audio players are a fun group. There is a debate on likes and dislikes about this group in many aspects of understanding. For example, in terms of sound sources, there is a debate about which is better, analog sound sources or digital sound sources; when it is refined to digital sound sources, there is a debate about which is better, physical records or digital files; there is also a debate about which quality or taste is more mainstream in terms of sound orientation; the eternal debate topic in the playback back end is tube or transistor . Which is the best way to express sound?
Although many domestic brands have been engaged in the research and development and production of electronic tube products for many years, they also have excellent results and good reputations. However, if we talk about brands that have made achievements from traditional desktop dual-channel equipment to portable equipment and implement electronic tubeization in various product types, only one brand from Zhuhai is named Kaiyin. Here I would like to emphasize one aspect that Kaiyin should be the only brand in China that has electronic tube product applications in all product lines. Oh no, I thought about it and it should be the only one in the world. Whether it is a CD player, all-in-one machine, pure headphone amplifier, power amplifier, portable player or portable headphone amplifier, it can be said that the genes of the electronic tube flow in all Kaiyin's product categories have never stopped. Conquering the world with tube machine not only established Kaiyin as a domestic electronic tube giant, but also became one of the important endorsements of Chinese audio products in the international market.
Today I will introduce to you a new pure headphone amplifier launched by Kaiyin, of course, it is an electronic tube amplifier. Let’s experience what kind of product Kaiyin, which has rich bile machine DNA, will bring.
The box is wrapped with plastic protective film and has double packaging tapes, which is a very traditional packaging method. This also shows that Kaiyin still sticks to tradition in many details.
After removing the plastic seal, the whole picture of the outer carton is exposed. There is a significant English LOGO on the front and sides of the front and sides is located in the upper left corner. There is an official product type description on the front, which is the vacuum tube headphone power amplifier . Let me explain here that the three different names of vacuum tube , electron tube, and bile duct are actually understood as the same concept in the commonly used audio field, all of which are based on it as the core of amplification. Don't worry too much about which one to call it. There are also basic information such as manufacturer information and product name number on the side of the outer carton.
Open the outer carton and you can see that there is a carton inside. This double-layer carton design is relatively common in desktop audio device and can play a better protective role. Especially products with very precise accessories inside still need this kind of protection.
After opening the inner packaging box, the upper layer is the product instruction manual, warranty card, and an cleaning cloth and two spare fuses. They are two main fuses and two external 6V6 high-voltage fuses.
Remove the upper layer of protective foam to expose the protective cover covered by HA-3A.
Remove the protective cover and it is the body of the HA-3A product. Of course, there is a protective foam that matches its volume structure between the electronic tube mesh cover and the electronic tube, because vibration and shake during long-distance transportation may cause damage to the electronic tube, so that it is relatively stable and can maintain its fixed state without being affected.
power cord is at the bottom to protect the foam void. From this perspective, we can also slightly see that the thickness of the upper and lower protective foam is very considerable. The entire packaging can be said to be very good at protecting the product.
For friends who are more familiar with Kaiyin’s products, they should not be unfamiliar with the HA-3A’s styling design. The integrated body has a relatively compact front panel area. From here, we can also see that the volume control of HA-3A has reached a good level.
The headset output area on the left side of the front panel. On the far left is the pressing round button power switch , the square golden Kaiyin LOGO board on the upper left, and the product model below should be. The headphone output areas are side by side: 6.35mm single-end headphone output port, 4.4mm balanced headphone output port, and four-core balanced headphone output port.Above are two manual levers, which adjust different output gears and high, medium and low three gears, respectively, impedance adaptation selection. Among them, the L gear is adapted to 8-64Ω; the M gear is adapted to 65-250Ω; the H gear is adapted to 251-600Ω.
The volume knob on the right side of the front panel, and the central area of the panel is the VU level meter head. There is still a manual lever between the header and the volume knob to switch the XLR and RCA source inputs.
