The IHA-8 black finish looks great, too.
Well done!
Well done!
Cayin iHA-8: Fully Balanced "Hyper" Class-A Headphone Amplifier
- Thread starter Andykong
- Start date
Sup Simon.Oh dear. I've been trying to convince myself that I am where I want to be with my system, I have admitted that I may upgrade the S17 Pro in the future and the iHA-8 is top of my list but I don't want it in silver. Now it's available in black, a UK supplier has them in stock so no import duty, they are offering 3 months interest free credit to spread the cost, and as if that wasn't temptation enough, Erik is upgrading from his S17 Pro to an iHA-8 so I'm going to hear about how much better it is! As The Borg say, "Resistance is futile".
I know you've only had it for a few days so I won't ask for impressions until it's bedded in but I have so many questions.Am I right in thinking it's exactly the same size as the S17 and does it run hotter or cooler? I can't wait to hear how much better it sounds and in what ways. I really shouldn't spend the money but I think the universe is telling me I have to. lol.
Like I have stated before in this thread and on the S17 thread, I think there's an issue with my S17, I remember that it sounded way better like the first few months but then it got harsh and grainy on the treble and lost a lot of it's impact in the bass, specially with planar headphones, so I'm not sure how much of an upgrade is the iHA-8 over an S17 that's working properly or that in you system it's sounding magnificent.
This upgrade was mostly one done out of frustration and I wouldn't recommend anyone doing that, better to have a cool head about this before pulling the trigger on anything but this particular amp as you know has been on my radar for a long time now and it was between this and the FluxLabs M-Field and it was a really close call. I think that if you're personally happy with the S17 and it's still sounding really good with your system and headphones, I don't think you're missing much to be frank.
That being said, right now I'm running my Cyan 2 and the iHA-8 and the bass and weight are back!!!, something that I missed with both the S17 and the XD05 Pro, in a sense this amp has redeem the Cyan 2, I still feel that the Serenade leans a little bit warmer and with a little bit more bass impact, but the Cyan 2 has better resolution and a more interesting spacial presentation in comparison.
Going on from memory before I ran into issues with my particular S17, I think the iHA-8, specially on hyper mode leans a little bit warmer than the S17, it's smoother on the treble but it doesn't feel that's rolled off, it just handles it a little bit better, the S17 might have been a little bit sweeter on the midrange on 100ma mode, the iHA-8 definitively has more impact on the bass, if you like thumpy and a really percussive bass then this is going to be a really good amp for you.
The iHA-8 is a little bit bigger than the S17 on it's width, it's a little bit taller, I think it's just as deep as the S17, it's slower to get hot but that's mostly because it has a lot more heatsink area an the entire bottom of the amp has slots perforated into the bottom plate to get better ventilation, but yesterday when I was stress testing this amp with my custom cans modded DT880 600ohm edition running an intensive EQ profile, I had to run the amp both on hyper mode and high gain to get to my listening level and it got hot!!!, like even hotter than the S17, specially on the left heatsink looking from the from the front panel, it was uncomfortably hot to the touch, the S17 also got uncomfortably hot but that was on the bottom plate where the main heatsink is located at, you're very unlikely to get your hand there unintentionally, but I think that the iHA-8 gets as hot if not hotter than the S17, the difference being that the iHA-8 remains stable in it's sound once it gets to temperature and it doesn't have the issue of the S17 that once it gets to 69 degrees it reverts back to 50ma mode.
The volume knob feels a lot nicer on the iHA-8 and it doesn't have any of the issues that the S17 has with it's volume control. Also as a plus, I think this is the first time I really did enjoy my modded DT880, it's defenitively a specialist headphone, even with the bass mod that puts some lead strips on the back of the driver to give it a little bit more of control, with modern genres of music like pop, EDM, hard rock and the like, the bass it's going to distor really badly on these headphones, but for jazz and that kind of more mellow genres of music, it's absolutely wonderful to listen to, female vocals really shine on this headphone.
Simon Patten
100+ Head-Fier
That's great information, thanks. I don't want strong bass, just clean and natural. I mainly like detail, soundstage and realism so it's really a matter of how much of an improvement the iHA-8 offers over the S17 in those areas. The dealer is about 100 miles from me so it may be worth packing up my DAC and cans and paying them a visit. I look forward to your further comments with interest.
