Cayin iHA-6 Headphone Amplifier

Careful, I have one and about a year later the left channel has a buzz to it that doesn't go away nor gets louder so that's nice when the music is loud. Customer service is crap, never heard from again after 1 interaction but hopefully with drop that works out better. It's a dang good amp especially with its features for planers and dynamics. The thing is so transparent that dacs change up the sound which is crazy...I wasn't a believer and it is slight but once you hear the change you can't unhear it.

First thing first, the built quality is excellent however they are not precice CNC aluminium and mostly associate with industrial aluminium built which is still amazing. The built does not match the price and the industrial aluminium built are quite similar like, Drop THX, SMSL, Toping and etc. Now, let me use their makerting phrase about their knob, " a premium ALPS 4 channel rotary potentiometer to smoothly adjust your sound", but honestly the volume knob has a soft feel when you rotate it. Of course, subjective. But in my opnion, in a sense of quality and smooth rotation as well as precision quality, it is not even as good as the Drop THX 789 knob which I also own which was the 'Massdrop' as well. Oh yea, the solid-state is a sound that some describe as “sterile” are over exaggerated as most since most solid state emphasis so much on the number game with super low distortion and transparency to the point they have no 'colouration/musicality' no added character or timbre affect where it can be absolutely dry and henceforth, sterile. The IHA-6 is nuetral and transparent so of course they going to be sterile. Period! And this might be controversial, the output impedance of low z and high z sounds the same from 32 ohms to 600 ohms. I would say the low z on 32 ohms would sounds louder. And perhaps, with all headphone, the high z single ended tend to sound slightly louder in general or could be placebo. Or, my headphones so happen to pair well with its high output impedance hence they sound the same. Nonetheless, amazing amp for features, power and flexibility.