HA-1A MK2 High Fidelity Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

I shopped online for several days for a tube headphone amp both on Amazon and ebay as well as other sites tryingto find a tube amp that has the potential to sound better than the price might indicate. I am a best bang for the buckkind of consumer and willing to take a chance on something unknown too. Well this amp really fits that bill.I am downsizing many of my hobbies as I am recently retired. In fact, I had just sold my $ 5000.00 Woo Audio WA5-LEto free up money. So I was trying to find something that wouldn't disappoint me too much and still pock some money from selling the Woo.Well this amp was a huge surprise !!!! When first used with the original tubes without giving them time to break-in I was disappointed. The sound was quite constrained without much dynamic range and a narrow soundstage. Please keep in mind the tubes were not broken-in so I'm sure when allowed to break-in they would be much better.I received my upgraded tubes from Up Scale audio the next day and put them in the Cayin amp, warmed them up for an hour, and played the same album as yesterday. What a major difference !!!! The sound was wide open with a very wide soundstage and fantastic dynamic range. As I played music for about 2 hours and the volume kept getting louder and louder as the new tubes broke-in that I had to turn the volume down twice. This amp puts out 1.4 watts which is powerful.The upgraded tubes I bought at Up Scale audio were Genalex Gold Lion for the 12au7 and the EL84 . I bought 2 matched pairs that are broken in 24 hours by Up Scale then graded by Upscale to match them I bought the Platinumsbecause I wanted to put out the best sound from this amp.To sum up this amp: It has excellent power, wide soundstage, lots of dynamic range with a solid punch. Tubes always seem to provide a very transparent with good imaging and subtle details. I am hoping the soundstage depth will get better as the tubes break-in. For those that are unaware tubes take about 100 hours or so to fully break-in and sound their best. I am very happy with this amp and excited to see how it will sound after more use.It is really beautifully designed when you see it in person and fun to listen to.