Cayin N8 Flagship Digital Audio Player Revealed – See Features, Specs and Price
Cayin recently announced their flagship portable digital audio player or DAP – the Cayin N8, a money-no-object DAP featuring balanced solid state and Triode Vacuum tube outputs. That’s right, it has two types of amp outputs! The Cayin N8 is something unique in a sense that it brings something new to the table. Surprisingly, this DAP has a HDMI out and a 4.4mm headphone in/out ports as well. The Cayin N8 uses two AK4497EQ DAC chip paired with a miniature direct heated triode tube as an amp for the single-ended output, and a quadruple solid-state for the balanced output. I think Cayin is going big this time and would compete with other top tier / TOTL DAPs in the market. Check out more details from the official news below.
Cayin N8 DAP with Balanced Solid Stated and Triode Vacuum Tube Outputs
Cayin N8, the new flagship portable Master Quality Digital Audio Player from the leading audio manufacturer, will makes its worldwide debut at High End 2018 (H12, Hall).
The N8 is the first price-no-objective portable digital audio player from Cayin. This is our attempt to deliver best possible high fidelity audio performance to portable users. The N8 has consolidated their 25 years of extensive experience in high-end audio industry and impeccable digital and analogue audio capabilities. It features two AKM AK4497EQ DAC chipsets and can native decode up to DSD512 and 64 Bit/ 768kHz with stellar dynamic range and channel separation.
Bin Liang, CEO of Zhuhai Spark Electronic Equipment Co., Ltd., parent company of Cayin, said “While the N8 offers state-of-the-art digital decoding for portable player, it’s the analogue that makes it stand our as our statement to the head-fi market. For the first time ever, we have created a DAP with choice of Direct Heated Triode vacuum tube and full balanced solid state in one portable package. N8 users can select the audio signature that fit their headphones or music genre conveniently”.
On top of being a brilliant standalone player, Cayin N8 offers six input and output options so that you can integrate the DAP into your home audio system flexibly. The I2S Digital output (via micro HDMI) is by far the most sophisticated digital interface from N8, it can connect to I2S input of our CS-100DAC and N8 will become a high performance digital transport. We have also embedded the S/PDIF Coaxial signal into the Type-C secondary bus pins. This is our proprietary design and N8 users will be provided the necessary adapters to connect the player to portable and desktop DAC. N8 also supports USB Audio, it can function as USB DAC (input) or USB Transport (output) through its Type-C USB interface. Last but not least, N8 comes with dual line out design. On top of the commonly used single-ended line out through the dedicated 3.5mm port, Cayin has added a ground connection to the “Pentaconn” connector so that N8 can facilitate full balanced line out through the shared 4.4mm TRRRS port.
There is no reason to settle for less on the final appeal and finishing when N8 excels in almost every aspect. The main N8 chassis is CNC out of a single piece of stainless steel and the rear panel is a specially molded 3D toughened Gorilla glass with AF and DLC coating. This combination not only offers attractive visual impact, it is also a functional design that feels good when you grasp it.
Cayin N8 Specifications
Price and Availability
The Cayin N8 is scheduled to launch at August 2018. The suggested retail price will be announced soon. But according to some rumors it could be priced at around $2,000 to $2,500 more or less.
