rather they operate in conjunction with the differential amplifier and mostly alter the timbre. The operational diagram can be seen below. I couldn’t detect any hiss even with sensitive IEMs (Final FI-BA-SS in this case) while in tube mode. Another topic of discussion: tube burn-in. These tubes will need ~10–20 hours to settle in. The sound will have noticeable changes esp in the higher frequencies until then.

SOUND

Cayin N3Pro can have at least 4 different sound signatures. The differences are sometimes subtle, and at times drastic. To summarize: there are subtle differences between the solid-state sound from the single-ended and balanced out. Then there are drastic differences between the Triode and Ultralinear modes for the Tube mode. Before going further, some relevant specs:

The Cayin N3 Pro uses dual AK4493 DACs in true balanced configuration (so in balanced mode each DAC handles only one channel).

Tube Mode: There are two different operation modes for the tubes: Triode and Ultralinear. Keep in mind that the tubes will warm up for 5 seconds before playing tracks if you stop playback for a while.

Triode mode has a very intimate presentation with up-front midrange and the typical tube bass with smoothed out leading edge of bass notes. It doesn’t sound blunted though and has pretty good resolution (though the balanced out has better layering and staging). Overall the Triode mode is the one I used the mode during the course of this review and the one I’d recommend you to try first if you plan on getting the N3Pro. I liked how the N3Pro sounded in Triode mode with both warm and bright IEMs/Headphones so you can pretty much set it on and forget it.

The Ultralinear mode is polar opposite. It throws an artificially wide stage and has a very aggressive leading edge of notes. The imaging is quite odd in this mode and I just don’t enjoy the presentation. Your mileage may vary and you may find it appealing with specific pair-ups/music but for my library and the headphones I tried this mode was a no-go.

Solid-state Mode: The solid state mode is rather uninspiring. The single-ended output is decent but nothing to write home about in terms of overall resolution and staging. The balanced out is better in this regard but still about average given the competition.

The other thing to notice about the solid-state mode is the coloration. The single-ended mode has a warm tilt with more focus on mid-bass. The balanced out is more… balanced sounding but still not what I’d call “neutral”. The warm tint is there all along. Separation from balanced out is pretty good, but there are better performers in this price bracket if you are after channel separation and soundstage width.

There are six selectable reconstruction filters: Sharp, Slow, Short Delay Sharp, Short Delay Slow, Super Slow, Low-dispersion Short Delay. The differences between them weren’t that drastic or immediately noticeable (unlike some other DAPs in this range). You are welcome to fiddle with them and see if you notice any drastic difference. I mostly stuck with Slow for this review.

Overall, it’s a difficult task to assign a rating to the Cayin N3Pro’s sound quality. It changes so drastically between modes after all. That being said, the general sound is definitely a step up from your average smartphone and in tube mode it’s a very engaging DAP indeed.
4.5/5

Amp performance: The N3Pro could get the Sennheiser HD650 loud at high gain but couldn’t bring out the full dynamics and imaging prowess of them. The HD650 is not unusable at all and quite decent in fact with the N3Pro single-ended out but it’s just not as good as some desk setups out there in this price range. The balanced out mode faired better in terms of power but had similar issues with dynamics and presentation.

The most power hungry IEM that I’ve got: Final E5000, got loud enough from the balanced out but lacked the bass control it exhibits from better sources. At 93dB/mW and 15ohms of impedance the E5000 is very particular about amping and the Cayin N3Pro couldn’t drive it as well as, say, the Questyle QP1R does.

All in all, the Cayin N3Pro isn’t what I would call a “powerhouse” like the venerable A&K Kann Alpha. It’s mostly meant to be used with IEMs and moderately efficient headphones. Low sensitivity planars and high-impedance full-size cans aren’t the best use-case, though that’s the case for most DAPs in this price range.
4/5

SELECT COMPARISONS

vs Cowon Plenue R2 ($550): The sound signatures couldn’t be more different between these two DAPs. Whereas the Cowon Plenue R2 has a near-neutral tone out of the balanced out (and the single-ended out has just a bit more warmth) the Cayin N3Pro is noticeably warmer even in solid-state mode/balanced out combo. The Plenue R2 opts for its fantastic DSP effects named JetEffects to add various degrees of coloration. The PEQ options are also noticeably better. The N3Pro on the other hand is quite colored by default and has no PEQ options. The Cowon player lacks MQA support and WiFi/BT 5.0 however, so Cayin N3Pro is definitely more feature rich.

In terms of the rest of the aspects: display is far superior on Cowon Plenue R2, whereas UI navigation is faster and simpler on the Cayin N3Pro. I do prefer the design of Cowon’s UI more despite somewhat cumbersome navigation. Battery life is far superior to the N3Pro on the Cowon R2 and I get ~18hours of music playback regularly.

vs Fiio M11 ($500): Soundwise, Fiio opted for a lean, mean, brittle signature with the M11 and kind of forgot that something called bass exists… Well it’s not that bad but the bass texture and extension is quite poor for such a pricey device. It lacks in dynamism as a result but does bring out more top-end detail though it gets too fatiguing for me. I much prefer the N3Pro.

