Woo Audio amps

[Pio]

Originally Posted by Pio

I own the W2 and a pair of Senn 700's. sounds amazing if you like rich full vs analytical. However I prefer to use the Woo with Beyers and pair the Senns with a Benchmark DAC1.

Ps: not to say that the Woo / Senn combo isn't detailed, it just doesn't kick ur ass dissecting music. The reason why I prefer the Senn / Benchmark combo is because the Senns are very full bodied already, the tubes adds some more warmth. So for digital playback, I like the woo/ Senn combo. For vinyl, it's too warm for me. The Beyers, especially the 880's, is my go to for vinyl and the Woo.

Also, I waited (for what seemed like) an eternity for my Woo. I caught them right around a show and the wait was close to 2 months. However, it was worth it!!!

[djwhog]

Jack was at a NYC show last weekend, I had ordered on last Sat and it shipped this Friday in 5 days. So maybe your order was delayed since he had a ton of orders?

In fact I was email from Jack to responded to a few questions while he told me he was at the show.

I can get where both of you guys are coming from on the digital aspect of the Senn's. And I am aware that the WA-6se is not as tube like as some of the other amps even Woo makes, but I like that detailed digital analytical sound that is almost clinical. I know that is how even many of the 800s are talked about. And most folks either love it or not.

I would think that a record on the table would tone that done some, but I would agree that i think there are other cans that most likely do a better job and warmer playback.

[djwhog]

Just drove to FedEx to pick up the Amp.

it is cold here so I un-boxed the gear set it on my table down stairs to allow to get to room temp.

I need to go off to work today, but tonight I will put the tubes in and connect it and then snap a few picks too.

1st impression... it is much larger and heavier than I thought.... Built like a tank. Reminds me of the McIntosh gear...

I like it

[djwhog]

A few pics and a few initial observations and a question for the Sophia tube owners.

OK sound is powerful to the x factor squared. WOW.

1st CD spin is AJA MOFI, horns are incredible. You can here the reverb in the ends of the notes like never I have heard before.


So all those people that say the 700s are weak in the bass, NAA, heck I can feel the inner ear hairs moving and the air flow. You can seriously get hurt if not careful And this is in Pure Stereo on the MX 150 set to bypass on all tone controls.

Clear, powerful, mega definition, all an understatement. Woo recommends 150 hours to break it in, I have like 1hr. So it should get better.

PS I did get all the best tubes offered

Question:
On the Sophia tube I notice it only lights at the top points and a very little bit of glow down low. Is this normal? I was thinking that this big tube was going to be lit up brighter top to bottom?

OK so look how big this gear is next to the little dot amp I was using.

I can run the 650 and the 700 at the same time, it has a low and high impedance jacks.

Impressive... so I thought the 700s were great before over the 650s, well part of this was I was lacking power to drive the 650s the correct way Yes the little dot amp drove them loud, but they always seemed muddy and thin. The muddy is so much less, the thin is no more.

However, the 700s are still so much better to me.. Now back to listening and breaking in.

[kb7215]

I was looking at the great images of your WA6-SE and noted you were wondering why the 274B Driver tube wasn't brightly lit up. I believe the 274B tube in the image is actually a Shuguang 274B and not a Sophia 274B. The Sophia 274B has a black base and two large parallel mesh grids. The Sophia 274B base has the words Sophia Electric Princess 274B/n written on it. The Shuguang 274B has a brown base and and two small parallel solid grids. It has the wording Electron Tube 274B Made in China written on the glass and not on the base.

I have the WA5-LE and WA-22 amps and went for the Sophia 274B tubes as options (the WA5-LE has two 274B tubes and the WA-22 has one 274B tube). The Sophia 274B is unmistakable when lit and it looks exactly the images on the Woo website. The Shuguang 274B barely looks like it's lit when operating.

BTW, I'm currently trying out a WA-6 lent me by my audio dealer and it came with the Shuguang 274B. I'll probably wind up going with the WA6-SE as you did and will get some of the optional tubes.

Finally, I have a Woo WES to drive my Stax 009 headphones.

Ken

[harri009]

The above sounds about right. Here is a pic of my Sophia.




















image-519552694.jpg

image-800473127.jpg

[djwhog]

Originally Posted by kb7215

I was looking at the great images of your WA6-SE and noted you were wondering why the 274B Driver tube wasn't brightly lit up. I believe the 274B tube in the image is actually a Shuguang 274B and not a Sophia 274B. The Sophia 274B has a black base and two large parallel mesh grids. The Sophia 274B base has the words Sophia Electric Princess 274B/n written on it. The Shuguang 274B has a brown base and and two small parallel solid grids. It has the wording Electron Tube 274B Made in China written on the glass and not on the base.

