Cayin iHA-8 Fully Balanced "Hyper" Class-A Headphone Amplifier
The iHA-8 is a long overdue upgrade of our well-received iHA-6 headphone amplifier.
While Cayin is renowned for our innovation in product development and audio engineering, we are a fundamentalist under the hood. We believe proper engineering and implementation is the critical success factor of high-fidelity products, and it is under these directions that we developed the iHA-8, a compact yet extremely powerful solid-state headphone amplifier that proudly offers a pure Class A fully Balanced design. The iHA-8 is a high-quality solid-state alternative to our HA series vacuum tube headphone amplifier, and we are determined to make the iHA-8 a worthy candidate for all desktop Personal Audio enthusiasts.
We have migrated two extremely well-received features from our portable products to the iHA-8 headphone amplifier.
Dual input mode: LINE input and PRE-amp input
A headphone amplifier, portable or desktop, is an integrated amplifier for headphone applications, and from our previous experience in building speaker amplifiers, we know Pre/Power design is superior to an integrated amplifier, so we decided to implement a Pre/Power design in our Personal Audio products. This concept was first implemented in the C9 portable headphone amplifier, and we received enormously positive feedback, so we decided to do this again with iHA-8. By providing a PRE-amp input option, we configure the iHA-8 as a pure power amplifier, all amplification stages will be operated at full power, and the iHA-8 will offer significantly better control and transparency.
The Ultimate HYPER Mode
The concept of Hyper mode is to allow our engineers to prioritize audio output as the single most important factor, even when we have to sacrifice some practical constraints such as heat dissipation and power management efficiency. This function was first introduced in our N30LE 30th Anniversary DAP. We anticipated a divided opinion but to our surprise, this option was unanimously approved by audiophiles, so we decided to migrate this option to iHA-8 since the desktop amplifiers have fewer constraints than battery-powered portable DAP. When we engage Hyper mode in iHA-8, we'll boost the power supply voltage of the power transistors. The static working current will also increase, and we'll adjust the gain ratio of the circuitry as part of the system-level optimization.
Other Features and Design Considerations
- Accept RCA single-ended and XLR balanced analog inputs (shared for LINE/PRE input modes)
- Employs four-channel fully balanced circuit architecture from input to output stages
- Four-channel discrete pure Class A input buffer amplification circuit, each channel consists of two audio grade JFET in parallel with constant current sources, resulting in lower noise and distortion, and stronger current driving capability
- Three-level bias current pure Class A amplification circuit, with built-in DC offset voltage servo circuit to ensure stable output DC offset voltage at 0V for better performance and listening experience
- Built-in adaptive power, gain, and static current switching circuit, even in HYPER mode, it can work in pure Class A state
- The volume control system uses a pair of low distortion, high precision MUSES72320 electronically controlled analog volume ICs with ALPS potentiometer for knob position detection, providing excellent tactile feel and precise volume control.
The Cayin iHA-8 is a long overdue upgrade to our iHA-6 headphone amplifier. It shares the same footprint as our iDAP-8 Streamer, iDAC-8 DAC, and HA-2A vacuum tube headphone amplifier, which means you can stack them up as a compact and yet sophisticated Desk-Fi system that occupies less than an A4 sheet.
The iHA-8 will debut at the 2023 China Guangzhou International Headphone Expo (16-17 December 2023). We shall provide more information about the iHA-8 after the Guangzhou event.
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