[Andykong]

The MSRP of HA-2A is US$1299
The HA-2A will be available to the overseas market by mid-March 2024.​

The HA-2A is a member of Cayin's HA headphone amplifier series, which includes the well-known HA-300MKii, HA-6A, and HA-3A. Now, with the addition of the HA-2A, which has a consistent layout and panel style with the HA series, featuring dual cold-light VU meters. At the same time, the HA-2A is also one of the members of Cayin's new desktop system, forming a four-piece suit with the iDAP-8, iDAC-8, and iHA-8. The iHA-8 is a fully balanced class A solid-state headphone amplifier, while the HA-2A is a single-ended class A vacuum tube headphone amplifier. Together with the iDAP-8 digital transport and iDAC-8 DAC, they form a compact desktop audio headphone system, combining the characteristics of tube and solid-state amplification for different sonic experiences.

This set of new products, known as "888+2," made its official debut at the headphone exhibition held at the Guangzhou International Headphone Expo in December. To minimize production schedule conflict and supply chain constraints, we have to launch the new products in several phases and HA-2A will lead the race as Chapter One of the 888+2 four-piece suit. The official release of the 888 combo will be announced once the product is ready for production.



HA-2A is different from other HA series in that it is Cayin's first vacuum tube headphone amplifier designed with all vintage NOS tubes. NOS (New Old Stock) refers to a tube that has never been used and is from old production. The amplifier consists of a total of five tubes, with the RCA 17AX4GT serving as the rectifier tube, supplying power to the plate electrode of the preamp tubes. This will fully exert the unique harmonic richness and warm, delicate audio characteristics of tube rectification.

The preamp and power tubes both use the renowned “Bugle Boy” Amperex vacuum tubes and Amperex is a vacuum tube brand that serious vacuum tube users are all too familiar with. The two Amperex ECF82/6U8 in the preamp stage and two Amperex 17BF11 in the power output stage have to go through a rigorous in-house testing and matching process before we can install them to our amplifier.

Cayin has been making tube amplifiers for 30 years, and we have accumulated years of know-how and development experience in the vacuum tube audio business. Our profound research experience and massive inventory of various types of audio tubes play a vital role in HA-2A development. The HA-2A uses NOS vintage tubes exclusively, which can be considered as using the best of our tube inventory.

Tube enthusiasts may be familiar with Amperex and will assume the Amperex tubes are Dutch products. This vacuum tube brand went through two stages. As per Wiki, Amperex Electronic is “originally located at 79 Washington Street in Brooklyn, New York, Amperex was a long-established manufacturer of transmitting tubes when they were acquired by the Dutch firm, Philips, (known more widely as Norelco in the US), around 1955. Philips continued to improve and enlarge the tube plant in New York but also used the Amperex name to distribute their new line of Dutch-made miniature tubes, (12AX7, 12AU7, 12AT7) to feed the booming U.S. hi-fi market."

The ECF82/6U8 and 17BF11 tubes used in the HA-2A were likely produced in the early 1950s, so they belong to the American production period, not the Dutch production period. They were specifically used in the audio section of early tube televisions and almost became the standard configuration for TV audio at that time.

The Amperex ECF82/6U8 is a composite tube that combines a high-gain pentode and a medium-gain triode. Cayin's design engineers make full use of its low internal resistance and low noise characteristics, employing unique and ingenious design, wiring methods, and power supply arrangements to achieve rich, warm, balanced, and harmonious sound characteristics in the listening experience.

The Amperex 17BF11 is a dual pentode composite tube that was originally used with one pentode for voltage amplification and the other for power amplification in early applications. However, in the HA-2A, Cayin's engineers have designed it to always work in a single-ended class A mode, carefully designing the gain circuit and incorporating an in-house developed Z11 iron core EI output transformer that is ultimately responsible for driving the headphones.



