Cayin N3 DAP, Master Quality Digital Audio Player (Black)

N3 is Cayin’s newest and cheapest DAC. Its specs seem very promising: AKM 4490EN DAC and two-way Bluetooth 4.0 chip with aptX codec support.

Nowadays the category of DAPs for advanced users mainly consists of expensive and big devices with touchscreens and streaming feature. Cayin N3 is all different – it’s a smaller, more classic piece of gear with a non-touch screen. Nevertheless, it still offers plenty options like USB DAC, Bluetooth transmitter+receiver, DSD-decoding and USB Type C input. The price is also fair – 149 USD.

Accessories
The device is packed in a small, aesthetic, white box. The accessory set is as follows:
● rubber case
● 100 cm USB to USB-C cable
● silicone band to wrap around the cable
● screen protector
● user’s manual
● 2 pcs of Hi-Res Audio stickers

The quality of the case is average. The material is matte and exposes the screen, the buttons and the bottom edge. The USB cable is rather stiff, but one can put a band which helps winding it up. Screen protector is already placed on the screen and there’s also a spare one in the box.

Construction
Cayin N3 is a bar-shaped device with rounded edges. Its housing is made of aluminum while the screen and the operating buttons are surrounded by plastic. The back of the device is lined with faux leather. N3’s dimensions are 100 mm (H) x 54 mm (W) x 13 mm (D). In general, the DAP is just a little bigger than FiiO X1 II.

The front side is mainly occupied by a 2.4-inch non-touch screen. It’s a IPS panel with 400x360 px resolution (224 ppi). It’s colorful and the backlight is strong. Colors are fine, fonts and album covers are sharp. Viewing angles are wide enough for a DAP.

Below the screen placed are 5 buttons. The middle one is a physical one, big and round. The other buttons are flat, touch-operated, separated by white lines which indicate charging process.

Other buttons are arranged on sides. The right flank is filled with 3 buttons that control the playback while on the left edge there are power and volume buttons. The bottom part of the right flank has microSD reader installed and there’s also reset hole on the left edge.

Sockets are all located on the bottom edge. There’s a 3.5mm jack/line out on the very left, USB type C port in the middle and SPDIF out on the right.

Build quality is high. N3 is not a toy-DAP, but a serious device. Its design, though simple, is also likeable. There are two color options available: blue and matte-black, while cover cases are available in various colours.

Ergonomics and handling
Using a small, 0.1 kg DAP is a very pleasant experience, especially after operating bulky DAPs like iBasso DX200 each day. Cayin N3 is not as tiny as Sandisk Sansas or FiiO M3, but it’s a 100-percent portable device that would squeeze in every pocket. Ergonomics is high – thumb operates the front buttons and easily reaches the side ones. Handling is easy – arrow-buttons are used for scrolling, back button is used for returning one screen up or – when hold – to the home screen. Menu button opens additional options and shortcuts.

Memory card slot can be easily accessed – it’s protected by just a plastic cover. Physical buttons are precise and touch buttons ‘answer’ with a vibration. Their contact area is wide, but it’s a pity that they are not illuminated. In addition to that, they are also placed too close to one another, but you can easily become accustomed to it.

Changing between headphone and line out is done via settings. USB type C port supports USB On The Go and can also transfer digital audio signal.

MicroSD reader supports 256 GB cards, but there’s no internal storage. N3 also works as a USB DAC. In ‘minimum latency’ mode the audio-video synchronization is proper.

Bluetooth options are really impressive – aptX codec is supported and N3 can work both as a BT transmitter or receiver. Therefore, one can either pair N3 with earphones and with a smartphone and transfer music from Spotify or Tidal app to IEMs or cans that are connected to the Cayin.

Even though Cayin N3 is a simple device with a simple screen, the battery life is mediocre – up to 12 hours with the screen off. Typically the device can be powered on for 8-10 hours. Charging with a 5V/2A adapter takes around 2 hours.

Operating system
N3’s operating system is basic and resembles the one used in non-Android FiiO’s DAPs. Home screen consists of 6 icons: library, folders, now playing, music settings, Bluetooth and general settings.

The first section provides access to playlists, favorite tracks and library. Another section lets you browse TF card files or USB OTG device ; it can also scan these medias. ‘Now playing’ screen displays covers and useful information on the upper status bar. Music settings allow changing the gain (3 steps), replay gain, gapless, EQ (8 presets + manual mode), 5 digital filters and advanced settings of playback and volume. Bluetooth section features pairing mode with an option to disable aptX. Settings menu offers changing language, themes, USB mode, brightness and firmware update. Menu structure is logical and no options are lacking.

