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Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player – New Firmware v1.4EN for MQA Support

Cayin Audio describes the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player as a portable hi-res audio player of the reference class, only one feature was missing from this solution so far, and that was the playback of content encoded in MQA.

Michael Holzinger 2 June 2022Last Updated: 2 June 2022

0 2 minutes read

The Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player is supposed to be an outstanding portable hi-res audio player, Cayin Audio was convinced of this at the presentation of this product in March 2022. And indeed, the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player has a number of features that one would otherwise not find in this class, such as an output stage based on tube technology, but also the ROHM BD34301EKV 32-bit current mode DAC chipset used here occupies a special position on the market.

New Firmware v1.4EN

As is usual for such solutions, Cayin Audio now offers a new firmware, which not only eliminates one or two bugs and brings system optimisations, but also new functions. First and foremost, this includes the possibility to play back content encoded in the lossy MQA format.

16-fold MQA decoding

The special feature here is that the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player, with the help of the new firmware v1.4EN, is able to use 16-fold MQA decoding and thus play back content up to 32 bits and 768 kHz.

MQA Music Playback has been integrated into both the Cayin Music App and the HiBy Music App, and of course other apps with MQA support can now be used on the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player, such as the TIDAL App. After all, this DAP is based on Google Android as its operating system and therefore allows almost any app to be installed.

The Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player is also said to be able to play back content encoded in MQA as a USB DAC, according to the manufacturer.

Prices and availability

Of course, the new firmware v1.4EN for the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player is available free of charge and can, in the simplest case, be carried out directly via the device as an OTA update (over the air). However, the corresponding file can also be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website and then transferred to the DAP via a storage medium and installed in this way.

Getting to the point

With the help of the latest firmware v1.4EN, which is now available, Cayin Audio equips the Cayin N8ii Reference Digital Audio Player with the possibility of playing back content encoded in MQA, namely in full resolution, since 16-fold decoding is offered here. Since it is a DAP with Google Android, a wide variety of apps can of course be used to play content in MQA, first and foremost the Cayin Audio App or HiByMusic App, but also the TIDAL App.