[skylinekursk]

Received mine today! Need to be burn in but first impression is good, I like both triode and UL mode with KT88!
No hiss with Empyrean!

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

the HA-6A sounds great with heavy metal, old school or modern, even in triode mode.

Ultralinear is best suited to that genre, more slam and speed, especially with kt88 tubes !!!
that's great about that amp, you listen to fast paced death or black metal, you go UL and KT88, then a shoegaze or indie rock track pops in the playlist, go back to triode mode for the extra mid-bass warmth and stage, then you swap kt88 for el34, and enjoy super lush mid range for some feminine jazz...

on tube rolling : got a pair pf psvanes 6CA7- TII, and I love them ! especially in triode mode, they are really good ! the sounds seems more "luminous" ( sorry I'm bad at audiophile adjectives) , tonaly rich, luminous mid range, great bass, very refined treble..; a strong contender IMO !


slight off-topic, but i can't resist : ( sorry for cable non believers, please be not offended )

I DIY'ed new cables for my utopias with some neotech pure OCC silver cables and furutech connector, and with this amp, I was able to tell the différences with the stock cable right away, more air more extension, greater definition in bass, better soundstage...

here is a picture of those beauties together







listening to "nothing as the ideal" from all them witches now... I am drawn into this great abbey road mix !! sounds incredible

Do you get any background hiss with your HA-6A which seems to be prevalent with the HA-6A on this forum ?

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Received mine today! Need to be burn in but first impression is good, I like both triode and UL mode with KT88!
No hiss with Empyrean!

What made you choose the HA-6A over say the Cayin HA-300 (with 300B tubes) or one of the Woo Audio amps i.e. the WA5 and WA33 for instance ?

 

[ThanatosVI]

What made you choose the HA-6A over say the Cayin HA-300 (with 300B tubes) or one of the Woo Audio amps i.e. the WA5 and WA33 for instance ?

Probably the price, it's significantly cheaper than those other options.(that was my main reason, since I considered all of those mentioned ones as well)

For EDM and similar music, it could still be the better choice.

 

[skylinekursk]

What made you choose the HA-6A over say the Cayin HA-300 (with 300B tubes) or one of the Woo Audio amps i.e. the WA5 and WA33 for instance ?

I had no chance to listen or compare but customization of HA6A Is amazing... switch from triode mode to UL every song is cost a LOT! so many signatures in one AMP

 

[ThanatosVI]

the HA-6A sounds great with heavy metal, old school or modern, even in triode mode.

Ultralinear is best suited to that genre, more slam and speed, especially with kt88 tubes !!!
that's great about that amp, you listen to fast paced death or black metal, you go UL and KT88, then a shoegaze or indie rock track pops in the playlist, go back to triode mode for the extra mid-bass warmth and stage, then you swap kt88 for el34, and enjoy super lush mid range for some feminine jazz...

on tube rolling : got a pair pf psvanes 6CA7- TII, and I love them ! especially in triode mode, they are really good ! the sounds seems more "luminous" ( sorry I'm bad at audiophile adjectives) , tonaly rich, luminous mid range, great bass, very refined treble..; a strong contender IMO !


slight off-topic, but i can't resist : ( sorry for cable non believers, please be not offended )

I DIY'ed new cables for my utopias with some neotech pure OCC silver cables and furutech connector, and with this amp, I was able to tell the différences with the stock cable right away, more air more extension, greater definition in bass, better soundstage...

here is a picture of those beauties together







listening to "nothing as the ideal" from all them witches now... I am drawn into this great abbey road mix !! sounds incredible

which tubes are you using on that picture?

 

[Gr3g277]

Do you get any background hiss with your HA-6A which seems to be prevalent with the HA-6A on this forum ?

yes I do, mine was not sent for repair, as It bothers me only with high impedance headphones on balanced connection
utopias are very sensitive, and it is silent in low impedance setting with single ended connection, on medium setting the mid bass thickens a bit, and hiss is a bit noticeable on very low moments. Does not bother me though
Honestly I ditched balanced all together ( input/output ) and stick with SE in/out and everything is good.

I find balanced input to have too much gain and even some slight distortion on very low bass ( using my bifrost 2 as dac )
hiss is noticeably higher using xlr balanced out, I would say usable but definietely noticeable on low impedance, and bothering me on the medium setting.

that is true with most sensitive headphones. I also own a hifiman arya, and use balance out for the added power with no hiss whatsoever due it's low sensitivity ( 90dbd/mw )

so my advice is mind your pairing ! this is a very powerful amp !

which tubes are you using on that picture?

on that picture i am using sylvania 6189 as input tubes, and psvanes 6CA7-TII as power tubes
I like that pairing a lot

@ThanatosVI , have you received the ps audio power plant ?

 

[ThanatosVI]

yes I do, mine was not sent for repair, as It bothers me only with high impedance headphones on balanced connection
utopias are very sensitive, and it is silent in low impedance setting with single ended connection, on medium setting the mid bass thickens a bit, and hiss is a bit noticeable on very low moments. Does not bother me though
Honestly I ditched balanced all together ( input/output ) and stick with SE in/out and everything is good.

I find balanced input to have too much gain and even some slight distortion on very low bass ( using my bifrost 2 as dac )
hiss is noticeably higher using xlr balanced out, I would say usable but definietely noticeable on low impedance, and bothering me on the medium setting.

that is true with most sensitive headphones. I also own a hifiman arya, and use balance out for the added power with no hiss whatsoever due it's low sensitivity ( 90dbd/mw )

so my advice is mind your pairing ! this is a very powerful amp !




on that picture i am using sylvania 6189 as input tubes, and psvanes 6CA7-TII as power tubes
I like that pairing a lot

@ThanatosVI , have you received the ps audio power plant ?

Yes I received the power plant last friday, but I decided on custom nrg cables, which still need a few weeks.

So for now I don't have a power cable long enough to use it with the amp.
Using the power plant only for the DAC brings already ridiculous results. This is without exageration one of the most obvious changes one can do to a System

 

[Gr3g277]

nooooo, please don't say that, those things are way to dangerous for my wallet....
happy to hear that it bring obvious improvements on the table, I am now eager to hear if the improvements scales with the ha-6a....

 

[ThanatosVI]

nooooo, please don't say that, those things are way to dangerous for my wallet....
happy to hear that it bring obvious improvements on the table, I am now eager to hear if the improvements scales with the ha-6a....

I will make sure to let you know.
3 weeks from now they could be here.

 

[skylinekursk]

Forgot to say it could be helpful with hiss -I’m using dh labs red wave power cable and Igalvanic3 by ifi. Tried all gains using 6.3 output - no hiss at all. Dac connected trough RCA

 

[LTd head]

Please, try high impedance headphones

 

[skylinekursk]

Please, try high impedance headphones

Sorry but I have only Empyrean... anyway they are quite sensitive with 100 dB

 

[skylinekursk]

does anyone like el34 more than kt88?

 

[ThanatosVI]

does anyone like el34 more than kt88?

@Relaxasaurus does if I recall correctly