Cayin N6iii w/R202

Reincarnation of the Legacy!

PROs: fully discrete and fully balanced dual DAC architecture with R-2R PCM and 1Bit DSD DACs, two distinct sound tunings in one module, pitch black background, Gen2 module with quick-release latches for faster exchange, phenomenal battery life (w/N6iii), 3.5mm and 4.4mm Phone Outputs.

CONs: cost of an additional module, PO only output (no LO).

The product was provided to me free of charge for review purposes in exchange for my honest opinion.

The manufacturer’s website: Cayin. It is available for sale from authorized retailers, such as Musicteck, where it can be purchased separately as an upgrade or in combination with the N6iii DAP.

Intro.

As I mentioned before in my N6iii review, back when the previous gen N6ii was released many years ago, it remained in the spotlight for quite some time, thanks to its modular design and six different DAC/amp cards and one unique LO-only card. But if you ask any N6ii owner about their favorite card, there is a very good chance they will say R01, which featured an R-2R discrete DAC design. As a matter of fact, it was so popular that when Cayin released a special edition N6ii Titanium version, it came with a matching Titanium R01 card. That module had a legendary status, and I was hoping the legacy would continue with a similar design audio card available for N6iii following the C201 and E203 releases.

I mentioned it as my wishful thinking in the Conclusion of N6iii C201/E203 review. Still, I didn’t expect Cayin to drop a surprise by releasing the R202 audio motherboard card, which features not just an R-2R PCM DAC design, as perfected in the R01 card and RU6 dongle, but also a 1Bit DSD DAC that was featured in their N7 DAP and RU7 dongle. That is right, the R202 Gen2 audio motherboard is like two different cards in one, featuring two separate discrete R-2R and 1Bit DACs, which you can select either manually or automatically, along with a fully balanced Headphone Amplifier circuit shared between these two DACs.

Here is what I found after spending a few months with R202, the latest module addition to the Cayin N6iii DAP.

Unboxing and Accessories.

There’s not much to discuss here, as this is the Gen2 module featuring quick-release latches for faster exchange, eliminating the need for screws or screwdrivers. It arrived in a nice, compact cardboard box, complete with an exterior sleeve and nice foam padding inside, along with a user manual. The only thing to mention here is that the mini-PCI Express connector of the board comes with a rubber cover that you have to remove before plugging the module in.

Design and Under the Hood.

R202 is a Gen2 audio motherboard module that gets inserted at the bottom of N6iii DAP using a quick-release latch mechanism with two buttons easily accessible on the left/right sides. The mechanism seems to be very robust and secure, and I found it very easy to handle with one hand. Once latched in, there is no room for wiggle, nothing is rattling, and I have never had an issue while pulling on the cable when removing IEMs/headphone plugs. I went back and forth between R202, C201, and E203 cards a dozen times during comparisons. It worked in a true plug-and-play fashion without the need to power down the DAP.

Cayin implemented a dedicated microcontroller on the card that interacts with the primary 665 MCU every time a card is inserted, making all the necessary custom adjustments and monitoring relative to that card. Since this is not just an amp card but a DAC/amp board, each one requires more interface customization per its corresponding design since each DAC/amp card will be custom not only to its selection of components but also its functionality, resulting in different ports, like C201 having separate 3.5mm PO and LO ports and a shared 4.4mm PO/LO port, while R202 and E203 having a separate 3.5mm and 4.4mm PO-only ports.

According to a new naming convention, the “C” in C201 card corresponds to Cirrus Logic DACs, “E” in E203 corresponds to its ESS DAC, and the new card I’m covering today is R202, where “R” corresponds to a discrete DAC (R-2R and 1Bit) design. Just like E203, the R202 design focused on pure audio output performance, so only Phone Out was implemented, with no Line Out functionality.

The fully discrete, fully balanced dual DAC architecture of R202 incorporates a total of 320 ultra-precision (0.1% accuracy) thin-film resistors, 192 pieces of which are used in a 24-bit R-2R PCM DAC config, and the remaining 128 pieces are used in a 1Bit DSD DAC config. You can select either of the DACs or let it be chosen automatically, depending on the processed audio format. The dual Digital Audio Processor of R202 supports up to PCM768kHz and DSD512.

R-2R / 1Bit

Following audio processing, you will find a quad-channel fully balanced differential headphone amplifier circuit, using four dual SoundPlus TI OPA1612 opamps, two dual SoundPlus TI OPA1662 opamps, and four dual High-fidelity TI INA1620 opamps. They also used a quad-channel precision analog volume control, utilizing a well-regarded JRC NJW1195 fully balanced chip with 256-step 0.5dB adjustments. Cayin has refined its design from DAP to DAP, utilizing top components and an optimized circuit layout, including a matrix-structured power supply design to provide clean, independent sources to the headphone amplifier, DACs, and op-amps parts of the circuit.

As already mentioned, the R202 card features a 3.5mm PO (0.5ohm output impedance, 250mW @32 ohm), and a 4.4mm PO (0.8ohm output impedance, 550mW @32ohm). When it comes to the battery performance of the N6iii with the R202 card, I was very pleasantly surprised. In my test, using high gain and a 4.4mm output, while playing a local high-resolution track in a loop with the display mostly off, I achieved around 16.5 hours of playback time. That was almost 3 hours more than the C201 and double the E203 card battery performance.