[whitelocust]

How important would you say it is to keep the signal path the same throughout the chain?  The reason why I ask is, my current DAC(V90), is only single ended out, however I am interested in using the balanced output of the iHA-6 with my HD800s.  I am willing to change the DAC, however I only have money for one at the time, and I would really like to get my hands on the amp first.
 
Thanks.

 

[grizzlybeast]

  How important would you say it is to keep the signal path the same throughout the chain?  The reason why I ask is, my current DAC(V90), is only single ended out, however I am interested in using the balanced output of the iHA-6 with my HD800s.  I am willing to change the DAC, however I only have money for one at the time, and I would really like to get my hands on the amp first.
 
Thanks.

There are a lot of amps for which this matters. This is not one of them. Keep your DAC...for this amp there is absolutely no reason to go fully balanced. Actually the non balanced output of the iDAC6 sounded slightly cleaner since it can be used in transistor mode. 
 
If a DAC sounds significantly better when using it with the iHA6 it is most likely because the DAC itself sounds better balanced.
 
What I just mentioned is one of the strong selling points of the amp. It sounds best when using its balanced headphone out even if the DAC isnt fully balanced. 
 
EDIT: on second thought. The V90 will hold back what this amp can do so if you buy this amp please upgrade your DAC first before ditching the wrong component. I felt the 1299 metrum Musette slightly held back its transparency in the lower midrange and kind of slowed it down. 

 

[tassardar]

I got my Hugo TT today to act as a dac and also compared the amp stage. In balance the cayin is brilliant. Quicker, tighter and cleaner. But on single end, is really disappointing with dull sound that lacks energy. This is in relation to Hugo TT internal amp and using the hd800s

 

[Andykong]

Indeed the best iDAC-6/iHA-6 review I have read so far, finish reading at 3 am and too excited to go to bed after that,

 

[Andykong]

John is the worst reviewer of all time. I don't like how he is so accurate.

For example

I thought I was just really stumped at the current settings and tried to leave it out of my review then he said.

"I also couldn't tell a significant difference in the high or low current settings. Every time I thought I heard a slight change, a counterexample would present itself, so the ultimate worth of this setting eluded me
Read more at http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/cayin-idac-6-and-iha-6-dynamic-duo-page-3#QQru8wtwsuRmg0hu.99"

Ahhh validation

Sike! John is great and I heard the amp practically the same and preferred it balanced with most headphones.

I however dont hear the idac6 as warm but that's prob because I had a NOS DAC as a reference.

Glad to see it on the WOF it definitely deserves it. I really want one and may get one eventually.

Great Job john

Congrats Cayin!

Ha! Thanks, I deliberately stayed away from your review until today. We do indeed hear them fairly similarly. As I mention in mine, if you prefer a NOS sound then you won't find the Cayin particularly warm. I didn't mention it but I suppose the other end is true as well - if you wanted a super-brilliant reference type sound, the Cayin in SS mode still isn't as bright as say my Esoteric D-07x or Calyx Femto. So it's all relative.

Your review is very well done too though, great reading. 

John, there is one "happy" problem arise from your review. Cayin has a clear internal policy NOT to get competitors involved in our promotion and direct marketing activities, we should focused on our own work instead of checking out on the weakness of others. This review suddenly introduced a new list of "competitors" that we never have expected, they are double or triple our MRSP, and have not appeared in other iDAC-6/iHA-6 reviews as comparable products. I need to remind our Marketing staff to revise our list now.

Up until now the iDAC-6 and iHA-6 are very low profile in the North America/Europe HeadFi market, the only two published reviews (in English) happens to be very positive and very much in common. this is an exciting news to Cayin team. Cayin carried a strong manufacturer tradition, we focus in our own product development and production work, trying to improve and surpassed ourselves all the time. We have not paying enough attention to publicize ourselves. We figured out we have to do something about this recently but the startup curve is fairly steep , these reviews certainly will be our important stepping stone to reach out to the media and headfi community in general.

To start with, I hope the new InnerFidelity review will draw more readers to the discussion threads, and build up enough attention to kick start the iDAC-6/i-HA6 tour. For those who are interested in this little desktop stack, please stay tune for the detail of the tour.

 

[zeissiez]

 

John is the worst reviewer of all time. I don't like how he is so accurate.

For example

I thought I was just really stumped at the current settings and tried to leave it out of my review then he said.

"I also couldn't tell a significant difference in the high or low current settings. Every time I thought I heard a slight change, a counterexample would present itself, so the ultimate worth of this setting eluded me
Read more at http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/cayin-idac-6-and-iha-6-dynamic-duo-page-3#QQru8wtwsuRmg0hu.99"

Ahhh validation

Sike! John is great and I heard the amp practically the same and preferred it balanced with most headphones.

