[rahzim]

Thanks for the review. I finally took the plunge and bought the WA7. I've been wanting to try a tube amp for awhile as I've always used SS amps.

 

[rahzim]

Quote:

How WA7 compare against Centrance DACmini, especially for HE500 and HD650?

Well, I currently have a centrance DACmini as my primary dac/amp driving my HD650's/Grado RS-1's. I just ordered the WA7 as I've been wanting to try tube amps for a long time. I'm not an expert, but I'll give you my opinion of the two dac/amp's once I've listened to the WA7 for a week or two.

 

[olegausany]

WA7 is am excellent match for HD650, I was trying to sell my HD650 but now they are staying cause I finally got sound I was looking for for many years

 

[Currawong]

I've been using both amps with a loaner pair of 1plus2s lately with good results, I thought I might add.

 

[luisn1117]

How does the ALO Audio Pan Am SQ differ without The Passport and the The Gateway? And how will this pair up with the HD 650's?

 

[stainless824]

I found that the WA7 is quite sensitive to power. I live right next to a shopping complex so any time other than late night the sound is quite rough and unrefined when connected to the grid. On top of that, I have a pc that draws 650 watts (850 watt power supply) connected in the same room (1 powerpoint above my wa7)
 
I didn't quite believe that power conditioning would do anything for my setup before this experience, so let me get that out of the way first. I was always curious with the high end power cables but never got around to getting one due to the price and the fact that a lot of people disagree on the topic (I'll only make a jump if there is fairly unanimous opinion on something and its not a FOTM thing). This won't be a post about power cables by the way. I don't want to instigate a riot.
 
I found this quite accidently. During a blackout, the generic surge protector that I used got blown out and no longer functions. Luckily i disconnected my WA7 before and my pc remains unaffected.
 
I had to replace it and ended up getting a Belkin PUREAV from the local electronic store which had them on sale for 30 dollars each for a 4 point one. I got it just because I needed something reliable and robust- seeing as how I just experienced one frying in front of my eyes.
 

Relatively cheap. They were normally 60 dollars and over 100 at one point in time from what I understand. 
 
When I got my WA7 hooked up and everything to the new surge protector though, I certainly did not expect the change in sound that I experienced...
 
Everything became marginally sharper and more well defined. Before the WA7 i would say was a warm, relaxing sound and while being engaging in its own right, did not exactly 'grip' my attention when it comes to the amount of detail it conveyed. The notes were also softer... now?
 
The sound are just so more.... Authoritative.
 
On later inspection of the packaging, turns out that the surge protector has some sort of emi/rfi filter mechanism which I suspect was the thing which altered the sound.
 
For a very cheap 30 dollar upgrade, i highly recommend something like this I highly doubt a usb cable upgrade would change the sound characteristics like this. If I had to say- the difference is like 10%, which is huge once you've reached this point of diminishing returns.
 
The only 2 things which could explain this phenomenon would be
 
1) My old surge protector that i previously used with the WA7 was dodgy
 
2) The power being fed to my place is so 'dirty' that a bit of EMI/RFI filtering could have made a world of difference.

 

[BDM-Fi]

Very interesting.
 
My WA7 will be delivered tomorrow. I have a Furman PL PLUS power conditioner that I use with my guitar amps. My house's electricity network is in need of an upgrade (I've noticed an improvement in noise when using the Furman). 
 
Is it recommended overall to use such a conditioner with headphone tube amps or can they have a detrimental impact on tone as well?

 

[stainless824]

Unsure. Just a pleasant surprise for me.

 

[rahzim]

Quote:

Very interesting.
 
My WA7 will be delivered tomorrow. I have a Furman PL PLUS power conditioner that I use with my guitar amps. My house's electricity network is in need of an upgrade (I've noticed an improvement in noise when using the Furman). 
 
Is it recommended overall to use such a conditioner with headphone tube amps or can they have a detrimental impact on tone as well

 
Great, looks like someone else will be receiving their WA7 the same day as me! I plan on comparing the onboard dac on the wa7 to my DACmini, both with my current stock usb cable (came with the DACmini) and the moon audio silver dragon usb cable I just ordered.
 
I've heard a lot of doubts about expensive usb cables, but moon audio allows returns for 30 days with no restocking fee's on their cables, so I guess I'm only risking the shipping costs if it's not worth it.
 
As for using a conditioner, I don't feel like it's necessary when the amp comes with the high quality external power supply. But if you do wind up using your conditioner, I'd be interested to see if you notice a difference through your WA7.

 

[Timekiller]

My WA7 shipped today!!!!

 

[rahzim]

Well, I just got my WA7 in the mail today. I hooked everything up and swapped the usb cable from my Centrance DACmini to the WA7.  My first impression is very good. I've only been listening to it for about an hour, but I immediately noticed a difference switching from the dacmini with both my HD650's and my RS-1's. The difference was particularly pronounced with the HD650's, I found them much more revealing.
 
I have a few albums from HDtracks that I tried out and it's nice to finally be able to hear a subtle yet pleasing difference between them and my normal 320bitrate MP3's. I'll be getting the silver dragon usb cable from moon audio later this week along with some rca interconnects so I can see if I prefer to use the dacmini's dac instead of the onboard dac of the WA7. I'm looking forward to listening to them to see if there's any noticeable improvement in sound quality.
 
But for now, I'm very happy switching from my dacmini to the wa7, at least for amplification purposes. These really do make the HD650 sound a lot better than I was used to with the DACmini.

 

[Fidelity182]

 
Both are just as good.

 

[MrTechAgent]

Nice as always , I really do like the packaging of the PanAm as well as the wa7 - LOL

 

[grizzlybeast]

If you were trying to power an lcd 2 to really loud levels without distorting would you go for the pan am or the lyr. I was sold on the pan amp until I saw the distortion factor. The WA7 is out of my reach price wise.

 

[CongeeBear]

I recall reading somewhere that Woo Audio would be sending everyone in the 1st batch of orders something to keep the glass block from shifting around -- is this true, or did I dream this up somehow?
 
I got mine for the pre-order price, and haven't received anything of that sort yet...