ayin is preparing its long-awaited N8ii player , which was 80% ready, but due to a fire at the Japanese AKM plant, they were left without DAC chips, the heart of the player. As a result, development had to start with a new ROHM BD34301EKV chip.
Expected start of sales: February-March 2022.
Key Features of Cayin N8ii
1. Dual DAC Architecture
N8ii is designed based on a pair of ROHM BD34301EKV DAC chipsets with 32-bit current mode. The DAC chipset was announced back in February 2021 – the perfect time to save our AKM-based project. The AKM fire was one of the worst for our industry, and Cayin almost immediately began looking for a new DAC solution. At the time of writing, this DAC chipset has not yet been used in any portable DAP, so the N8ii may well be the first modern DAP with the ROHM DAC chipset. We are aware of the LUXMAN SACD player project, but we are working within the same time frame, our engineers have spent a lot of resources studying, experimenting and setting up the support system for this new DAC chipset from scratch. We are really pleased with the result and we look forward to sharing our ROHM developments with our users.
2. Fully Balanced Dual Tone
Our Vacuum Tube/Solid State Dual Tone feature shocked the world back in May 2018. We’ve solved the microphone problem with innovative techniques and made it easy to select vacuum tube and solid state voices in a portable DAP for the first time. Unfortunately, we can only fit one Nutube 6P1 into our N8, so the vacuum tube is only available for the Single-end headphone output. We have received many comments and requests to make the vacuum tube tone available for balanced output as well, and we have repeatedly explained that the Nutube 6P1 is a dual triode tube in design, it can be used as a left and right stereo amplification channel, we cannot achieve true balanced amplification with only one Nutube 6P1.
Naturally, as we begin our N8ii project, one of the priority requirements is to upgrade the Dual Timber feature to support balanced output. Implementing Dual Nutube in the N8ii is even more complex than in the C9 because we have to take care of a 5-inch OLED screen at the same time, so we will have to be innovative in the placement of circuits and components to fit everything into a compact, portable solution.
3. Fully discrete dual output mode
This is a unique feature only available in N8. We vary the operating voltage of the headphone amplifier to increase the output power, processing capabilities, and sonic signature of the circuit, and allow users to select between Standard P mode and High Output P+ mode via a drop-down menu. We’ve retained this feature in the N8ii and, even better, upgraded the headphone amplification circuitry to a fully discrete design. As a result, the N8ii’s P+ mode will be more dramatically different from the standard P mode. Cayin N8ii
Features
- Dual DAC ROHM BD34301EKV DAC, 32Bit/768kHz, DSD512
- Balanced tube amplifier using a pair of KORG Nutube 6P1
- Fully balanced and discrete headphone output amplification circuitry
- Class A/Class AB amplifier to choose from
- Two operating modes – standard and high power
- 3.5mm and 4.4mm line out
- Snapdragon 660, 6G RAM, 128G internal memory and TF support up to 1TB
- Android 9, Google Player and other streaming
- DTA bypass Android SRC, Hi-Res support in any applications
