Me too! Looks as great as it sounds!
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Looks awesome! How does it do with the Abyss’ low impedance? I am considering getting the HA-6A, but was worried that the lowest output impedance setting would still be too high for 32 ohm headphones.
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New tubes alert! So I got the Psvane CV181-T Mark II to replace the stock Shuguang WE6SN7 on my Cayin HA-300 amp that has 6SN7 as driver tubes. I do really, really like the stock tube, but I want even more. My system is as follows:
Custom Windows 10 PC to iFi Nano iUSB3.0 (usb conditioner) to Chord Qutest DAC to Cayin HA-300 amp to Audeze LCD-3 Fazor.
(SUMMARY: Love these tubes! Better than the already excellent stock Shuguang WE6SN7 and better than my pair of 1952 Sylvania 3-hole Bad Boys)
So after about 3 hours, here’s what I notice about the CV181 vs Shuguang.
The Shuguang has really nice soundstage and excellent separation, with a lot of energy and musicality. At times, though the mid-treble vocal can get somewhat grainy. I also tend to use EQ to add some body and bottom end to the bass, which although they’re nicely responsive and tight, they can be slightly lean with certain instruments like bass guitar. There’s impact across the range, and transients are nice and fast. For stock tubes, these are excellent, and actually, when I tried my pair of 1952 Sylvania 3-hole Bad Boys, I switched back to the Shuguangs since the Bad Boys dampened the treble a bit too much in order to get a little more bass, which wasn’t much.
Moving to the Psvane CV181-T mkII, wow, right away, these sounded beautiful! Just a tad darker, sweeter, and warmer than the Shuguang, but no less musical and energetic.If anything, there’s a sense of “roundness” to the notes, a little more “tubey” than the fairly neutral Shuguang, and definitely more body and slam in the mid-bass and bass. I didn’t have to EQ anymore. The treble is slightly smoothen out, but not dampened, meaning I still get nice crisp cymbals and anything high that hits, but vocals and wind/string instruments have a smoother, sweeter high melody.
This is especially great for jazz and classical/soundtrack, but works well for pop, rock, EDM, and yes, rap. The only fault so far that I found is if the mid to mid-treble is densely layered, it can get a little too dense. Also, the mid-vocal can be a little too forward if it’s recorded forward. It almost takes over too much at times, but, luckily this doesn’t happen too often. I’m hoping these two things will settle down as I continue to burn in these tubes.
Packaging-wise, if you get the Matched Pair Premium Grade from Amazon, you’ll get it in a nice case. I ordered it on Monday March 9, it was shipped from Hong Kong, and it arrived today on March 16. Surprising, considering the craziness we’re all dealing with the Coronavirus.
Only thing I’m a bit disappointed is that the left tube has some uneven application of the grey coating at its bottom, and some of the gold coating is also rubbed off
Here is how it looks compared to the stock tube
And installed in my HA-300
Oh, within a few days, I’m also going to receive a matched pair of Psvane ACME 300b, which is reported to perform almost as well as vintage Western Electric 300bs! If anything, that should further extend the lovely sound from the Psvane CV181-T mark II.
Music listened on Amazon Music HD (via Jriver in order to bypass Windows 10’s upscaling) mostly in UltraHD (24-bit 48Khz to 192Khz) and some in HD (16-bit 44.Khz)
- Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me (Amazing test for low, powerful piano, great vocals, low distinct bass pluck, etc)
- Friday Night Plans - Plastic Love (that dark electronic groove)
- Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (that vocal and guitar!)
- Heize feat. Dean - And July
- Heize feat. Dean - Shut Up and Groove (Has this fast, rhythmic bass groove and just great vocals)
- Common - Resurrection
- Polo & Pan - Bakara (An audiophile dream with amazing percussive rhythm and so much to listen and pick out. One of my favorites)
- Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
- Fleetwood Mac - The Chain
- Monty Alexander - Sweet Georgia Brown (really tests the speed, dynamic, separation, and transient of a system. Fast and complex!)
- The Yuri Honing Trio - Walking on the Moon
- Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing
- Mariah Carey - Fourth of July
- Arne Domnerus - Limehouse Blues (live)
- Damien Rice - My Favorite Faded Fantasy
- Taylor Swift - Delicate
- Ariana Grande - Thank You Next
- Ariana Grande - Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored
- Missy Elliot - Work It
- Lizzo - Good as Hell
- Queen - Under Pressure (remastered)
- Ben Webster - Ben’s Blues
- M83 - Outro
- Santana feat Michelle Branch - The Game of Love
- Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem
- Sara K - If I Could Sing Your Blues
- The Fred Hersh Trio - Played Twice
- Johnny Frigo - I Love Paris
- Paquito D’Rivera - Havana Cafe
- Bela Banfalvi & Antoino Vivaldi - The Four Seasons “Summer” III. Presto
- Jung Jaiel (Parasite Soundtrack) - The Belt of Faith (that amazing montage from the film!)
- Heize - But, I am Your Buddy
- Lisa Batiashvili - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major 1. Allegro moderato
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Thanks!
The Abyss 1266 TC has low impedance, but 88 dB/mW sensitivity which needs power to make them sound as deep and dynamic as they usually would. These indeed love power and the HA-6A provides it in spades!
