CAYIN N6III

The N6III is presented to you with Cayin's first Cirrus Logic DAC circuit. Continuing the tradition of being pioneers, never has the CS43198 been paired with four cascaded JRC NJU72315 analog volume controls. N6III's C201 provides fine volume level steps and crucially shunning the DAC chip's lossy onboard digital controller.

Everyone knows the resolution Cirrus Logic's flagship DACs are capable off – or do they? As the first opting for an overbuilt analog volume control that can reduce both signal and noise at the same time, hence preserving dynamic range so much better, N6III/C201 is able to excavate detail close to the noise floor of your music like no other CS43198 DAC can.

Cayin's C201 employs a novel parallel differential matrix DAC architecture with its eight CS43198 DAC chips. N6III's FPGA feeds each DAC chip independently with I2S signals, operating them in mono mode before they are grouped into pairs and paralleled to form full-differential output channels.

To ensure optimal performance, each DAC chip benefits from discrete, symmetric power supply and peripheral circuitry. This design minimises distortion and jitter, resulting in enhanced sound density and overall audio quality.

By precisely aligning the phase of all DACs, Cayin has achieved a significant improvement in the C201's sonic performance. This is an analog output performance that matches the precision of its digital decode, with their operation in balanced differential mode counting on common-mode rejection to cancel out distortion and noise.

The larger PCB size that N6III affords means that C201 is able to count on 30 per cent larger board space to keep overbuilding its circuits. This robust nature is typified by the NJU72315 volume controls – these analog attenuators are unbuffered in their basic IC form, leaving the choice of subsequent driver stage to Cayin and allowing N6III to be its quiet best, achieving 130dB of signal-to-noise ratio.

This high quality is preserved into your transducers as C201 loads in four Texas Instruments OPA1622s as N6III's output stage. These powerful, precise op-amps supply abundant current and mean N6III promises high damping factor while maintaining low distortion into low impedances typical of IEMs, Focals and Fostexs achieving up to 700mW on its 4.4mm output.

Still the closed-loop internal gain remaining after the application of negative feedback around N6III/C201's op-amp IC analog circuit remains high. So where she really shines could be in swinging voltage, opening up the sound of any high-impedance Audio-Technica, Sennheiser and ZMF Headphones while barely breaking sweat.

Its fine small-signal component also sees it serve as a line source into Cayin's other hot 2024 release, C9II, allowing you to add tubes and a Class A discrete analog circuit down the line to scale up further.

C201 is a fine start to life for N6III and your journey with Cayin's latest mid-range overachiever. As you await the launch of their next audio motherboard, check out the rest of Cayin's gear here, or view our other music players here.