Cayin RU6 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier

Product Information

There is a small pinhole vent ahead of the 2-pin connectors, not sure if this is actually for tuning or letting the sub-bass drivers breathe or pressure adjustment. R-2R is famous for its natural and realistic sound signature, it'll offer a very different experience to music lovers.

One of my favorite albums is entitled "Hush", a fuse with Nora Fischer singing baroque arias accompanied by the electric guitar of Marnix Dorrestein. With my previous experience with R-2R DACs, I was expecting a little bit of warm-up period, and with the RU6, this seemed true as well. Noteworthily, the RU6 sounds very smooth and groovy with almost any IEM that has a very punchy low-end response. Treble is done perfectly well for me, no roll-off, good resolution and airiness, details are not attacking your years but are well articulated.High pitched percussion instruments sound full blooded with a convincingly natural decay, not splashy or thin. In terms of dimensions, the RU6 is slightly larger than your typical dongle but hardly to an extent that pocket or portable use become awkward. The more effective solution with R-2R design is to keep the incoming bit-stream at full volume and then implement a high-quality analog volume control after the R-2R DAC circuit.

The DAC itself is power efficient so you don't have to worry about draining the host device battery. PROS: R-2R discrete resistor DAC design (the first R-2R portable usb dac dongle), natural analog tonality with a resolving sound, NOS implementation, Resistor Array volume control, 3. Cayin claims that the oversampling DA mode will offer a “noticeable improvement on details and frequency extension” also contributing to a cleaner, sharper tone, and a darker background. The sound stage is wide, especially in depth; the layering is impressive; the separation between instruments is solid and I even find that RU-6 has 3D presentation.Hi, saying “RU6 does have a more natural warmth and body while W2 tilts the scale in the opposi However, when it comes to sound - it just lacks the iFi signature clean sound and also sounds quite thin when compared to others so far. The good thing is, this crispiness approach is still very polished and mature if I am to compare it against the likes of Hidizs S9 Pro, E1DA 9038SG3, TempoTec Sonata E44 etc.

Cayin has implemented this using a USB Audio Bridge that receives digital data and sends it to the Digital Audio Bridge where DSD is converted to PCM if required. To combat this, Cayin spent 3 months developing a custom resistor volume array that provides 99 steps of volume through 9 segments of resistors and switching relays. Treble sounded realistic as it is naturally vibrant, Mids as rich as the listening device capable of emitting, Bass having visceral density which is real and engaging. That is, the phase distortion and jitter remain at a very low level with no artifacts in the output signal.The previous DAP was the DX300, which is also great, but the R8ii is exactly what I’m looking for in terms of sound, and the ability to tweak the DAC to match your listening mood is amazing. This architecture minimises power drain from the mobile source allowing you to enjoy music without the need to worry about battery drain.