Cayin C9

$2,799 $2,899

Cayin Audio's famed amplification packs up to join you back on the road with the launch of C9, featuring 4.4mm and 3.5mm inputs and outputs. Headfonics praise it to the roof as it "revitalises tubes on the go, a traditional niche in our hobby that seems to be forgotten", going on to name it Best Portable Amp of 2021.

This battery-powered, tube and solid-state hybrid lands in time for use on your office desks and in hotel rooms, establishing your reference headphone listening anywhere you so choose. [See Product Desc. For More]

$2,899

Our Price | $2,799

Product Description

C9 is a fully-balanced, truly differential amplifier built upon the essentials establishing a device as basically thoroughly engineered.

READ ALSO The full blow-by-blow story of C9's technical innovations

A high operating voltage of more than 16 volts and a reliance on discrete parts for over 90 per cent of the design means C9 is not only capable of putting out over 4 watts per channel, but also ensuring it is the cleanest, most linear kind of signal possible.

Achieving 125dB of signal-to-noise ratio would not have been otherwise possible in a discrete design, with all the benefits that brings, without exacting layout. The input section exists on the popular Nutube. C9's dual timbre circuit revolves around two of Korg's fluorescent triodes or toggled solid-state FETs, the philosophical transistor alternative.

READ ALSO C9 blurs the line with desktop amplifiers

The delicate input signal is then passed to a discrete solid-state output stage that can be switched between working in pure Class A mode or Class AB. Built with individual transistors of Cayin's choosing allows great control over tuning and an innately linear open-loop circuit, with minimal negative feedback, to be fashioned, while producing genuine current for demanding headphone loads.

C9 is a brute in ballet shoes, confirmed by the big volume pot controlling dual precise MUSES resistor ladder attenuator parts occurring after the driver stage, kept far from the input signal for maximum integrity. 

READ ALSO The benefits of adding input tubes to a circuit

Sources like Cayin's N7, iBasso Audio's DX260 and HiBy Music's RS6R8II and RS8 will never be better pampered than via C9. Use it in a mobile stack acting as the platform for flagship trans-portable sound. Everything from Focal to a Fostex and Rosson Audio Designs plus Yamaha and ZMF Headphones is applicable. 

"And while DAPs come and go", Twister6 believes "C9 should last you a while to enhance any source you pair it up with". Headfonia say it "should really be the first amp to look at to get four completely different sound signatures that's simply impressive".

See how Cayin's design chops translate to their desktop amplifier offerings here, or view our other DAC and amplifier offerings here.

Product Specifications

Amp Class A/AB discrete
Output power <4,100 mW per channel
SNR <125dB
THD <0.0046%

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