Cayin HA-3A, a Compact 6V6s Transformer-coupled Tube Amplifier

Dec 12, 2023 at 8:23 AM Post #1,531 of 3,759
I think your next step is to move the setup to a different part of your house and plug into an outlet on a different circuit breaker. This should help determine if it's your gear or your house causing the noise.
 
Dec 13, 2023 at 8:38 AM Post #1,532 of 3,759
Something that is also interesting is that I noticed that when plugged to my CMA400i, the amp of the CMA400i would also start hissing when the HA-3A's power cord is plugged in, even when the amp is turned off. The hiss promptly ceased when I unplugged the HA-3A's power cord is unplugged, and immediately returned once the cord is plugged back. "Plugged" in this case meaning plugged on the side of the device and not my electric socket.

I think this is implying that some sort of EMI is taking place, but I would've thought EMI would have been a "constant" noise, not something that builds up and gets progressively louder over time...
Interesting, I have similar issue. My HA-3A (luckily dead silent itself) causes some extra hum in my other tube speaker amp (Willsenton R300), being plugged in, but not turned on. So I just don’t plug HA-3A unless I’m going to use headphones. I never had nothing like that with any solid state amp. All my audio gear is plugged in the same filter-distributor (Supra MD), all power cords are screened (Supra LoRad), and no other working electronics like TV or cellphone closer than 2 meters.
I’m waiting for arrival of some better fuses, some people here say it works.
 
Dec 13, 2023 at 10:08 AM Post #1,533 of 3,759
Noise issues can have many reasons. So not always easy to figure out what really helps. In my case the ifi GND Defender helped a lot to get rid of humming noise on sensitive headphones.

1702480129189.png
 
Dec 13, 2023 at 10:26 AM Post #1,534 of 3,759
Noise issues can have many reasons. So not always easy to figure out what really helps. In my case the ifi GND Defender helped a lot to get rid of humming noise on sensitive headphones.

1702480129189.png
I can also say this product massively reduced the humming/background noise and I have always used it with the HA-3A.
 
Dec 14, 2023 at 6:14 AM Post #1,535 of 3,759
Thanks for the suggestions, folks! I think I’ve just managed to resolve the issue based on some of the ideas mentioned here. Just for future reference, I’m recounting here what happened and what I did to resolve the issue (mostly, and at least for now).

The general idea is that electricity is hard, confusing, and very misleading if you really know jack about it :sweat_smile: The main culprit in my case seems to be my two thunderbolt monitors, each connected to my 2021 MacBook Pro through the two left hand side USB ports. The increasingly loud hum/buzz/hiss effectively reduced by at least 60-70% the moment I unplugged the two monitors from my MacBook Pro. There was a ground loop from the two monitors being connected to two separate extensions from two separate outlets, and rearranging the rat’s nest and plugging both monitors to the same power extension just results in…some of the hum/buzz/hiss returning, but very barely and effectively inaudible once I play some music. The relieving thing about this is that the hum/buzz/hiss now remains a constant and leaving the amp for a longer period of time no longer has the build-up.

There is still the rest of the 30-40%, which I resolved by:
  • Doing the what should’ve been the most obvious thing of checking my USB connection from my CMA400i. Turns out the cable I’ve been using, a USB-B to USB-C, does not have the best shielding. I replaced it with a Lindy USB-B to USB-C and that reduces the noise again somewhat.
  • I bought a Topping HS02 ground loop eliminator and then plugged it between the USB-B connected to the DAC to my MacBook Pro. Again, this somewhat reduced the noise even further.
  • The only thing left at this point was some left channel ticking I noticed to be present in my headphones once the whole system is connected. I’ve managed to isolate the issue as coming from the amp, and specifically to the power extension I’ve been using. It seems like it’s actually not in the best of condition and some of the used plugs are actually flickering on and off like they’re dying. I just unplugged the devices connected to those ”dying“ plugs and the ticking effectively stopped. I’d imagine purchasing a new or better quality power extension down the line would completely resolve the issue.
The best thing about all this is that it’s mostly a devices issue than my house wiring issue (phew). I might want an iFi GND Defender to potentially fix out some of the final gremlin bits. Fingers crossed, for now…
 
Dec 14, 2023 at 6:38 AM Post #1,536 of 3,759
Thanks for the suggestions, folks! I think I’ve just managed to resolve the issue based on some of the ideas mentioned here. Just for future reference, I’m recounting here what happened and what I did to resolve the issue (mostly, and at least for now).

