CAYIN HA-3A Tube Headphone Amplifier
$1,600
- Clean Power with Minumum Interference
- Carefully Selected and Hand-matched Vacuum Tubes
- Single-ended Vacuum Tube Circuit
- Transformer-coupled, Balanced Driven
- Impedance Matched Phono Output
- Carefully Optimized Headphone Outputs
- Dual Inputs
- Point-to-Point Wiring with Craftmanship
- In-house Designed Premium Power Transformers
- High Quality Volume Control
- Three XL Aluminum Foot Pads
HA-3A
Transformer Coupled, Balanced Driven
Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier
4-Pin XLR, 4.4mm, and 6.35mm Headphone Output
~A4 Footprint, Desktop Friendly Design
Low, Mid, High Impedance Matched Headphone Outputs
Clean Power with Minimum Interference
HA-3A uses an RCA 25AX4GT as rectifier tube, one of the best versions of 25AX4GT available in tube market.
While converting incoming power source to DC current the 25AX4GT rectifier tube minimizes interference and provides clean power to the amplification circuit.
Carefully Selected and Hand-matched Vacuum Tubes
Driver Tubes Dual 12AU7/ECC82(Matched Pair) from JJ*
Output Tubes Dual 6V6GT（Matched Pair）from Electro Harmonix*
Single-ended Vacuum Tube Circuit
The HA-3A vacuum tube amplification is designed as a 2-stage single-ended circuit.
The 12AU7/ECC82 driver tubes will amplify the voltage level of the incoming audio signal so that the 6V6 output tubes will perform its amplification at a very linear condition.
Single-ended circuit design displaces the beautiful tone of your vacuum tubes without any cancellation.
Single-ended uses matched pair instead of matched quad-set tubes, you can enjoy greater flexibility when you perform tube rolling.
Transformer-coupled, Balanced Driven
The 6V6 output drives a pair of proprietary output transformers that supports single-ended and balanced headphone outputs.
The secondary winding of the output transformer provide an alternative phase and compose a balanced output, enables balanced driver from a single-ended vacuum tube amplification circuit.
Both single-ended and balanced headphones are “original” outputs from the transformers.
Impedance Matched Phone Output
Our engineers have optimized HA-3A’s output to handle the headphone loading according to three headphone impedance settings:
Low: 8Ω ~ 64Ω
Medium: 65Ω ~ 250Ω
High: 251Ω ~ 600Ω
Carefully Optimized Headphone Outputs
6.35mm Single-ended
4.4mm Balanced
4-Pin XLR Balanced
The 4-Pin XLR output is a full-fetched output but the 4.4mm output is optimized for wider range of headphones, including high sensitivity portable headphones.
The Hidden Details
The chassis and transformer pots are treated by our proprietary 14 rounds of crafting process composed of scratch, spray, sanding and baking.
The high gloss final finishing endows a refined and delicate texture as well as protecting the amplifier during years of long service.
Dual Inputs
Balanced (XLR) and Single-ended (RCA) to cover a variety of inputs.
Balanced input will go through a pair of input transformers, the + and – half cycle will merge to become a single-ended signal.
Point-to-Point Wiring with Craftmanship
Time consuming, shortest signal path, better attention to detail, the entire circuitry is hand-wired by skillful craftsmen.
Implement circuit design with high-level of transparency and refinement, improves overall efficiency and conductivity.
In-house Designed Premium Power Transformers
Cayin always design, wind and use high inductance, high efficiency power transformers in our products.
Reinforcing shielding design minimizes the interference and noise while ensure HA-3A to work in the best condition.
High Quality Volume Control
High performance 50KA*2 Dual Unit smooth potentiometer from ALPS offers durable, high-precision volume control with excellent operational fee.
Anti-inference Design
Special shielding and anti-shock design removes microphonic effectively.
Three XL Aluminum Foot Pads
A set of three 39x18mm XL shock-absorbing aluminum foot pads to provide firm and stable amplifier placement at any hard flat surface.
2-rear & 1-front self-levelled placement to handle the extra weight on the back of the amplifier due to the power and output transformers.
At first, I was a little sad that I didn’t get to review the Cayin HA-300MK2 300B tube amp, but the Cayin HA-3A has made up for that in a big way.
The HA-3A is a little amplifier in size but it puts out such a great, big and impressive sound. I also love the HA-3A’s design: the tube lay-out, the case work, the glossy finish, the tube cage, etc it’s all very impressive.
But the Cayin HA-3A isn’t just about the looks, it also is big in performance, even with the stock set of tubes and the lower output power. The HA-3A at this price point sounds very impressive and it far surpassed my expectations. I have quite the number of tube amps in my office, but the HA-3A really stands its ground compared to much more expensive amps.
With a nice design, perfect build quality and a very high price/performance ratio, we have to present the Cayin HA-3A our Recommended Buy Award. It’s now featured on our list of Best Desktop Amplifiers, where it is in very good company. Nice job, Cayin!
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