[lambdastorm]

Was hoping someone could help me on an issue with a iHA-6 I just purchased. I seem to also have a hum that some others have pointed out. It only occurs with the following settings:

Input: RCA and XLR and with no cables attached on input
Current: Low
Gain: Low
Output: 4 pin XLR, 2x3pin XLR

The hum seems to be stronger out of the left channel than the right.


This does not occur when the Current is set to "high", and when the gain is switched to "high" there is a hiss that is typical of switching an amplifier to high gain, but different than this hum I'm hearing. Anyone have any help on this?

@Andykong

This. I have the exact same issue with my unit. The background is pitch black on high current, but on low current there's a constant hum that's louder on the left channel. This happens on both 1/4 and balanced.

 

[duyanh43]

This. I have the exact same issue with my unit. The background is pitch black on high current, but on low current there's a constant hum that's louder on the left channel. This happens on both 1/4 and balanced.

Lol, same issue on my unit tho. High Gain = perfect black background

 

[dadracer2]

Lol, same issue on my unit tho. High Gain = perfect black background

Just got my amp a couple of days ago and it is running fine. No hum from the 4 pin XLR whatever headphone I use or what settings I put the current and gain on.

It is very neutral and clean. The soundstage is very good and it pairs very well with my Audio Technica AP2k closed backs. They are a little on the bright side of neutral but the Cayin makes treble detail sound less splashy and more natural and yet without rolling off the treble. It's not the best headphone amp I have ever heard but for the money is it excellent.

 

[ethanc]

So what's the consensus on the hiss/hum issues? I am contemplating getting one for my Arya's, with which I anticipate running in low gain, high current through the balanced 4-pin XLR, with XLR balanced input from DAC. Does that combo yield hiss/hum or other noises?

 

[dadracer2]

So what's the consensus on the hiss/hum issues? I am contemplating getting one for my Arya's, with which I anticipate running in low gain, high current through the balanced 4-pin XLR, with XLR balanced input from DAC. Does that combo yield hiss/hum or other noises?

I'm doing that with ATs and no hiss no hum. They are 44 ohm impedance not sure what it is for your Ayras.

 

[ethanc]

I'm doing that with ATs and no hiss no hum. They are 44 ohm impedance not sure what it is for your Ayras.

They're 35ohms, but lower sensitivity at 90db/mw. Hopefully can get some more data points regarding the noise

 

[SludgeSwan]

Also very interested in finding out more about this hum issue, as I'm considering the iHA-6 for Meze Empyrean (31,6 Ohm, 100dB/mW). Seems that not every unit has this issue... what I'm a bit concerned about is that Cayin just seems to be avoiding comments regarding this issue.

 

[portalheadd]

hi everyone. I really need your help
I currently use jot 1 with modi multibit. I'm going to sell my jot1 and am trying to find a worthy upgrade over it. without paying any extra cass over jot1 I can buy a brand new THX 789. or I can pay almost 50 percent more money and buy either JOT2, A90 or IHA-6 for almost similar price(in my country I can buy them for almost similar price). my cans are DT1990, HD600, K712, SR325e, ath-w100 and mdr-1A and there is possibility of buying some focal or hifiman in future. I will use XLR output for my 600s only and the rest of my cans will be run unbalanced. so SE performance is crucial for me. now what you suggest? is getting a 789 without paying more money a good upgrade over old jot1 or I better get the either one of A90, Jot or IHA-6 instead if upgrade is worth extra 50 percent money? frankly Iha-6 has really caught my eyes but reports of buzz and hum are putting me off. since that most of my cans will run off of SE output of IHA-6, does it really perform good out of SE? I mean I have pretty low impedance highly efficient cans (GRADO and ATH-w100) so high output impedance of SE outputs of IHA-6 wont be an issue? this hum or buzz thing... how much serious and deal-breaker is it? imo jot1 really suffers from poor treble performance. kinda congested and busy in top end with mediocre at best separation. I want a little more effortless presentation a touch more space and of course less glare. I don't need preamp and obviously I'm gonna feed them via RCA. so any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance

 

[SludgeSwan]

The Cayin is probably not the best choice for you, then. I spent a lot of time reading and watching reviews and user feedback recently, and the SE outputs really seem to be much inferior to the balanced output, especially for low impedance/high sensitivity headphones. 10 Ohm output impedance on the low gain SE output vs. 0.3 Ohm on the balanced...

 

[portalheadd]

The Cayin is probably not the best choice for you, then. I spent a lot of time reading and watching reviews and user feedback recently, and the SE outputs really seem to be much inferior to the balanced output, especially for low impedance/high sensitivity headphones. 10 Ohm output impedance on the low gain SE output vs. 0.3 Ohm on the balanced...

So I guess I should Go for either A90 or jo2. Or even 789. I really love Form factor, Design and switches on IHA-6. But seems that it does not deliver in SE segment. I wonder if I use a 3.5/6.3 to XLR adapter, And connect my SE cans via XLR OUTPUT, what will be outcome? I know doesn’t make sense but I guess I’ll bypass high output impedance or I’m d Dumb?

 

[SludgeSwan]

So I guess I should Go for either A90 or jo2. Or even 789. I really love Form factor, Design and switches on IHA-6. But seems that it does not deliver in SE segment. I wonder if I use a 3.5/6.3 to XLR adapter, And connect my SE cans via XLR OUTPUT, what will be outcome? I know doesn’t make sense but I guess I’ll bypass high output impedance or I’m d Dumb?

I'm no expert on this, but have read that connecting going from unbalanced to balanced with an adapter is much mor problematic than the other way around...

