Cayin A-88t vs. Almarro A318B

I had the 318B and AZ Adagios - as long as your room is not huge, your CD player has "normal" output or you don't only listen to techno, house, hip-hop or "11-volume level" metal ... you may be very pleased by this combo.

It excelled in a natural, spot-on tonality, surprisingly deep and naturally tight bass w/ pure mid-range magic.

One warning, the 381B needs a long initial break-in and runs frightfully hot. It responds well, however, to small signal tube rolling and tweaks like cap upgrades and power cords.

AZ Adagio in Singapore mated the speakers with 318B and sounded wonderful, but the room was small and volume was playing on the low side. however, soul of music was all there.

I use the Adagios with a 22 watt SET and it lacks for nothing. The adagios are a benign load, pretty flat 6ohms, that is what tubes need. I used a 180watt Karan K180 and preferred the grip and control of the SET. The Almarro's may have a bit less power, but I still think they will sound good.

I have heard both and had the Cayin at the same time as the Almarro. I love my lush sounding and plenty powerful Cayin. In comparison, the Almarro has wonderful slightly superior midrange, will require very efficient speakers if you like to turn the music up, even a little and lacks in the bass department.

With my reasonably efficient Spendor S8e floorstanding speakers (I found them more efficient than most monitors), I could not get enough oomph to play the music with any authority at all, and I don't mean trying to play loud.

The Almarro sounded very weak. Only low level volume, almost background music, could be played. The Almarro requires highly efficient speakers made to be played with low power amps, then of course your bass may go out the window and you will need a musical sub.

The midrange (albeit only playable at low levels and weak) on the Almarro is wonderful and has the edge over the Cayin which itself has some of the best most lush midrange I have heard. However, the midrange is only part of the spectrum. If you like to turn your music up and like good bass that extends into the midrange, the Almarro is badly lacking in all but rare speakers with the highest efficiency.

All things considered, I personally prefer the highly musical Cayin A-88t and the flexiblity of speaker choice that comes with its power.

By the way, the Cayin A-88T has dramatically more power than the Almarro 318B. Whoever said it is only marginally more powerful must have been speaking in a highly hypothetical way and not have actually listened and compared the two.

In addition to haveing 250% more wattage, the Cayin has heavier transformers for even more current yet. From having listened, the Almarro's relatively feeble output through the same speakers relative to the Cayin, isn't even in the same ballpark as the impressive 45 Watts/Channel Cayin A-88T which drives my Spendor S8e floorstanders at party levels with ease. The Almarro 318B, couldn't begin to muster playing the music with any significant emphasis through the same Spendors, much less playing at party level volume like the Cayin did. I had both these amps at the same time, so I know a priori.