As for the rest: M11 is Android, N3Pro is not, so you know which one you need. Display is better and handling is also easier on the Fiio DAP. Battery life is better on the Fiio M11 by a couple hours more (11hrs or so).

vs iBasso DX160 ($400): The iBasso DX160 is a benchmark champ with very good figures on the usual test-bed metrics (THD, IMD+N, Crosstalk etc.). Perhaps the Cowon Plenue R2 beats it but they’re quite close and the DX160 has even better output power. Against the N3Pro the differences aren’t as stark. Both opts for a warm-ish tone, though the N3Pro in tube mode has more coloration and fun factor. I prefer the balanced out of the DX160 more vs the balanced out of the N3Pro, but the tube mode is lacking on the DX160 and I crave for that unique signature.

DX160 is Android too but performance is subpar and there will be hiccups. It also has some RF interference issues while using WiFi. The display used to be excellent on the first-batch DX160 but the later 2020 revision has brought in a worse display. Still, it’s better than that on the N3Pro. Battery life is similar on both.

vs Questyle QP1R ($600, discontinued): This gem of a DAP is sadly discontinued but if you can get a second-hand QP1R — give it a strong thought unless you need Android smarts. The dynamism of the QP1R is unlike anything in its price bracket. Certain TOTL DAPs like the Cayin N6ii (with T01/E01 motherboard) will beat it on that aspect but then you’re spending nearly twice as much. QP1R also has a more neutral presentation and can render an abundance of detail. The staging isn’t the widest but imaging is precise.

The OS, sadly, is outdated on the QP1R. There are no smart options anywhere neither is the UI touch friendly. Battery life is worse as well (7 hrs vs 9 hrs on the N3Pro). The QP1R also hisses more on sensitive IEMs (though it sounds better still than on the N3Pro). Build quality/fit and finish is even better on QP1R, despite the apparent solidity of N3Pro’s build. Display is again better on the N3Pro though QP1R has a higher quality display (in terms of contrast etc.).

If you only care about music playback or want to use the DAP as a DAC/Amp/pre-amp at times the QP1R is the better choice. I do realize it’s a very niche device so the N3Pro will be more suitable for general use and will offer more flexibilities.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Cayin’s N3Pro is a fun sounding DAP with two different tube flavors and the usual bells and whistles you expect from a mid-tier DAP in terms of output options. It’s a unique offering in the price range if you’re after a fun sounding DAP and don’t care too much about neutrality. The display and UI elements could definitely be better but the performance is good enough for most use cases and the connectivity options are solid.

The Cayin N3Pro earns my recommendation, mostly because it dares to bring tube sound to the masses inside a DAP and the overall execution is quite graceful indeed.

MY VERDICT

Overall Rating: 4.25/5

This is a great DAP if you mostly intend to run IEMs and want a warm, fun sound signature.

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Cayin was kind enough to send the N3Pro as a review unit, part of the review tour organized by Andy Kong over at head-fi.

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Gear Of The Year – Our Personal 2020 Favourites

Jürgen Kraus (Calgary, Canada) — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 06:59:00 +0000

Gear of the Year: Just in time for Christmas we list our our personal favourites of 2020 – the portable audio we personally enjoyed most. Note, these are not necessarily the best, but the ones we…you got it. Therefore, these are highly personal, subjective listings. Please be aware we don’t offer reviews for everything we like/we list here (yet).

That Christmas tree on the right is a carryover from last year. It stood in the lobby of the Windsor hotel at the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro…and it should be a symbolism for looking forward to travelling again. Viva Brazil!

Most of our reviews would have not been possible without our 2020 cooperating partners. We thank:

Acoustic Effect, ADV, Akoustyx, Apos Audio, Azla, Bill Barraugh/Audiotiers, Blon, Cozoy, CVJ, ddHifi, Dekoni, Dunu, EarMen, Earstudio, Hifigo, iBasso, ifi Audio, KBEAR, Keephifi, Moondrop, NiceHCK, Opa Audio Store, Sennheiser, Shenzhenaudio, Shozy, Smabat, Tempotec, Tronsmart, TRN, Vision Ears, V-Moda, Wooeasy Earphones Store, Yaxi, Don’tkillusifweforgotyoujustsendusanotandwefixit.

For the companies: you can check for your products/yourself in the search field on the right-hand side.

Note: we do not make any money (or getting compensated by products) through the gear we review. No affiliate links, trackers etc. We keep the conflict-of-interest potential as low as possible by attempting to stay at arm’s length.

As to the popularity of our reviews with you, the reader: our top-viewed BLOG POSTS for 2020 were (click to go to the respective article):

Total Number of Blog Posts in 2020: 186

Facebook Group (est. 2020-01-01)| https://www.facebook.com/groups/audioreviews: >5200 members

YouTube subscriptions | https://www.youtube.com/c/audioreviews: 660

Our most-watched YouTube Video of 2020:

And yes, this blog grew and grew and grew in 2020. We are now 8 reviewers on 3 continents. Below are our personal favourites of 2020…

Our Author Team: Jürgen Kraus, Loomis Johnson, Biodegraded, KopiOkaya, Durwood, Baskingshark, Kazi Mahbub, Alberto Pittaluga

Baskingshark…Singapore

My 2020 favourites in the following categories are:

Earphones

$300 – 500 USD:
LZ A7. Provides a mind boggling 10 tuning configs (or more with aftermarket tuning nozzles). It has excellent technicalities, good fit, good isolation, and the best part that surprised me is that the LZ A7 has very natural timbre for a BA/piezo containing tribid (other than the higher treble frequencies handled by the piezo). Most folks would find an ideal sound signature with it, maybe except diehard bassheads.

