Never really seen tubes carries out successfully in a portable amp format other than the Fostex HP-V1, but this looks intriguing. Personally, I think the design is quite attractive.
Never really seen tubes carries out successfully in a portable amp format other than the Fostex HP-V1, but this looks intriguing. Personally, I think the design is quite attractive.
I had the BA300s and sold it (along with the ALO CV5). It was pretty nice and paired well with my WM1A, but I somehow didn't feel terribly attached to it. The idea of a fully balanced portable tube amp, however, is a great one and I really hope Cayin can pull it off.
Never really seen tubes carries out successfully in a portable amp format other than the Fostex HP-V1, but this looks intriguing. Personally, I think the design is quite attractive.
Cayin has used vacuum tube in DAP, which IMHO is more demanding then portable amp application.
The C9 use KORG Nutube 6P1, a dual-channel Triode vacuum tube from Japan, this is a very different form factor from traditional vacuum tube and they use LED to replacement the filament in the tube, makes it more robust against shock and vibration, but the microphonic problem remain unchanged. We have used this vacuum tube in our N8 DAP with very good result, check it out if you run into a N8 in a store or CanJam event. We have designed a Spring-loaded Suspension System to eliminate the microphonic effect of the KORG Nutube 6P1 so that it can be used for portable application, and we have solved another dozen of technical problems before we can deliver a reference level implementation.
Our spring-loaded Suspension installation device to enable Nutube in portable application are further explained in HERE and HERE.
We have also installed a pair of JAN6418 into our N3Pro DAP, we can't eliminate the ringing and microphonic effect completely, but we can manage to make it work for typical on-the-go scenario such as. You can check out the vacuum tube implementation of N3Pro HERE.
In my personal experience, no portable amp can handle 600ohm headphones SATISFACTORY. C9 probably is one of the better options, but the voltage swing of 600 ohm headphones are far from feasibly to battery driven amplifier.
I had the BA300s and sold it (along with the ALO CV5). It was pretty nice and paired well with my WM1A, but I somehow didn't feel terribly attached to it. The idea of a fully balanced portable tube amp, however, is a great one and I really hope Cayin can pull it off.
It's another option to color the sound with a different tonality. Amplifiers don't have to be used just to boost the output. Especially when you have tubes involved, they could color the sound, add texture, give more analog tonality, and improve the overall pair up synergy of the source with your IEMs.
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