Strictly necessary cookies keep you signed in. Optional ones help us see which pages land and which don't. Pick what you want — you can change it any time. Details.
Amplifiers
Buy hand-wired Chinese tube amplification and portable players that punch above their price in named press.
where to hear it
brand intel · public snapshot
rooms in 5 states
rooms outside the US
strongest states
frequently carried alongside
public snapshot · members get the full intel for their brand portfolio · see how →
about cayin
Cayin is the audio brand of Zhuhai Spark Electronic Equipment Co., founded in 1993 in Zhuhai, China. The company started building tube amplifiers under the Spark name and adopted the Cayin brand for its hi-fi products in 2003. Its reputation rests on hand-wired tube construction sold at prices well below what comparable Western brands charge — a value proposition that has made it a staple recommendation among tube audiophiles and head-fi enthusiasts. The catalog runs in two directions. On the home side, integrated and power tube amplifiers like the A-50T, A-300B, and the CS-150A, plus CD players and the SP-10A preamplifier. On the personal-audio side, Cayin has built a substantial portable line — digital audio players (DAPs) and tube-stage portable gear — that gave the brand a second following entirely separate from its home-audio base. Cayin sits firmly in the recognized second-tier import bracket in the US. Stereophile has reviewed multiple models including the A-50T, SP-10A, and A-300B, and the brand reaches American buyers through a broad dealer network: USA Tube Audio handles distribution, with the line also carried by Bloom Audio, MusicTeck, and Elusive Disc. That dealer breadth, unusual for a value tube brand, is part of why Cayin is a default name in conversations about affordable tube sound. It competes against other Chinese and European tube houses where the buying decision turns on price-to-performance. Design and manufacturing are in China.