Cayin A-50T: An affordable tube amplifier
Vacuum tube amplifiers are the Holy Grail for a lot of audiophiles, but they tend to be a lot more expensive than solid-state amps.
Priced at $1,295, the A-50T is one of the most affordable all-tube integrated amplifiers on the market, but I wasn't thinking about that as I ran my fingers over its half-inch thick front panel and fondled the beautifully machined knobs, or admired the quality of the rear panel's RCA jacks and hefty, gold-plated speaker wire binding posts. It's beautiful and the A-50T's quality is on par with amps that sell for $2,000 or more.
I reviewed the Cayin for Playback magazine a few months ago, and you can read the full review here.
(Credit:
Cayin)
Cayin is one of China's oldest and largest high-end audio manufacturers; they're justifiably proud of the fact that they build every significant part of the A-50T in-house. Got a turntable? The A-50T can be ordered with a built-in phono preamp for an extra $250; that still leaves three line-level inputs.
I had an immediate and overwhelmingly positive reaction to the sound of this amp. It's warm and juicy, like a wet kiss, but I never felt the A-50T was soft or lacking in midrange or treble resolution. Bass is wonderfully ripe, what can I say, 35 watts never sounded this potent before.
The little amp does "space" like the high-priced spread; all of my better sounding CDs and SACDs projected huge, three-dimensional soundstages with gobs of depth and full-bodied images.
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
From your post, I gather you've not heard a "modern" tube amp, much less own one. These tube amps don't just look nice, they pack just as much hi-tech behind the tubes and far better build quality than many solid state audio receivers and amps. Yes, you get more wattage from solid state for the price; but, as a whole, not better sound. And you can't customize the sound of solid state amps, like you can with any tube amp by swapping out the tubes. Roll 'em!
- by pubmat October 2, 2008 5:36 PM PDT
- pssst....WES#1--it may be a "modern amp, put its a PRIMITIVE design. Its inefficient as hell, and you strangely avoided the other points I made: lousy s/n, higher distortion, and MUCH more expensive watt per watt...this amp is a JOKE, 35 WATTS PER CHANNEL??? For 1300 bucks??? I can get a 500.00 receiver that would blow this away, AND be more versatile. And yes I've heard them, and they dont impress me....give me a high current 5-8 channel amp and a great pre.....NO CONTEST.
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