I don't post here much anymore due to personal issues with my hearing, but having read these posts in digest, I wanted to stress for those reading these posts to help select a purchase that YMMV and IMO - there are no absolutes in audio. Audition where you can.   Enjoy music!

Hi fellow Schiit listeners!   I have purchased a modi2 as part of my easy PC listening rig. The modi2 sits on S mode so uses standard drivers, has no external power requirements so was perfect for an easy and lazy listening solution. (My main rig has 6-7 switches to get into listening mode...

  I paid $650 for a used pair. NOS is probably going to be more - if such a set even exist!

  The 596 sure is worth a roll. Its a damn shame they are being sold for silly money now.

WOW! For me its almost the exact opposite.   In the WA5 i would say the 596 turns the amp into a bass monster, no other rectifier I own, including the WE422a can match the awesome bass these rectifiers help push out, but the 5AR4 in the Woo are really euphonic, mellow, somewhat laid back with...

To my ears those tubes are very very different in the WA5. But I agree that they would, in an ideal world, sell for similar sorts.

  Wow, by the time I picked up on the hype (and thats probably why they are so expensive now) to try a pair, they cost me $100 each to get to the UK.

Its sonicly identical. The bonus is that its cheaper and has a 12V heater requirement rather than 6V. 12SN7 were introduced to me using Mapletree gear, Glen was able to make me up a set of adapters for my WA5 that put the tube heaters in parallel with rather than series, as my WA5 produced 12V...

I also have the TA300b, dificult to describe really how it sounds other than it is faultless in its presentation and it sounds "right", there are no detractors like the 300b that came before it. However it is a fussy pairing, it really is revealing of the rectifer and 6SN7 type you put before...

  I have always dreamed of trying a pair of Tak 274b's in my WA5 but I just cant justify the price. For a little more I could get a WEE + some SR009

Its a shame to see a tube that was found for Woo and head-fi fans has turned into re sellers paradise. I'm pleased my pair went to a head-fi member and not to be resold by the tube trolls.

My pair have mouse ear getters not round. So these are of different construction.

Ill check my other pair at home tonight. On close inspection they have slightly different conductors connecting the plates to the pins. And the material used to create the support structure is dull rather than copper coloured. But the plates look identical down to the number of holes in the...

The internal structure at a causual glance looks identical to the 596 I have and the pair I recently sold.   $700 is a ridiculous eye gouging price to charge for this tube.

  I am sure you will be delighted with the result, though my condolences for your wallet! 

  I found the same when comparing the black and brown base 5Z4GY

Mine are GEC and have a great euphoric sound to them without any veil or roll-off, the pins are quite thin on mine however, thinner than the pins on the other 5U4 types Ive used in the Woo. Since I do so much rolling now I use a pair of Glenn's socket savers for rectifiers.

  The 596 will at the very least, take your tube rolling experience to another level, it may blow you away - everyone on these boards loves it except me it would seem!   I find the tube, forward, clinical and unbearable to listen to for more than 10 minutes. It does have however the most...

  To my ears that sentence is the wrong way around  but you didn't ask me so ill say no more!

  I purchased 6 of them at $50 a pair. Word on these boards causes popularity to soar and the tube trolls catch on and BAM! the price rockets. 

+1

Received a pair of the new black plate 5Z4G from Langrex, also took a chance at the Mullard brown base GZ30 at 20 quid a pop it was worth the roll. Have the GZ30 in the WA5 right now with B36 and TA300b and like what I'm hearing so far - very dynamic, great with 80's music anyway. Kenny Loggins...

I think we are seeing here the birth of a new popular tube type, and the price rise is a natural thing. Stock up because the prices will continue to go up.

I live 45 minutes away from Portsmouth. Though I'm ashamed to have never visited Nelsons 104   Welcome to headfi James.