I have the WA5-LE and WA-22 amps and went for the Sophia 274B tubes as options (the WA5-LE has two 274B tubes and the WA-22 has one 274B tube). The Sophia 274B is unmistakable when lit and it looks exactly the images on the Woo website. The Shuguang 274B barely looks like it's lit when operating.

BTW, I'm currently trying out a WA-6 lent me by my audio dealer and it came with the Shuguang 274B. I'll probably wind up going with the WA6-SE as you did and will get some of the optional tubes.

Finally, I have a Woo WES to drive my Stax 009 headphones.

Ken

"Shuguang 274B and not a Sophia 274B"

wow I am an idiot! You are so correct

I did not see the other tube that was packed by Jack in a seperate foam, I guess I was so EXCITED to get it up and going I put in the stock tube, I saw the empty Sophia box and that that was the tube, I have so so eye sight since I have had both corneas rebuilt in the past 6 months. So long story short MR. Wu told me to try the stock tube to make sure all was OK and compare the diff, I thought there was no stock tube and then I discovered the upgraded Sophia, so when I put it in after 50+ hours what a diff.

Good thing is it was a night to day upgrade, no hum at all and the sound is even more powerful, in fact I was able to lower the gain by about 15% for the same amount of volume and on top of that the sound sage is like WOW!

I am so impressed but I need to wait a little bit more to give a review in full. But I am happy beyond words.

Thank you guys too you pointing this out to me, sorry I missed it, i have worked 60 hrs in the past 3 days ugg!

[harri009]

Originally Posted by djwhog

"Shuguang 274B and not a Sophia 274B"

wow I am an idiot! You are so correct

I did not see the other tube that was packed by Jack in a seperate foam, I guess I was so EXCITED to get it up and going I put in the stock tube, I saw the empty Sophia box and that that was the tube, I have so so eye sight since I have had both corneas rebuilt in the past 6 months. So long story short MR. Wu told me to try the stock tube to make sure all was OK and compare the diff, I thought there was no stock tube and then I discovered the upgraded Sophia, so when I put it in after 50+ hours what a diff.

Good thing is it was a night to day upgrade, no hum at all and the sound is even more powerful, in fact I was able to lower the gain by about 15% for the same amount of volume and on top of that the sound sage is like WOW!

I am so impressed but I need to wait a little bit more to give a review in full. But I am happy beyond words.

Thank you guys too you pointing this out to me, sorry I missed it, i have worked 60 hrs in the past 3 days ugg!

Great, glad your happy!!!

[kb7215]

I decided to remove the bottom plate on my WA5-LE PSU so I could see how the stock feet were mounted (I always remove the stock feet on my audio equipment and substitute HRS Nimbus units instead - even on my MC2301 amps). Anyway the safe thing to do is to remove the two Sophia 274B Rectifier tubes before flipping the unit over. In my usual clumsy manner I managed to snap off the plastic foot from one of the tubes - this plastic foot has a key that allows you to properly orient the tube into the socket. I figured great, I just smoked a $160 tube. I emailed Jack Wu who calmly told me to carefully line up the pins on the tube with the proper holes in the socket and "all should be ok". The 274B tube has four pins and the tube socket has eight holes. You can bet I checked and rechecked the pin lineup before forcing the tube into the socket. What do you know? It still worked!

I figured the plastic foot was an integral part of the tube seal system and once broken, the vacuum was gone and the tube was kaput. You can bet I'm super careful anytime I remove tubes to test or roll them from now on.

Ken

[djwhog]

Well about 50 hrs now with the Sophia 274B tube in the WA6-SE and over 125 hours total on the amp. This thing is sick, so clean I feel like I am an engineer in the booth. I spun the the sacd of Diana Krall and then the Lee Ritenour Rhythm sessions disc tonight. This disc by Lee is a good disc to test with as well as a great listen too if you don't own it.

I am in very happy to date with this amp and the combo of the HD700s.

To me it has it all, great attack, tight quick accurate base, clean well defined mids and the highs are the total selling point that put the sound stage into a league of it's own.

The amp sounds a tad warm tube like yet has that digital feel of power, effortless power and speed and yet it plays towards that digital feel IMOP.

Far surpasses how good I thought it would be. I so love my speakers, but this combo sure gives them a run for the money and when you want to have that totally private personal experience it brings it on home.