Specs
● Asahi Kasei AKM4490EN DAC
● 2,4” IPS screen, 400x360px
● Bluetooth 4.0, aptX, Duplex function
● USB type C (OTG support), USB DAC (asynchronous USB Audio 2.0), SPDIF out
● 3-step gain, compatible with 16-200Ω headphones
● battery life: up to 12 hours (screen off), charging time: 2 hours (5V/2A adapter)
● microSD slot (up to 256 GB)
● dimensions: 100 x 54 x 13 mm
● weight: 100 g

Sound
Headphones/IEMs: Audeze LCD-2 (Double Helix Fusion Complement4, PlusSound X8), MrSpeakers Ether 1.1 oraz Ether C Flow (Forza AudioWorks Noir HPC mk2, DUM), Final Sonorus III, AKG K612 Pro, Focal Spirit Professional, AKG K551, Noble Audio Savant i Noble 4, Etymotic ER-4PT, Brainwavz B200
DAC/AMPs and AMPs: Burson Conductor Virtuoso (Sabre), RHA DACAMP L1, AIM SC808, ODAC i O2, Leckerton UHA-760, Zorloo ZuperDAC
DAPs: FiiO X5 III, iBasso DX200, iBasso DX90
Interconnects: Forza AudioWorks Copper Series, Klotz
Music: many genres in various formats including 24-bit and binaural tracks

N3 was tested with v1.1 firmware.

N3’s sound does not disappoint – it offers high dynamics and high resolution. It’s a neutral DAP, a bit warm, soft and smooth. N3 is also musical and allows for easy-listening – upper midrange or highs aren’t exhausting. The sound is also not dark, slow or distant. On the other hand, the tuning is also not ideally balanced and not very analytical. The amount of details is fine, the resolution is rather high and musicality is more important than music-analysis.

Bass is a bit accented in its mid-range – you can’t expect tremendous transition into subbas, but it’s still fine. The lows are not enhanced, but the bass isn’t lacking either. This region is dense, well-controlled, with diversified texture. The lows aren’t dominating and don’t cover other frequency ranges. The sound isn’t also boring – the attack of the lows is good, the bass is fast and dynamic. Music is soft and engaging.

Midrange is also smooth, soft and a bit warm. Its lower range is not very highlighted and upper regions are softened, but not rolled off. The tuning is pleasant and non-fatiguing – upper midrange isn’t rough or hissing. The sound is rather natural than neutral – it’s not very analytical, but vivid, revealing many details. Everything stays close, without sharp edges. I prefer neutrality, but N3’s naturalness is also likeable as it works seamlessly with many music genres.

High tones are not reduced – N3’s tuning is not dark and not covered. Upper treble are audible, but soft, not harsh at all. The highs are not prone to sibilization and aren’t grainy, but remain smooth. This frequency range is not sharp either. Trebles are well-controlled, precise, not very extended and not very accented.

Cayin N3’s tonality is impressive, but the soundstage is not. The latter is circular, with optimal size and proportions. Separation is fine, but the sound is not very airy – distances between instruments aren’t huge. The space isn’t very wide and the crosstalk is average. It’s easy to notice that there’s a single DAC only, but it’s hard to expect more at this price tag – the holographics is good for this market segment.

Cayin N3’s line out
The sound via line out is almost the same – it’s hard to distinguish line out and a headphone out. Leckerton UHA760 made the sound harder, less smooth. With RHA DACAMP L1 low tones were thickened and soundstage was bigger. Line out, therefore, can tune the sound or add more power. The line out is not raw, not neutral.

Cayin N3 vs other DAPs
N3’s quality is not on par with iBasso DX90, FiiO X5 III and far worse than iBasso DX200. But in comparison with the two first DAPs, the differences are not as huge as the price gap between them.

Both X5 III and DX90 are neutral-sounding DAPs, while in case of N3 a pinch of warmth, smoothness and softness can be observed. FiiO’s device is brighter and offers better channel and instrument separation. Dynamics is similar, but X5 III is more airy and the resolution is higher. DX90 provides deeper, more dense bass ; midrange plus treble are also stronger. DX90 uses a dual DAC, so channel separation is improved, the distances between the instruments are bigger and the resolution is higher. N3 sounds more narrow and both channels blur into one, but it’s only noticeable when you got a better DAP to compare.

I find Cayin N3 more interesting than FiiO X3K or X1 II. It sounds natural, not digital. X1 II is cheaper, but offers smaller soundstage and lower resolution. X3K (X3 II) is similar to N3 in terms of quality, but with different tuning: brighter, with more accented highs and less present midrange. Cayin’s sound is more pleasant with more forward mids and smooth, soft highs. Moreover, N3 is also smaller and offers Bluetooth connection with aptX support, while X3K doesn’t have BT at all.

