woo competition? - Page 4

He spent two weeks telling me it was normal. Then when I told him it was unacceptable and I was sending the unit back he said he could fix it. Not stellar customer service.

Hence my new personal rule - I NEVER do business with someone who does not have a phone number.

There is also problems with the Sophia burning out and the tubestore said it should't be used in that type of amp. I haven't heard the Woo so I don't know if it is any good or not but the price to me seems high for what is being offered.

Being the right of a customer, I would insist to have it fix by sending the unit back to Woo or a full refund if the problem persist without any clue. And Jack is always helpful to have all problems resolved, a very responsive seller in my past experience. But sorry to hear you have such transformer buzzing, the mostly occured the hissing is about the loop ground noise of the entire rig or connection.

I don't know why tubestore told you about that if unless he/she has deeply enough inspect the desigh topology of which Woo amps shouldn't use the SP 274B. I have also had bad experience in a faulty SP274B while about a month in used with my ex-WA6SE and that should be caused by the manufacturer's QC but the amp desigh for sure. I have a new one replaced in a week or so after reported and sent back the failed tube to Jacke. For the replaced one, it servicre the WA6SE just perfect until I sold it for an up-grade to WA22 with EML 5U4U instead of a Sophia Princess.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Unfortunately some transformers hum or buzz mechanically. Sometimes you can fix it by tightening, or loosening the mounting hardware. You as a customer shouldn't have to do that though. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be happy either. I have to say my 2 year old WA6 has been dead silent so far. I agree with you that not being able to call and talk to a human can be a real turn off, especially when you're having problems.

I wish you the best

Glenn

I thought you meant the MKIII. Sorry bout that. I've owned Little Dot's in the past. I was not very impressed with the build quality to be honest. As a matter a fact I thought my Little Dot 2+ was a fire hazard. It was unfused and ran way too hot. My 2++ had to be sent back twice due to defects. I'm not saying current models are bad because I have no experience with any of them. When you get a bad taste in your mouth with a company, it usually stays. At least with me it does.

I have a  WA22 and it is dead silent!!  I would send it (your amp.) back!!!!

 

My Sophia Princess died at 6 months old,,,interesting,,

 

FYI,,My Eddie Current "Balancing Act" is not yet made,, (so my impressions are not available),, but it is over 2 X the price of the WA22. 

Edited by markmaxx - 5/9/10 at 8:55am

mrkmaxx, I'll wait for your impression between the WA22 and Balancing Act. The "BA" still in my wish list but it's too much for me in the moment so I go for a WA22. BTW, what's the configuration you've decided for your BA, thanks.

I was on the list for the next run of Balancing Act, but this came along!  http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/487629/fs-my-seat-on-current-balancing-act-pre-order-list#post_6628283
 

Thanks buddy.

Ya I would say over 2x the price. It seems that you are paying over $5000.00 for the BA and you still will need tubes.

 

It still remains to be shown that balanced is actually better than single ended, and not just louder.

 

USG

I agree, at least in the balanced systems I have tried.

 

ss

I think it was very telling that the Luxman P1 didn't come out in balanced.

I feel that amps that might be a little on the underpowered side would benefit from having balanced output, due to the increased current.  An amp like Woo Audio 5 has so much power on tap that I'm always stuck in the lower ranges of my volume control (9-10 o'clock).  I guess that this is due to using 300B tubes and being capable of driving large speakers also.

 

On my Stax 717 / 007 combo I actually did a test with simultaneously attaching RCA and Balanced to my Perfectwave DAC.  When switching back and forth (with mono switches) the only change I could detect was mainly an increase in volume, and not in other aspects of the sound.  I know balanced is technically better, but even on a very revealing headphone and DAC that I used, the differences where almost too insignificant to tell.