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Cayin, Line Magnetic, and Willsenton with 805 Feedback

I am considering one of the following integrated amplifiers and I'm looking for feedback from others familiar with these amplifiers or have experience with the brands. We listen to a wide variety of music but classic rock and jazz are at the top of our listening list and our speakers are vintage JBL L100s. I'm familiar with the PrimaLuna 300i so any comparisons to it will be appreciated. I am interested in how well it sounds, it's build quality, reliability, and anything else you think is noteworthy. The manufacturers are Cayin, Line Magnetic, and Willsenton so do you have feedback on them?

The amplifiers are:

  • Cayin CS-805A
  • Line Magnetic LM-805ia
  • Willsenton R800i with 805 tubes

Thanks in advance for your help.

bannon
2psyop's avatar
2psyop
1,869 posts
 

My gut feeling and limited experience tells me that whatever amp brand one settles on, it’s imperative you have at best a reliable warranty or at least find a repair facility in advance of purchase who can gets parts, schematics and can fix it.

macg19
1,051 posts
 

My experience with LM was positive. But I owned the LM-88IA. Build quality is very good. When I was ready to move on, it sold quickly and made room for a Raven Osprey which was awesome but obviously more $$$

ive now moved on to SS based on speaker choice but I really enjoyed the Osprey.

helomech
1,851 posts
 

Can’t speak for LM or Willsenton, but Cayins are indeed excellent. In fact I wouldn’t hesitate to pit Cayin performance against the likes of VAC and Audio Research. 

I had an original Cayin A88T that was built in 2006. I was at least its second owner—owned it for about 6 years between 2017 and 2023. It never gave me any issues other than a failed preamp tube, and is/was built like a tank. 
 

The Rogue Cronus Dark is also around your price range and sounds excellent. 

ericsch
767 posts
 

Completely agree with @helomech. I still own a Cayin A88T Mk II that I purchased around 2007. It sounds great, built like a tank and responds well to upgrading the preamp tubes. I rotate the Cayin into my system with a Luxman integrated.     

atlvalet
58 posts
 

I have no experience with the Cayin or the Line Magnetic, but I do own an R800i that I’ve had modified by Scott Frankland (had a 300B tube blow and the amp wouldn’t biasing correctly). Here’s a cut and paste of a post I made on StereoNet:

"Sent my amp to Scott Frankland (https://scottfrankland.com/) to give it a look over since I had a 300B tube blow and it wouldn’t bias properly. For any unfamiliar with Scott, he’s the "F" in the old MFA preamps including the Luminescense and the Reference, both of which have cult-like status with some. In short, he’s a very experienced circuit designer/tech.

He is upgrading the caps to VCap ODAMs and we switched out a bunch of resistors.

He also saw there was a design issue...there are no bypass caps on the plate voltage nodes near the tubes. Scott said since the two channels share the same nodes, it’s especially important that these nodes are bypassed."

Scott also added more capactiance to help battle hum, as he thought what was there wasn't enough. I do really like the R800i and consider it a keeper as I’m kinda over going down the new gear rabbit hole ATM. The R800i is in a different league than the R8, and I liked my R8.
 

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