What has the biggest impact , changing the 5ar4 or the 6de7's ????

Don't know about the Woo6 but it would have to be something really special to sound a lot better than the Woo3 with a Tungsol power tube and some decent input tubes. I compared mine to a very well known $1800 tube amp and all the more expensive amp had was more gain. I just upgraded my source and am going back thru some discs I know well and am just blown away by the Woo3. My new DT 770's sound great with this set up but can be much more easily over driven than other phones I have.

Must resist urge to look at Woo6 on Woo site but resistance is futile. Finding good tubes is not that hard but still a pain in the butt.

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I can relate to that. With my latest source upgrade my WA3 is even more impressive.
I'm using a Tung-Sol power tube and change between the stock input tubes and Amperex.

I have no desire to upgrade from the WA3 but it's always fun to look.

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The 3 is a simple and direct and short line from input to output. With quality parts and the right operating points there is no reason that it shouldn't be as good or better than most anything out there. Simple, direct and good implementation can be very hard to beat.

The tube for the driver/power section of the 6 are inexpensive around 3 to 4 dollars and there are some really good makers of this tube from RCA, GE, Tungsol, Raytheon and others I imagine. The tube was made from the early 50's on so it also was made in a very good period when tubes were still being made by experienced people and by companies that did not know their tube business was going to die soon. The one thing I do like about the 6 over the 3 is that you will have less cross-talk due to the much better separation of the channels but a little bit of cross-talk isn't always bad with headphones.

I would still like to hear the 6 though just for a different flavor.

The Woo 6 drives Grados as well as the Mapletree amp; in a word,fantastic.

I just remembered I have a bunch of nos Mullard GZ33's, which are the ST or as some call them, the coke bottle shape, rectifiers. These are very nice tubes as far as rectifiers go. They can not handle the current of a 34 but for this amp they would work fine. So many possibilities and here I am way far away. I wonder if the 6 comes in different colors?

That was the exact endorsement I was waiting for...Thanks! All my cans are low impedance...so this is very good news.


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Hello all,

Having struggling for 2 weeks I will prepare to make a dive and get a WA6. Have spoken to Woo and will customise my unit with additional RCA input with a toggle switch (so that I can hook it up to both my MF A3.5 and SA-14 at the same time). This mod will set the price up 15% but I think it will provide better flexibility. I will stick with single-end configuration.

I am also reserving budget for a good 5AR4/GX34 type in the near future ( after I fully burn-in the amp and get a good feel about its house sound and what it can do). I am also asking Woo to tweak my unit to have better synergy with K701 and GS1000, but without sacrificing too much on my beloved HD650s.

I did inquire about component upgrades (capacitors, volume pot...etc.) but Woo suggested that I better use the money for good tube upgrades in the future.

So, what else am I missing before I send the money ? Any suggestions / recommendations would be heartily welcome.

FWIW, I have owned and listened extensively to a Little Dot II, a Cyber 20, both sold now, and a Raptor. So the AW6 will be my 4th tube amp but I still consider myself green in this area.

Many thanks in advance.

F. Lo

I wouldn't want a switch because that is just something else in the signal path and you have little control over the material used in a switch unless you make or modify the switch, which is what I did with my preamp by using pure silver for the internal contacts.

I would just get a good metal base 34 and a few pairs of older 6DE7's in RCA, Tung-sol and maybe Raytheon. For all I know they were all made by the same company but often Tung-sol did maker their own and RCA and GE could have swapped back and forth. Sylvania is in there to on this tube. On the metal base 34 you will find them made in the 50's in Mullard, Philips, Amperex and Valvo but Valvo and Philips are the same. With those tubes the amp should shine. If you do use a switch I would get one of the silver contact ones, which are available from different sources.

Thanks for the advise.

I too did struggle about the additonal switch, but I think the trade-off is worth in my case. But I will looking into a swtich with pure silver contact.

Regards,
F. Lo

I'm in the process of adding a selectable input setup on my amp also. I'm thinking about using a TOCOS mini toggle switch from Michael Percy Audio:

page 14 at http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf

They have silver contacts are very affordable. Do you guys think these are worth trying or can you recommend something else better?

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Yes, he has some very good stuff. I have purchased from him for years and highly recommend him.

Yes, my WA6 will have a TOCOS switch

I also order Cardas RCA connectors in lieu of the stock ones. Woo said the IEC inlet is good enough to stay. Not worth spending additional bucks.

That's about it. Counting down....

F. Lo

I too will be buying tubes . It looks like tons of options for the g34 but very little for the 6de7 .

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Do you mean it drives Grados as well as the EAR+ HD???

And... Does it drive Senns as well as the WA3???