[newtophones07]

Like it or not, getting a decent MCU is one of the most challenging part of developing a modern DAP. There are two problems here, the obvious one is supply chain issue, a HiFi brand will need around 10K units of MCU to support one audiophile grade DAP products, a mobile phone brand will go for around 500K units for a regular mobile phone products, and will go well beyond 1000K unit with popular models. The reality is, without an established relationship with the semiconductors big-names, even getting a supply contract on outdated MCU is far more difficult that consumers can imagine.

The reason that semiconductor feels reluctant to work with small scale projects like DAP is because of the commitment of solution provider, and this is the second problem that stop us from using a modern MCU in DAP. The MCU is useless until there is a "solution provider" willing to take up the project and develop a "solution" for a particular application. You can imagine DAP is a niche market that is not particular attractive to the solution providers.

We expect the 1G RM + 32G internal memory will continue be the norm of sub-$400 Android DAP. The current N5ii can support upto 544GB (32+256+256) storage. Adding another 32GB to this will increase the maximum music storage by around 6% only, nothing really significant. N5ii uses eMMC as internal memory, its more expensive then TF cards in general, so we think it is more cost effective by keeping the cost of DAP down with 32G internal memory only and let users allocate the budget to the TF cards flexibly. At the end of the day, nothing comes free, its just a matter of paying for the eMMC internal memory upfront, or to get a bigger TF card when you really need the extra "few" GB.

I very much appreciate the response and detail. I look forward to the release, as I want to try a new device soon.

 

[musicday]

If this is not priced low will be a big failure. So many options out there.
Why no Wifi 5 Ghz support? 2.4 Ghz is very weak.

 

[audionewbi]

OPA1622, nice!

 

[Andykong]

If this is not priced low will be a big failure. So many options out there.
Why no Wifi 5 Ghz support? 2.4 Ghz is very weak.

em... I didn't notice there is a lot of DAP out there adopted 5GHz WiFi. I am not sure if there is any, but definitely not the mainstream and the situation is not necessarily price related. I can quoted DAP at 5 times more expensive offers WiFi at 2.4GHz only, or removing WiFi function completely.

5GHz is not popular in audiophile DAP because high frequency interference is a big problem in our development process and handling 5GHz is worse then 2.4GHz. Unless the DAP (or mobile phone) is designed around a highly integrated solution (i.e., everything is performed within one or two integrated chipset), otherwise it is important to consider the interference issue as early as possible. To tell you the truth, we are still fighting this problem on N5ii design right now, we have delayed our launch for couple of months because of that.

 

[musicday]

em... I didn't notice there is a lot of DAP out there adopted 5GHz WiFi. I am not sure if there is any, but definitely not the mainstream and the situation is not necessarily price related. I can quoted DAP at 5 times more expensive offers WiFi at 2.4GHz only, or removing WiFi function completely.

5GHz is not popular in audiophile DAP because high frequency interference is a big problem in our development process and handling 5GHz is worse then 2.4GHz. Unless the DAP (or mobile phone) is designed around a highly integrated solution (i.e., everything is performed within one or two integrated chipset), otherwise it is important to consider the interference issue as early as possible. To tell you the truth, we are still fighting this problem on N5ii design right now, we have delayed our launch for couple of months because of that.

IBasso DX200.

 

[Andykong]

It's so beautiful!!!!!!

My friend, I hope I'll land at a much easier community with N5ii, so wish me luck this time.

 

[Andykong]

IBasso DX200.

Thanks for your quote.

Just out of curiosity, why is it important to boost the WiFi speed of audiophile DAP? What are the scenario that you really connections above, say 2 Mbps?

 

[Andykong]

Hi Andy.
I use i5 DAP, and loving the sound.
I have one question, does N5ii support aptX HD?

Sorry, the Qualcomm apt-xHD chip is way outside our budget on N5ii.

 

[Andykong]

Is the sample rate conversion in android bypassed?

The native player will bypassed the SRC for sure. I am not sure whether we can resolve the SRC limitation to 3rd party applications, can't tell until we have a near-production version firmware for testing.

 

[Andykong]

Thank you Andy for giving us a rare and candid glimpse into the making of a (good) DAP. Too often we, as users, tend to think of the DAP market as such a big market, wheres, as you point out, it's just a niche market, and not the biggest one either. My son is a sound engineer, and a (would be) music producer, so we have discussions on equipment and users from time to time. His impression is that the "mobile audiophile" market as a whole is a not that big, and is generally not understood or cared about by the younger generations, as they tend to have different spending priorities and are happy to enjoy their music with cheaper, less performing equipment. What might be done, and I think it has already started, is to expose the young users to better sounding mobile equipment, DAPs, headphones, iems, so that when they get a taste of a much better music experience it will be more difficult to go back to less performing gear. This one of the ways, imo, this market can experience increased growth. Sorry for the digression!

That depends on the point of reference, DAP is consider "big" volume when compare to dedicated SACD player or tube amplifier, but once we line up with semiconductor industry, we are definitely a niche market only.

I agree with the comment of your son completely. Take a look on the sales volume of Bluetooth headphone vs wired headphone at $100 - $300 range, you'll notice the obvious preference of the younger generation. Pursue of quality is definitely not the primarily consumer behavior from what I observed.

One of the biggest issues to the younger generation is peer identity, the cost to "educate" them to make independent decision that will deviate from their peer is very high. When the society accepted downloadable compressed low-res music as the norm, it is difficult to cultivate a sincere appreciation of high quality music playback, that why I can foresee mobile phone + wireless headphone will continue be the social norm and high quality DAP with premium "wired" headphone will remain a shirking niche market. This is sad, and I hope someone can prove me wrong.

 

[Andykong]

OPA1622, nice!

Its old school, but it rocks.

 

[JaeYoon]

My friend, I hope I'll land at a much easier community with N5ii, so wish me luck this time.

You can count on me to collect this.

Just need an old school 3.5mm connection with dual sd slots on a vintage looking cayin n5ii player with old school OP amps lol.

 

[Andykong]

You can count on me to collect this.

Just need an old school 3.5mm connection with dual sd slots on a vintage looking cayin n5ii player with old school OP amps lol.

Old school 3.5mm connection, checked.
Dual SD slots, checked.
Old School OP amp, checked.
Vintage looking ....... em, checked if you are a very forgiving audiophile.

 

[musicday]

Thanks for your quote.

Just out of curiosity, why is it important to boost the WiFi speed of audiophile DAP? What are the scenario that you really connections above, say 2 Mbps?

I want stability and as long a possible Wifi range especially when connected to stream music.

 

[Andykong]

I want stability and as long a possible Wifi range especially when connected to stream music.

Yes, that's a good point.

The common observation is 2.4GHz offer better coverage and connectivity in household environment (walls and partitions instead of one big open space) while 5GHz offer higher throughput, so 2.4GHz is a good choice.