Currently listening to my Focal Clears with dekoni pads and no EQ, I think the Clear's have never sounded better and it's generally a crowd pleaser, still has that issue where it starts to distort/clip if you push them a little bit to hard which is a shame since they sound so good but I unfortunately I always feel that I have to walk on egg shells with these pair of cans which keeps me from pulling them more often.
The Cyan 2 is acting a little weird, it's showing the I2S connection and 88.2k being active but this has happen before when I put an amp on top of it and I push on it a little bit when I connect or disconnect a headphone, doesn't really affect anything but it's kind of a weird bug.
SmartCheetah
500+ Head-Fier
I remember you mentioning in one of the threads that the Cyan 2 sounded too lean and light on the bass, which surprised me and didn’t make sense to me, as that’s not something I experience with the C2. It’s not thick or boomy, but it’s definitely not lean or thin. Good to know it was rather the S17 Pro.
Yep, it seems it was my S17, the Cyan 2 is sounding excellent and with 0 oversampling, just straight NOS.
I have iha-8 coming and looking for a better feet.
Would these be a smart choice and do they fit?
Thanks
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/4001014272004.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.13.7ba34377CSU4TH&algo_pvid=4e1cc3a0-764d-44ec-bf05-e92dd2d53faf&algo_exp_id=4e1cc3a0-764d-44ec-bf05-e92dd2d53faf-6&pdp_npi=4@dis!EUR!15.28!10.96!!!15.37!11.03!@211b431017366626191361918e7a87!12000036330988368!sea!FI!0!ABX&curPageLogUid=FPA2kPS5LJyn&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:
Would these be a smart choice and do they fit?
Thanks
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/4001014272004.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.13.7ba34377CSU4TH&algo_pvid=4e1cc3a0-764d-44ec-bf05-e92dd2d53faf&algo_exp_id=4e1cc3a0-764d-44ec-bf05-e92dd2d53faf-6&pdp_npi=4@dis!EUR!15.28!10.96!!!15.37!11.03!@211b431017366626191361918e7a87!12000036330988368!sea!FI!0!ABX&curPageLogUid=FPA2kPS5LJyn&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:
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You wont be disappointed my friend.
Idk if those feet are compatible with the screw for the feet in the iha-8 tbh, I have mine just on top of 4 spring feet that I used with my previous amp, the S17 and it works really well with them, gets pretty good ventilation and doesn't move around when I plug stuff in.
The iHA-8 is incredibly revealing and true to source, I find out recently that probably the best way to run this amp is with a DAC that has a proper pre-amp functionality like the Goldenwave Serenade that I have and have the iHA-8 on pre-amp mode, whatever you decided to go for hyper mode on or off is going to depend on your headphones and the music you're listening too, but right now with the Serenade on pre-amp and the iHA-8 it's an incredibly pairing, there's some caveats to this, it leans on the warm and lush side of things and it can be really mellow on the mids and treble, it's never going to be harsh or fatiguing and it's an incredibly relaxing and a smooth listening experience, but for some people it might be a little bit too much of good thing.
With the Cyan 2 it's a lot more incisive and very much clarity focus, it leans on the neutral-bright side of things and there's significantly less bass and more lean, it's probably more on the neutral-natural sounding side of spectrum, but with the wrong headphones and the wrong music and specially if you like to EQ things with something like PEACE, that combo became harsh and peaky, so it's better to listen to headphones that you don't need to EQ and listening to music good recording and with good mastering, otherwise you're going to have a rough time with this combo. The spacial presentation tho with the Cyan 2 was amazing all the time but with my fav headphone, the HE1000se, that headphone was screaming at me all the time and even changing for a pair of zmf pads for this kind of hifiman egg-shaped headphones which should calm them down significantly and really changes the character of the headphone from neutral-bright to actually warm and lush on other sources and it wasn't enough, it was still harsh and really uneven all throughout the frequency response, with or without EQ, EQing the HEKse with zmf pads actually made them significantly worse than with stock pads with the Cyan 2/iHA-8 combo.
So synergy is really important with this headphone amplifier and you need to keep that in mind.
Mark123
New Head-Fier
Hi! Did you make a review? Can I see it?