LZ A7 earphones.

$200 – 300 USD:
Audiosense T800. It has good technicalities, is “fun sounding” and excellent isolation nearing 30 dB. Even though it contains a BA bass, it sounds like a DD bass due to a vented subwoofer. The T800 may be a bit on the bright side, so it isn’t the best option for treble sensitive folks, but you can use knowles filters, warm sources or eartips to tame the treble.

@ $100 – 200 USD:
TRI I3. Smooth, balanced, grand and coherent despite the weird 1 planar + 1 BA + 1 DD config. It needs amping though, the planars handling the mids are quite power hungry. It has one of the best soundstages at the $100ish region when amped, with sweet planar mids. Treble is safe, bordering on darkish, so maybe not for trebleheads.

KBEAR BElieve. “Bearly believable” for a full beryllium set at this price? The KBEAR BElieve sports a smooth and refined U shaped tuning, great technical chops in the mids and treble areas for a single DD. It has good timbre for acoustic instruments but is very hard to drive, as per the 98 dB sensitivity. It sounds muddy, congested and slow in the bass with a low powered source, but scales beautifully when optimally amped, so those that don’t intend to get an amp best look elsewhere. With power, the KBEAR BElieve does hit about 70% of the technical performance of the famed DUNU LUNA, at 10% of the price!

@ Sub $100 USD:
HZSound Heart Mirror. Nice mirror like shells, as per its namesake, it is a neutralish bright set, excellent timbre for acoustic instruments. I like how it manages to get a forward upper mids without going into harsh or shouty territory, a very fine line to balance. The Heart Mirror has good transients and speed on the driver. Note weight is thin and soundstage is not the best though, and it needs amping to shine, sounds meh from a smartphone. Good set for vocal lovers and timbre lovers, but maybe not so all rounded due to the lack of bass, but it takes to EQ in the bass like a champ.

Favourite earbud for the year:
SMABAT ST105 Black Gold. Neutralish set with subbass and upper mids boost. If you have always looked down on earbuds for not having subbass, think again. The SMABAT ST10S Black Gold has the best subass quantity and extension I’ve ever heard in a bud. It has excellent technicalities, is MMCX
detachable and can be worn over ears or cable down. It needs amping though, as per the 150 ohm impedance. Not to be mixed up with the SMABAT ST10S Black Silver, which is tuned differently (and has lower impedance).

Best lucky bag/Fukubukuro/Mystery bag:
Urbanfun YBF-ISS014 – it is extremely exciting to see whether u get a beryllium vs “noble metal” driver. Or a working versus wonky mmcx. Even newer batches of the Urbanfun have been reported to have QC problems in the audio forums.The Urbanfun can be summed up in this statement by Forrest Gump: “My Mom Always Said Life Was Like A Box Of Urbanfuns. You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get.”

Best price to peformance joke IEM of the year:
TRN golden ears $14,750.00 USD IEM paired with $3400 USD xiaofan ortiz “king of the gods” cable. Mere mortals cannot hope to use these gear if not you’ll be struck down by lightning! I hope the Bellsing BAs inside are also made of gold!

Baskingshark’s bargain bin.

Biodegraded…Vancouver, Canada

Sorry, from me you get stuff that mostly hasn’t been reviewed. In no particular order; and most aren’t new this year.

Digital transports:
Pi2Design Pi2AES (+ Raspberry Pi)
For streaming (via wifi or Ethernet cable) digital music from your computer, you could go cheap and crap like a Chromecast or Airport, brutally expensive like an all-in-one streamer from Naim or PS Audio, or this $US 149 HAT for a Raspberry Pi which will produce excellent quality AES or S/PDIF digital audio to feed into your audiophile DAC. DIY aesthetic & philosophy, audiophile quality, fantastic convenience once you figure out how to set it up (variety of OS solutions, some better than others).

Amps/Preamps:
Ifi Audio Zen Phono RIAA phono preamp
$US 149 for excellent resolution and transients and the ability to work with a wide range of cartridges. Might benefit from an improved power supply such as Ifi’s own iPower, but my jury remains out on that. Audioreviews summary here.

Amp accessories:
GE JAN 5670W vacuum tube
Cheap and widely available true new-old-stock military-surplus tube that works really well as a 6DJ8/6922 preamp tube substitute (great in the Schiit Vali 2). Nice tight lows, smooth but detailed mids, sparkly highs. 6922 to 5670 adapter required to translate the I/O pin pattern so nothing blows up.

Headphone accessories:
Yaxi pads for Porta Pro / KSC75 / PX-100
Tastefully boost bass and treble while (on the Kosses) lowering the prominent 5kHz peak. And they’re comfortable! Audioreviews summary here.

IEMs:
Drop/JVC HA-FDX1
Champion single-dynamic earphone with great DD timbre and almost BA-fast transients. Slightly boosted in the uppermost mids, heavy in the ears, intermittent availability, but huge bang-for-buck. Audioreviews summaries here and here (note that Loomis isn’t their greatest fan).

