Cayin A88T break in and biasing??

Oops - sorry about my mistake. Glad you called VAS though because there is a lot of conflicting information about Cayin since they have different models for each market. One of my local buddies has the A70 and he loves it. His Cayin dealer says the A70 sounds better than the A88. But if you are happy with the Jolida, keep it.

Arthur

6 Moons has a super review on the A88, so I'm not sure if your comment on "brittle and hard" is justified.
I mean my Jadis OR KT90 does have its weakness, but overall its a superb image.
No tube amp in the under 2K range will be 'all things".
I've only heard good things on the A88, not one poor report. I will say tubes do make a huge difference. I bought a quad of EH 88's for my Jadis just to test as a comparison to the 90's, and did not care for the 88 at all. I also bought a 88 amp to test and same results, very flat.
Audio Research uses 88's and i do not care for ARC amp sound.
However Cayin makes a graet product as my Cayin 15 and 17's testify.
Bottom line, seek out some good KT88's and also play with the pre tubes. You have much more potential in this amp with the right tube.
I do not like the "british" sounding tubes, Mullards etc. I love RCA's NOS. Of course it can be expensive to roll tubes. Try to buy from a seller you trust and will take them back if you find that are not for you. Maybe a 25% re-stock fee may be part of the offer.
I have a local tech guy who helped me find incredible pre amp tubes for the Jadis and also for the Cayin 17.
Enjoy the amp in the meantime

Bob,

I am not sure if you already know this but since you have already called Steve Leung at VAS and confirmed your question on biasing are you aware that Cayin's new amp does everything you are looking for? The new 100-T is a 50/100 watt integrated cloning of the famous Marantz 7/9 combo. Retail is suggested to be $2,995 and this amp has a bias meter and pots adjustments on top of the amp! They are due out this month, call Steve and ask him about them. I am a Cayin dealer in Hawaii and just ordered two, they are supposed to be incredible! VAS's website describes the amp with no picture. I have photo's if you want? email me at qualityliving4@aol.com

Sringle, The new A100 is indeed one beautiful looking amp. The only drawback may be with the image of the 88 tube, which tends to be 'fluffy', that is big on the midrange, but lacking on the ends of the spectrum.
I need dynamics across the board, which the KT90 tube offers. A straight narrow tube, EL34/KT90 others have different dynmaics vs the 'tube-ier" 845, 211, 300B, KT88.
Though actually I want to hear a good 845 and may consider the big Cayin mono blocks 845.
Correct me if i'm wrong in any of the above.

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.