Cayin IHA 6 headphone amp. Excellent.

I bought the Cayin to replace a Marantz HD DAC 1 I was using as an headphone amp. The difference was night and day ,the cayin is superb. As most of the reviews state it's not neutral sounding but has a slight warmth to the sound that makes it very natural to listen to. The Marantz had a more hard ,analytical sound ,that was at first very exciting to hear but listener fatigue soon set in after a couple of hours. I've regularly listened to the Cayin for four or more hours and still wanted more. My main system has barely been used for the last few weeks.

Set up and use has been faultless.

I now think I need to replace my headphones( Shure SRH 1840 ) and have my eye on some ZMF 's. Unfortunately I can afford the Aeollus but want the Atrium,they look stunning. When the time comes to buy I will be buying from Audio Emotions . Their customer service has been superb. From delivery to technical questions and suggestions for headphone upgrades they've been great and I would have no doubts about recommending them.

All in all the whole buying experience has been great.

Terry | Rossendale | February 2024

Cayin IHA-6 stunning performer

I have to admit I am a bit of a head-fi nut - I've been through many of the last crop of 'summit-fi' headphones inc the HE500, HE560, HE-6, HD-800 plus at least around 20 mid fi sets. I've also owned a fair few headphone amps..... (Woo Audio 6SE, Burson CV2+ Class A custom made, Metrum Aurix etc) so I have a fair idea of price/performance characteristics)

In the case of the IHA-6 (combined with the IDAC/IDAP-6) I would have to say that I have not heard better (bar possibly one exception), especially with Planar Magnetic headphones. When you have swapped out/owned enough headphone rigs you get to know what the 'xfactor' is - when audiophile word play fails and you cease to analyse and can just enjoy. Needless to say with this combination the sum of the parts create an emotional experience - where nothing in the audio signal gets in the way of the enjoyment of the music - in my experience this is a rarity - the only thing that has matched this was the combination of the Hifiman HE-6 headphones with 20wpc Class A amp and a Metrum HEX.

Highly recommended......

Greg | Ryde, IOW | May 2020

Cayin is one of the rare exceptions; each component in the iHA-6 headphone amplifier, iDAC-6 DAC, and iDAP-6 digital audio player is state of the art in its own right... From the very start, the sheer level of power, articulate, and overall control offered by the iHA-6.iDAC-6 pair simply floored me, the Cayin pair captures their incisive transient sound and almost vestigial shadings of tone and expression with impressive grace and realism.

Together, Cayin's iHA-6, iDAC-6 and iDAP-6 form a powerful, articulate, easy to use, and musically satisfying high-end personal audio playback system whose sophisticated sound more than justifies the trio's moderate price.

Hi-Fi+ | | April 2020

Absolutely love this headphone amplifier ! It really does impress with a very holographic soundstage, beautiful layering and a feeling of consummate ease as it presents my music to me ! - build quality is amazing, and gives me the option of going balanced later down the line.

George Coleman | Manchester | September 2019