Cayin N3 vs headphones/IEMs
Due to its quite high power and 3-step gain control, Cayin N3 is quite elastic regarding headphones/earphones choice. It will work fine with more-demanding headphones as well as with sensitive IEMs using Balanced Armature drivers (if they are, however, of very high sensitivity, some hiss is audible). N3 doesn’t shine paired with high-end full-size cans, but it performs well with premium portable headphones or IEMs. Nevertheless, it may not work fine with very warm or very dark headphones/earphones, but should communicate well with those neutral. A bit of synergy is required, though.

I really like Cayin N3 + AKG K551 tandem. Upper midrange and treble are a bit softened – the sound is more smooth and soft, which I find favorable. Soundstage and instrument arrangement is impressive, dynamics is high and the sound is fast.

Focal Spirit Professional also work well with N3 – they become more musical, engaging, with improved dynamics. The situation is worse with Final Sonorus III (but these are very specific headphones) - highs were harsh at times.

Etymotic ER-4PT sound a bit warmer, smoother and softer, but remained very detailed and forward. With ER-4S adapter the results were also fine with precise bass, dense mids and well-controlled highs. The sound was still analytical and hi-res, but the tuning has become more natural and musical. The soundstage was, however, average, close and small.

Noble Audio 4 featured close midrange, tight bass and rather soft highs. Softening and smoothening helped – syblization (a common issue for Noble 4) decreased. Light hiss was audible (even with the low gain), but wasn’t disturbing, even in more quiet parts of music tracks.

Noble Audio Savant are less prone to hissing, but, because of that, their bass is also a bit too tempered. I like Savants paired with other, more neutral DAPs – with Cayin N3 they sound a bit too warm, too soft, too smooth and too calm. Such a tandem still works fine, but not as engaging as iBasso DX90 or FiiO X5 III.

Brainwavz B200 are not a good companion either. They are dark, warm, with forward mids and when connected to the N3, they become too dark and too smooth.

Verdict

Cayin N3 is a very good DAP. It’s of compact size and offers many options like USB DAC and two-way Bluetooth module with aptX codec support. Handling it is easy, software is fine and the device provides quite a lot of power and pairs well with miscellaneous IEMs/headphones. The sound is great for the price tag: natural, a bit warm and smooth, with proper dynamics. N3 sounds soft, but is not boring - the sound is detailed and energetic – the music is engaging.

Let’s not exaggerate, though. Cayin N3 won’t win with another more expensive midrange devices – it loses to FiiO X5 3rd gen and iBasso DX90. A potential buyer also needs to remember that touch buttons require getting used to and that there’s no separate line out and digital out. N3 also lacks internal storage and battery life is just average. It’s still worth the price, no doubt.

maciux - Maciej Sas

DAPs are our portable music companions. Many will rely on their smartphones for musical enjoyment on the go, but I like to have something a little better sounding, with a bit more power. On the more affordable end of the DAP spectrum, Cayin is offering the N3. Chock full of features, and a MSRP of only $149(USD), read on to find out if Cayin took a big bite out of the Law of Diminishing Returns. The Cayin N3 is on loan from Cayin for a listening tour. I receive no other compensation than my time with the unit in exchange for the review you are now reading. I’d like to thank Andy Kong & Cayin for organizing this tour, and giving us a chance to experience the N3.

Intro

At $149 (USD MSRP) the N3 is the lowest price DAP that Cayin offers, yet it still is fairly feature rich. Some of those features are Bluetooth (4.0 aptX), file sharing with a compatible smartphone, compatibility with some wired headphone controls, quick charging (quoted as 2 hours), USB to coaxial capability (type C to coaxial cable wire sold separately), USB DAC function, up to 256G micro SD card capable, as well as the ability to decode a plethora of file types, including native DSD256. Quite a lot for the asking price IMHO.

Build Quality

The build of the N3 is excellent overall with an aluminum chassis and pleather back it feels solid in the hand. It’s relatively small (10 x 5.4 x 1.3 cm) and only weighs about 100g. It’s easily transportable and fits well into an empty pocket. Everything felt solid, all buttons worked without issue. The only niggle I can find is really not the fault of Cayin. Since this unit was on tour, one of the previous members accidentally jammed an SD card into the slot, not realizing that there was a plastic ‘slot holder’ already inserted. Unfortunately, the card that came with the unit (only 4 GB) was stuck inside and was the only card I was able to use.

Ergonomics

I found the ergonomics fairly intuitive, with physical controls and memory card slot on the left & right sides,


Audio & USB jack on the bottom,

and nothing on the top. The front panel array has the display, a center input button surrounded by 4 capacitive buttons (they’re touch sensitive, no physical button) with defeatable haptic (vibration) feedback. Unfortunately, the capacitive arrows are the only ones that work when adjusting the menu.

