Cayin RU6 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier

Product Information

However, it’s not as tight sounding or as revealing so, once you move through the mids and highs, the RU7 is the more resolving of the two dongles. To be honest, it is quite difficult to tell the two settings apart and it requires attentive listening and good headphones. I will be editing, but this is what I have thus far... sorry for the literal cut-and-paste from my "edit" space. Resistor Array volume control is not a new technology, it has been around for a very long time. They are very high-quality volume control designs, extremely transparent when implemented correctly and you can find them in a lot of high-end preamps and integrated amplifiers. Each segment of the resistor array can only provide ~10 steps of volume control, this is not enough in real-life applications, so you need to "hop" to another set of resistor arrays for another 10 steps, and so on, and so on. The RU6 is plug'n play compatible with all USB-OTG devices (iOS and Android), Mac OS, Windows PC through the available driver and it can also be connected to Digital audio players that support USB out.

Blon-03 - RU-6 enhances the natural replay of the iem and shows that it deserves a better iem wink: Thank you, Shanling, iFi, and yotacowboy for kindly making this loaner tour possible, and to rhythmdevils, shotgunshane, and jexby for organizing it. I count myself as fortunate to be able to participate in these loaners, not least because I’ve now found a nice new dongle. Sennheiser IE80 - a great pair, RU-6 opens the big sound stage of the IE80 more and brings forward the vocals;

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The FC6 does have an edge in decoding capability with an excellent DSD512 and PCM 32BIT/768kHz capability as well as MQA 8X unfolding. The RU7 is capped at DSD256 and PCM 32BIT/384kHz and has no MQA unfolding capability albeit there is some debate on how useful that will be in the long term.

For the sound, it sounds like my other Shanling devices I have in my bedroom (UP4 Bluetooth Amp and M3X DAC), it's neutral with minor signs of warmth. Lows are Highs are sufficient but not class leading, but the mids are solid with minor hints of brightness. Music itself has liveness but when comparing to other devices it ain't special. With that being said, it isn't a POS device and I think for most people they will be fine with the sound. It just doesn't have any "special sauce" to take it to the next level, even if I was listening to it for hours with no real major complaints. Average is most likely the word I would use as a sound summary. Still worth it if you get it for a good price but I would be careful if using neutral/bright/AZN vocal fetish BA IEMs since it might be too bright. Bright DD IEMs it might be ok but I wouldn't count on it. OTG decoding from both is on par for lossless with the M15 offering up to DSD256 native and PCM 32BIT/384kHz but with an additional 8X MQA hardware unfolding capability which the RU7 does not have. Instead, the RU7 will give you an “All-to-DSD” upsampling option which brings its own unique flavor to the table. I had to look at my previous notes on this to see if I still agree. And yes I do agree that it is a quite powerful dongle with a great and musical sound and wide soundstage, but maybe not the most detailed.Mids and vocals are naturally warm, naturalistic and have very good details. They are a little bit forward but in a very good way that doesn't overpower the bass and treble. These are mids that give you the entry level to R2R signature - do not expect Ares II performance but the level produced is far different and higher in naturalism than leading MQA dongles. DAC/AMP: Holo May KTE / TT2-Mscaler / Bifrost 2 / Hugo2+2go / Mojo 2+Poly / Mojo / RU6 / ifi Gold Bar / W2 / S2 / S1 / UA5 / BTR5 / DF Red / utws3 and 5 DAP: DX320 Max, RS8, 1ZM2, N8ii, M9, RS6, N6ii Ti (R01/A02/E02), DX312 This one is slightly softer and not quite as controlled on the low end nor as sharp and detailed as the Gold Bar. Lows are certainly a bit more overpowering. You can tell this one is slightly more congested than the Gold Bar as well and even more U-shaped than the Gold Bar. GO bar gold: it’s almost pointless offering impressions of the dongle because, for one thing, it’s impossible to buy, for another, it’s expensive and heavy enough that I’d be more inclined to look at the Gryphon, and, well, it’s ridiculously heavy for a dongle.

With the Solaris, the Go bar Gold makes for a sound that’s bassier than its counterpart and better textured and with better pitch differentiation. The Gold dongle is also more impactful and offers a larger, more epic sound, one that’s more bombastic. It’s also cleaner- and clearer-sounding, without sacrificing engagement or the other qualities of the regular version. It’s more resolving, offers a greater sense of tactility, and textures, generally, are richer. Brass instruments have some real edge and grit to them (these are good things). The Go bar Gold is a significant step up from the other iFi one. These improvements are also discernible on the S12, which becomes more refined and richer, but also sounds a bit thinner and brighter. The ESX900 combinations is outstanding and good enough to rival some desktop systems. Other than that, RU6 thankfully is so very spartan as it does not have any EQ functions. And I am perfectly fine with this as I have never used any EQ for any of my gears since forever. For those wanting to alter or color the sound with EQ, then the W2 would be a better choice. Certainly the more “pasticy” sounding out of the bunch. More closed off and all the instruments seem to be made out of plastic with this kind of low end puch going on. It is also the hazyiest of all 4 of these. The sound had a cookie cutter feel to it. Part A meets Spec B, without any real promise of nuance. The very top may be a bit too sharp if your headphones run bright. I noticed it with HD280, and that is very much a "not bright" headphone sub-8Khz.The RU6 always sounds full bodied but it’s not overly heavy. At the same time, I would not recommend using it with overly warm and bassy IEMs. The low end is already very present, and it doesn’t need an extra boost. Soundstage-wise the RU6 scores well in both width and depth and especially the mid layering here is remarkable. Serial to Parallel Shift Register: convert serial data signal to parallel data signal and transmit to DAC circuit One of the achievements that surprised me most is that RU-6 drives successfully not only demanding iems but also demanding headphones - it drivers perfectly the Z1R iem but also the Z7M2 headphones, it also drives very well the P1 but also even the T60rp (for the headphones I used the 4.4 output). Meanwhile, I do not hear any hiss even with sensitive iems like Thieaudio Voyager 3 or Andromeda. In some ways moving from the RU6 to the RU7 in terms of design, form factor and some aspects of functionality is akin to seeing how Cayin itself has developed in terms of dongle DAC product development. I will not fall in so many details on headphones since I think the point is to explain how RU-6 enhances different replays but I will outline that RU-6 pairs well with Sony MDR-7510, CAL! SE, HB560s, Sundara, Focal Listen Pro, Focal Elegia, T60rp, Z7M2, HD800s. And I really enjoyed it with the CAL! SE, the Z7M2, the Austrian Audio Xi-55 and Denon 5200 and the Sundara.