CAYINSpark N5 HiFi Portable Music Player DSD Lossless Music Player

Perfect Hi-Fi player & USB DAC. Great design (do you like R.H.Giger?) , sturdy build with 1st class materials and fine finished. Wonderful sound quality, solid amplification, very good ergonomics. Rubber case (included) is also neat and protective.If you look for these fancy features like touch screen ot BT, this is not your choice.I agree with positive reviews I've read. This little gem is fully worth its price, a very competitive price IMHO.

A great little digital audio player from China with an interesting design aesthetic and great sound. There are a lot of DAPs out of China these days and this Cayin N5 is highly rated and well liked. I had two issues though which prompted me to return it for a refund.One was the player has a tiny triangle of plastic under the scroll wheel that was unattached when I received it. There were two tiny drops of glue holding it on and they clearly did not do the job. Because it came with a rubber case that covered that over, I ignored it but was still annoyed.Two was that I only used it at night to listen to music while falling asleep so it was safely on my nightstand. Within one week the power button failed such that I had to really push on it hard to get it to respond and turn on. Prior to that it was as easy to push as any music player or cellphone. So I contacted the seller who was at first a bit reluctant to take it back but after I pointed out the on-line reviews and how the button is supposed to operate, they did take it back for a full refund.If the button had not failed, I would have kept it. Instead I bought a Fiio X5 2nd Gen player and it's as good if not better. Otherwise, this was a great player for the week I had it.

Player is great but I returned because it was not what I was looking for. No problem at all.

This is a beautiful looking product and the sound is certainly excellent - but it has an appalling design defect. It is the kind of defect that makes you worry about the rest of the product on the long term. At the bottom of the player there is a rubber strip that sits over the sockets for the micro SD's and the socket for connecting to one's computer. This rubber strip is secured to the device on one side and it flips open to enable access to the Micro SD card card slots. The strip sits flush and cleanly on the device when you get it. However, once the micro-SD is inserted, given that a tiny sliver o the micro SD sticks out of its socket, the rubber strip does not close and hangs loose. It is absolutely awful! It is one of those things which is a hygiene factor the ruins a products experience. Very disappointed.

This is a fantastic player! I also own the Cayin C5 portable amp. I use both the balanced and unbalanced outputs on the N5, with my Shure SE535 IEM (with Knowles Audio Filter mod) and FLC Technology FLC8S IEM, among others. Those are the two I use most often with the Cayin C5/N5 combo and I have both balanced (stock) and unbalanced (silver / aftermarket) cables for both IEMs.I own the Moon Audio Silver Dragon balanced cable that I use with my Shure SE535, and they sound FANTASTIC through the balanced output on the N5. I also have the FLC Technology Single Crystal Silver Cable for my FLC8S IEM as well, which also sounds fantastic through the balanced output on the N5. When I'm on the go though, I generally use the unbalanced output from the N5 and the stock cables with either the Shure SE535 (mostly) or the FLC8S. Both are fairly low impedance IEMs and are easy for the N5 to drive. About the only time I use the C5 amp is when I'm using my AKG K712 Pro headphones, which isn't very often.I have a pair of Samsung EVO Select 128GB (100MB/s) MicroSD cards chuck full of very high quality audio files; one SD card is filled with DSD64 and DSD128 audio files with the other SD card filled with 24-bit/96KHz and 24-bit/192KHz (mostly) audio files. I have nothing but GOOD things to say about the audio quality that both the N5 and the C5 provides.Of course, given the quality of the audio files I listen to, I would expect that to be the case. I don't think I have any audio files that are of lower quality than 24-bit/96KHz, with the vast majority of them being either DSD128 or 24-bit/192KHz. When you start with high quality audio files, you can expect more from the sound of ANY portable player, and the N5 sounds exceptionally GOOD with high quality audio files. Good stuff in = good stuff out!As for the little cover over the bottom of the N5 (that covers the MicroSD card slots), I don't use it, nor have I ever used it. In fact, I tossed it when I found it in the box. I just don't see the point of it. So, I can't really comment on how well or poorly it fits and frankly, I'm NOT losing any sleep over it. Someone gave the N5 a 1-star rating because they couldn't get their N5 to work with Windows, and they apparently can't read either. You have enable USB file transfers (in 'Settings') via the user interface, and there's a driver download for Windows PCs. Two people already responded to that posted review but obviously, the person who gave the N5 1 star didn't read those responses either. Some people are just stubborn, I guess.I immediately updated the firmware in my N5 as soon as I took it out of the box. THAT IS IMPORTANT TO DO, by the way, because there's no telling which version of the firmware your N5 might have installed on it. If you can't figure out how to update the firmware, READ THE DIRECTIONS on the Cayin website, since that's where you'll HAVE to get the firmware from. The latest version of the firmware is v3.2 and it comes with some important fixes and user interface improvement. It's simple to update too, IF you read the directions!I also purchased the Dignis Premium Leather Case for my Cayin N5. I originally purchased the leather case made by Cayin when I got my N5, but the fit and finish were terrible so I chucked it and bought the Dignis case instead, which in ALL respects is an infinitely better case.Speaking of the N5 user interface, while I'm also a smart phone user (LG V10) and I prefer a touch-screen user interface, I'm also fine with the N5's rather low-tech user interface. No, it's not perfect, but it works and since I updated the firmware, I've never had a single issue with ANY of the N5's features or the user interface. It has been simply stone axe reliable for me and in my book, that's as good as it gets.I uploaded a couple of pictures of my N5 and C5 in a case I purchased on Amazon. I keep ALL my portable stuff in cases I purchased on Amazon; both the Shure SE535 and the FLC8S IEMs, audio cables, N5 to C5 jumper cable, charger, USB cables, extra eartips, cleaning tool, etc. It's just very convenient and keeps things from getting lost. Amazon has some GREAT cases for sale on their site and if you don't have 4 or 5 or them, you don't know what you're missing!

I have it filled,two 128GB cards,with my FLAC files playing through my Sennheiser HD 800's and I couldn't be more pleased.Excellent sound and easy to use.Battery life is good and charges fast.I use it for about 4 or 5 days and then have to charge it although I only use it for an hour or so each day,sometimes a bit longer.Charges from almost dead battery to full charge in about 5 hours.I charge it from my computer and it is easy to apply firmware updates when you are connected to a computer,you don't have to be connected if you use a card reader adaptor and plug that into your computer.Really nice weight to it also.I'm legally blind so I have to use a magnifying glass to read the menus but I can do that quite well.A really nice piece of equipment that I would tell anyone to purchase if you are looking for a portable music player.Two thumbs up for this.Update almost a year after purchasing,11 months: Still working fine,no issues.Sounds excellent.Glad I bought it.I change cards frequently and never had any problems with charging or changing cards.I use my Sennheiser HD800 with it and I get lost in space quite often.Worth the money if you are considering buying.

Appareil acheté pour remplacer un iPod, bon, mais pas à ce niveau.Audiophile, sans être complètement inaccessible, cet appareil délivre déjà un son extraordinaire, quel que soit le type de musique (Hip-hop, live, rock, metal, classique...)Je l'ai couplé à un casque audio technica MSR7 et le résultat est bluffant.Attention, il faut impérativement faire quelques cycles de batterie complet pour profiter du lecteur.