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Matti J
New Head-Fier
Hi Erick! Long time lurker here, have been going through all the posts here and on the s17 pro thread and I noticed you have particular experience with the amps I'm currently having a mental battle with, the s17 pro Evo and cayin iha-8. I was hoping you could shed some insight.
I'm in Australia here and the price differences are not large ($1400 vs $1700aud) now I understand you most likely have a potentially faulty s17 pro so I'm happy to take that.
What would feel has a warmer sound presentation? This is something I particularly like, I have a Arya organic, Audeze LCD2CB and focal Clear og.
I'm torn between these two amps and I love the potential of the s17 have a large holographic presentation which I do enjoy and the added warmth would be great.
The Cayin however, not much reviews out there I love they design and I know cayin are a great company, you said it also has a warmer presentation or laid back which I love, could you comment on the soundstage and depth presentation, even just in isolation rather than in comparison to the s17 as it's probably been a long time since you heard that at full potential.
Thanks!
I'm happy to see I'm not the only one that changed the feet of the Cayin ha! The included feet slip around on my desk way too easily. Both the iHA-8 and HA-3A are like this. Easy fix thoughCurrently listening to my Focal Clears with dekoni pads and no EQ, I think the Clear's have never sounded better and it's generally a crowd pleaser, still has that issue where it starts to distort/clip if you push them a little bit to hard which is a shame since they sound so good but I unfortunately I always feel that I have to walk on egg shells with these pair of cans which keeps me from pulling them more often.
The Cyan 2 is acting a little weird, it's showing the I2S connection and 88.2k being active but this has happen before when I put an amp on top of it and I push on it a little bit when I connect or disconnect a headphone, doesn't really affect anything but it's kind of a weird bug.
Hi Matti.
Disregarding my experience with the OG S17 and now that I have tried a few more amps in the meantime, Idk if I would call either the S17 or the iHA-8 "warm", if you want a warm amp get something like the Hifiman EF499 or EF500 or my Goldenwave Serenade, those are amps that definitively lean on the warm side of neutral. The S17 when it was working correctly on 100ma tended to boost a little bit the lower mids, the iHA-8 is incredibly transparent to your source, I'm using it on pre mode and the serenade is controlling the volume with is pre-amp and it's getting a lot of the flavor and warmth that the Serenade has to offer, if you go on line mode and controlling the volume directly on the iHA-8, its going to lean significantly more to the neutral side, me personally I don't particularly enjoy the sound of the iHA-8 controlling the volume on line mode from it, I tend to be extremely sensitive in the ear gain region and extremely intolerant of any piercing, shoutiness, peakiness and glare in that region of the FR and I always pull it back with EQ significantly down to the point that if people saw my EQ profiles they would probably be shocked and unfortunately the iHA-8 suffers from glare that I perceive from many and almost all SS headphones amps have in that region. I tell you all of this so that you understand where I come from, I almost always don't like mid forward presentations, I tend to find them extremely fatiguing to my ears and I absolutely hate treble, I prefer really warm presentations that are really smooth and lay back, other people might called them dark even.
Since this seems to be really importante to you Matti, I have to say that when it comes to soundstage and spacial presentaton and that kind of stuff, I'm on record saying that I don't really care about that because I can't really perceive soundstage as describe by most people on this forum as this out of your head experience, even with headphones like the HD800S or my HEKse, it's not a prioririty or even secondary concern for me, for me most headphones, most of the time with most music sound either inside my head or within the bounds of the cups and drivers, very rarely I get something that I can call that it kind of sounds to me like coming from outside the cups of the headphone, I'm almost on the side that tends to be believe that soundstage on headphones is not really a thing, that being said, I can tell appart from things that sound more congested, sound signatures that tend to be more intimate and imaging, the iHA-8 tends to be a little bit more 3D sounding compare to other amps I had with both my two top DACs, the Cyan 2 and the Serenade, stereo separation seems to be excellent and it's really easy to pin point sounds in space, in that sense, it seems to me to be more holographic sounding than the S17, and the S17 when it was working correctly was already excellent in that regard.
