Need Opinions on Cayin IHA-6 vs Magnius vs Monolith THX AAA Dac Amp

Hey guys, just wanna get your thoughts/inputs on this.

My local audiophile store is selling their demo unit Cayin IHA-6 mk 1 for roughly 410usd with 3 mos or so warranty.

Currently I also have a friend selling his weeks old Magnius for 190usd.

Lastly, there’s a local local listing for a Monolith THX AAA Dac Amp (From what I understand that’s the 788 amp with a dac) for around 350usd that was purchased nov 2020.

I currently have a Geshelli Enog2 Pro Dac and Archel Pro Amp powering my HD800, LCD3F, 58x, and the OG HE-400. Also have a vali 2+ stuck in shipping. While I find the g stack enough, I am kind of tempted to try the balanced options these amps have since I have a custom balanced cable that can connect to all my headphones except the HE-400 (to be modded soon). I’m leaning more on the IHA-6 due to it’s current mode, but I also wanna try to get good SE out of them too since I haven’t balanced-modded all of my headphones yet. I know the Magnius doesn’t have the best SE either, and from what I heard from the 789’s SE and Bal, not sure if I like the THX sound sig. Thoughts? Suggestions and opinions welcome!

So out of what gear you have and what options you have, I would pretty easily lean towards the IHA-6 imo, that’s going to be higher preforming than the thx and magnius pretty easily, more control, better dynamics, spatially more impressive, more timbrally accurate, and more resolving of low level information imo. It pairs pretty well with what headphones you have as long as you don’t mind a slight warmer smoother tilt to things. The SE out of the iha-6 is lackluster indeed, although admittedly it wouldn’t be too bad for the hd800, lcd 3, or the 58x, but def isn’t ideal for the he400, so I would really try to use it balanced if you can. I would still rather take the se out of the iha-6 over the magnius given you aren’t using a low impedance dynamic. Out of what headphones you have, all of them can be converted to balanced with a cable swap so that’s pretty nice if you decide to do that

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Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. Glad I was thinking right haha. I actually do like a warmer smoother tilt. Audeze’s sound is what made me realize that’s my pref sound sig so that in the IHA-6 is pretty good. I’m definitely gonna run all of them balanced too, just need to mod the HE-400. I got kinda tempted by the THX dac amp, but I looked it up again and it’s using the same 4493 chip the enog2 pro already has so I guess that’s out

Agreed 100%

The enog actually implements that chip better than the thx or at least in my EL2 DAC it does. I really enjoyed the 788 but there is a lot out there in stack form that will beat it for the price. My vote is get the cayn and never look back lol

Oh I completely forgot to update the thread, but I did end up getting the IHA-6 and after trying it, never looked back hahaha. M0N was right about the control, dynamics, etc. And I went to a local audiostore that had a few other dacs and found that the enog probably has the cleanest/clearest chip implementation compared to dacs that had the same or better chips in them. I think this is pretty much my endgame now. I also ordered a pair of HE6SE’s since the IHA-6 was practically made to power them haha

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