 

[ProfesseurMoriarty]

Hello everyone,
It's my first post on this board, and I'm kinda new to the hifi world, so maybe some part of my post will sound dumb or maybe I won't use the right words.

I bought this amp 10 days ago (new).
I chose it because I want to be able to use high impendance headphones, like the 600 ohms ones from BeyerDynamic. But I'd also like to use low impedance headphones (like a Grado GS1000e), on the balanced output.
At the moment I only own an AKG K612 Pro (120 ohms). This heaphone is plugged on the low impedance unbalanced output of the amp, with low gain and low current.

During the firsts days, I had no issue with the amp at all.
Since a few days, I start getting some kind of static noise, that I can easily hear in the headphone. When I turn on the amp, it's fine during maybe 10 mins, then the static noise starts to happen. It can happen when I'm doing nothing at all, but it can change when I touch or wrap the headphone cable, or when I play with the volume knob of the amp. If I turn on the high gain, or the high current, the static noise goes away. I also tried plugging the headphone on the high impendance output, it seemed okay. I didn't try the balanced output, since I don't own a balanced headphone yet.
This static noise happens even when no source is plugged to the amp.

At the store where I bought the amp, I was told that this static noise could be a ground loop problem, but that it should be amplified/louder when I turn on the high gain, not disappear.
I tried plugging the amp on another electric outlet in my home, where there's nothing else plugged; I tried turning off things like my fridge or my water heater, since I was told it could mess up with the power. But same result. I don't own a power conditioner or a power regenerator, to test if that could help.

So I'm gonna go to the store with my amp, so they can test it themselves. They told me that if they can reproduce the problem, they would replace the amp directly with a new one (instead of having to wait for a repair). But when I look at the latests messages in this thread, it seems the problem I have isn't uncommon, so I'm a bit afraid I might get another amp with the same exact problem.

I only owned things like USB sound cards before, and a Topping L30 (that I had to send back), and I never had this kind of problem, so I'm not sure about what I should do.

Thank you.

 

[beemarman]

I really want this amp, but am worried about all these noise issues. It seems a lot more people are experiencing this than not. I'm probably going to skip it for now until somebody from Cayin can chime in on what's going on.

 

[Andykong]

So I guess I should Go for either A90 or jo2. Or even 789. I really love Form factor, Design and switches on IHA-6. But seems that it does not deliver in SE segment. I wonder if I use a 3.5/6.3 to XLR adapter, And connect my SE cans via XLR OUTPUT, what will be outcome? I know doesn’t make sense but I guess I’ll bypass high output impedance or I’m d Dumb?

The XLR4 connector only provides R+, R-, L+, L- signal, it doesn't have GROUND signal in the connection. If you want to make an adapter for single-ended headphone, you need to have GROUND signal. If you have to do it, maybe you can custom make an adapter from the dual XLR balanced phone output, You can get R+ and GROUND from the right XLR3 output, and L+ from the left XLR3 output. This will work technically. The dual XLR3 and XLR4 are based on identical circuit, so their output impedance are the same as well.

 

[SludgeSwan]

Hello everyone,
It's my first post on this board, and I'm kinda new to the hifi world, so maybe some part of my post will sound dumb or maybe I won't use the right words.

I bought this amp 10 days ago (new).
I chose it because I want to be able to use high impendance headphones, like the 600 ohms ones from BeyerDynamic. But I'd also like to use low impedance headphones (like a Grado GS1000e), on the balanced output.
At the moment I only own an AKG K612 Pro (120 ohms). This heaphone is plugged on the low impedance unbalanced output of the amp, with low gain and low current.

During the firsts days, I had no issue with the amp at all.
Since a few days, I start getting some kind of static noise, that I can easily hear in the headphone. When I turn on the amp, it's fine during maybe 10 mins, then the static noise starts to happen. It can happen when I'm doing nothing at all, but it can change when I touch or wrap the headphone cable, or when I play with the volume knob of the amp. If I turn on the high gain, or the high current, the static noise goes away. I also tried plugging the headphone on the high impendance output, it seemed okay. I didn't try the balanced output, since I don't own a balanced headphone yet.
This static noise happens even when no source is plugged to the amp.

At the store where I bought the amp, I was told that this static noise could be a ground loop problem, but that it should be amplified/louder when I turn on the high gain, not disappear.
I tried plugging the amp on another electric outlet in my home, where there's nothing else plugged; I tried turning off things like my fridge or my water heater, since I was told it could mess up with the power. But same result. I don't own a power conditioner or a power regenerator, to test if that could help.

So I'm gonna go to the store with my amp, so they can test it themselves. They told me that if they can reproduce the problem, they would replace the amp directly with a new one (instead of having to wait for a repair). But when I look at the latests messages in this thread, it seems the problem I have isn't uncommon, so I'm a bit afraid I might get another amp with the same exact problem.

I only owned things like USB sound cards before, and a Topping L30 (that I had to send back), and I never had this kind of problem, so I'm not sure about what I should do.

Thank you.

Please keep us updated on the response from the store owners!
Got this amp used for a good price, but as I'm still waiting for my new headphones with balanced cable, I could so far only check the unbalanced outputs with my IEMs. Using the low impedance output, there is a clear hum on both channels that is independent of changing the volume. The hum is so loud that it is audible during quieter passages of tracks, so at least with my IEMs it's basically unusable. It's also there when no other devices are connected to the amp, and only slightly changes with the different settings (low/high gain, low/high current). Using the high impedance output, there is no hum at all.

As I won't be using the unbalanced outputs, I'm not too worried about all that. Now it all depends on the balanced output - which is supposed to sound much better anyway. I will report back when my headphones have arrived.