Fresh off of reviewing a trio of Cayin desktop units, I'm back to spend some time with yet another: the Cayin HA-3A Tube Headphone Amplifier. At $1,599, this is the lowest priced Cayin tube amp that Moon Audio sells; the HA-6A is $2,499 and the HA-300 MK2 is $4,399. It's also a lower-powered amplifier than its big siblings. The HA-3A is a Class A, transformer-coupled vacuum tube headphone amplifier.
I don't have a huge amount of experience with tube amps, so I'm going to approach this as somewhat of an amateur. What I do know is that compared to solid state amplifiers, tube amplifiers are known for warmth, smoothness, musicality, and "roundness" of sound. One term I hear a lot is "euphonic," which means a pleasing or sweet sound. Tube amps also allow for swapping out of tubes to achieve different tonalities—so-called tube rolling. Tube amps do tend to be more expensive and require more upkeep, but I don't think that's daunting to those who know and love them. So, let's get into it and see whether I love the HA-3A—and whether you may, too.