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Excellent writeup @JoeyGun. Overall great post. I enjoyed reading it. You have some beautiful equipment there. Though I am yet to go down the tube route myself. I’m holding off for fear or losing myself down that particular hole. 
.
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Thank you! I’ll post up an update once I get my Psvane ACME 300b in the next day or so, too.
Can’t believe it only took me about 2-3 year to go from the Fostex TH-X00 + Xduoo XD-05 Dac/amp to this TOTL system (well, still looking to get either LCD-4 or ZMF Verite and M Scaler or Hugo TT2).
Going down the tube does suck a lot of money, that’s for sure, lol!
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So I just got my new Psvane ACME 300b for my Cayin HA-300 just a few days after I got the new Psvane CV181-T II. The Acme replaced the JJ Full Music 300b and the CV181 replaced Shuguang WE6SN7. My headphone is the Audeze LCD-3 with source coming from a Windows 10 desktop to iFi Nano iUSB3.0 to Chord Qutest DAC.
I bought it on March 12th from China-hifi-Audio.com and it arrived at my door on March 18th. Pretty amazing, considering all the lockdown that’s happening because of Coronavirus.
So first of all, when I only rolled the CV181-T II, from what was already an excellent 300B SET amp in stock form, I immediately gained more body and slam in the bass, smooth treble extension, beautiful vocals, and larger soundstage. There was a beautiful “roundness”, a tube sound that’s well articulated, but smooth with great energy and musicality.
The stock tube sometimes give a bit of a shoutiness in the mid-treble register of female vocals when belting, but not so with the CV181. Only small complaint I have with it is that sometimes the mid can get a little dense if there’s a lot going on, but otherwise, instrument separation is well done.
Today, I rolled the ACME 300b, and what I got was an even bigger soundstage and incredible clarity and resolution. I mean, every single instruments and vocals are very distinct and separation everywhere. It’s if everything before was slightly foggy and I never knew that. Like breathing air in the middle of National Park vs the city. All of this seems effortless.
But there is one problem. I feel that the midbass lost some of its weight and fullness. The Bass is a bit leaner but tight and not as slamming either. So my question is this. How does your ACME 300b sound after 50-100-200 hours of burning? Will I expect more heft in the bass or I’d have to find a different way to add it, like warmer cables (all of my cables are Morrow Audio) or adding the Schiit Loki (which is actually on its way)?
I really hope I can get some of that meaty bass-midbass that I had with the stock JJ Full Music 300b tubes, because everything else so far is perfect!
Here are some closeups of both my new Psvane tubes.
Here’s how the Psvane ACME 300b and Psvane CV181-T II look next to the stock tubes.
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beautiful amp and tubes! I also just ordered a PSVane Tube for my Schiit Saga+. I admit, it was mostly for the tube look, but I hear its one of the better sounding tubes too. 
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Aoh nice! Which Psvane did you get? I highly recommend the Psvane CV181-T Mark II
I got the cheaper UK-6SN7 one for the Schiit Saga. Maybe down the road, ill get that one though
I find that the Psvane CV181-T mkII is actually pretty affordable. I got the Premium Grade matched pair for $203.66 after taxes on Amazon, and that’s a bit better than some of the most sought after 6SN7 tubes like the Tungsol Black Glass Round Plate.
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Do you happen to know what the actual output impedance is on the HA-6A lowest setting? I have 32 ohm headphones and I’m worried that the output impedance will be too high for them. The Abyss is 47 ohm, which isn’t too far off. If you’re having success with those then maybe 32 ohm will work as well
I don’t know why but my brain has a mental block with Cayin.
Every time I see the name I automatically think of DAPs. Each time this thread is updated, I click on it expecting DAP related stuff, then I see the pics of Cayin amps and drool for a while.
For some reason, the next time it happens all over again 
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I think of cayenne red pepper
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Cayin N6ii E02 module is coming in April ?
Do it will sound better or just more power…since it will be 4.4mm… ?
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E01 is 1x ES9038Pro and E02 is 2x ES9038Q2M. They are using different DAC chips so the potential for a (even subtly) different flavor of sound is there.
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Cayin E02 Audio Motherboard Released yesterday
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Starting to think that Cayin can’t put out a NuTube module for the N6ii (voltage/power limitations to the add-in boards?). If they could, I would have thought they’d have done it by now, instead of offering dual-DAC versions of existing modules.
Which is fine, it’s still an excellent DAP.
But having a NuTube output option along with on-device TIDAL/Qobuz streaming (something the N8 cannot do) would be really nice.
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Your comments and review have piqued my interest the Cayin IHA-6 amp. The most prominent competitors would seem to be the various THX amps, but I haven’t found any informative comparisons between these and the Cayin. Have you (or has anyone else here) had a chance to compare the Cayin IHA-6 with any THX amps, and is there much of a difference? Is there something about the Cayin that you’d think justifies the extra cost? Zeos (for what it’s worth) mentioned a slightly warmer low-end on the Cayin - is that the case?
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Almost forgot to share this video by „the mid–fi guy“
he reviews the Cayin HA–6a
and here is his unboxing https://youtu.be/lZuHY3Ut9lo
here is his comparison with some known headphone, which are
Audeze LCD X
ZMF Aeolus
Sennheiser HD 800s
Hifiman Arya
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