never had thx AAA 789 but i hear Cayin - iHA-6 is close or better than 789. so what is Cayin - iHA-6 sound like and how does it do now when A90 and A90d or even Singxer - SA-1 are available.
i know i am throwing everything which are different in sound but i am curious and also thinking about fiio K9 (all in one) which is loved by dms and z reviews, they never like the same thing!!!.
iHA-6 has something called power and it makes warm sound so i am into it
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I got an iHA-6 earler this year, and I’ve liked it quite a lot. The other amps I’ve heard at length were a Monolith THX, the Monolith Liquid Platinum, and the RNHP. The iHA-6 is on the same level as those other amps IMO - some slight differences and some slight synergy benefits with some headphones, but overall, they all sound quite similar when the specs line up with the headphones.
Where the iHA-6 shines for me is how versatile it is, and that’s where the other amps fall short. The iHA-6 has low and high impedance single ended and balanced, with high gain and high current toggles as well. Those other amps wil fall flat and sound poor with certain types of headphones. The RNHP can’t handle headphones that demand high current (like Hifiman planars), the Liquid Platinum has a poor single-ended output and can’t really run most IEMs safely, and none of the other amps can handle high-impedance headphones (Sennheiser, ZMF) anywhere close to as well as the iHA-6 can.
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Mostly a lurker here but I gotta give big praise to the Cayin IHA-6. It is absolutely fantastic, especially for planars with its high current mode. Very versatile, too, as others have mentioned. I have A/B’d the IHA-6 with the Bryston BHA-1 and I could barely, just BARELY make out a tiny bit more resolution out of the Bryston, which is 2.5 times the cost of the Cayin. I also compared it with the iFi PRO iCan (the non-signature one) and the IHA-6 definitely took the edge in terms of detail and soundstage. I use the IHA-6 almost exclusively with my DCA Ether C Flow 1.1 (mostly because I have yet to find a headphone I like more than those); before the Cayin, I liked these headphones, but with it? Completely changed them; it gave them the dynamics and slam that I was missing out of my previous Audio-GD D-27.
That said though, I do have to mention an issue that I’ve had with it. When I first bought it (off eBay), I was getting slight crackling noise (kinda like EMI) from the left channel. I returned it and bought another one from Audio46 (which turned out to be an open-box one), and it lasted well for about 3 years before it developed the same issue. I even took the amp to work to make sure it wasn’t my power at home; nope. Even with nothing plugged in, there was noise on the left channel. But I love this amp so much! So I bought yet another one, this time from ZMF, and I’ve had it since early this year and it has been absolutely perfect, no noise or issues at all. So, I would definitely advise to buy this amp if you’re on the fence, but try to get it from a dealer that allows easy returns in case you get a ‘dud’ (when it first happened to me, I looked into it and it was somewhat of a common issue, but that was a while ago, haven’t heard issues with these since then).
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I bought SJYAudio Starry Night and IHA-6 drives it and sounds amazing.
EF400 can not drive Starry Night. EF400 works with HE6SEV2 perfectly. The amp clips on Starry Night we’re iHA-6 plays perfectly.
If I got to do it over I’d buy Cayin iHA-6 over previous amps. Price and sound quality of Cayin makes it a winner. My must expensive amp owned was WA234 so I really needed was iHA-6.
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I was trying to decide between the ef400 and the iHA-6 for a hot minute, finally settling in the iHA-6. How much of a difference would you say they have when driving the HE6SEV2?
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There’s more oomph on Cayin. Also you can add eq for bass and get blown away. The headphone rocks. It’s my favorite open back. It’s better than summit in my personal book behind 1266 TC. My Diana TC comes tomorrow which is my replacement for summit headphones even 1266(I hate wearing it).
I’m a bass head and look for clarity.
If you are not look on headfi I sell a lot of equipment. Headphones that end up fail to meet my bass needs.
Enjoy the Cayin.
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Newb here but I had a Topping A30 Pro for a while powering Hiffiman XS, Sendy Peacocks and soon to be Abyss Dianan V2s. Just got IHA-6 2 days ago 2nd hand (bloke didn’t even clean around the knobs…) but it sounds awesome!!! I bought a cheap xlr switch to AB A30, Cayin and Momoprice 887. Clarity, depth, soundstage all improved (from memory) - can’t wait to AB!!!
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