Choice of USB Audio Driver

Cayin offers USB Audio Drivers v3.30 and v4.47 for Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 installations, and V2.29 for Windows XP and Vista.

 The following table illustrates the recommended USB Audio Driver for different Cayin USB products with computing device with Windows 7 or above system:

1. The N8, N6ii, N5ii, N5iiS, CS-100DAC or DAC-19, 280A, these products support Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 operating system, while they do not support Windows XP or Vista.  They are recommended to use with USB Audio Driver v4.35 or v4.47.

2. The N3, i5, N6 and iDAC-6 supports Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10, they can work with USB Audio Driver v2.29 or v4.47. You may choose the one that fits your system the most.

3. The DAC-11, CS-55A and our 6 CD Players don’t support Windows 10, so they can only work with USB Audio Driver v2.29 or v3.30.

4. As Windows changed their USB Audio support several times during the Windows 10 era, we have to issue different version of v4.xx USB Audio Driver to resolve the incompatibility with latest Windows 10 installations.  

5. If you are using a previous version of Cayin USB Driver such as v4.35 and is working fine so far, then there is no urgent need to upgrade your Audio Driver to v4.47. New products such as iDAC6-MK2 or N6ii are recommended to uise v4.47 to ensure compatibility.

6. If your Cayin USB products can only support V3.30 USB Audio Driver, it might not be able to work with latest Windows 10 computers correctly,

Asynchronized USB transmission

To ensure we have best possible USB Audio performance, Cayin USB-based products operate in Asynchronized USB transmission mod.  This will involve

· The DAC’s master clock will not be synchronized directly to the clock of the digital source (a computer in most of the cases)

· The DAC clock controls the data stream from the computer to a buffer near the DA converter

It is called asynchronous because the DAC’s master clock isn’t synchronized directly to the clock within the computer.  In other word, the audio signal processing is deliberately "disconnected" from the computer clock to minimize the interference and jitter due to audio transmission. These advantages established the foundation of high-quality USB Audio playback.

USB Audio Driver Installation

1. Please be reminded that there are THREE current version of Cayin Universal USB Audio Driver, please select the appropriate version according to the following list:

· Windows 7 and above (V4.47.0)

· Windows 7 and above (V3.30.0):

· Windows XP and Vista (V2.29.0)

Due to the unique system requirement of Windows XP, you must connect your Cayin USB based audio equipment to your computer when you install the Cayin Universal USB Audio Driver, otherwise the system will fail to complete the installation.  Computers running Windows 7 and above does not required a USB connection during installation.

2. If you have installed V3.30 USB Audio Driver previously and wanted to upgrade to V4.XX, please uninstall the previous USB Audio Driver first and then install V4.XX driver to avoid system errors.

3. Most Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 systems can install the v4.xx Audio Driver directly. However, if you are using Windows 10 v1607 and encountered installation failure, you’ll need to modify the setting of Driver Signature Enforcement which is located at the Advanced option of Trouble Shooting Screen.  You can access to Trouble Shooting screen with the following procedure: 

After restarting process finish, the Troubleshoot option will be available, please select “Advanced” option in the next screen select restart again to gain access to Startup Settings.

Installation Procedures

The following procedures illustrate the installation of a v4.47 USB Audio Driver on a Windows 10 system installation. The process should be largely the same with other USB Audio Driver on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

1. Extract the installation package after download and you’ll receive an .exe file.  Double click to start the installation process.