Cayin Soul 170HA: A Beastly TOTL Vacuum Tube Headphone/Speaker Amplifier wth KT170
May 10, 2024 at 6:38 AM Post #61 of 70
What is the advantage of using two umbilical cords?
Separating the high-voltage and low-voltage will reduce the ripple effect from interference, internal as well as external. Clean power requires attention to detail.
 
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May 10, 2024 at 4:50 PM Post #62 of 70
I sure hope so, but we are still months away from a marketable product, and finding a good reviewer with appropriate traffic and profile to cover this amplifier would be difficult. That is understandable because sending a massive amplifier like this back to Zhuhai after the review process will be tedious.

You should take a look at Convince Me Audio on YouTube. Koji reviewed Ha-300 mk2 and was the only reviewer who bothered to roll all three set of tubes and explore various possibilities with that amp.

I can’t wait to try this myself, hope you have it at canjam London.
 
May 10, 2024 at 5:34 PM Post #63 of 70
You should take a look at Convince Me Audio on YouTube. Koji reviewed Ha-300 mk2 and was the only reviewer who bothered to roll all three set of tubes and explore various possibilities with that amp.

I can’t wait to try this myself, hope you have it at canjam London.

I spent a bit of time on the HA-300 as well.
 
May 10, 2024 at 5:54 PM Post #64 of 70
May 10, 2024 at 9:14 PM Post #65 of 70
You should take a look at Convince Me Audio on YouTube. Koji reviewed Ha-300 mk2 and was the only reviewer who bothered to roll all three set of tubes and explore various possibilities with that amp.

I can’t wait to try this myself, hope you have it at canjam London.
Thanks for the lead, I'll check this out when we have a review sample available. :beerchug:
 
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May 12, 2024 at 11:16 AM Post #66 of 70
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I spent quite some time at the Cayin booth this year.
My brother was intesifely auditioning the Ha-2a and Ha-3a, meanwhile I was checking out the Soul 170Ha.

I always liked the Cayin headamp designs, but the Soul 170Ha is definitely the prettiest one so far.

The "bad" news is, that it can only run the KT170 and is optimized for this tube alone. It would drive other KT tubes way too hard.
That means there are zero options to tube roll the power slot. (Still options for the driver and rectifier tubes)
However Cayin gave something in return.
The amplifier offers Ultralinear and Triode Mode, just like the Ha-6a and on top a dynamic <-> soft sound signature switch. So even though you can't tube roll as much, you can still adjust the sound on the fly.
And who knows, maybe there are some tube manufacturers working on their KT170 versions, now that they become more popular.

Sound wise I liked the amplifier, very visceral and dynamic with the Susvara.
However it was very loud at the booth, which made me switch to the Liric II. With the latter I played around with all the Switches and sound configurations. Certainly something one could spend days exploring.

Unfortunately it was a few walking minutes away from the competition and therefore basically impossible to compare to similarly priced amplifiers. However I don't think it has to hide from direct comparisons.

It's probably my favourite non 300B amplifier
 
May 12, 2024 at 11:22 AM Post #67 of 70
Off topic but still worth sharing imo.
Cayin also presented their 30th Anniversary Pearl series. This devices are BIG! Both physically and in terms of sound
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The amplifier
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The DAC
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And the CD Transport
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Also the integrated Soul 170 Pendant
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I'm a big Fan of the recent designs, even if the Pearl series is priced out of my league
 
May 12, 2024 at 8:23 PM Post #69 of 70
You can do a lot to shape the sound just with the rectifiers and input tubes.
 
May 13, 2024 at 6:01 PM Post #70 of 70
This amp was my absolute highlight of the show. The one thing at the show that I'd have insta bought if possible. Demoed it with my Mod House Tungsten DS and they've never sounded better. Absolute driver control with a nice touch of warmth with amazing detail, stage and definition. Can't wait for the final release.
 

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