I'm not sure - I've never had the opportunity to hear the WA2. I can you tell that the stock tubes with the Stratus are excellent and you don't need to change them to make the Stratus excellent.
I'm not sure - I've never had the opportunity to hear the WA2. I can you tell that the stock tubes with the Stratus are excellent and you don't need to change them to make the Stratus excellent.
The stock tubes are great and the amp sounds wonderful right out of the box. But you will want to try different tubes. It's one of the fun (but expensive) parts of owning such an amp. One of the many things I like about the Stratus is that Donald made 'value engineering' decisions to maximize the value of the amp exclusive of the tubes used. He has certainly used good quality tubes but not the most expensive. Instead he focused on the quality of internal parts. And, the result, to my ear is an amp that can transmit the differences and nuances of the various tube combinations so, if we choose, we can further enhance our listening experience by dialing in the sound we like with the rest of our components. I can hear the difference in every tube change I have made - driver, power or rectifier. Everything sounds good. But there are some magical tubes out there and the Stratus lets us hear the subtlety and nuance of these tubes.
I fully agree with Bigsecret! The great thing about rolling tubes on the Stratus is that you can fine-tune the sound to suit your liking and different headphones. When you change any components upstream, the Stratus still allows you to make the final adjustment on the sound, though I agree tube-rolling does take a toll on the wallet Nevertheless, there are always cheap and good tubes around that works fantastically with the Stratus. One rectifier tube which I like very much these day is the RCA 5U4G. While it is much cheaper than the U52 and EML I have, i find it to be just as enjoyable with its musical and transparent sound. Next up, a Jan-CRC-5U4G coming on its way...
New stratus owner checking in. I have a problem and was wondering if anyone could help. I just brought a new cyro pearl 6N1P from here: http://www.partsconnexion.com/tube_new_cryo_6n1p.html. Problem is that when I try to use it, it causes the circuit breaker to my room to pop. The circuit breaker is 15 amps. House was built 6 yrs ago. I've never had any issues with the circuit breaker popping before. I've run dual questyle CMA800R's, EF-6, SuSy Dynahi, mjolnir, etc without any issues. When I put the old 6N1P-EV back in, everything works fine. The old one was a reflektor brand, new one is voshkod. Is there something wrong with the amp? Is my circuit breaker just old? I did notice that on the box the plate current and transconductance are different between the two 6N1P's - see pic. I have no idea what those two terms mean. Is the new voshkod just out of spec for the amp?
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Nevertheless, there are always cheap and good tubes around that works fantastically with the Stratus. One rectifier tube which I like very much these day is the RCA 5U4G. While it is much cheaper than the U52 and EML I have, i find it to be just as enjoyable with its musical and transparent sound. Next up, a Jan-CRC-5U4G coming on its way... 
