Cayin A 88T Mk2 Portable Setup For

In summary, overall sound quality of C5 DAC is pretty good, neutral warm with very minimum noticeable coloration.

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Usually I would need a minimum of 1 month to do a proper review of a DAC, so I hope within the short period I would be able to cover all the the important aspects of the C5 DAC.

Some background of CAYIN model naming is explained here: Summary of Sound Signature: Neutral, slightly warm, energetic with good dynamic, especially for IEMs easy to drive headphones.

No dedicated line output, so cannot be used as dedicated DAC without the headphone amplifier.

There is a 3.5 mm socket analog line input to use only the headphone amplifier without the DAC (AUX mode).

Probably the main sonic character to be highlighted is the sense of good driving power, especially when driving IEMs.

C5 DAC drives most headphones pretty well, but when using high impedance headphones the sense of driving power was not as strong as with lower impedance headphones and IEMs.

Cayin A 88T Mk2 Portable Setup For

So it is not yet a replacement for a good desktop setup for high impedance headphones, but quite a powerful DACAmp combo for portable setup for IEMs and easy to drive headphones.

The headphone amplifier of C5 DAC is quite powerful and has good dynamic and driving power.

When using C5 DAC as headphone amplifier, with ifi micro iDSD as DAC, I can hear some improvements, indicating that the headphone amplifier scales well with better DAC.

The following is comparison of RMAA measurement of the C5 DAC as DACAmp combo (White), and the headphone amplifier using ifi micro iDSD as DAC with minimum phase setting (Green).

We can see that the DAC output of the C5 DAC uses a sharp low pass filter that rolls off quite early before 20 kHz.

The 30 kHz is most probably the limitation of my HRT LineStreamer that I use as ADC for the RMAA measurement.

Overall tonality of the C5 DAC as DACAmp combo, I perceived as neutral with a touch of warmness.

While level of clarity is good, I do prefer a little more transparency and detail resolving power like what I hear from my AudioQuest Dragonfly 1.0c and ifi micro iDSD.

Tonality is a little warm, but just a little, dont expect tube warmness here.

The extra warmness makes C5 DAC pairs well with neutral to bright IEMs and headphones, for less ear fatigue over long sessions.

I tested C5 DAC with 1964 Ears V3, DUNU DN-2000J, Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7LTD, Philips SHP9500, and Beyerdynamic T1, and they pair well with C5 DAC.

I like especially the pairing with Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7LTD, and I would recommend C5 DAC for ATH-MSR7 users who are looking for portable DACAmp.

On the other hand I do find C5 DAC sometime could sound a little boring when driving warmer headphones such as my Shure SRH1540 and Audio-Technica ARH-R70x, where extra transparency is preferred.

So my recommendation for C5 DAC is to pair it with neutral to neutral-bright tonality IEMs or headphones.

Stereo imaging is clear and focus, with perceived presentation that is more towards close and intimate.

For comparison, ifi micro iDSD has a more spacious and holographic imaging.

Though as mentioned earlier, having used to ifi iDSD micro and other desktop DACs, I do prefer slightly higher detail resolving capability and transparency than what C5 DAC offers.

Cayin A 88T Mk2 Manual