Headphones:
Fostex T50RP Mk3 with cheap angled pads and other mods
Closed or semi-open (depending on how much you stuff the cups) planar magnetic phones that with a little effort (see eg here for ideas) can be made both neutral and extended while retaining deep bass and technicalities. Need amp power to perform.

Players:
USB Audio Player Pro
Gets better with every update. Neutron is more configurable, but unnecessarily so. Put this on your Android phone, plug in a USB DAC/amp, and enjoy great lossless sound quality on the go. Equalizer plugins available. Android only though.

ifi Audio Zen RIAA phono preamp.

Durwood…Chicago, USA

CCA this year might as well been a lump of coal, it’s only two letters shy of selling your soul. If you want to talk to your boring Uncle Bob, (no offense Bob’s of the world) get yourself an iBasso IT00 or Tin Hifi T2 Plus you knob. Your uncle Bob is the guy who has lots of interesting things to say, but leaves you wondering what did you just listen to today. My only favorites this year were TRN STM who is the punk that your family doesn’t like to talk about and the Shozy Rouge as your killer looking date that likes to party but not shout. Waiting to see if Shozy Form 1.4 is in good form, only thing I decided to buy during the holiday sales storm. BQEYZ Spring 2 was a nice lively upgrade to the BQEYZ Spring 1, but fix that bass man, maybe take some lessons from the Nicehck NX7 Daniel son. Some of my friends from last year are still good folks to have around, Sony MH755, BLON BL03 for sleeping, and TinHifi T4 (I just wish you would hang in my ear longer than a few minutes of sound). Simgot EN700 is a carry over as well. I like a mild V if you can see.

BQEYZ Spring 2 on Durwood’s IKEA desk.

Jürgen Kraus…Calgary, Canada

Blon BL-05s: These are very articulate playing single DDs also appeal to me through their hideous colour. Probably my most used items of the year (together with the JVCs and Shozy Form 1.4 below). Following the footsteps of the popular Blon Bl-03 – the Blon Bl-05s disappeared fast in the big black hole of anti-hype. And for a good reason: they look like the Bl-05, smell like the Bl-05, measure like the Bl-05, but the Bl-05 had been thrown on the market prematurely, and they sucked. The more distinguished audience may have realized that Bl-05 and Bl-05s have different drivers and sound completely different.

Drop JVC HA-FDX01: Hailed as arguably the best single DD on the market until Dunu Luna and Final Audio A8000 took over, this labour of love was originally only available 665 times….which has extended to above 2000 by now while the price dropped to $200. Carryover from 2019. Still my best earphones because of their organic timbre and great resolution.

TRI I3: Planar magnetic. Something totally different. Big and bold sounding yet soothing. Nothing offensive, nothing dull.

Sennheiser IE 400 PRO ($349): The best of their PRO series. Classic Sennheiser quality midrange. Super ergonomics. Nobody will dislike this one.

Shozy Form 1.4 ($199): The Shozy team somehow got their tuning 100% right. The Form 1.4 simply sound appealing to my ears…warm and fuzzy.

Guilty Pleasure: I pull the $70 FiiO FD1 out for the road: nice’n’punchy.

Vision Ears Elysium in the Endgame category. At 2500 EUR hand made by elfs and some Rhine mermaids in Cologne, out of reach for longer than a week (borrowed). Produce vocals better than real life but also melts credit cards. Cymbals as crisp as Swedish bread…

Perversions and Subversions: the Moondrop Spaceship at $20 beats the Moondrop SSR and SSP…less accurate but the better “junk food” for my ears. Moondrop have a history of undercutting their own mid-tier earphones with their budget offerings…we remember the $30 Crescent and the $180 KPE.

Inasmile Cable Protector: Discovery of the year. 20 cents that protect my fraying Apple cables from total breakage.

I still use the Koss PortaPro headphones with Yaxi earpads for video conferencing and listening when I need comfort around my ears. Also great are the Koss KSC75. Grab all of them when you can, they are affordable standard staples. And my standard full-sized cans are still the Sennheiser HD 600.

Tempotec Sonata HD Pro dac/amp dongle ($40): comes at the price of an adapter – but with all possible adapters to connect this little rascal to anything, including iPhones. Good enough to drive any iem. The very best dongles are the $199 EarMen Sparrow run on their balanced output, and the $120 Earstudio HUD100. In terms of larger portable dacs/amps (with integrated battery), I like the $199 ifi Audio Nano BL, the $149 ifi Audio hip-dac, and the $249 EarMen TR-amp. And I don’t think I need a bigger desktop amp.

Question mark of the year: The KBEAR Believe with their Japan sourced Beryllium drivers were too cheap to be true…which was underlined by some competing cheater Be-less Beryllium earphones and doubt seeded by the Dunu competitor. Hey, but the Luna have that Chi-Fi peak…

Personal Disappointment of the year: the continuing Chi-Fi peak between 2 and 4 kHz that kills western eardrums…TRN are leading the charge…the TRN BA8 cuts steel like butter.

Everybody loves Yaxi pads (including Sybil) – and not only on the Koss PortaPro.

Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir…Munich, Germany

I’ve tried and reviewed more stuff this year than ever, and part of it (actually, most of it) is due to the awful home-arrest that we’ve all succumbed too. Hope things get normal soon, sigh.

IEMs:

Final E500 ($20): This otherwise “cheap/beater” IEM does one thing better than *anything* under $100 – binaural tracks and gaming. At least it did so until its brethren VR3000 came out, but I’m yet to hear that and that’s got a 4x price tag attached to it. People call the Sony MH755 the best value IEMs, for me it’s the Final E500.

Dunu Studio SA6 ($550): This is a great all-rounder IEM. Great bass for an all-BA IEM, the lower-mids are full and organic whereas upper-mids tread the fine line between forwardness and shoutiness. The treble has good amount of sparkle and air. Great design and accessory pack. Really, hard to pick a fault.

Honorable mentions: Final E5000, Samsung Galaxy Buds, Moondrop Blessing 2, Sony IER-M9, Final FI-BA-SS, Dunu Luna

Headphones:

Koss PortaPro X + Yaxi Pads ($40): Just buy one. Don’t be stingy. Thank me later.

Sennheiser HD650 ($300): The once and forever king. The HD6XX esp is a no-brainer. Scales better than any headphone I’ve tried.

Honorable Mentions: Hifiman Sundara, Focal Clear, Final D8000

DAPs:

Sony NW-A55 ($200): If your primary need is to run efficient IEMs, look no further. Great ergonomics, actually usable UI, good display, fantastic battery life, and then there’s the MrWalkman mod to turn it even more awesome. The only “budget” DAP I recommend.

Questyle QP1R ($600): Questyle made the QP1R 6 years ago. It’s still one of the best DAPs out there when it comes to overall dynamics.

Honorable mentions: Cowon Plenue V, iBasso DX160, Sony ZX300

Desktop sources:

YULONG Canary II ($230): One of the best budget all-in-ones I’ve come across. Criminally underrated too which is a royal shame.

Questyle CMA-400i ($800): The all-in-one system I ended up with after countless trials and tribulations. Perfectly aligned to my tastes.

Honorable Mentions: iFi Zen Can, Headamp GSX-Mini

And that’s a wrap. Hopefully 2021 brings us better times.

Yulong Canary II amp with Blon Bl-05s earphones.

KopiOkaya…Singapore

This year there are 8 of us, thus there are more choices for our readers to choose from.

This year also marked the year of COVID-19…. Meaning, people are staying home longer and more often, thus they can listen to their gears on desktop systems other than portable music players and phones. Fortunately, desktop gears are much better and more affordable now.

Desktop DACs:

Denafrips Ares II (US$700): I don’t own one but my friend do. If you like natural, organic sound with a huge, deep, tall soundstage and don’t mind its higher price tag, look no further… This is it!

Topping E30 (US$130): A nice warm-neutral DAC. It doesn’t sound as natural, as organic or has a huge soundstage like the Ares II but it offers great audio at an affordable price.

Note: Extremely sensitive to the quality of power supply used. Make sure you power it with something decent like the iFi iPower X.

Desktop Amps:

Yulong Canary II (US$250): This is actually a DAC/Amp with a Class A amplification stage. It posseses a warm-neutral sound signature with lots of low-end drive thanks to the Class A topography. Very good value and performance consider this is both a DAC and an amp!

Topping L30 (US$140): My current reference amp… If you have noticed, so far I don’t have any balanced amp in my list. When I tune earphones, I never tune them in balanced, simply because if it sounds good in single-ended, it should sound even better in balanced… Well, this is usually the case! The L30 is great (for me) because it has a gain REDUCTION switch for IEMs with high sensitivity… Not many headphone amps have such feature. This is a very neutral, clean and transparent amp that doesn’t colour the sound of the source. That’s all I ask for when tuning earphones.

Portable DAC-Amps:

FiiO BTR5 / Shanling UP4 / EarStudio ES100 MK2 / Qudelix 5K (US$120 or less): I don’t want to decide which is better. To me, each has its pros and cons but my point is… acceptable Bluetooth quality listening is finally here! Almost everybody owns a smartphone these days, so why not use it as a music player? Some of you despise this idea but c’mon… A TOTL DAP still runs slower than my $150 Android phone operating on Android 10.

Earphones:

Etymotic ER4XR (US$350): My reference for tuning hybrid earphones. If you are familiar with Etys you should know their earphones have a near-neutral Diffuse Field Target tuning. The “XR” version has slightly more bass.

Etymotic ER2XR (US$100): Similar to the ER4XR except this uses a single dynamic instead of balanced armature, thus my reference when I tune dynamic earphones. The ER2XR has more natural timbre and punchier bass than ER4XR. You can forget about Moondrop SSR/SSP if you plan to buy one. This is better.

Note: Etymotic earphones are to be worn deep inside the ear canals touching the bone… #Etyheads call “deep insertion”. This can cause discomfort to first time Etymotic users but you will get used to it eventually… I used to hate it but I am OK with it now.

Headphones:

Singapore is too damn warm for headphones, unless using air-conditioning while listening to music… Sorry, I am too cheap for that. Electricity is expensive here.

Tweaking Tips – A Simplified Guide To IEM Silicone Eartips UPDATED 2021-03-2

Blog post of the year 2020.