If you have a DAC that you enjoy the sound of it and it has a proper pre-amp function, running the iHA-8 on pre mode I think is the best way, otherwise your going to be stuck with the sound of the iHA-8 on line mode and with is own volume control and maybe you like it, maybe you don't, but imho, on line mode the iHA-8 leans on the neutral-bright side, I perceive a lot of glare on the hig mids/treble that it's absolutely not enjoyable to my ears at all and putting it on hyper mode just makes it worse because hyper more tends to make it an even brighter amp, again taking into consideration my absolute intolerance in the ear-gain region and general dislike for mid range fowardness.
On my setup, with my EQ profiles, running the iHA-8 on pre mode and the serenade controlling the volume, it's a warm sounding amp, with hyper mode not engage, it tends to be really lay back, there's enough bass punch and extension to be enyoable and for my ears, it's more suited for music with a lot of vocals, specially female vocals, hyper mode is for EDM, metal, that kind of music that doesn't have a lot of vocals, specially female vocalist, the bass gets a lot tighter and the presentation it's generally a little bit more intense and visceral and even with warm sounding DACs like the serenade, it can get a little bit fatiguing after a while.
The S17 when it was working fine for me it's similar in that regard to the iHA-8, the differences between 50ma and 100ma are generally really subtle, like it seems to have a little bit more grunt on the mid bass and lower mids, but just a little bit on 100ma mode, 50ma mode I almost always didn't even bother with it, only if you like a more lean and dry sounding presentation, but again subtle, not night and day differences here.
The S17 Pro EVO seems to be a worthwhile update to the OG S17 with many quality of life improvements and if Aune solved some of it's QA issues with this amp, specially temperature control then it would come down to if you rather have the feature set of the S17 compare to the iHA-8. Both the S17 and the iHA-8 get really warm on the same degree after a couple of hours of continuous operation, I would say that the iHA-8 gets a little bit more hotter compared to the S17 if you have it on hyper mode, high gain and pre-mode really pushing the amp hard to the point that touching it on the sides where the heatsinks are it gets uncomfortably hot to the touch, something that didn't really happen with the S17, not to that degree.
So I know that's a lot of information that I dump on you, but I think it's neccesary to disclouse one's biases and preferences when it comes to sound in order when people ask for one's opinion, they know what I'm taking about and see if their priorities and preferences line up with mine. The fact that there are not a lot of impressions and reviews to go around for this amp is kind of shame, because we're working with a really finite set of info in order to make an informed decision, I'm not gonna lie but I took a risk with this amp when I bought it, I'm generally happy with it, it hasn't given me any real problems, I do have a 60hz hum but that's because I have a ground loop on my system that I have to sort off, fortunately it's not that loud and annoying and when music is playing is not really perceptible, but that's one of the problems you can get with SS amps that are completely discrete and have linear transformers, they're going to be more sensitive to this kind of problems, just as an FYI.
Matti J
New Head-Fier
Thankyou so much for that in detail response, I really appreciate it!
I'd much prefer a in depth response that's honest rather than a quick and easy one, and that you also gave your personal preferences and tolerance with ear gain etc is also very good information so kudos.
I completely understand now so that's great, it wouldn't be such a dilemma for me if I could actually demo the s17 which I cannot. I may have a chance to demo the Cayin but will see.
I do value a good soundstage and "holographic presentation" as it can be referred too, I also don't get the out of headphone experience but rather forget the headphones are there if I'm right in the zone of getting immersed in the music so I suppose it's actually more detail and seperation performance that's in the staging ability of the headphone.
I was comparing my Asgard 3 directly to my smsl do400 which I got as a back up which then turned into my main unit, one thing I noticed immediately on the Arya's was how congested the Asgard was in direct comparison, but the Asgard has a great midrange tonality to it which reminded me of why I want to go back to class A. I've finished upgrading my home theatre so now I want a more competent headphone amp so I can get the best of both worlds. Seems like the DAC will have a large impact on sound presentation also with these two so I may go down the r2r route I think as I probably won't have the funds, or at least be able to convince the minister of war and finance to get a proper pre amp for it lol I wonder if DAC's with pre function would also work decent. Inany case thanks a lot for your response really appreciate it again!
I'd much prefer a in depth response that's honest rather than a quick and easy one, and that you also gave your personal preferences and tolerance with ear gain etc is also very good information so kudos.
