Cayin A88T break in and biasing??

I have the Cayin 100T. Its been about 6 weeks but I only have about 150 hours on it but so far so good. Being far too green at this hobby I can't begin to describe the positives and negatives but I really like the way it sounds. At first it did sound too harsh or brittle but now its begun to open up. I listen mostly to jazz and I love the way it handles female vocals. Triode sounds nice but is a little too laid back for me so I prefer Ultralinear. My dealer suggested that I swap out the stock KT 88's for 6550's.

One point - the bias meter is not like Rogue's, it pretty much just a center point that each pot is adjusted to. I only had to do this once. To my knowledge, there's no way to what is the exact test point or reading. Hopefully that makes sense. Enjoy the Music has a new review on 70T and I can also post pictures if anyone is interested.

Hey Bob - the Cayin 70T is auto biasing. I went and checked out my neighbor's yesterday and we looked all over the manual and the amp and there is nothing about biasing anywhere. That is what the dealer told us but we double-checked. He just plugs and plays whatever tubes he wants. So if you still want to try a Cayin amp, get the 70T. It sounds fantastic and you can switch between ultralinear and triode on the fly with the remote! You can also try all the KT tubes as well as the EL tubes in it. Really cool.

Also, the 70T for the US market puts out 55W in UL and 27W in triode. Don't get it confused with the asian market version that is 35W in triode, or some such.

Lastly, there have been reports of fake Cayin amps being sold. I would suggest getting one from your dealer to be safe and sure.

Arthur

Mightyburner, you have an answer to my upgrade from my JOR. I was considering a Cayin 845 mono ($$$!!!) + nice Melody preamp, a real monster weighing i at 50 lbs!! But with your post on swaping the KT88's for the 6550's may be another option.
You see I've had EH88's in my JOR and was a flop. Also had a cheap chinese KT88 for demo, and was a flop on classical as well.
Also heard several other 88 amps, Audio Research, and didn't like the muddy imaging.
I believe the 6550 is close to the KT90's, slender tall tubes.
I love Cayin produts, and this A100 + 6550's may be my solution for upgrading.
Here it all depends on what 6550's are avaliable. I love RCA tubes, if I can loacte a NOS RCA 6550, then the Cayin A100 may very well be my next amp.
Telescope how ya doing with your A88? have you found tubes yet?
Also I think I'll roll the stock pre tubes on the A100.
Yes instead of forking out $$$ on a used Jadis DA60, this A100 at under $3K is a pretty good option.
Plaese post a review on your A100 when you get the new tubes.
Paul
Baton Rouge

No the 6550 is a close in design to the KT88, sorry that tube I do not think is gonna work for my orchestral. Back to KT90's. I wish some tube guru would post a comment on why the KT90 presents classical with the dimensions that other tubes fail at.
I think it has to do with the shape of the glass, its straight and narrow, so the musical energy doesn't get all sloshed around inside, as with the 'bulbier' 300 , KT88 and quite possibly with the 6550.
Thoughts?

I just want to clarify some biasing issue with A-88T. Its true that A-88T is not auto-biasing and if you want to re-bias then you would have to flip/open/bias and put it back together. However, it is my understanding that you do not really need to bias it. It will work just fine if you just swap the tubes (KT88&6550). Its probably not going make a very big difference in sound, and depending on your preference you may actually like it.

I have the A-88T too and wanted to try the 6550. I took it to the local dealer, in san jose CA, to help me bias so I can see how it it is done. The owner is very knowledgeable about tubes and build his own tube amps, so I assume he knows what he is talking about. He told me that it is not necessary to bias the Cayin and would sound fine as it is. His own demo model, is using the 6550 and never biased it. This also explains why many A-88T owners who are trying different tubes but never re-biased thinking its auto-biasing and have never had any issues.

I bought the tubes 6550 from him and asked him to show me how to bias it anyway, which he graciously agreed(it is exactly as it is stated above). In fact mine is biased at 30mV with the 6550 and the recommended number is 42mV. I was told by this dealer that the Cayin will actually sound better (more upper extension) if you bias it a little lower. When you lower the bias then you are essentially lowering the power output a little, but in some cases it sounds better.

This is my understanding based on my research and talking to the distributor and my local Cayin dealer.

And one last point, if you have A-88T, then you must try the Tung Sol 6550 reissues. They sound very good as compared to the stock KT88. KT88 sounded a little bloated in the lower frequency in my system.