Loomis Johnson…Chicago, USA

TRN STM–$20 wunderkind is not, as Durwood aptly states, a purist’s earphone, and it veers towards sounding over-pixilated and artificial. However, it has that certain toe-tapping rightness that keeps me reaching for it over much pricier “audiophile-tuned” pieces. Did I mention it’s $20?

KBEAR Diamond—you can spend a lot more and get a bigger stage or a richer timbre, but this smooth, highly-resolving single DD is awfully refined for the price, with class-leading coherence and premium aesthetics and build.

Cambridge Melomania TWS—they don’t have ANC, EQ customizability or the bells and whistles of their Apple/Samsung peers, and microphone is sub-standard. However, they sound damn good for wireless buds—and are surprisingly good value at <$99. 9 hour battery life a plus.

Honorable Mentions: Shozy Rouge, Shuoer Tape.

TRN-STM Review I – The Devil Wears Lucite

Slater…Cincinnati, USA

Slater is short for “See Ya Later”…and you will see him later…

KZ ZSN Pro – Should You Go Pro, Bro?

KZ ZSN Pro review from May 2019…made our top 5 in 2020.

And This Was The Previous Year:

Our Earphones Of The Year!

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US$69 JWD JWM-115 DSD Lossless Portable Music Player Review – Hits And Misses

KopiOkaya (Singapore) — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 07:14:46 +0000

[Reading time: approximately 8 minutes]

Hits – Supports many audio formats including native DSD (both DFF and DSF) up to DSD256. Gapless playback. Lively, neutral-bright and punchy tonality. Vocal-centric, full and forward. Good clarity and resolution. Wide, deep, airy soundstage with outstanding imaging and instrument separation. Good battery life lasts up to 14 days per charge (1 hour use per day). Stable Bluetooth connection. Powerful headphone amp section. Outstanding cost-to-performance ratio.

Misses – No fancy-pants bling-bling “Hi-Res” sticker. No built-in memory. No external USB DAC support. No aptX HD/aptX Low Latency/LDAC support. Audible floor noise with certain sensitive earphones. Possible distortion at maximum volume using Bluetooth connection. Direct PC files transfer is painfully slow and unstable (may freeze halfway).

I usually don’t do reviews. Not because I am lazy but I don’t like to label something as good, neutral or bad. I believe there is a product for every person regardless of price. Therefore, when Wooeasy told to review the US$69 JMD JWM-115, I was really hesitant. Audioreviews.org isn’t Audio Science Reviews (ASR), so I don’t want to bore everybody with measurements, graphs and charts. After all, it is the sound quality that matters most. On the contrary, ASR doesn’t provide feedback on actual user’s experience. I will make this review short and sweet, discuss only the player’s main features and what I think of it.

Budget digital audio player (DAP) is a tricky product to review. Why is that so? You see, on one hand you have very capable “audiophile” smartphones, such as the LG V and G-series (they are not exactly “budget” I know). On other hand, you have very affordable Chi-Fi DAPs from FiiO, Shanling, Ruizu, TempoTec, Ziku, Zishan and Walnut, etc. A good budget DAP should stand in the middle ground of both. It must sound better than most “non-audiophile” smartphones. It must have decent battery life. It must have Bluetooth. And most importantly, it has to be affordable enough for the masses. Long story short, does the JWM-115 meet all these criteria… My immediate answer is “yes” but with some caveats.

Background

Let’s side track a bit. I wasn’t aware of the company JWD before. Brian Wheatley on Audioreviews.org Facebook group mentioned JWD has been making MP3 players for years, so I did some digging on Baidu.com. What I dug up? First, JWD, or Shenzhen Jingwah Digital Electronics CO.,LTD (深圳市京华数码电子股份有限公司) was established 40 years ago. Second, their main business is OEM supplier of portable voice recorders for popular brands such as Olympus, Philips/Magnavox and Fujitsu. And third, JWM-115 is the fifth DAP they have produced so far. Their earlier models do not support DSD. The long history and collaborations with well-known multinational companies means JWD has enough experience and technical knowledge to produce high quality and reliable products.

Physical

Now, let’s talk about the DAP. The JWM-115 is palm size. Well-built with non-scratch resistant glass on both front and back. The surrounding side is one piece CNC stainless steel construction. The DAP has a good heft at 115 grams (as heavy as Zishan T1). It has a bright and vibrant 3-inch IPS touch screen that make both FiiO M3K and Shanling M0 look like 1980s Nintendo pocket game. Size-wise, the player measures 94mm(L) X 52mm(W) X 11mm(H). JWM-115 supports biodirectional USB 2.0 data transfer and comes with a Type-C socket like most modern DAPs.

DAC

JWD doesn’t state which digital-to-analog converter (DAC) chip is used inside the JWM-115, but based on their partnership with Philips (a well-known DAC chip maker in the 1980s and 1990s) and Olympus, I suspect JWD developed their own chipset with tried and tested circuitries adopted from both companies. This kind of practise isn’t uncommon among OEM manufacturers. Regardless, I feel this proprietary DAC is as good as many mainstream, off-the-shelf chipsets from Burr Brown, Cirrus Logic, Analog Devices, AKM and ESS Sabre. However, do take note JWM-115 can’t be used as an external USB DAC with computer.

