[pwspwsa]

Hey guys,
just wanna share my modded HA-1A MK2 with you all

@Andykong hopefully you get to see this. I call mine the MK3

That’s great! But we should know answer

lol it's obvious i didnt care about the warranty and know what i'm doing. carry o

lol it's obvious i didnt care about the warranty and know what i'm doing. carry on

but what it purpose of this modification? Did you manage to improve some parameters?

 

[c3po]

That’s great! But we should know answer



but what it purpose of this modification? Did you manage to improve some parameters?

Looks like he made the LEDs brighter, I wonder if it’s now an Old School Sound and Light show in a Disco. Who’s bothered about Sound when you can boogie on down in front of some pulsating lights

 

[Hellhammer]

That’s great! But we should know answer



but what it purpose of this modification? Did you manage to improve some parameters?

happy to reply to someone polite:

so the wima film caps under the power caps are to ensure the lowest ESR possible in the power stage

i also bypassed the two input film caps in the analog stage for sprague which are very favorable in this case since they are known to sound great and fit the space

the potentiometer was replaced from a blue alps to a tkd 2cp-2511 which is known for its linearity at the lowest of levels

and finally i replaced the regular copper wires from the potentiometer for silver litz type 4 just because why not

just little improvements here and there and a couple of component upgrades thats all

hope that answered your question

 

[Hellhammer]

Looks like he made the LEDs brighter, I wonder if it’s now an Old School Sound and Light show in a Disco. Who’s bothered about Sound when you can boogie on down in front of some pulsating lights

you seem oddly bothered by my achievements. hope life is treating you well

 

[Hellhammer]

Really interested in this amp but I really wish it had a balanced option.

Does Cayin have any plans to release a balanced version of this amp in the near future?

@Andykong

You really don't need a balanced connection even for the HA-300. A few friends have the HA-300 and reported no change from balanced to SE input. Also, the SE output of the HA-300 is higher

In this case, the Cayin HA-1A MK2 output rating is:

1400mW+1400mW (@32Ω)
850mW+850mW(@64Ω)
1200mW+1200mW (@150Ω)
2000mW+2000mW (@300Ω)
2200mW+2200mW (@600Ω)

^^ plenty of power and it's all single ended

The only downside would be if you own a balanced DAC and the SE portion of your DAC isnt as good as the balanced output

 

[c3po]

you seem oddly bothered by my achievements. hope life is treating you well

Hi Just injecting some impersonal Humour into the Covid depressed world.

I did ask nicely what the Mod was doing but you said it was ‘obvious’ when to someone whose never stripped down their amp it isn’t.

 

[c3po]

happy to reply to someone polite:

so the wima film caps under the power caps are to ensure the lowest ESR possible in the power stage

i also bypassed the two input film caps in the analog stage for sprague which are very favorable in this case since they are known to sound great and fit the space

the potentiometer was replaced from a blue alps to a tkd 2cp-2511 which is known for its linearity at the lowest of levels

and finally i replaced the regular copper wires from the potentiometer for silver litz type 4 just because why not

just little improvements here and there and a couple of component upgrades thats all

hope that answered your question

Does it reduce the non volume dependant hiss/noise?

I’ve just fitted Ps Vanes El84 this morning,now the tubes are all PS Vanes apart from the voltage regulator tube.
Sound is even clearer, no annoying crackles, best described as more focussed.
I still have that low level background hiss (apparent on low Impedance headphones) but it doesn’t sound as apparent.
Other comments say things will improve through burn in

 

[Hellhammer]

Does it reduce the non volume dependant hiss/noise?

I’ve just fitted Ps Vanes El84 this morning,now the tubes are all PS Vanes apart from the voltage regulator tube.
Sound is even clearer, no annoying crackles, best described as more focussed.
I still have that low level background hiss (apparent on low Impedance headphones) but it doesn’t sound as apparent.
Other comments say things will improve through burn in

See if your tube pin sockets are in good shape as well. I've had to readjust those before and it yielded a quieter result

As far as headphone pairings, anything under 50 ohms will not be ideal. I think only Ananda at 27 ohms are the exception, it's dead quiet

 

[c3po]

See if your tube pin sockets are in good shape as well. I've had to readjust those before and it yielded a quieter result

As far as headphone pairings, anything under 50 ohms will not be ideal. I think only Ananda at 27 ohms is the exception, it's dead quiet

I cleaned up the pins on the previous EH EL84 and used Caig Deoxit Gold and it helped but the Pins on the PS Vane are better Quality and it’s instantly noticeable

 

[Hellhammer]

I cleaned up the pins on the previous EH EL84 and used Caig Deoxit Gold and it helped but the Pins on the PS Vane are better Quality and it’s instantly noticeable

I mean the actual female contact pins in the sockets

You can use a small dental tool and try to push them in closer together. I noticed after a few tube swaps they need some readjustment

 

[c3po]

I mean the actual female contact pins in the sockets

You can use a small dental tool and try to push them in closer together. I noticed after a few tube swaps they need some readjustment

I’ll keep my eye on them but there is definitely a jump in quality with the PSVane definitely cleaner sound

 

[Hellhammer]

I’ll keep my eye on them but there is definitely a jump in quality with the PSVane definitely cleaner sound

For EL84 I've been stuck with NOS valves and so far my favorite hands down are Amperex (made in Holland)

Other EL84 NOS I've tried: RCA, EI, Baldwin

The EH EL84 the amp came with were decent but not my favorite. They also got noisy after a while

 

[Andykong]

Hey guys,
just wanna share my modded HA-1A MK2 with you all

@Andykong hopefully you get to see this. I call mine the MK3

This is nice, but I guess the readers in this thread will be more interested on the impression or change in sound signature after the mod.

You are skillful, you know what you are doing, and the audiophile DNA will drive us crazy if we don't try our best to squeeze the final bits of performance from our sound system, I appreciate that because I was in the same camp for decades, but different route.

I hope you don't mind if I repeat our regular disclaimer here, this is part of my responsibility whenever I get involved with product modification issues:
Cayin reserves the right to revoke / cancel warranty and after-sale services for products that has been repaired, dismantled, or altered by unauthorized technical personnel.

 

[Andykong]

Really interested in this amp but I really wish it had a balanced option.

Does Cayin have any plans to release a balanced version of this amp in the near future?

@Andykong

Sorry, I can't discuss features or dates of future products, I'll try my best to provide detail information as quickly as I could when they are available.

 

[Andykong]

You really don't need a balanced connection even for the HA-300. A few friends have the HA-300 and reported no change from balanced to SE input. Also, the SE output of the HA-300 is higher

In this case, the Cayin HA-1A MK2 output rating is:

1400mW+1400mW (@32Ω)
850mW+850mW(@64Ω)
1200mW+1200mW (@150Ω)
2000mW+2000mW (@300Ω)
2200mW+2200mW (@600Ω)

^^ plenty of power and it's all single ended

The only downside would be if you own a balanced DAC and the SE portion of your DAC isnt as good as the balanced output

In fact, we have to added a pair of input transformer in HA-6A and HA-300 to convert the balanced input to single-end before we feed the input signal to the first amplification stage (6SN7 in HA-300, 12AU7 in HA-6A).

Single-ended and Balanced has their pros and cons, we don't think one is better than the other. For instance, if you are into instrumental music mostly and you want better channel separation, balanced driven probably works better for you. If you prefer vocal and want to maintain a more focused music presentation, you can stick with single-ended in tube headphone amplifier.