Thread for the various Cayin headphone amps
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The HA-1A has a lot of impedance options given the price point, it’s a more warmer richer signature with good smoothness, timbre, microdynamics, with decent resolution and stage. Enjoyable amp that’s forgiving and versatile
HA-6A depends on the tube and mode, with el34 it’s a more warmer relaxed midrange focused signature with great microdynamics and impressive stage, detail, timbre, and smoothness, whereas kt88 is dryer and more forward, more macrodynamic, more stage width with less depth, better speed and separation, more grip and command. Running in triode mode vs ultra linear is somewhat similar to the differences between el34 and kt88 options to a lesser extent. Pretty versatile and enjoyable
The HA300 is a very refined sounding amp with a focus on nuance and low level detail, very organic presentation, timbre, microdynamics, and immersive spatial recreation. Pretty sweet leaning without going overboard, very nice
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I like the Cayin HA300 a great deal and prefer it to the Octave V16. I think it offers great value and also it can power a pair of speakers. The 300b is a perfect choice for Sennheiser HD800S too!
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Nice 
, it is pretty versatile for sure. I do personally prefer the octave v16 most of the time, but that being said with an 800s that would have much better synergy with they cayin, the octave does a much better job with some of the more demanding planar imo (also generally just different sound sig/goals). What speakers are you running with it out of curiosity? When I had mine, I used to have a pair of tekton perfect set 15 and some voxativ hagen monitors hooked up to them and those were great pairings (omegas were also really solid choices too)
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Interesting as that is the exact chain I’m currently looking at. I have an offer outstanding for a local pair of Tekton Perfect set 15s and will be sending an offer on a used HA-300 mk1 next week. Glad to hear the synergy/pairing was a good fit!
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Horning Perikles (from Denmark) which are rated at 96db and have a benign impedance curve. They sound excellent with the HA300 and although our lounge is quite large I still don’t need to go beyond 1 o’clock on the volume controller. I didn’t try any planars as I don’t have any, buy you could be right as the bass on the HA300 can be slightly loose. I thought the mid range of the 300 coupled with the HD800S was utterly sublime and the soundstage was the best I have heard from the HD800S.
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I have seen a few pictures and mentions about the HA-300 Mk II, but nothing about launch date or price.
I have a Cayin CS-55A now, with a HP output, but the HA-300 is fighting with the LTA MZ3 of being my next upgrade. But has any of you seen anything re the HA-300 Mk II?
I like the Cayin quality and sound, so the Mk II makes me quite interested.
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I think a very few amount of people have them, pretty sure it launched early this year but things changed? I think retail is around 4-5k but not seen a hard set price. I think they hit some supply chain issues and not sure if they are currently still being produced or they got put on hold again. But haven’t really been following the launch too closely
If I go off the older ha300 it’s a very different sound overall vs the mz3, so it would really depend on the signature you are after and what you want to pair with it + aspects you want to prioritize
If you already really like your 55a, moving toward a ha300 would be a very safe bet imo
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Safe bets are not my normal approach, I like to test different options 
The MZ3 is interesting and could be a reason to keep the CS-55A, whereas the HA-300, probably will mean I have to sell it. (Read: my wife will be a strong advocate for that!)
That alone makes the MZ3 even more interesting. But I am curious about, what they can do as a smaller company and American. Everything is from China more or less, so going stateside is also an element.
That makes a lot of sense and can explain why nothing new came out. Well, I am patient and it will take some time before next purchase anyway.
If I had to do a very brief comparison, signature wise, the ha300 is warmer, sweeter, more relaxed, and more spacious and grand sounding, whereas the mz3 is a cleaner and more neutral approach with a greater focus on depth and placement accuracy than width or grandness, speed and clarity, overall more forward, more macrodynamic vs the slight micro focus on the ha300. Generally the mz3 feels much more reference and a focus on accuracy where the ha300 is more focusing on a bit sweeter and more fun approach. I’d say both compete on a similar technical level and trade blows. Headphone wise, the ha300 is less picky from a synergy perspective than the mz3 and is more versatile, but for the headphones and dacs that do pair well with the mz3 they pair really well. From a speaker perspective, you are also more limited on what you can drive with the mz3 whereas the ha300 handles a wider range of speakers better, but I honestly wouldn’t buy either if speakers are your main focus
Also check out the LTA thread which has some good info imo
Was literally reading about it this morning on Cayin’s chinese page, they said the release date is gonna be in April
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Cool. Thanks!