Specs

Sound

Sound-wise, the very first thing that stood out is how well human voices are presented. Vocals are forward, well-sculpted and realistic with good of finesse. This is probably due JWD’s long history in producing voice recorders. Second thing that stood out is how airy and open the upper-treble is. I was testing with KBEAR Diamond, and this dynamic earphone isn’t known for top-end extension but with the JWM-115, I felt as if I was listening to a hybrid earphone.

Bass is fast, punchy, has good texture and details but not deep. Zishan T1 (with AK4493 module) excels in deep bass rumble. When coupled with bass-heavy cans, the combo can turn my brain into mashed soft jelly.

Soundstage excels in width, depth and with KBEAR Diamond, height! Only the US$650 FiiO X7 Mark II can rival its spacious and enormous sound field. Stereo imaging and instrument separation are stable and accurate, not as pinpoint or as contrasty as I wish, but hey, no complain.

Resolution

The resolving ability of the JWM-115 is superb. Complex or poorly-recorded tracks have good clarity separation and layering. At the same time, it does not sound overly-analytical or acrid.

Noise

Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir on Audioreview.org Facebook group asked about floor noise of JWM-115. With most earphones, background noise between tracks is barely audible, however when used with picky Magaosi K5 (sensitivity 118dB), fuzzing sound can be heard, it becomes faint once music kicks in.

Power

Output from the JWM-115 is relatively powerful. It is able to drive a pair of 300 Ohms Sennheiser HD600 (sensitivity 97dB) with ease and plenty loud. The power rating is not stated in the specification but I affirm it is more powerful than FiiO M3K (25mW @ 32 Ohms), or at least as powerful as Shanling M0 on high gain (80mW @ 32 Ohms).

Battery

Battery life is exceptional. I am still on my first charge, and after more than 2 weeks of half-hour to an hour usage daily, I still have 43% power left as I am writing this very sentence. So far, only FiiO M3K can rival it at 30+ days per charge. Great for family travels, business and long road trips. The bummer is JWM-115 doesn’t support Quick Charge.

Connectivity

The lack of aptX HD, aptX Low Latency and LDAC support may deter some folks but Bluetooth connection (both aptX and SBC) is stable overall. I have no problem with TRN BT20S. However, I did encounter cracking distortion with Marshall Stockwell 2 portable Bluetooth speaker. Reduce the volume on the JWD-115 resolves the problem. When used as a Bluetooth receiver, noise floor on quiet passages is noticeably higher but not to the point of annoying (at least for me). Among the DAPs I have tested, only Shanling M0 excels in this aspect, bettered by FiiO BTR5, Shanling UP4 and Radsone EarStudio ES100 MK2.
The JWM-115 does come equipped with 2.4G WiFi but the sole purpose is to communicate with another JWM-115 or JWD DAP to transfer music files as either a host or a slave. Not much use to most of us.

Another minor glitch I have encountered was when I connect JWM-115 via USB Type-C cable to a Windows 10-based PC to transfer music files, the player froze. I had to reboot the player and it worked fine subsequently. However I did notice transfer speed is slower than normal. Therefore, I stopped the file transfer halfway and used an USB card reader to upload the music files into the MicroSD card.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, do I have recommend JWD JWM-115? A big YES, if you want a budget DAP with great build, good audio quality and battery life… No, if you seek support of the latest Bluetooth codes, or if you are paranoid about floor noise or possible cracking distortion when using Bluetooth connection at maximum volume. Direct PC-to-DAP file transfer is painfully slow. If you intend to buy this DAP, I strongly-suggest using an USB card reader to upload your playlist. Do be prepared to lower your expectations if you come from a mid-tier DAP previously. There is no external USB DAC or OTG support. No high-powered headphone amp. No Quick Charge. No app support. Nonetheless if you have been using your non-audiophile smartphone as your main music source all this while and wanted to dedicated player, then JWM-115 is definitely worth your consideration.

Alternatives

Other noteworthy sub-US$100 budget DAPs (as of 10th February 2020) to consider are:
– AcMee MF-01 (US$100)- Aigo M6 Plus (US$90)- Aigo Z6 Pro (US$100)- Amoi C10 128GB (US$75)- Benjie T6 (US$50)- FiiO M3K (US$60)
– FiiO M5 (US$85)- Nintaus X10S (US$60)- Shanling Q1 (US$90)- Shanling M5 (US$99)- TempoTec V1 (US$90)- Walnut V3 (US$70)- Xduoo Nano D3 (US$80)- Xuelin iHiFi790 (US$100)- Ziku HD-X9 (US$45)- Ziku HD-X10 (US$45)- Zishan T1 AK4493 (US$70)- Zishan Z3 (US$40)

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RUIZU X02 8 GB Review – The Budget Sonic Pocket Knife

Jürgen Kraus (Calgary, Canada) — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 09:44:48 +0000

Pros — Extremely multifunctional and therefore useful; supports most audio formats; 8 GB built-in storage; intuitive operation; handy size; great value.

Cons — Not quite high-end sound; small screen; included earbuds are useless.

