The new Cayin Pearl 30i certainly stands out already for its impressive appearance, but the entire design is sophisticated too.
The Chinese company Cayin proves that there is certainly not just junk coming from the Far East. This is pretty much the crème de la crème of Chinese audio brands. Also, definitely don’t expect “Ali” prices here, it’s all quality. In short: high-end from (far) east. And it has been for thirty years already, because with the Cayin Pearl 30i, the manufacturer celebrates exactly that anniversary. The 30i is a beast of a tube amplifier, composed of two different units: power supply and actual (integrated) amplifier. You can put them on top or side by side, just as you wish. In the power supply unit you’ll find four transformers, actually separate power supplies for left and right channels. And that for both low and high voltage.
Choose your mode
In the preamp stage of the Cayin Pearl 30i amplifier module, Mullard CV4004 and 12AX7 tubes are used, the driver stage is built around TungSol 6SN7GTBs and the output stage runs on KT-170 tubes. An extensive bias control should guarantee optimal tube settings. As for the sound ‘color’, you can choose from two modes: Triode mode (145 W rms/channel) with a harmonic, soft sound. Or go for Ultra-linear mode (230 W rms/channel) for the heavy workloads and higher dynamics. The volume control is adjustable in 106 steps. Both volume and other options are also controlled with the included remote control.
The Cayin Pearl 30i has a price tag that reads €22,000. At the time of writing, nothing can be found on the manufacturer ‘s homepage about the anniversary amplifier, but it can be found on Cayin’ s Facebook page! That is also exactly where the screen shot at the top of this article comes from.