Oh, and one massive factor is that the ha300 is going to be much more expensive to tube swap due to the type of tubes used vs the mz3, so that’s also something to note
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Yeah, that is also words I can use for the CS-55A. Warm and sweet fits so well for me as an amp, so I am quite sure the HA-300 is for me.
Thanks for the comparison, it helps to get them directly from someone who has heard both. And as my wife is not into speakers, then that is not an issue
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But those 300 tubes… I need to try them out at some point.
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The ha300 would also play nicer with your new dac imo, with the mz3 you’d only be using 1/2 the dac inside the spring due to only single ended (still would be good, but wouldn’t really be taking advantage of what that dac has to offer), the balanced inputs on the ha300 would better fully utilize the quality of that dac
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YES!
And the CS-55A only has RCA, so when I hit the 500hrs mark on the Spring, it is ready for an upgraded amp. Balanced would be nice.
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I believe the issue was to do with the new volume controller and the components becoming unavailable. I understood that there are some units out in the dealers now that there were able to send out before they ran out of the new controller.
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Thought I’d bump this thread to post a little bit of info on the Cayin iHA-6 I just picked up used. I got such a good deal on it, I feel like I stole it!
I’ve been exclusively using tube amps for the last couple of years except for the Piety I bought out of curiosity when it was released. My main setup is a Zen Stream > Bifrost 2 (OG) > Quicksilver Headphone Amp. I also have an SW51+ that I sometimes swap in to use with my Auteur, but in general I use a Meze Elite with the Quicksilver.
I’d read a few things in passing about the iHA-6 from Zach at ZMF. There’s also a guy at Head-Fi that liked it with his Caldera. I liked the idea of having a nice solid state amp to use when I don’t want to fool with tubes for whatever reason. The Piety was supposed to fill that role, but I couldn’t resist this iHA-6 when it popped up for sale at such a low price. It can put out 7 watts at 32 Ohms from its balanced out in low current mode. People say it can even drive the Susvara pretty well. Needless to say, it’s got a lot of power on tap.
I’m using high current mode in low gain with both my Elite and Auteur. Supposedly the high current mode limits the total power output but increases current delivery, which is obviously a good match for current-hungry planars. It does this my biasing the transistors further into Class A in high current mode. My Elite is pretty efficient, so I don’t miss the extra power in high current mode. I’m plugged into the 4-pin XLR balanced jack which is rated at 0.15 Ohms. The amp has two single-ended jacks, low (10 Ohms) and high (120 Ohms). I’m partial to the low jack with my Auteur. It’s also the jack Zach prefers with all his ZMF dynamics. I’m sure the Caldera would likely be much better on the balanced jack.
First impressions with the Elite are quite good. I feel the bass has never been better. It’s well-controlled and very punchy when called for in a song. No complaints with mids or treble either. It sounds really balanced and under-control with everything I’ve thrown at it. Vocals are particularly clear, and it’s extremely easy to track different voices in a harmony. I really think it can hang with the Quicksilver in most ways. Tubes obviously have some magic that can’t quite be duplicated with a solid state amp. I think I’ll still be using my Quicksilver most of the time, but I like having a nice alternative amp to use that has no annoying tube noise and doesn’t require a warm-up to sound its best.
If you can pick up one one of these for less than $500, I’d say it’s a no-brainer. Unless I go crazy and buy something like the Bliss, this is probably the only solid state amp I’ll ever need. Hope this little write-up proves useful to someone!
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This popped up on my YouTube feed the other day:
Being a seasoned enjoyer of iHA-6, and hoping to one day own one of Cayin’s tube amps, I clicked on the video. The HA2 looks like it’s worth a listen, but I was more interested in the iHA-8 sitting on the other side of his desk! I didn’t realise this was on the cards!
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