DISCLAIMER

I don’t like awarding stars but am forced to do so. Reasoning is that it is impossible to be consistent between items over time. A description does not change but a firm stars rating depends largely on other review items. While I think, he RUIZU X02 is a highly recommendable item and great value for money, it will never sound as good as a player ten times its price. I thank Ashley of RUIZU for the review sample.

INTRODUCTION

I am relatively new to the world of low-priced dedicated mp3 players. Yes, I had two ipod nanos (third and fourth generation) and an early ipod touch – but that was a long time ago. And I had picked up a cheap and awful-sounding Apple clone at Beijing’s silk market in the mid 2000s. Today, low-priced mp3 players are largely sidelined by smartphones which sport the same functionalities – and more. One function, however, is missing in smartphones, and it has only existed in the fourth-generation ipod nano: an analog radio. Although the respective chip is said to exist in iphones, it is not activated as analog radio usage consumes about five times as much battery as “normal” operation. Manufacturers are simply afraid of a wave of uninformed customers claiming (non-existing) battery failure.

On my search for a portable radio for my commute, I was surprisingly contacted by Ashley from RUIZU on amazon and asked for a review. So, why not? As it turns out, the RUIZU was so much more – a truly versatile device.

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: X02
Screen Size: 1.8in
SNR: 90 DB
Audio Format: MP3/APE/FLAC/WAV/OGG/AAC/M4A/WMA
Recording Format: MP3/WAV/ACT
Video Format: 128 * 160 AMV Video
Lyric Format: LRC
FM Radio Frequency: Europe/N. America: 87.5-108KHz,
Japan: 76-90KHz Languages: 28 (Chinese, English, Japanese,
Korean, Deutsch…)
Built-in Storage: 8 GB
SD Expansion Card: Up to 128 GB
Battery: 3.7 V, 460 mAh
Music Playing Time: 80 hours
Charging Time: 1-1.5 hours
Dimensions: 8.8 * 3.8 * 0.7 cm / 3.46 * 1.50 * 0.28 in
Weight: Approx. 30 g / 1.04 oz
Price (at the time of the review): ~ $25
Where to buy: amazon, gearbest, aliexpress, etc.

IN THE BOX…

1 * MP3 Player
1 * Earbuds
1 * Charging Cable
1 * User Manual

BUILD AND HAPTIC

The player is amazingly small and light – and it sits well on my palm. The case is coated with soft, smooth rubber that leaves a pleasant feel on my fingers. The 1.8-inch screen is rather small, smaller than in my old ipods. The RUIZI is operated with a panel that resembles Apple’s click wheel – but there is no rotational component to it: operation is by clicking only. The circular panel is subdivided into four buttons, each defining a quadrant. An additional button is in the centre. The clicking is accurate but feels and sounds a bit basic.

The screen comes in colour and has a relatively coarse resolution and slow refresh rate…which is just fine for normal operation.

At the player’s lower end, there is an on-off switch and a micro-usb port. On the right side, there is a slot for a TF card and the headphone jack.

FUNCTIONALITY

Music player (shuffle, repeat, speed adjustment, playlists …)
FM radio (auto-tuning and 30-station preset)
5-band equalizer (presets and custom)
Voice and radio recorder
Video and photo player
E-book reader
Clock (screen saver…very handy) Stopwatch
Alarm clock
Sleep timer (1- 99 min)
Calendar

OPERATION

The menu is intuitive and self-explanatory. I didn’t use the manual (much) as the font was too small even for my glasses. There are some nifty shortcuts such as auto-preset of 30 radio stations. Album covers are displayed.

FILE TRANSFER

Easy: works the same as any external hard drive. You create album folders and add music to them. It is easy to click through your folder system. The same accounts for videos and photos.

EARBUDS

The included RUIZU-branded earbuds resemble the older Apple buds, the ones that came with the iPod Classic and earlier models. But that’s where the similarity ends. The included buds have too high an impedance and are essentially impossible to drive with both the X02 and my ipod nanos alike. I therefore used the TRN V80 for testing the X02’s sound.

SOUND

The player has a surprisingly open presentation and good instrument separation. The sound is clear but sometimes a bit on the sharp side both owing to an artificial treble lift. Treble can therefore be strident at higher volumes but equalization can help. Depth, richness of sound, energy, and bass are all ok but by no means a challenge for my iPhone 5S. Sub-bass is a bit lean. The X02 offers a healthy volume, strong enough to warrant the included volume limiter function. Radio reception is good and sounds good.

In comparison (using the Yinyoo NY06 triple driver earphones) the ipod Nano fourth generation sounded darker, smoother, with more depth and with much more bass and a fuller body. The RUIZU sounded clearer and brighter. Resolution was on par. But: the ipod cost six times as much and that was 9 years ago – and it has much fewer functions.

To summarize the sound: it exceeded my expectations…nothing wrong with it when you use earphones better than the included ones – but it is also nothing exceptional. Yes, you can listen to music with the X02 and it is fun.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The strength of the RUIZU X02 is its versatility and I treasure it particularly for its radio. It is small, fits in a shirt pocket and is therefore handy for travel or the daily commute – with an outstanding battery life. The sound is clear and overall satisfactory when you are on the road but it won’t please audiophiles…which is expected at this price. The RUIZU X02 is what it is: a very affordable sonic pocket knife that will provide many hours of pleasure.

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