Cayin A88T break in and biasing??

There are some, and apparently you are one as was I, that think the stock tubes in the Cayin make it sound a bit hard and brittle.

I have listened to numerous amps, and the Cayin A88T however, is not in the hard and brittle catagory at all in my opinion and for my preferences, with the possible exception to some as to how it sounds with the stock tubes.

However, changing the sonic signature significatnly toward the sound you want with the Cayin A88-T, relative to the 'lively/stark' stock tubes, is an easy task with tube rolling.

Knowing what you think of the sound with the stock tubes, gives me a very good idea of what direction you want to go and what will work, as I have done alot of tube rolling and experimenting along those lines myself with the Cayin A-88T, prefering a strong musical midrange presentation and hating anything that smacks of hard or brital sound.

I recommend you buy a quad of SED KT88s (my preference) (or SED 6550), a pair of RCA round plate 6SN7s, and a pair of Raytheon 6SL7s for a wonderfuly warm and musical, open and non-harsh presentation which exceeds by my ears, the musical capabilities of most amplifiers around today.

Stay away from Tung Sol 6550s, ElectroHarmonix, and Genalex Lion power tube offerings, unless you want to bring in a level of extension that you will probably call hard and brittle.

Enjoy your Cayin A88-T. You have a wonderful amplifier.

Have you contacted Steve at VAS Audio regarding the biasing? I can't answer you question but what is strange is that there is no biasing procedure in the user manual. I would think that infered autobiasing. But I was also warned about the fact that one of the CAYIN amps required "cracking" the unit open to bias. Hard to believe that such a great amp would be so difficult to bias. I sure wouldn't want to do that on a regular basis. My opinion; - - for optimal performance, bias should be checked occasionally and re-adjusted if necessary. After 100 hours or so, this is important regardless of which power tubes you use. My preference is GENELEX "GOLD LION" KT88's. The amp will never sound better, but careful with the pre-amp tubes. I have an A-100T which I love. Biasing is super slick. Sound quality rivals virtually anything on the market except for perhaps AYON. I have one of those also. But the pre-amp tubes for the A-100T are custom configured for this amp specifically. I tried NOS tubes with terrible results. That's when I checked with Steve at VAS and found this out. I'm not a fan of 6550's. They are more rugged but tend to sound a bit brittle with certain types of music.

That's about all I can add regarding CAYIN. The A-50T is a stone bargain provided that you have reasonably efficient speakers. Only 18W in Triode mode. It also has a top biasing set up with the use of a meter. Easy to use. Great little amp. Very reasonable price.

I'm not certain if this is the CAYIN model that does require breaking the unit open from the bottom to bias, or not. I do know that this is the case with one of the CAYIN models, which is absurd to my way of thinking. Ask the CAYIN rep. (VAS AUDIO) I have an A-100T and do like it. pleanty of power to drive anything. I also have a JOLIDA 502BRC. Both are KT-88 designs, but have a different character. The JOLIDA is "darker" and softer textured in it's sonic signature, where the CAYIN products do sound a bit more up front and cold, especially with stock KT-88's. I switched to "GENELEX "GOLD LIONS". Anyhow I think the build quality of the CAYIN is much better that the JOLIDA products, but biasing can be a "snakey" situation with some tube amps. My main amp is the AYON SPIRIT II. It's more expensive but worth every penny and then some. I can forward you to a dealer that will give you a decent deal on AYON. I don't know if this helped at all but there it is.

please read what I wrote in 2006...this thread should be long dead.