The general idea is that electricity is hard, confusing, and very misleading if you really know jack about it :sweat_smile: The main culprit in my case seems to be my two thunderbolt monitors, each connected to my 2021 MacBook Pro through the two left hand side USB ports. The increasingly loud hum/buzz/hiss effectively reduced by at least 60-70% the moment I unplugged the two monitors from my MacBook Pro. There was a ground loop from the two monitors being connected to two separate extensions from two separate outlets, and rearranging the rat’s nest and plugging both monitors to the same power extension just results in…some of the hum/buzz/hiss returning, but very barely and effectively inaudible once I play some music. The relieving thing about this is that the hum/buzz/hiss now remains a constant and leaving the amp for a longer period of time no longer has the build-up.

There is still the rest of the 30-40%, which I resolved by:
  • Doing the what should’ve been the most obvious thing of checking my USB connection from my CMA400i. Turns out the cable I’ve been using, a USB-B to USB-C, does not have the best shielding. I replaced it with a Lindy USB-B to USB-C and that reduces the noise again somewhat.
  • I bought a Topping HS02 ground loop eliminator and then plugged it between the USB-B connected to the DAC to my MacBook Pro. Again, this somewhat reduced the noise even further.
  • The only thing left at this point was some left channel ticking I noticed to be present in my headphones once the whole system is connected. I’ve managed to isolate the issue as coming from the amp, and specifically to the power extension I’ve been using. It seems like it’s actually not in the best of condition and some of the used plugs are actually flickering on and off like they’re dying. I just unplugged the devices connected to those ”dying“ plugs and the ticking effectively stopped. I’d imagine purchasing a new or better quality power extension down the line would completely resolve the issue.
The best thing about all this is that it’s mostly a devices issue than my house wiring issue (phew). I might want an iFi GND Defender to potentially fix out some of the final gremlin bits. Fingers crossed, for now…
I would certainty look at getting the iFi GND Defender, yes its expensive but worth it as it actually works.
 
Dec 14, 2023 at 3:52 PM Post #1,540 of 3,759
Dec 15, 2023 at 4:59 PM Post #1,541 of 3,759
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/
Dec 15, 2023 at 5:08 PM Post #1,542 of 3,759
888+HA2A Banner.jpg

Cayin will debut the following product at the 2023 China Guangzhou International Headphone Expo (16-17 December 2023). I'll be traveling to Guangzhou to check out these new products and we shall provide more information about these new products after the Guangzhou event.

iDAP-8: Android-based Network Streamer
iDAC-8: Dual Timbre DAC/Preamplifier
iHA-8: "Hyper" Class-A Solid-State Headphone Amplifier
HA-2A: Compact Transformer-Coupled Tube Headphone Amplifier
Any specs you can give us on the HA-2A in the meantime?:grin:
 
Dec 21, 2023 at 4:06 AM Post #1,543 of 3,759
I had a problem with my amp yesterday. There is a strong crackling and noise in the left channel, it happens without interruption. I first thought there might be a problem with the headphones, so I changed the headphones, after that the sound in the left channel became much quieter. This is also visible on the indicators. Changing the tubes did not help.

Any ideas?

We don't have an official Cayin maintenance service.
 
Dec 22, 2023 at 12:23 PM Post #1,544 of 3,759
I had a problem with my amp yesterday. There is a strong crackling and noise in the left channel, it happens without interruption. I first thought there might be a problem with the headphones, so I changed the headphones, after that the sound in the left channel became much quieter. This is also visible on the indicators. Changing the tubes did not help.

Any ideas?

We don't have an official Cayin maintenance service.
Very similar to the whims of tubes. You can change left and right with each other. If the crackling remains, then the problem is not the tubes.
 
Dec 22, 2023 at 10:26 PM Post #1,545 of 3,759
I had a problem with my amp yesterday. There is a strong crackling and noise in the left channel, it happens without interruption. I first thought there might be a problem with the headphones, so I changed the headphones, after that the sound in the left channel became much quieter. This is also visible on the indicators. Changing the tubes did not help.

Any ideas?

We don't have an official Cayin maintenance service.
To determine whether this is a tube-related problem or a circuit-related problem, we recommend users swap both output tubes and driver tubes at the same time. Can you test again by swapping V1 and V2, and then V3 and V4 so that all the left channel tubes goes to the right channel, and the right channel tubes moved to the left channel.

1703301586325.png



If the noise moved from left channel to right channel after this swap, then we can be sure that the problem is tube-related. If the noise remain in the left channel, then you next step is to swap the interconnect (RCA or XLR), and make sure the RCA cable or XLR cable will not run in parallel with your power cord.

Last but not least, please check to make sure you don't have a strong wireless signal on the left side of your amplifier.

If the noise problem persist after all the test, then there is a big chance that your amplifier has developed a hardware problem and you should contact your dealer to seek their support.
 
Cayin Stay updated on Cayin at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://en.cayin.cn/

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top