[Ethereal Sound]

Glad more people can experience this beast - it is exceptional!

oh man, that's practically my grail...

 

[franz12]

Glad more people can experience this beast - it is exceptional!

From your picture, may I guess your holy grail is ifi Pro iDSD + Cayin HA-300?
6.5k setup..definitely expensive, but not astronomical either..

 

[project86]

Well if we throw in the Titans Audio Lab Helen reclocker and the Nativ Vita music server, the total goes up beyond $10k... but those - while being fantastic devices imho - are probably not what @Ethereal Sound was thinking of in his end-game comment.

Personally, having perhaps a bit more experience than most with various gear at all ends of the price spectrum... I'm forced to conclude that "end-game" or "holy grail" quality rarely tracks with price anyway.

 

[yenrios]

I've had the privilege to test the Cayin HA-300 with the Focal Utopia and it was a total revelation.
Like the perfect wedding

I hope to be able to spare more time with the HA-300 to test it further (at the expense of my seller )
So far, and with the time I was able to spend with it : VERY GOOD JOB Cayin, very impressive !

 

[Trickness]

Hey all - I'm new here! I heard the HA-300 at CanJam NYC with the Meze Empys, loved the sound. I'm thinking of buying an HA-300, I currently have a Schiit Mjonir 2 with NOS tubes, really love it, but the siren song of the 300B is calling me. I'm a little concerned though that a fair amount of folks seem to have sold their HA-300s in the classifieds, and there's not a lot of action in this thread. I'm not necessarily fishing for negatives, just curious if there are any long terms owners here who can chime in with thoughts and/or anyone who sold theirs on can share why. I bought a set of the Empys which I absolutely love and should be a good match. Thanks in advance!

 

[westyjeff]

Here is mine, this is an end game amplifier. I do have it for sale, but only because I am buying a home. Otherwise I would not sell. You can spend a lot more on a tube amplifier for headphones but the quality of this is going to be hard to match at this price point. I have pared it with multiple headphones, K7XX, HD58X, Focal Elex, Mr Speaker Alpha Prime, M1060. It has driven all of them perfectly with good warmth, sound stage and plenty of volume. I have tried different sources from Hiby R6 Pro, Geshelli ENOG 2 Pro but my favorite is my RME ADI 2. The RME sends higher current to the balanced inputs and really brings out the most this amp has to offer. This amp also has speaker posts and it works very well driving efficient speakers as well.

 

[Level5]

Hey all - I'm new here! I heard the HA-300 at CanJam NYC with the Meze Empys, loved the sound. I'm thinking of buying an HA-300, I currently have a Schiit Mjonir 2 with NOS tubes, really love it, but the siren song of the 300B is calling me. I'm a little concerned though that a fair amount of folks seem to have sold their HA-300s in the classifieds, and there's not a lot of action in this thread. I'm not necessarily fishing for negatives, just curious if there are any long terms owners here who can chime in with thoughts and/or anyone who sold theirs on can share why. I bought a set of the Empys which I absolutely love and should be a good match. Thanks in advance!

I actually sold mine last year simply because I wanted to dabble into electostats, but alas it was short lived. After trying a number of different amps (SS and non-300b amps), nothing really satisfied me except the HA-300 and its 300b tube magic. I had no choice but to buy another one!

I plan to utilize the speaker outputs because its such a waste to just use the 300b on headphones even though I already have KH310. I see omega speakers in my future...

 

[westyjeff]

I believe mine was @Level5 first HA-300.

 

[Level5]

I believe mine was @Level5 first HA-300.

Haha wow she's still looking MINT! It seems the new batch changed the stock 300b tubes, no longer the shape.

 

[Trickness]

I actually sold mine last year simply because I wanted to dabble into electostats, but alas it was short lived. After trying a number of different amps (SS and non-300b amps), nothing really satisfied me except the HA-300 and its 300b tube magic. I had no choice but to buy another one!

I plan to utilize the speaker outputs because its such a waste to just use the 300b on headphones even though I already have KH310. I see omega speakers in my future...

Thanks! I use a Schiit Yggdrasil and that is the combo with the Meze I heard at CanJam. Haven’t been able to get that sound out of my head… How is the HA-300 with detail retrieval and soundstage? It was a little hard to tell in that environment

 

[Thenewguy007]

Thanks! I use a Schiit Yggdrasil and that is the combo with the Meze I heard at CanJam. Haven’t been able to get that sound out of my head… How is the HA-300 with detail retrieval and soundstage? It was a little hard to tell in that environment

I wonder if anyone heard the HA-300 & the new Eddie Current Jr 300B amp.
They are priced similarly. The Eddie Current amp doesn't look as nice as the Cayin, but they have a much better reputation for sound quality.

 

[Level5]

Thanks! I use a Schiit Yggdrasil and that is the combo with the Meze I heard at CanJam. Haven’t been able to get that sound out of my head… How is the HA-300 with detail retrieval and soundstage? It was a little hard to tell in that environment

Detail retrieval is excellent and balanced on the stock tubes, it gets better when I switched to Psvane CV181-T mk2 but might be too fatiguing on long listening session. Soundstage is almost infinite when paired with my HD800 and there's times I almost gets fooled that I'm not listening to speakers lol. Some 300b tubes are not as wide however, but compared to non-300b tubes, its immense!

I actually just got my HA-300 a few days ago and I've yet to fully burn in the stock tubes. I have other tubes awaiting to be rolled but I'm taking my time with stock tube configuration.

 

[Level5]

Forgot to mention that I previously was using a Holo Spring DAC on my first HA-300 and while I did enjoy its laid back presentation, to me it handicapped the detail and resolution compared to my Soekris 1541.

 

[westyjeff]

I wonder if anyone heard the HA-300 & the new Eddie Current Jr 300B amp.
They are priced similarly. The Eddie Current amp doesn't look as nice as the Cayin, but they have a much better reputation for sound quality.

Eddie Current makes nice stuff, their 300B only does 4 watts to the speaker output, many other features/refinements on the Cayin HA-300 that just are not there on the EC Jr though.

 

[Trickness]

Eddie Current makes nice stuff, their 300B only does 4 watts to the speaker output, many other features/refinements on the Cayin HA-300 that just are not there on the EC Jr though.

Yeah but on the other hand I’d imagine that the eddy current staff is a much simpler circuit that will be around and repairable for many years beyond the Cayin. I wonder if the E.C. even has any pcbs in the chassis? And I wonder if the Cayin is driving the tubes harder to get that greater output?