Can you talk more about the Elrogs vs. the Psvane ACMEs? I've been eyeing the Elrogs for a couple months now for my incoming HA-300 and am pretty interested in them because their technology is different than all the other 300B tubes in the field.
I read a few reports on the Psvane ACMEs so far and they're all positive, but none of them are actually with thise HA-300. And very few of them mention the Elrogs.
Did you stick with these as your final choice in the HA-300 or did they just put on the best dynamic, killer bass show? And if so, how'd your 1st place pick compare on those fronts?
I've followed a lot of your modding threads and also slightly kept track of your cables, so this is surprising to read. I've never been sold by the fancy braiding or thinking it had a big effect on the sound from companies like Norne or DHC as compared to the specifics of the wire they were using and the internal geometry of that wire.
What do you think it is about these WW cables that is beating out all your previous ones?
I took part in those earlier posts by Andy and shared the signal path diagrams. The point was never that the RCA signal path would be better in any way, it was just that it was more direct beause a 300B tube is single-ended (it could be balanced, but that's not the point here wit hthe HA-300) and thus the middle of this amp is single ended. So going RCA in->6.3mm out is the least complicated and most direct path through this amp.
However, Cayin winds there own transformers and the XLR/balanced input transformer->SE signal->300B tubes->XLR/balanced output transformer was DESIGNED into the amp from the drawing board. It's not an afterthought and not half-assed implementation. And by leveraging the balanced input transformer and balanced output transformer, the designers would have even more control in delivering a target sound signature rather than being more exposed with the RCA input (source quality/choice) and RCA output (tube quality/choice).
So, your finding about the cables might just mean that you're finding the XLR input and XLR output of the amp are better than the RCA and 6.3mm ones. It could also be your cables, that's true, but when you've got ones that are already both "good", it doesn't add up to me that the clear preference you've found must be coming from the marginal differences in cables rather than the significant differences in amp signal path.
Do you have any other ideas what might be going on? It's an interesting topic, and those are nice interconnects and headphones you've got on either end of that amp