I completely understand now so that's great, it wouldn't be such a dilemma for me if I could actually demo the s17 which I cannot. I may have a chance to demo the Cayin but will see.
I do value a good soundstage and "holographic presentation" as it can be referred too, I also don't get the out of headphone experience but rather forget the headphones are there if I'm right in the zone of getting immersed in the music so I suppose it's actually more detail and seperation performance that's in the staging ability of the headphone.
I was comparing my Asgard 3 directly to my smsl do400 which I got as a back up which then turned into my main unit, one thing I noticed immediately on the Arya's was how congested the Asgard was in direct comparison, but the Asgard has a great midrange tonality to it which reminded me of why I want to go back to class A. I've finished upgrading my home theatre so now I want a more competent headphone amp so I can get the best of both worlds. Seems like the DAC will have a large impact on sound presentation also with these two so I may go down the r2r route I think as I probably won't have the funds, or at least be able to convince the minister of war and finance to get a proper pre amp for it lol I wonder if DAC's with pre function would also work decent. Inany case thanks a lot for your response really appreciate it again!
I got my IHA-8
Built quality and finish floored me after getting it out of the box. Excellent stuff here.
Outputs we have four of the most common ones, maybe couldve squeezed the 3,5mm in there too to get nicely all four.
Operating volume knob gives a very luxury feel. I (almost) want to adjust the volume often just to feel that lol.
People have been saying that feet are bad, but these grip very well, maybe the previous guy upgraded them. Could someone tell?
On/off led is way too bright! Should be same brightness as the volume indicator.
Does get very hot on sides, tender child hands could burn.
Sound is overall good except bass weight and force is lacking a little to my preference. I used to have Violectric V200 and it had stronger bass and dynamics for my taste but IHA-8 wins elsewhere.
I might need to look into more dynamic and slammy amp later because Empyrean sounded better on V200 than on IHA-8. Any idea of a good slammy and intense amp without the drawbacks of V200 (small-ish soundstage, smearing of details, treble a little afterthought, non-3D/holographic sounding) on a 1000-1500 eur/usd range?
Built quality and finish floored me after getting it out of the box. Excellent stuff here.
Outputs we have four of the most common ones, maybe couldve squeezed the 3,5mm in there too to get nicely all four.
Operating volume knob gives a very luxury feel. I (almost) want to adjust the volume often just to feel that lol.
People have been saying that feet are bad, but these grip very well, maybe the previous guy upgraded them. Could someone tell?
On/off led is way too bright! Should be same brightness as the volume indicator.
Does get very hot on sides, tender child hands could burn.
Sound is overall good except bass weight and force is lacking a little to my preference. I used to have Violectric V200 and it had stronger bass and dynamics for my taste but IHA-8 wins elsewhere.
I might need to look into more dynamic and slammy amp later because Empyrean sounded better on V200 than on IHA-8. Any idea of a good slammy and intense amp without the drawbacks of V200 (small-ish soundstage, smearing of details, treble a little afterthought, non-3D/holographic sounding) on a 1000-1500 eur/usd range?
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You're probably looking at another vio amp like the 281 and up or maybe the goldenwave prelude if you want pure slam and punch in the bass, significantly more expensive of course, also probably both the fluxlabs mentor and m-field are a good option and not as expensive as both the 281 and the prelude.I got my IHA-8
Built quality and finish floored me after getting it out of the box. Excellent stuff here.
Outputs we have four of the most common ones, maybe couldve squeezed the 3,5mm in there too to get nicely all four.
Operating volume knob gives a very luxury feel. I (almost) want to adjust the volume often just to feel that lol.
People have been saying that feet are bad, but these grip very well, maybe the previous guy upgraded them. Could someone tell?
On/off led is way too bright! Should be same brightness as the volume indicator.
Does get very hot on sides, tender child hands could burn.
Sound is overall good except bass weight and force is lacking a little to my preference. I used to have Violectric V200 and it had stronger bass and dynamics for my taste but IHA-8 wins elsewhere.
I might need to look into more dynamic and slammy amp later because Empyrean sounded better on V200 than on IHA-8. Any idea of a good slammy and intense amp without the drawbacks of V200 (small-ish soundstage, smearing of details, treble a little afterthought, non-3D/holographic sounding) on a 1000-1500 eur/usd range?
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