Very smartI enjoy to have options. Fast solid state with great stage, clarity and resolution and a good liquid sounding, warmish tube amp
Cayin HA-3A, a Compact 6V6s Transformer-coupled Tube Amplifier
- Thread starter Andykong
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Revolution1
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Unison Research, which I had, and HA-3A and the rest of the tube amplifiers that I heard in the salons, were in no way inferior in resolution and detail to transistor amplifiers.I enjoy to have options. Fast solid state with great stage, clarity and resolution and a good liquid sounding, warmish tube amp
Cayin is even superior to the Audio-GD Master 9P in this regard.
I have received the Cayin HA 3A this morning, unfortunately I got it delivered at my work office and left it on the side to "burn in" and everyone is pestering me as to what the hell it is. I try to explain but they give my glassy eyed looks as they have no idea whats going on. I told them the price of it and they just couldn't comprehend why on earth I would spend so much but we all know they have no clue or knowledge to what we do here lol. Based on first impressions of the build, its very sexy in black and comes alive when you turn it on with the white lights and the tubes. Its also a chonker and very heavy so it will be fun putting it in my car safely!
I will post some impressions and pictures tonight.
I will post some impressions and pictures tonight.
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Not familiar with the solid state you compared to, but I highly doubt HA-3A is anywhere close in speed, clarity,resolution, dynamics and stage to Holo Bliss which is often compared to Envy when it comes to resolution and stage. While I vastly prefer HA-3A to my burson soloist, soloist is much more faster and has much more punch than HA-3A.
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All those things you mentioned except for speed you can get if you do some tube rolling.
Have 5 set combinations of 12AU7 and 6V6 otubes for HA-3A at this point, including rather punchy 12AU7 Mazdas, still nowhere close to burson. Couldnt increase the stage on HA-3A btw, tube rolling Iv done, mostly changed the tonality and resolution.
I see, have you tried the Sylvania tubes? very detailed, massive stage and amazing punch.
Yeah got 12AU7A ECC82 Sylvania NIB & NOS found them bit too warm in combination with Fivres I currently use.
RTC 12AU7 ECC82 Philips Holland I currently use are more neutral, got a lot of clairty andeven slightly more punch imho. Still nowhere close to burson solid state punch. As for the stage biggest upgrade was Holo May which tripled the stage size for me haha. But honestly I dont hear any stage improvement rolling the tubes on HA-3A.
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While I cannot speak for the Holo may or bliss, I have seen many videos on them and they are receiving very high praise from people I can trust like GoldenSounds. I did listen to the Envy at the Meze stand at Canjam and that was the best amp I have ever heard. The detail and punch out of that was truly mind blowing which then made me purchase the Empyreans but I could never get them to sound like how it was at Canjam lol.
Yep heard many great things about Envy, yet to demo it, supposed to be great with Caldera too
I enjoy to have options. Fast solid state with great stage, clarity and resolution and a good liquid sounding, warmish tube amp
I too am loving the option of using either my solid state (Ferrum Oor) or tube 3A.
After a week of living with both, I'm undecided which one I like more so I expect I'll keep both.
In a word, to me, the Oor is "plankton"/refinement and the 3A is "grandness"/boldness.
I really don't want to go into more detail as I'm still comparing both. They both have strengths and weaknesses and it's great to have both options!
So would you say that the HA-3A is in the league of the Oor?
I have a similar experience with my Cayin iHA-6 and the HA-3A, both compliment each other really great.
In at least some ways, yes.
I've cooled off a bit since this post, but this was my prima facie (after many hours of back and forth though, not just a few tracks) view of the two:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cay...r-coupled-tube-amplifier.963983/post-17409599
Now I'm seeing the defects of the 3A more clearly; namely that it lacks the resolution of the Oor, as well as layering/separation abilities (imaging I'm not sure of). I think there is more "smearing" with the 3A in terms of micro detail (plankton) and it doesn't have the tightness/grip/articulation that the Oor does. But it has a bigger sound stage (although maybe it's too diffuse?), and more extended treble (though it doesn't sound as natural to me as the Oor's treble), I think more "realism" in that the music sounds more "you are there" or lifelike compared to the Oor which is more flat and focused in presentation (but also more "proper" and direct/focused and still not boring). This has a lot to do with the sound stage differences I think. Notes with the Oor sound tangible, but not as much as on the 3A; however you get more detail and texture on the Oor which give the notes a sense of realism in that aspect. And of course the 3A has the nice rounder lower mids that add a special flavor to the music. I'm still undecided on speed, impact, slam, etc but I'd say the Oor is better in all of these.
Well, there I go into details that I'm still really not that sure of. It really takes me awhile to get to know the sound signature of gear, and I've only had the 3A for a little over a week. After a month or two I feel I'll really know it. These impressions are almost entirely done with my HE1000V2's (and a bit with my Odins and Aryas) so how the Oor and 3A synchronize with these could be heavily coloring my impressions. (Though I get about the same impressions overall with my Odins and Aryas).
I should also have said that I'll almost certainly be keeping the 3A for a 2nd system setup that I originally bought it for (Odin/IEM use in the bedroom). I meant that I'm not sure if I'll get another one for use in my main, or go to a 6A there, or simply just be satisfied with the Oor for that system.