Let’s take a look at the structure of the back. It is also roughly divided into two areas.
on the left side of the audio source input interface, RCA and XLR two groups of line input . It is convenient to connect to decoding devices or CD machines, and can also be used to match various portable playback devices through converting cables. Because I like to use the deck, it is very convenient to connect the two directly.
is the rightmost AC power input socket + fuse holder. The round button-shaped facility next to it is the replacement of 6V6 high-voltage fuse.
overall shape does not have too many outstanding design languages, and it is still a machine with a very traditional feeling, but in terms of craftsmanship and materials, it still insists on Kaiyin's uncompromising and solid attitude. It is also very prominent in some details. For example, from this picture, you can see that there are three legs at the bottom of the fuselage. This reinforcement method makes the bottom form a triangular and stable structure, minimizing the impact of subtle external vibrations.
Also, the shell of HA-3A is carefully crafted using 14-channel spray paint and polishing techniques. The front panel is made of aviation aluminum alloy.
Since it is emphasized that this is a standard electronic tube device, we naturally have to talk about the specific electronic tube related information it uses. I pulled out all the electronic tubes of the HA-3A product first and lined up. Here is where I show my balance master's abilities. It is not very easy to place three types of five electronic tubes horizontally, and the consequences of mistakes are unimaginable. Fortunately, there were no dangers during the implementation process. Let’s take a look. From left to right, there are one RCA 22DE4 tube, two JJ 12AU7/ECC82 tubes, and two JJ 6V6S imported tubes.
Then look at the electronic tube placing area on the top plate from top to bottom. It is very suitable for a carrot and a pit to use here.
Look at the details separately. A RCA 22DE4 electronic tube is used as rectifier tube , responsible for independent power supply of voltage amplification stage.
Two JJ 12AU7/ECC82 vacuum tubes are responsible for the voltage amplification stage. HA-3A adopts hierarchical independent power supply, and the voltage amplifier circuit adopts independent voltage-regulated power supply, which can effectively reduce interference to the power amplifier circuit power supply and ensure optimal circuit performance.
Two JJ 6V6S imported electronic tubes are made of single-ended pure Class A power amplification.
From the side angle, these electron tubes of different sizes are arranged in a staggered manner, and for some reason, they look very good.
power transformer and output transformer behind the HA-3A fuselage. The power transformer is a high-quality toroidal power transformer, and the output transformer is a high-quality frequency response EI output transformer. To put it more, these are all transformers developed by Kaiyin, which can also indirectly reflect the hard power that Kaiyin has as a domestic brand that can go abroad.
Keyin's self-developed high-quality power transformer adopts a high-purity copper enameled wire stacking design, which produces lower magnetic interference than standard transformers. Coupled with the specially developed shielding packaging technology and circuit protection measures, the amplifier circuit can be further protected from interference and effectively improve the stability of product use and product service life.
In addition, the situation in which the golden jade is eroded and slim is definitely not present on Kaiyin's products. The interior of the HA-3A is made of point-to-point wiring by hand. The internal circuits of each device are made of high-spec wires and components by professional technicians with many years of experience, and are carefully operated and manually routed to ensure that the circuit has a higher pass rate.
The entire product unboxing process and various product details, internal and external design and structure, etc. have come to an end for the time being.Next, turn on the power and turn on the sound! After
is powered on, the dual VU level meter head is lit. Several recent products of Kaiyin have changed the warm-toned light sources such as red or orange commonly used by traditional electronic tube equipment, and use cool-toned light sources as the main visual expression. It can be said that it also has another cool style and flavor.
