Cayin (Spark Electronics, China) has been making top-notch tube audio gear for years, and it seems that they are moving slowly into modern digital audio. They have manufactured excellent DAPs for some time now, and I own a Cayin N3 DAP and really like it - an excellent value for $150. (Cayin tube gear was high on my desirability list until I recently managed to focus my aspirations on greener, more efficient digital music storage and playback gear.)
This evening, I stumbled across the $800 Cayin iDAP-6 "digital transport," which I noticed has an I
2S HDMI output port. [
LINK]
The Cayin iDAP-6 web page is beautifully designed, and contains fairly detailed information on the technologies and standards that they support, including the useful statement that "the implementation of I
2S is not an industrial standard, we cannot guarantee compatible [sic] with other I
2S device." I think that webpage is one of the best examples of an attractive presentation of consumer audio technical information that I have ever seen.
iDAP-6 Digital Transport:
- Desktop network player that can supports all common digital file formats: DFF, DSF, SACD-ISO, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, APE
- PCM supports up to 32Bit/384kHz, DSD supports upto DSD256 with I2S, upto DoP128 with USB and DoP64 on other digital interface
- Comprehensive digital output options: USB, I2S, AES/EBU, Coaxial, Optical.
- Support file sharing through Ethernet or WiFi connection, can communicate with large variety of networked devices through Samba, DLNA and Airplay
- Can plug in SD card (up to 256GB) and USB storage (upto 2TB) directly
- Transmit or receive through dual Bluetooth v4.1, support Bluetooth remote control profile.
- Multi-lingua custom designed UI through 3.95” AMOLED screen, display Album Art, music information and control menu in a clear and effective presentation.
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