I however dont hear the idac6 as warm but that's prob because I had a NOS DAC as a reference.

Glad to see it on the WOF it definitely deserves it. I really want one and may get one eventually.

Great Job john

Congrats Cayin!

 

Ha! Thanks, I deliberately stayed away from your review until today. We do indeed hear them fairly similarly. As I mention in mine, if you prefer a NOS sound then you won't find the Cayin particularly warm. I didn't mention it but I suppose the other end is true as well - if you wanted a super-brilliant reference type sound, the Cayin in SS mode still isn't as bright as say my Esoteric D-07x or Calyx Femto. So it's all relative.

Your review is very well done too though, great reading. 

John, there is one "happy" problem arise from your review. Cayin has a clear internal policy NOT to get competitors involved in our promotion and direct marketing activities, we should focused on our own work instead of checking out on the weakness of others. This review suddenly introduced a new list of "competitors" that we never have expected, they are double or triple our MRSP, and have not appeared in other iDAC-6/iHA-6 reviews as comparable products. I need to remind our Marketing staff to revise our list now.

Up until now the iDAC-6 and iHA-6 are very low profile in the North America/Europe HeadFi market, the only two published reviews (in English) happens to be very positive and very much in common. this is an exciting news to Cayin team. Cayin carried a strong manufacturer tradition, we focus in our own product development and production work, trying to improve and surpassed ourselves all the time. We have not paying enough attention to publicize ourselves. We figured out we have to do something about this recently but the startup curve is fairly steep , these reviews certainly will be our important stepping stone to reach out to the media and headfi community in general.

To start with, I hope the new InnerFidelity review will draw more readers to the discussion threads, and build up enough attention to kick start the iDAC-6/i-HA6 tour. For those who are interested in this little desktop stack, please stay tune for the detail of the tour.

Yes Andy, while I was in China, I had the opportunity to try out a lot of Chinese gears. I got surprise after surprise of how good they sound for such low prices. But they are generally lacking in publicity. Somehow people tend to think they are for the budget-contrained. In my opinion, Chinese audio gears are world-class. 

 

[project86]

There is definitely a lot of very good gear in China, but also some not so good stuff. Probably true of any region I suppose. The tough part is the good stuff is easy to miss if you don't know where to look. That's why it's nice to see companies like Cayin do well, along with some of the other more visible brands like Opera Consonance, Yulong, Matrix, Shanling, and probably some others who I am forgetting. 

 

[whitelocust]

Thank you.  I appreciate your feedback.

 

[zeissiez]

There is definitely a lot of very good gear in China, but also some not so good stuff. Probably true of any region I suppose. The tough part is the good stuff is easy to miss if you don't know where to look. That's why it's nice to see companies like Cayin do well, along with some of the other more visible brands like Opera Consonance, Yulong, Matrix, Shanling, and probably some others who I am forgetting. 

And the more respected brands like Goldenwave, Cayin... And the more reknown ones like Oppo, Auralic and AudioGD.... And some brilliant DIY boutique brands which create monster amps like the 8PR and 8PB

 

[exsomnis]

Received my iHA-6 today - it's surprisingly solid and heavy for its size.
 
It did take about 15-20 minutes for the sound to open up. Feeding it with my Audio-gd DAC-19 and driving my LCD 3s, it sounds neutral, transparent and balanced. There's perhaps a touch of shimmer on top and tonnes of bite from mids to highs with transients. They're definitely supplying a sufficient amount of power to the LCD 3s.
 
Loving it!

 

[tassardar]

Stacks perfectly

 

[catalystcc]

How this combo compare to Hugo which I own and like to upgrade to desktop setup that could drive the Sennheiser HD800s really well.
Or just get the amp instead?

 

[project86]

  How this combo compare to Hugo which I own and like to upgrade to desktop setup that could drive the Sennheiser HD800s really well.
Or just get the amp instead?

 
 
Personally I'd much rather listen to the Cayin combo. Hugo is brilliant in terms of detail retrieval but not so musically engaging imho. And the HD800 in the mix only exasperates it. The Cayin in Solid State mode with the Linear filter is fairly neutral, vaguely similar to Hugo but less resolving and also less obnoxious. 
 
Adding just the Cayin amp will drive the HD800 better than your Hugo but the flavor will be largely the same.

 

[raybone0566]

Does anyone know if this is available anywhere in the u.s, thanks

 

[Andykong]

Does anyone know if this is available anywhere in the u.s, thanks

The nearest we got right now is Canada, the first shipment of iDAC-6/iHA-6 is on the way already.
http://www.audionation.ca/pages/cayin-audio-br-tube-components-audionation