[Andykong]

Wonder if anyone could explain this: A friend loaned me a pair of 300B from EML. They work fine in his Woo audio. They are the normal one. Anyway, both times I rolled them in my Cayin, they blue the fuse... Tubes are perfectly fine back in other 300B amps. Very strange. Any ideas why this would be?

Thanks. Man oh man, it is strange because the stock tubes work just fine, so the amp is working just not with those tubes. Makes me scared to get other ones. And I have to say Cayin isn't much help either... Unbelievably, EML was far more helpful and it wasn't even their product. They were kind and even looked at the amp manual and offered suggestions to try. This is one of many times I have regretted buying Cayin....

What brand is the V281?
I "upgraded" to the Cayin because it sounds great with Focal and I hv Utopias amongst other cans. And that great synergy remains, but I have been disappointed with Cayin. The list is long: Their "official" dealers here dont have shops; they are just kids with online websites; their customer service is cold and off-putting/dismissive and they aren't keen to help you in any way. You may get the "ask your dealer" routine, and then the dealer says "ask Cayin..." I have encountered way more issues than any amp of this price should have, including defective stock tubes (never replaced!), EML tubes that dont work, etc... With hindsight, I wouldn't have bought this amp. I have expensive amps for my speaker rig and they had an issue and the manufacturer was all over it--super kind and helpful, replaced the issue and even gave me a gift to say sorry, which is above and beyond... What you are paying for with more expensive products should be kind and courteous, helpful customer service and careful QC to avoid problems as well. Just my two cents.

Sorry for your unpleasant experience with Cayin product. The HA-300 is a relative stable product by now, so I didn't check out this thread as often. I used to check thsi thread regularly two years ago, and participate in discussion promptly.

You can use both EML 300B and EML XLR 300B with HA-300. the EML XLR 300B can offer higher output in some 300B based amplifier, but you can't take advantage of that with HA-300. In other word, you can enjoy the sound signature of EML XLR 300B with HA-300, but not the benefit of extra output watts.

May I introduce the "Search this thread" feature for your reference. If you type EML in this box and hit search, you'll find all the posts that mentioned EML in this thread, listed in chronological order. You should notice from previous discussion that EML 300B should work fine with HA-300. For example, llamaluv has shared his EML 300B experience briefly, and you can read his detail sharing HERE.

I cannot figure out the reason why your HA-300 will blow its fuse when you install the EML 300B, it shouldn't. Sending your amp to your dealer for inspection will cost a lot, maybe you can send your EML 300B to your dealer and ask them to test them with their demo HA-300. If it works with their unit, then the problem is with your HA-300 units. If the tube don't work with your dealer's demo unit, then likely the problem is with your EML 300B.

 

[Andykong]

Go to the Violectric V281 thread. I also have the Cayin HA300, Burson Soloist 3XP and V590, but I just don't use it as much as my V281. With the V281 you can do power cable rolling with it to make it more euphonic or less.

The V281 is a very good headphone amplifier, I especially like its performance with low impedance headphones. without any doubt, it is one of the best headphone amplifier in its price range, I wasn under the impression that V281 has been discontinued, would be great if they are making it again.

On the other hand, have you tried power cable rolling with HA-300? Shouldn't it display similar result as V281. On the other hand, if you are referring to variation of sound signature, tube amplifier should have an edge over solid state amplifier. You don't need to roll the 300B power tubes which are relatively expensive, just roll the 6SN7 driver tube and you can fine tune the sound signature to your preference. I can't comment on the performance of HA-300 vs V281 because I haven't try them side by side, but I am quite sure the variation of sound signature offered by tube rolling is more significant that power cable rolling with V281.

 

[Sampajanna]

I didn’t get the tubes from dealer. But they work fine in other amp….. As I said, Cayin’s “official” dealers here are just fly by night websites. Useless. They just tell u to contact Cayin who then tells you to contact your dealer. What is strange is that the stock tubes work fine. I disagree that Cayin products are ”stable”. Search around and read reviews….