HA-2A is different from the previous HA headphone amplifiers because the rated frequency response of HA-2A can reach 20Hz-50 kHz at +/- 3dB range. This is a very impressive figure among our HA series tube headphone amplifiers. Like other Cayin HA amplifiers, the HA-2A is constructed using point-to-point welding to ensure the shortest signal path and enhance the transparency and refinement of audio performance. It features RCA and XLR dual inputs and is equipped with 6.35mm, 4-pin XLR balanced, and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs. It also offers high, medium, and low impedance adjustment modes, making it convenient for users to pair with headphones of different impedance and driving requirements (Known as Impedance Matched Output that existed across all HA series headphone amplifiers). The unit is compact and weighs only 10kg, making it relatively small among tube headphone amplifiers and very suitable for desktop use.

The HA-2A and the 888 combo will be available in both silver and black versions. However, only the silver version is available right now. We don’t have the exact date when will the black version be available, but we are working on it already and we shall keep you informed as soon as we finalize the metalwork process. We completed our HA-2A trail production already, and we plan to ship the HA-2A on 20th January 2023. Due to the actual production capacity and supply chain status, the first production batch will be limited in quantity. In addition, we are only weeks before the Chinese New Year by that time, the logistic system will be stressed to its limit and we are not confident that we can complete the custom process before we break for Chinese New Year. For these reasons, the first batch of HA-2A will only serve the domestic China market. We shall cater our oversee order after the Chinese New Year and expect to shop our first oversee orders by mid-March.

 

[Andykong]

Reserve for FAQ and Review Links

 

[Andykong]

Cayin HA-2A Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

The HA-2A is an entry-level product in the HA series of headphone products, enriching and complementing the HA series product lineup. This will be an upward replacement of our HA-1Amk2. While fairly low-cost and compact, we don’t take this lightly. The HA-2A is a pure Class A transformer-coupled Single-Ended design, which is probably the best direction for tube amplifier with decent versatility and practicality for audiophile applications.

The HA-2A uses a total of five antique-grade NOS imported vacuum tubes.

• Driver Tube: Amperex ECF82/6U8 NOS tubes
• Output Tube: matched pair of Amperex 17BF11 NOS tubes
• Rectifier Tube: 1 piece of RCA 17AX4GT NOS tube (for driver stage)

Amperex ECF82/6U8 NOS tube: This is a composite tube that combines a pentode and a triode, used for frequency modulation and mixer in early electronic tube televisions. It has low noise, low internal resistance, balanced sound in the entire audible frequency range, rich harmonics, and a vintage tube's unique mellow and warm characteristics when playing music.

Amperex 17BF11 NOS tube: This is a composite tube that combines two pentodes, one for power amplification and one for voltage amplification. This tube is frequently found in early electronic tube televisions. It has a balanced, full-bodied sound, good control, and the vintage tube's characteristic mellow and charm when playing music, able to accommodate a variety of music styles.

RCA 17AX4GT NOS tube: This is a half-wave rectifier tube responsible for supplying screen power to the front-stage electronic tubes. It fully embodies the unique characteristics of the harmonic richness and delicate warmth of the rectifier tube.

Other Features and Design Considerations

1. The output from Amperex 17BF11 will feed into a pair of custom design in-house manufactured high-quality output transformers for single-ended (6.35mm) or balanced (4-pins XLR and 4.4mm) headphone output.
2. Support Balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) input, balanced input will transform to single-ended through a pair of input transformers.
3. Choice of three impedance-matched headphone outputs (L, M, and H) to make sure HA-2A can handle a vast variety of headphones satisfactorily.
4. The electronic tube amplification circuit adopts point-to-point soldering technology, reducing the interference between components and circuits.
5. Features a white backlight dynamic dual-channel VU power meter.

Last but not least, the HA-2A shared the same footprint as our iDAP-8 Streamer, iDAC-8 DAC, and iHA-8 Headphone amplifier, which means you can stack them up as a compact and yet sophisticated Desk-Fi system that occupied less than an A4 sheet.

The HA-2A will debut at the 2023 China Guangzhou International Headphone Expo (16-17 December 2023). We shall provide more information about the HA-2A after the Guangzhou event.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Beautiful.
Love to see this series expand to even more affordable realms.

