Cayin A88T break in and biasing??

Yep, your friends are right. You need to be able to handle biasing and, for me anyway, not being able to do it with the amp in place and connected to everything would be a PITA. Personally I prefer manual biasing amps which come with exposed bias pots and a meter built in. Easy, dead simple, and a good system to both control tube sound as well as to know how much life they have lost as time goes by.

I've never heard the Cayin but all amps/power tubes do require breaking in. Power tubes and tube amps can require anywhere up to 100 hours to really approach their best.

I'm sure that you have already read reviews and user comments on this amp. I have not noticed anyone comfirming that this amp is 'tube like' if your expectation of a tube amp is old fashioned warmth.

BTW, I recently read a similar post by another owner of a Cayin KT88. You might find it by looking into the archives.

No biasing needed. Changing out the tubes is plug-and-play. This is also why you can switch between triode and ultralinear on the fly - a great feature.

Why put another $1000 of tubes into it? You don't even know what you have yet. Judge it after a couple weeks of continuous play and see what you think of it then. Just relax and enjoy.

Arthur

Hi Aball & Newbee,

Thanks for the reply's so far. Aball, The $1000 I will
have to spend is not for the tubes, but the difference
between it and the Jolida I took back to my local dealer.

BTW, My comments were based upon owners reading of the manufacturer's actual manual on your amp, not on the statements by dealers that they were auto-biasing. To clear up any conflict between two opposing posts I would suggest you obtain and read the amps manual. You might look at all of the various comments that a Google search can provide which includes professional reviews as well as user comments.