As always, many thanks to the fine folk at Bloom, they are just a joy to work with. Great customer service, great advice, just the total package. I was looking to replace my Ray Samuels Audio Raptor, an oldie but goodie I bought in 2008. When I bought it, I also got a ton of good NOS tubes so I've really not felt the need to move on from it but just decided the time was right to at least look. On the Raptor, I've been running and early 60's Telefunken 12AU7 for the power tube and Sylvania Gold Brand Gold Pin 5687's for the driver tubes. These are both considered the best of the best for these particular tube types. Main headphone is Focal Clear MG with and Arctic Cable Cross series cable. My source is a Marantz SACD 30N. I love tubes so was really only looking at tube options. Started looking at Cayin's since they have a great reputation. Went with the HA-6A due to it's flexibility. Loved being able to have the option of listening to my IEM's with 4.4 balanced connectors. First thing is build quality is top notch. It's gorgeous to look at, love the VU meters. It is an absolute tank, you pick this thing up and it feels premium. Onto the sound, when I fired it up with the stock tubes, I got more clarity and more enhanced soundstage than I did with the Raptor but it was missing the dynamics that I had grown to love that the Raptor delivers. As the tubes burnt in it got a little better but still not at the Raptor's level. Time to roll some tubes and man do you have options here. I tried quite a few new tubes as well as vintage. Just to give an idea, for the new I tried: 1. New KT-88's-Gold Lions, Mullards and Telefunken 2. EL-34-New Telefunken, NOS 70's Mullards 3. 12AU7-NOS Early 60's Telefunken and Mullard 4. Last but not least a very nicely tested lightly used pair of Tung-Sol 6550's. The new tubes were a nice solid upgrade over the stock tubes but I wasn't getting exactly what I was looking for. I settled on the Telefunken for the 12AU7s as I just love their detail, airy soundstage and impact. The EL-34/KT88s were the ones I kept cycling through. The last pair I bought were the 6550s and they finally made the package whole. Just all the goodness you want from tubes, airy, holographic, detailed but with great musicality and impact. Just damn musical and highly addictive. You can spend less money and go with new production but if you really want to maximize what this amp can offer, I highly recommend going the vintage route. This has really been my experience with any tube amp I've owned. You can get some pretty nice prices on slightly used tubes. All in all, if you like tubes, you will not be disappointed with the HA-6A. Highly recommended.

Smooth sound with my ZMF Atriums

I really like the Cayin HA-6A. It is an incredibly high-quality and beautiful thing. It gives different sound characters by changing the lamps and switches on the front panel. It is the best on the market.

The HA-6A is leaps and bounds better than my previous headphone amp. I'm still in the burn-in phase but so far, this amp is very resolving, very detailed and imaging is great.

Instrument separation is also great. It's very easy to distinguish each instrument and there is no blurring/merging of sound coming from each instrument in the output and the timbre, for each instrument, is very accurate. One thing to note at this stage is soundstage depth could use improvement but with headphones that can be very difficult to attain.

It's a tube rolling paradise and difficult, at this point (still in burn-in), but I can't wait for time in each to day to go through my library to listen to how much better this amp is compared to my previous, only a several hundred dollar, tube hybrid amp.

The team at Bloom were a joy to work with and answered every question I had regarding this amp.

Thanks, again, Bloom Audio for all of your assistance in helping me decide which amp best fits my tastes and budget. Well done and I look forward to working with you again!