I'd love to see the Ha-2a and iXX-8 Series also in black

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Looks like a HA-3A, but I assume a bit smaller in size?

 

[leylandi]

 

[geek707]

Can someone tell me what brand equipment stands are being used in the pictures?

 

[yakbob]

@geek707 , It looks like this DDHifi rack on AE. Scroll down to the live shot stacks for a more accurate photo.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...16c3da&afSmartRedirect=y&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

 

[TheAbyss2022]

Power output specifications?

 

[Andykong]

I just came back from Guangzhou after a busy and tiring trip, the traffic between Hong Kong and Shenzhen/Guangzhou was very crowded on Sunday evening, and I am glad that I can get a train ticket on time. Some of my media friends from Hong Kong need to stay for another night in Guangzhou to avoid the peak traffic.

I'll post a brief update to explain the timing and overall concept of the new "four-piece suit", and will follow up on each product gradually. Desktop products normally have a much longer shelf time when compared to portable products such as DAP or IEM, so I'll take it easy this round, and this will also reflected in our development timeline. Please be patient and stay tuned if you happen to look for mid-range products at this form factor. Cayin will always be transparent and detailed when we announce new products, we want to make sure our customers are well-informed before they commit to our product.

First of all, what are we up to at this point? What are the outstanding tasks before we can ship the products to our customers?

All four new products have completed the R&D process; the demo at the Guangzhou International Headphone Expo is our last attempt to collect user feedback before we move into production preparation. Glad to confirm that only a minor update is required with iHA-8, so we’ll move on as scheduled. Our Production Engineers will work out a list of modifications required to transfer the hand-made prototype into something that is “productionable”, the final BOM will then go to the supply chain for material preparation, and we shall work out a production plan to accommodate small-scale trial production and subsequent mass production. The supply chain will take 6-8 weeks so we are expecting the shipment of mass production by early March 2024.

We can’t accommodate all four products in the production line concurrently, the BOM of HA-2A is relatively simple when compared to the other streamer/DAC and solid-state headphone amp., so most likely HA-2A will be the first product available to the retail market. The sequence of the other three products, iDAP-8, iDAC-8, and iHA-8 will be determined by the response time of the supply chain.

We shall provide detailed product specifications after the small-scale trail production. We have a set of measurements based on the engineering sample, but we need a bigger sample before we can put down a reliable and accurate production specification. I’ll publish the data as soon as they are available, in their respective discussion thread, so please subscribe to the thread if you are interested in a particular product, you won’t miss anything.

 

[Andykong]

Can someone tell me what brand equipment stands are being used in the pictures?

DDHiFi HS400 HiFi Rack and they are available in silver and black.

The HS series is available in three different sizes. The HS550 is designed for full-size audio equipment. We have tested the HS300, and it is marginally too tight, the base of the supporting feet will barely touch the sides of our 888 combo (~270mm). It will work if you have a very tight space and you don't mind trapping the streamer/dad/amp inside the audio rack after the installation.

I have also come across a Carbon Sheet Mini HiFi Rack from a Taiwan accessories brand called MYSTJ Audio Design, It look gorgerous but I am not sure if it is available outside Taiwan.

 

[Andykong]

Looks like a HA-3A, but I assume a bit smaller in size?

Yes, HA-2A is smaller in all three dimensions. The HA-3A is 306mm wide, and the engineering prototype of HA-2A is 270mm.

Sorry for the rough picture, I take this snapshot when we are packing up the booth at the end of the Guangzhou headphone show.

 

[TheAbyss2022]

Yes, HA-2A is smaller in all three dimensions. The HA-3A is 306mm wide, and the engineering prototype of HA-2A is 270mm.



Sorry for the rough picture, I take this snapshot when we are packing up the booth at the end of the Guangzhou headphone show.

Why is there so much dust on the HA-3A

 

[ThanatosVI]

Why is there so much dust on the HA-3A

That's no dust, the glittery stuff is part of the finish

 

[DMITRIY R]

That's no dust, the glittery stuff is part of the finish

Version with Swarovski finishing. A very rare specimen.