Review of the Cayin i5 audio player: music on the positive and glamorous selfies with Lincoln

“Nothing is as invigorating as a meteorite in the morning!”I was reminded of this adorable phrase about the Chebarkul meteorite when a new Cayin audio player arrived to me not from outer space but from the Celestial Empire itself . Vivid moments of earthly life sometimes come to mind by themselves: Cayin again this time cheered up music lovers with an original product. In contrast to its older brother, the Cayin N6, remember

review of the device with the “porthole”

? the novelty boasts a stylish design and smart ergonomics. And if we compare the new i5 with the previous,

The “naked five” is the N5

, The sound became more full-bodied. Who plays or has played, can feel new tones and colors in his gut… So, today we listen and watch the Cayin i5 music player together.

Thanks to XChesser Audio for providing a sample for listening.

Cayin i5 audio player

Specifications

Appearance and package

The unit comes in a nice glossy box. Inside there is a black “chest”, which is easy to open: here you get the player, a USB TYPE C cable, a USB TYPE C/Micro USB adapter, documentation, and three protective films – as I understand, two of them for the front panel and one for the back.

The device is made of glass and aluminum, all so glamorous and attractive – nice to pick up, like a well-groomed pet with a short haircut. On the front panel is a touch screen with decent color reproduction and a resolution of 480×800. The controls, of course, were taken from modern smartphones, but they haven’t “plucked” everything, but only at the level that is necessary and sufficient for the software player.

The rear view is similar to Cayin N5: The back cover is covered with a sticker with a 3D pattern a la carbon and the logo in the gold section. The same, from below there is a plastic overlay, under which most likely are placed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules.

On the left end of the device is the player on/off key. On the right side are the forward-backward buttons, the start-pause button and the microSD card slot. Fingers, like a pianist, blindly find all the right buttons..

On the top end is a darkened bezel-rimmed 3.5mm headphone jack and line out. Special attention to the volume knob: Incredibly stylish “knob-bob” with an oblique notch and velvety feel as you spin it.

On the bottom side is a USB TYPE C connector for PC connection, power adapter, through it also outputs the digital signal.

The screen, as I promised, pleases the eye with rich colors. The menu is quite clever. Of course, if you pick on it like a stubborn firefighter, you will find some flaws and small bloopers, but in general the control is clear and logical.

Touch response is quite good. Of course, the player is never confused with a flagship smartphone, but this audio touch is for the eyes and ears of the audiophile. The assembly of the device is very good: no gaps, no backlashes, no complaints.

The main menu with a single touch will put you before the choice: internal memory or memory card, LAN or Dropbox. By opening the curtain at the top, you can turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I have not tortured the “cloud” with music, but music streaming from online radio stations, in my opinion, still need to “finish”. Sounds, like the notes, poured into the headphones, and suddenly, on the spot starts to “bunting” and hang up tight. I use quite a wide internet channel, so the problems are probably caused by caching of data. I think this bug will disappear in the next firmware update. By the way, it would also be nice to connect the device to a PC as an external USB DAC/sound card..

I would also like to mention such features as digital filters sharp roll-off short delay sharp roll-off slow roll-off short delay slow roll super slow roll-off and equalizer with “engines” in full variety. Have fun if you have nothing to listen to anymore..

By the way, for the new player I decided to take selfies with a natural Cadillac, because I think Cayin i5 is the most handsome and comfortable device from what I could listen to for the last couple of years.

Sound

The following headphones were used for listening: Etymotic ER-4S, Etymotic ER-4SR, Beyerdynamic DT 1350, Beyerdynamic DT 250/250, Phonon SMB-02.

The device made a good friends with both in-canal and full-size headphones. I haven’t noticed any genre preferences in the device.

The sound offered by the Cayin i5 I would label as beautiful. Tone balance is quite even, without obvious distortions, but in its delivery, as well as in N5, one can feel some share of three-dimensionality and “idleness. All musical material the Cayin i5 plays in a “positive way”, I almost thought it was a little tipsy..

There’s a couple of things to look out for. Depending on the mastering and the genre the device can playback the music material with “different pitch. Let me explain.

Take for example Cliff Richard – “I’m Nearly Famous”, the Cayin i5 sounds the album very detailed, smooth and airy. It captures vocal intonations and strings perfectly, the bass is accurate and well-rated, and the music flows easily, accurately and authentically. The picture comes out almost “in line”.

Here we go to Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”. On this album the pitch changes to a very dense, thick, with enviable force. Small details fade into the background and almost do not pay attention to themselves. And meanwhile the bass begins to breathe muscles, striking with its power, filling the entire foreground, wreathing with the vocals and the central melody. As a result, the virtual scene is rounded to a spherical shape: power, energy and drive flows in all directions!

Such a modern manner. It sounds very interesting, it even seems that you switch from one device to another, and all you did was “change the record”! And there is no hint that the life-giving sound is mixed with soulless software with plastic android music…

I was recently interrogated how the Cayin i5 sounding in comparison with other devices? I’m not a proponent of such metering who has more , especially from memory. Therefore, after scratching in various places, I would answer after Gogol: “If we put Nicanor Ivanovich’s lips to Ivan Kuzmich’s nose, we would take…”, which means: if we take Cayin N5 sound as basis, add Chord Mojo sound and add some Aune M2pro sauce, then we will obtain something similar to Cayin i5, forgive me N.V…

If to return to the image of an evil fireman, the pickup will be the following: the device slightly swallows the aftershow: instead of long guitar “treeny-breeny-breeny” it gives out with a patter – “treeny-breeny”. I don’t mean the solo parts, but the fading in general. Not a critical quibble, of course. I think, most of the listeners of Cayin i5 won’t even notice the small sound cut, but nevertheless there is such a nuance, to be exact..

The tweeters – without too much brightness and accents. They are a bit simplistic, but unobtrusive, and quantitatively sufficient. It’s all smooth and normal.

The midrange is very musical, expressive, with good resolution. Depending on the musical material it can take both an analytical tone and sound solid, with drive, with a “warm tube” character.

The woofers have quite a decent punch. Quantitatively and qualitatively they are quite enough. The bass isn’t rumbling or muttering, it’s not bad at all.

Conclusions

Well? The player turned out very interesting. Stylish and modern in terms of controls. Sound-wise, I’d call it a good work on the mistakes with the N5.

With all its obvious advantages the player is sold for a reasonable price tag. The price of Cayin i5 on the American Internet is around 30 000 Dollars. I think you can pay more for such sophisticated sounds.

Design, build quality, sound, price.

The flaws in the software part.