Review of the Cayin N5 MK2 audio player: whatever you shove – jazz, vocals, or hard rock, all will play well!

A lot of strange things in the West: the U.S. economy under Trump seems to be growing, but the stock market is plummeting. Yes, what about the markets! British ministers resign because they’re late for work, and the legendary Disneyland opens its own brewery – for the kids or something? Freaky! The so-called “our partners” are everywhere: both in Syria and Ukraine, and even in their own Disneyland… But the Chinese brand Cayin is demonstrating the stable essence of capitalism with a communist face, regularly releasing more and more audio players, and with an excellent design and good sound. And now the brand from the Celestial Empire has released a new model N5 MK2. It remains to listen to the novelty in person and describe everything in detail in color..

Thank you XChesserAudio for the provided sample for listening.

Audio player Cayin N5 MK2

Specifications

DAC chip: ESS Sabre 9018K2M

Amplifier: OPA1652 + OPA1622

Processor: Rockchip RK3188

Screen: touch screen, 3.65, 854 × 480

Output power: at 32&Omega 130 mW headphones, 250 mW balanced

Internal memory: 32GB

Outputs: 3.5mm standard/headphone, and 2.5mm balanced

2 microSD card slots: up to 256GB

Audio formats: AV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, WMA, MP3, OGG, AAC, DSD, DSDIFF, SACD-ISO

Interfaces: USB Audio, S/PDIF via USB type C

Bluetooth: 4.0 APT-X

Battery: 3000 mA/h, single charge duration: up to 12 hours, 4 hours charging.

Dimensions: 11.5 cm × 5.7 cm × 1.5 cm

Weight: 150g.

Appearance and Package

The device comes in an elegant “flatbottom” is such a designer’s exquisite black package with a glossy outline of the player and the facsimile Cayin.

Inside is a black “chest” on the magnet, which simply opens: there you have a player, and a USB cable TYPE C, and a plastic carrying case. Everything is clear, beautiful, modest, elegant – I like it!

The device itself is small: 11,5 cm × 5,7 cm × 1,5 cm, in the hand fits like a promising woman’s handshake: gently, unexpectedly, with elegance. Material is aluminum. The color – silver, solid build, all clear, symmetrical, you can not fault.

The device is made of glass and aluminum, so glamorous and attractive – it’s pleasant to hold in hands.

The back cover is covered with a plastic plate under glass, under which the original graphic pattern and handwritten Cayin logo are printed on a metal base.

The front panel has a touch screen with good color reproduction and resolution of 854 × 480. Controls, of course, in some ways were taken from modern smartphones, but “plizni” not all, but only at the level necessary and sufficient for the software player.

On the left side of the device is a key on off the player, it also wakes up the disabled screen. On the right side are buttons for back, start/pause, forward and two microSD card slots.

Fingers blindly find all the buttons you need: hop, ready!

On the top end there are darkened fringed connectors: a balanced 2.5 mm, and a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. In the right top corner there is a nice “thumbturn” – volume control: pretty stylish little thing with an oblique notch and a pleasant feeling when rotating.

On the bottom side is a USB TYPE C socket, necessary for connecting to a PC and power adapter. Digital USB Audio and S/PDIF coaxial, works with Cayin CS-30TCR and CS-40TC35 proprietary cables are coming out through the same interface.

The menu is quite elaborate. Of course, if you nag like stubborn firefighters during inspections, you will find flaws and small bugs, but in general the control is clear and logical. In addition to the new firmware in Cayin closely monitored, which can not fail to please.

The responsiveness of the screen to touch is quite decent, although, of course, it is never confused with the flagship smartphone, but this audiotouch is for the eyes and ears of the audiomaniac. The assembly of the device is very solid: no gaps, no backlashes, no claims.

The firmware itself is based on the Android OS. The main menu will inevitably put you before the choice: to use the internal memory, two memory cards or an external drive connected via OTG adapter.

Having opened the top curtain, you can practically command the “goldfish”: you can turn on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, control the Gain Low/High , you can choose the headphones/line output mode, turn on Audio priority mod, USB mod, as well as control the settings to turn on and off the screen of the device.

At the very top of the curtain you can find the familiar gear icon, which gives you access to the Android system settings.

The manufacturer also pleased music lovers with another important option: the player can work through a USB connector as an external DAC sound card.

In general, the new device is beautiful and functional. How’s it doing with the music?

Sound

The following headphones were used for listening:

Beyerdynamic dt 250/250 ohms, Beyerdynamic dt 1350, Phonon SMB-02, 64 AUDIOU18 Tzar, Ambient Acoustics AM5 LAM, Etymotic ER-4SR, Custom ARTFIBAE 2 and Westone UM PRO 30/50. I listened to the device from the 3.5 mm headphone output.

The sound of Cayin N5 MK2 I would describe as rather neutral and well balanced. The device presents the musical material in a wide, smooth and very musical way, without obvious bumps and distortions.

Listening to favorite tracks on N5 MK2 was a real pleasure! The player builds virtual space well – both in width and depth.

From the first minutes Cayin N5 MK2 impresses by its melodic and unobtrusive way of presenting the musical material. The delivery is very musical with no obvious distortion, peaks or dips in any area of the frequency response.

The bass has good speed characteristics, good definition of textures, it does not cut into the adjacent ranges, it is few and not small, but exactly as much as necessary, it is served linearly and accurately. Who wouldn’t like it??

Midbass sounds with a neat accent, but it does not disturb the overall harmony of the sound and the picture as a whole, but just gives it a warmer tone.

The midrange is beautiful. It is served in a balanced, casual way, with good detail and moderate emotionality. This is not a boring monitor style and not a riot of colors of carnival madness, it is a certain balance and harmony between the two. Everything is flat, smooth and very melodic.

The vocal parts sound very nice. They are slightly accentuated, but at the same time they do not pry and do not irritate the ear, which gives the compositions a share of expression in a softened form. Every letter sounds clear, everything is so legible you could write the lyrics in a girl’s dream book…

The treble is also very accurate and neutral. They are somewhat subdued, but still have a decent level of detail, clean and well articulated. There are no bright bursts or excessive airs, the set of musical “colors” is close to perfect..

No genre preference in the device, either. You can put it anywhere: jazz, vocal orchestral classics, hard rock or electronics, all will play very well.

In the drydown

The treble is crisp, moderately transparent, few and quite a lot of them, they always come and go on time. You have just the right amount of it. Even though there is a little bit of chapiness here and there, but it’s not critical, considering the price of the device.

Mids are detailed with good resolution. Each instrument is well-drawn in space. The middle part is very smooth and musical.

The bass is not boomy, just right, no more, no less. The bass has good speed characteristics, it is well textured and has moderate massiveness.

Conclusion.

In my opinion and hearing the device was a success! It has all chances to become the best portable audio player in the mid-range. The price for Cayin N5 MK2 in American online stores is about 21 900 rub. And personally, I think you can pay more for such refined sounds.

Design, build quality, sound, price.

No.