HA-3A is a pure analog signal amplification device, so I will first match it with the audio source from the analog era. The Nakamichi Dragon card is a classic brand that is also one of the commonly used sound sources this year. Anyone who knows Nakamichi and many products in the simulation era actually knows that the output of the 6.35mm headphones of Nakamichi Dragon itself is actually very strong. This time I also deliberately compared the output of the headphones directly using the Nakamichi Dragon itself and the 6.35mm single-ended headphone output port connected to the HA-3A. The content chose Jiang Hui's popular album "The Voice after Drinking" in the 1990s and Sister Mai's album "Madame X" a few years ago, and the headphones were paired with peacocks from MEZE Elite and SendyAudio. The main characteristics of the sound reflected by the headphone jack of this boot are that it is atmospheric and mellow, and the vocal texture is very good. But after all, it belongs to the previous or even two eras, and its hard quality is not very strong. There is a clear difference between using HA-3A to drive the same headphones for the same music content, that is, HA-3A immediately supports the frame extremely clearly and prominently, and the density advantage is very obvious. The classic saxo solo passage in the album's song of the same name is not the rich warm and thick tone of the electronic tubes that people used to remember, but a very neutral and energetic tone. In addition, when Madonna's "Madame X" album was replayed, because this was a newer album in 2019, the recording level was very online and it had not been worn for a long time. The 4.4mm balanced output of HA-3A shows a very beautiful sound base. Full display of the entire frequency band, clean background and excellent details. The overtones of the heavy rhythm drums are surrounded by a very strong degree, and the electronic elements throughout the album have a lot of flavor under the amplification of the electron tube.
Next use HA-3A to match the element X2 of the sound of the moment, and streaming media sound source. Driver headphones include HE6SE for HiFiman and K812 for AKG. When driving HE6SE, at least the impedance must be adjusted to M-speed. Listen to a classic Bluegrass work that I really like, from this Live album by Alison Krauss & Union Station. The super sweet voice given by the owner of Alison Krauss is intertwined with the vocals of Union Station. Driven by HA-3A, HE6SE capabilities have been shown very well. The positioning of live instrumental music and vocals is extremely accurate, and the density of the mid-frequency part is very impressive. Moreover, the commitment and full emotions displayed by Alison Krauss on the stage were also fully expressed. Eminem's "Eminem Is Back" album is also an album I often listen to. In this album, Eminem collaborated with many black rappers. The rich and rich black rap style combined with Eminem's own unique style makes the entire album reflect more colors. The large segment of Riff is smooth and catchy, not as thunderous as other Eminem albums, but the relatively peaceful Eminem also has a unique flavor. K812 is a headphone product that was nearly ten years ago, but I must say that as a new product this year, HA-3A is a rare harmonious combination with it. The potential of the lower plate is very exciting, and the layering of the sound effects in some superimposed low-frequency bands is very prominent. It can be said that it is obvious that the driver device is moving forward with the headphones.
with Shanling EM7 to listen to lossless music in local TF card. The headset still chooses the MEZE Elite I used before. After my previous experience in matching, I have already made a basic judgment on HA-3A. As a multi-functional all-in-one machine, adapting the decoding pre-stage with HA-3A should be a good choice. The sound characteristics of HA-3A I felt earlier are probably the most suitable for listening to Ray Charles.In this Ray Charles's last album, we don't have to worry about what Jazz is, what Blues is, which paragraph is Soul... Ray Charles and twelve other legendary musicians compiled a world full of traces of time and the power of notes. Whether it is the sound of horns or drums, or the expression of the light breath and the sticky guttural sounds of the singers on the album, especially Ray Charles. Under the HA-3A and MEZE Elite, I think the most suitable description is flowing. It is natural and extremely relaxed and without any aggressiveness when you can listen to these sounds flowing in your ears. This is also an important sound characteristic outside the tone of the tube amplifier. Especially the last song on this album, "Crazy Love", performed by Ray Charles and Van Moriison, is the one that touched me the most among all versions of this song I have heard.
summary time is up. Kaiyin's latest electronic tube pure headphone amplifier has actually a very single function, it is only responsible for driving the headphones, and there are no other functions such as decoding pre-level or post-level amplification. But it has made the headphone driver a very satisfying project. It has a high transparency sound base, a huge amount of information, a neutral and warm tone, and it reflects a very good fit when expressing various types of music, and has excellent musicality and high vitality. The official price is in the 8,000 yuan range. My personal recommendation is like this: the sound source + pre-level decoding part is about 10,000 yuan, and the driver's headphones are also appropriately selected from the 10,000 yuan level. The three parts of audio source decoding + amplification + headphones are about 30,000 yuan in total. Congratulations, you can get a very excellent sound enjoyment.