I found myself occasionally attempting to adjust with the arrows on the right side since I find I prefer the physical to the capacitive, but I adjusted quickly. I was happy to find that the volume can be adjusted without the screen being activated.

Display

The display Cayin uses is clear and bright, although somewhat fingerprint prone, though if I’m being honest, not more so than other DAPs. The N3 uses a 2.4″ 400 x 300 screen, which is a decent size, but I often found the font for the songs & artist to be difficult to read without glasses. Those with better vision will likely have no problem. The viewing angle is terrific, slightly prone to glare, and it’s dimmable to conserve battery power.

Battery & Amp

I found that battery power is rated somewhat generously since I got more in the neighborhood of 10 hours at a clip. Charging was close enough to the rated 2 hours for me not to take notice. The Amp has a decent amount of juice under the hood (rated at 130 mW+130 mW @32Ω), powering reasonable full size cans without complaint. The N3 did shine with all the IEMs in my collection, having a particular synergy with the Audiofly AF56, as well as my 64 Audio U6 (Adel version). It was able to power the Sennheiser HD600 to an unsafe listening volume, but it was a bit too shrill. The N3 actually fared better with my ZMF Eikon. While not the best pair, the bass was surprisingly pleasant, full & rich if a bit on the loose side. It sounded much better with my AT M40X with which I noticed nothing at all to complain of.

Ins & outs

One of my biggest gripes is that Cayin decided to handle just about everything through the USB interface. Other than the headphone out, the USB is the only way to connect the N3 to an external DAC/amp. I understand this is likely a cost saving measure, but personally I would have liked a dedicated coaxial out, even if there was a (reasonable) price increase. I was never able to test the Coaxial out since you need a USB to coaxial wire which was not included. Too bad, though, I really wanted to hook it up to Hugo to see what it could do.

The Headphone out can be configured as a line out, which sets the volume to 100, however the next time you turn it on, the H/O goes back to the last volume it was set at. The only work around seems to be setting the volume at 100, which will be remembered on the next boot up. When using the N3 as an external DAC/amp, you can’t set the out as a L/O, but you can again set it to 100.

The Bluetooth option worked as advertised. I had a little trouble initially pairing with my Samsung S7, but a quick reboot took care of that. Fidelity over Bluetooth was decent if not quite on the level of the wired options. Obviously in this mode you consume more power for transmitting, and also because you need more volume when using Bluetooth as a source.

One of the listed features is using the N3 as a USB OTG device. You need an adapter to do this. I do have a USB coupling of sorts, but I was unable to use that successfully. Any other OTG adapter I have is for micro USB, so I can’t confirm this feature works, though it is widely reported in other reviews to be functional.

Sound Quality

When I’m listening to a DAP, I’m really listening for any sonic anomalies, anything that draws me’ too far out of the music’. Anything that sounds different with music I am familiar with, while using headphones/earphones I’ve also become accustom to would be a strike against it. On this front, the N3 passed easily, everything sounding as it should.

I found the sound quality to be on par with or better than my current DAPs in this price range (which is all I currently own). The Cayin has a more lively quality than my Fiio X2(1) or my Shanling M2, but it isn’t an overly exaggerated sound. There’s also a smoothness I’m experiencing, a warmish quality rather than clinical without straying too far from neutral. Bass through treble are well represented, and I’m not hearing any roll off at either end, which is what I expect from a quality DAP. As far as I can tell SQ is identical in low or high gain, the only difference being volume, which would obviously benefit more sensitive IEMs. My most sensitive is the aforementioned U6, and I heard no noise while using the N3. I’d say as long as you’re not trying to push it too far, the N3 is a capable musical companion.

Conclusion

I found the N3 to be a well thought out and very capable DAP, with great sound quality (especially for the price) and a whole lot of features for the price. Sure there are a few things I’d like to change, but I can’t deny that Cayin has put out a very competent performer in the N3. If you’re in the market for an affordable, feature rich DAP with great sound and adequate power, the N3 should definitely be on your short list.

After reading a lot of hype BS and wasted money, I would like to clarify things for the undecided.

Being able to handle Ultra-Hi-Res sound files does not remotely translate to "Master" sound quality:
While details are rendered, there is no sense of coherence. The sound is thin, not really grainy but with sharp edges. No authority on any level. It's a shame.

Gain/impedance settings do not alter the performance on my headphones that were driven excellently by other sources (Grado PS500e, Focal Spirit One Pro). Neither had lossy vs. lossless formats any dramatic impact. Nor did my last straw: a firmware update.

The device has very touchy, i.e. overly sensitive software buttons that are too narrowly placed resulting in a lot of cross-activation.

Since sound is the main criterion for evaluation, I am extremely disappointed. One star can be given for some positive features, but that's it!

The only appropriate use for this is lossy, speech-based podcasts.

Done with Cayin.