How often are Cayin TA-30's for sale?

I also miss my Cayin TA-30 and wonder just how much better it would sound had I kept it and rolled some nice NOS tubes in it. I barely scratched the surface trying other tubes while trying not to spend too much and that was the mistake I wished I could rectify.

Right after I sold it I thought that comparatively, to solid state, it was too flabby in the bass and a bit too rich in the mids and rolled off in the highs and that I made the right choice. Wrong.

It was and is a darn good integrated and all it needed were better tubes. Having said that, if you want to go the tube route and keep in your budget, maybe a Jolida with EL-84s? I've been told that it's simply sublime by others here.

All the best,
Nonoise

Thanks Nonoise,

Thinking I may just suck it up and buy the Cayin instead of waiting for another one to come around. I know I can't go wrong with it so might as well.

Four or five come up a year, more or less.

Strike up a conversation with the owner and find out how well it was taken care of, # owners, hours, cosmetics, maintenance, serial # to check age with Cayin etc.

I would rather pay up for a cherry specimen, with light use.

It looks like the one listed here has all of Paul's mods. I owned one and it's a solid integrated for the money. I did pay significantly less for mine but it only had the focus control.
I do feel at that price range there are other options out there. Are you just limiting yourself to an integrated? The reason I'm asking is that for $100.00 or so more Jim Nicholls from JWN amps could build you an excellent el34/ kt88 based amp that betters the Cayin in all areas.
If it's an integrated you're after you could probably do alot worse than the Cayin

I have one with all the mods that I have not been using lately (I went to a 300b setup with some Altec 604) I found and tried many tubes and loved the amp. If you need further insite let me know. I may part with it at some point, but had not considered it til now...

RW