Aloha Head-Fiers,

I recently picked up a used WA2 on Ebay which came with the stock tubes and upgraded 5998 power tubes. My amp has the preamp section blocked out which is a shame as I would liked to have run it as such. I ran it for a few weeks on the stock tubes and was impressed with its performance with my HD580 and Grado GS1000i. All the reviews I have seen say to use a high impedance cans but the Grados work really well with this amp. They are very detailed with strong clear bass and only the slightest hum on very quiet portions of a track if I crank the volume. After a few weeks, I popped in the 5998 tubes and then a few days later some National driver tubes. Each step was an improvement to my ears. Especially in the bass where the fuzziness went away and I could hear more nuanced bass string harmonics. I never messed with the rectifier tubes but may try it for fun.

One thing I really like is that my family and friends always want to try it out when they see it. They never paid any attention to my main stereo system which costs a pretty penny more than this amp (guess the tubes get to them). I have them listen to it with my favorites playlist and they are always amazed. Hoping to create a few more audio enthusiasts and get them chuck their earbuds.

I listen to all sorts of music off Tidal and my NAS going through a NAD M33. I have had various solid state amps and a modded X-Cans that I still use daily in my office but this is the first headphone amp I have owned that made me feel like I was in the middle of the music. I was listening to "Explorations in Space and Time" and was floored by the first track with the various percussion instruments surrounding my body very specifically located in space and so clear and nuanced. It was a "chicken skin" moment as we like to say here in Hawaii. The third track starts with a scream and it really startled me. I now put it into my rotation as it is a great recording that highlights the amp/headphone synergy.

One thing I have noticed is that some recordings I listened to before where people complain about the background noise is very evident now and I am almost distracted by it. Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard is an album that I tend to listen direct from my NAD because it mutes the table noise a bit.

I am looking forward to picking up one of the newer Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic headphones to demo with this amp and I intend to keep this amp for a long long time just like my X-cans. Hope I never run out of tubes for this beauty. If you got to this point, thanks for reading and I hope it was worth your time. This hobby is so much fun!