From my experiences with the ha3a and scouring every single page of the 6a and 3a thread, it is very safe to say that the ha2a itself won't generate hiss with iems in the 4.4mm, but if you have noise in the rest of your chain or electrical wiring, the amp may pick up on it because tube amps are sensitive to noise and rf. People have had to use various methods and cables to eliminate or reduce the noise from cayin's HA series amps. I personally am having to use optical from my dac to pc with the ha3a due to electrical noise from my PC's GPU but once I did, I now have a 0 noise background.
From my experiences with the ha3a and scouring every single page of the 6a and 3a thread, it is very safe to say that the ha2a itself won't generate hiss with iems in the 4.4mm, but if you have noise in the rest of your chain or electrical wiring, the amp may pick up on it because tube amps are sensitive to noise and rf. People have had to use various methods and cables to eliminate or reduce the noise from cayin's HA series amps. I personally am having to use optical from my dac to pc with the ha3a due to electrical noise from my PC's GPU but once I did, I now have a 0 noise background.
From my experiences with the ha3a and scouring every single page of the 6a and 3a thread, it is very safe to say that the ha2a itself won't generate hiss with iems in the 4.4mm, but if you have noise in the rest of your chain or electrical wiring, the amp may pick up on it because tube amps are sensitive to noise and rf. People have had to use various methods and cables to eliminate or reduce the noise from cayin's HA series amps. I personally am having to use optical from my dac to pc with the ha3a due to electrical noise from my PC's GPU but once I did, I now have a 0 noise background.
I'll be making a video comparing to the 3A soonish.
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And the 6A too please if possible. Just spent the morning watching your comparison between the 3A, 6A, and 300B MKII, and then dedicated video on the 3A and the 300B MKII.
Currently looking to upgrade from xDuoo TA-26 and Cayin is on my radar, just not sure which one. Pairing it with the ZMF Atticus and Sennheiser HD800s, also with ZMF pads etc.
And the 6A too please if possible. Just spent the morning watching your comparison between the 3A, 6A, and 300B MKII, and then dedicated video on the 3A and the 300B MKII.
Currently looking to upgrade from xDuoo TA-26 and Cayin is on my radar, just not sure which one. Pairing it with the ZMF Atticus and Sennheiser HD800s, also with ZMF pads etc.
I would strongly recommend you take stock of what tubes are available to you for each amp, as I ultimately gave up on buying the 6a in favor of the 3a due to just the scarcity of the 22de4 rectifier tubes. I also passed up on the 2a as the tube configurations (and available tubes were lackluster) for that amp seems to be way more limited than the 12au7 & 6v6gt on the 3a.
I would strongly recommend you take stock of what tubes are available to you for each amp, as I ultimately gave up on buying the 6a in favor of the 3a due to just the scarcity of the 22de4 rectifier tubes. I also passed up on the 2a as the tube configurations (and available tubes were lackluster) for that amp seems to be way more limited than the 12au7 & 6v6gt on the 3a.
It is actually not that hard to find some 22DE4 rectifier tubes. You just probably need to source globally. They are relatively cheap as well: $60 for a quad. A quad should keep you going for 10-15 years on the 3A. It is not an often-used tube, so I understand Cayin's decision as a manufacturer why they changed the rectifier on the 3A. Also, on the 6A you have to use pairs of them (twice as many). Still, as an individual user I wouldn't worry about availability (yet).
I'm about to go pick my HA-2A from Fedex at lunch. Ordered from ZMF on Tuesday and auto filled my PO Box for delivery by mistake. Fedex doesn't delivery to PO boxes and the team at ZMF caught it and fixed the mistake within an hour or two. Super quick turn around for delivery all the way to Alaska. Just wanted to give a shout out for the awesome customer service. I also have a HA-3A to compare against. Running them from a couple bi-frost 2/64's. Planning on using the HA-2A at the office but I should have them both at home this weekend and I can share some thoughts.
Brother it has been several weekends since your promised comparison of the ha-3a and 2a that we've all been waiting for! I for one have been waiting for user reviews but this thread was sadly very barren the past couple weeks.
Hey guys, sorry for the delayed response. I’ve had an intense couple of weeks. It has allowed me to spend more time running in the HA-2A at work though. I’ve probably got around 100hrs on it now. I have the HA-3A (stock tubes in) at home and have spent a significant amount of time on it as well, both run off a Bifrost 2/64 into ZMF AO/ AC, Senn 660mk2, Audeze LCD-XC and UM Mest MkII. I wanted something compact for the office that wouldn’t take up a ton of room (people already think I’m crazy with my equipment..lol). If you have room for the 2A you probably have room for the 3A though. Sure, it has a slightly smaller footprint but not by much for practical purposes. The 2A does have the same great fit and finish as the 3A. The pc style power switch on the side of the 2A doesn’t look quite as good as the illuminated power switch on the 3A in my opinion. That’s a pretty minor detail and it is a handsome little amp overall. One important note that other people have pointed out is the lack of available tubes to roll. Not much in the way of stock or available information out there. Since this is my office rig, I was okay with that and just planned to stick with the stock tubes anyway. I can just roll my 3A at home.
They sound very similar overall and have a lot more in common than not, definitely siblings. They both have the same wide 3D soundstage to my ear. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just me not being able to pick out the differences, so I plugged in my Burson soloist 3xp to compare as well. The difference between the 3XP and 2A/3A was immediately apparent, the 3xp was considerably narrower. Height and depth were probably closer but the 2A really surrounds you the same way the 3A does. Dynamics between the 2A and 3A are also pretty similar, they both provide pretty good punch and are only a hair behind the SS 3xp from what I hear. The 3A adds a little bit more tube sound in the mids giving it a little more body and weight. The 2A is a little bit lighter on its feet making it feel a bit quicker and more precise. The 2A may extend just a bit higher on the top end with a bit more air. The 3XP could always sound a little shrill up top to me on certain songs, I never got any of that out of the 2A though. You still get the excellent tube decay with a bit of added smoothness. It has been really easy to listen to this amp all day long at work. I even left late a few days to listen to more music. It leans a bit more neutral than the 3A but it is still very engaging and hard to stop listening too. It really stuck out to me how well this amp images and layers music with excellent clarity.
When I plugged in the UM Mest MkII on low gain I did get a little bit of a noise floor. Very slight and nothing you get pick up once you hit play. It was dead quite with my ZMF’s, Senn’s and LCD-XC. Like the 3A it is a very versatile amp so if you have a lot of headphones with different impedances, it is a great choice. If you are trying to choose between the 2A and 3A the deciding factor in my opinion would be how much tube rolling you want to do. The 2A is a bit cleaner, quicker, and more neutral to my ear. The 3A is a little more romantic with a warmer and fuller sound.
Obviously, I’m not a reviewer and this is a bit of stream of consciousness, but I just wanted to share some initial thoughts and feedback as everyone on here is always so helpful.
@aaronhaynes101 Thank you for the impressions. I had a little bit of time with the 2A in the ZMF room at the last NYC CanJam and enjoyed it. How did you find a black chassis version? Looking at availability it seems only the silver ones are for sale.
My 2A is sliver and my 3A is black. It worked well because I had a sliver and black bifrost already. I really like the looks of the black but it is a bit of a finger print magnet. Black was not available when I ordered either.
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