 

[Andykong]

I didn’t get the tubes from dealer. But they work fine in other amp….. As I said, Cayin’s “official” dealers here are just fly by night websites. Useless. They just tell u to contact Cayin who then tells you to contact your dealer. What is strange is that the stock tubes work fine. I disagree that Cayin products are ”stable”. Search around and read reviews….

This is undesirable for sure, our dealer should provide necessary after-sales support, if they run into issues that they are not knowledgeable with, they should ask Cayin team directly instead of asking the client to contact Cayin. They have direct connection to Cayin staff beyond general CS service, so I am surprised that your Cayin dealer asked you to contact Cayin for technical product detail. We do have a tendency to refer our customers to local dealer, we sign them up as the first contact point of our users, on the assumption of better customer interaction given they are in the same time-zone and use the same language. I'll bring up your case to review our practise in near future.

By the way, did you buy your HA-300 from MusicTeck? They are on-line based without a store-front, but they have good reputation on after-sales support.

 

[Sampajanna]

No, I live in Taiwan.

 

[Andykong]

@Sampajanna looks like I can't help you to resolve your problem through forum discussion, may I refer you to the Sales Manager who look after International sales? Drop an email to john@cayin.cn, I'll brief him the background information of your case, and you can talk to him regarding your HA-300 problem as well as discontent with your dealer, he is the right channel for both problems you have encountered.

 

[rockna]

I changed my tubes for psvane, and I notice changes in the sound, it is drier, and faster note attacks, the bass is also very "degreased", the precision has been improved and the instruments are detach more, on the other hand I took a step back on the sound scene, with the original tubes I had the feeling to be in the first row of a scene, now I am in the 10th row

 

[rmsanger]

Anything in the works from Cayin to replace the HA-300 as their flagship amp? The HA-6A came out so assumed at some point they would be working on a replacement/update for this...

 

[ThanatosVI]

Anything in the works from Cayin to replace the HA-300 as their flagship amp? The HA-6A came out so assumed at some point they would be working on a replacement/update for this...

I feel like it's way too soon for that.

 

[Andykong]

Anything in the works from Cayin to replace the HA-300 as their flagship amp? The HA-6A came out so assumed at some point they would be working on a replacement/update for this...

We are indeed working on a revision of HA-300. We have completed the R&D process recently and is planning for production. Normally this will take 2-3 months as we need to develop the supply chain and safety certification etc.. If everything go smooth, we should be able to deliver the new generation of HA-300 by end of year. We hope the epidemic will become stable in next few months. If not, we might suffer serious logistic and supplier delays and put everything on hold. That's why we are skeptical to announce the new HA-300 officially.

 

[ThanatosVI]

We are indeed working on a revision of HA-300. We have completed the R&D process recently and is planning for production. Normally this will take 2-3 months as we need to develop the supply chain and safety certification etc.. If everything go smooth, we should be able to deliver the new generation of HA-300 by end of year. We hope the epidemic will become stable in next few months. If not, we might suffer serious logistic and supplier delays and put everything on hold. That's why we are skeptical to announce the new HA-300 officially.

Any Details you can share?
Like differences to the current Ha300?

 

[vkenz]

Yeah like the details on the weight and size reduction maybe?

 

[Ragnar-BY]

If everything go smooth, we should be able to deliver the new generation of HA-300 by end of year.

Nice to hear that!

 

[Andykong]

Any Details you can share?
Like differences to the current Ha300?

Yeah like the details on the weight and size reduction maybe?

Technically, nothing is finalised until we have performed a trail production. We are waiting for new parts, given the current global supply chain delay, this can take a while.

 

[rmsanger]

We are indeed working on a revision of HA-300. We have completed the R&D process recently and is planning for production. Normally this will take 2-3 months as we need to develop the supply chain and safety certification etc.. If everything go smooth, we should be able to deliver the new generation of HA-300 by end of year. We hope the epidemic will become stable in next few months. If not, we might suffer serious logistic and supplier delays and put everything on hold. That's why we are skeptical to announce the new HA-300 officially.

Thanks Andy, I'm excited to hear a new model is in the works! This will be my next targeted hifi purchase.