Cayin iHA-8: Fully Balanced "Hyper" Class-A Headphone Amplifier

[zuio]

Thank you very much for this clarification.

Now I know that this amp works normally and as expected.

The IHA-8 has been working now for 11 hours with a pause of an hour after 6 hours.
I do hope that the amp will have "settled down" a little....

I am happy to go through my headphones in the next days, and the first headphone will be my new GRELL OAE-1 to which I will listen right now for an hour or so (I just put the Fleetwood Mac´s Rumours SACD into my Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD player).

Greetings from Germany,
Alexander

Alexander,

Are there any vents (holes) on the bottom?
Would you please share a picture of the bottom?
Would you recommend the iha-8 for low volume listening on easy to drive 24 Ohm dynamic headphones?

Thanks

 

[trilos1]

Yes, there are many little holes for better air flow.

I did put some small wooden pieces of 10 mm (= 0.4 in) height under the 4 feet, so that the IHA-8 is elevated for about 1 cm now.

 

[trilos1]

I have listened to the IHA-8 with my DENON AH-D7200 (25 Ohms) aswell as with my FOCAL Elegia (35 Ohms).

Sound quality was excellent - independent of the listening level. It made no difference in sound quality when listening at lower levels or at high or even very high levels.

I use the IHA-8 with my Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD player (slightly modified, as the original NE5534 have been exchanged against OPA627).
The Mutec MC3+ USB is used as external clock.
And a linear power supply delivers clean 6V DC to the Mutec (its switched mode power supply went "jobless").

Next headphone I will listen to is my Audio Technica ATH-R70x (470 Ohms).

 

[zuio]

I have listened to the IHA-8 with my DENON AH-D7200 (25 Ohms) aswell as with my FOCAL Elegia (35 Ohms).

Sound quality was excellent - independent of the listening level. It made no difference in sound quality when listening at lower levels or at high or even very high levels.

I use the IHA-8 with my Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD player (slightly modified, as the original NE5534 have been exchanged against OPA627).
The Mutec MC3+ USB is used as external clock.
And a linear power supply delivers clean 6V DC to the Mutec (its switched mode power supply went "jobless").

Next headphone I will listen to is my Audio Technica ATH-R70x (470 Ohms).

Thank you!
Whats the potentiometer position for the Denons? Is there enough room to fine tune the volume level?

r70X - Great! I have them too.

 

[trilos1]

I tried it with HYPER on and HYPER off - for me either way sufficient fine tune possibility concerning the volume level.

The volume potentiometer was between 9 and 12 o´clock.

 

[trilos1]

I listened yesterday evening with my Audio Technica ATH-R70x headphone, 470 Ohms.

The IHA-8 has no problems driving the R70x:
High gain aswell as HYPER activated, I listend at mid and high volume levels, the potentiometer being set between 10 and 12 o´clock.

 

[trilos1]

Nothing new?
No one listened to this amp and could contribute anything here?
I am a little puzzled....

 

[project86]

I'm really enjoying the iHA-8 as part of the Cayin 888+2 stack. I now have a pretty good handle on the general sound of each product, but there are lots of variables and I'm still working on figuring those out. For the iHA-8 that would be balanced vs single ended out, Hyper mode, and the difference between using it as a normal amp with integrated volume control (line mode) vs using it with external volume control (pre mode).

Generally speaking though, the iHA-8 is just a solid, do-everything amplifier that works very well with pretty much every headphone I have. It pairs well with every DAC I've tried so far, and is not picky about musical genres either. Very versatile device. The "matching" Cayin HA-2A is brilliant in its own way but I feel like the iHA-8 is more of a "safe bet" in terms of being universal for every purpose.

 

[trilos1]

Yes, indeed, these comparisons you mentioned would be interesting.
All my headphones are balanced (either 4-pin-XLR or 4.4 mm Pentacon), and I use the IHA-8 with its integreated volume control, as the signal comes from my Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD-player (with no volume control option).

 

[usery]

@Andykong Any update on the black finishes?

hi @Andykong - I didn't find a reply to this earlier question (in April): does Cayin plan to produce the iHA-8 in a black finish, in addition to silver?

 

[Andykong]

hi @Andykong - I didn't find a reply to this earlier question (in April): does Cayin plan to produce the iHA-8 in a black finish, in addition to silver?

This is a work in progress, so we didn't have much to share, I have provided a brief update when we release the black version HA-2A, you can check out the comment HERE. Given that we have 8 days holidays on the beginning of October, you must wait till late October before we can confirm the black version of iHA-8.

 

[Tension250]

Hi, I got an IHA-8, being used as a pure power amplifier connected with a Freya+ preamplifier . Curious what would be the recommended setting to drive HE1000 stealth and Dan Cark E3 respectively ?
High vs low gain, hyper mode vs no hyper mode?
Thanks ~

 

[Hoang Anh]

will this become class AB at some point?

 

[trilos1]

Maybe Anykong or someone more experienced than me can answer my question:

I use the IHA-8 with HYPER activated.
But is it better to activate high-gain, or is it better to stay at low-gain with the volume control turn up a bit more?
Which sounds better?

Thanks,
Alexander

 

[skeeb23]

Maybe Anykong or someone more experienced than me can answer my question:

I use the IHA-8 with HYPER activated.
But is it better to activate high-gain, or is it better to stay at low-gain with the volume control turn up a bit more?
Which sounds better?

Thanks,
Alexander

I hate to be this way, but what do your ears tell you? Hyper mode is not simply a gain mode. So it should have a different sound then simply flipping on more gain. You can use both if you'd like...or not. My findings were that I really never needed high gain with the headphones I've used with it, but, always flip hyper on/off depending on what I'm listening to and with.