[Badas]

  Is anyone able to compare the WA7/WA7tp with the Schiit Mjolnir/Gungnir (pairing with the LCD-X of course)? I've never heard a tube amp, and I'm a bit confused as why it's so popular. It does look awesome, I'll admit

Skip both and get a WA22. It kills my SS amp. Absolutely destroys it actually.
 

 

[Travis9]

 
Skip both and get a WA22. It kills my SS amp. Absolutely destroys it actually.
 

Oh man, that's probably a pretty hefty price tag.. How much would a rig like yours run?  I really don't want to spend more than $2,000. 

 

[Travis9]

And i gotta say, that amp is much bigger than I imagined

 

[Badas]

  Oh man, that's probably a pretty hefty price tag.. How much would a rig like yours run?  I really don't want to spend more than $2,000. 

 
 

  And i gotta say, that amp is much bigger than I imagined

$2K + $200 worth of NOS tubes. Nothing sounds like it tho. Holographic, warm and detailed. It is more detailed than my Oppo HA-1. If you don't want to spend more than $2K buy second hand.
 
I thought it was a nice footprint. Not too big. Fits well on my rack.
 

 

 

[Contrails]

 If you don't want to spend more than $2K buy second hand

 
Good advice.  You will also get some extra tubes with it.

 

[Travis9]

   
 

$2K + $200 worth of NOS tubes. Nothing sounds like it tho. Holographic, warm and detailed. It is more detailed than my Oppo HA-1. If you don't want to spend more than $2K buy second hand.
 
I thought it was a nice footprint. Not too big. Fits well on my rack.
 

 

Stupid question - Does it come with a built in DAC?

 

[TimeLord]

Stupid question - Does it come with a built in DAC?

Not a stupid question. It's a pure all tube amp; no DAC.

See link for specifics. http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa22.html

 

[Badas]

  Stupid question - Does it come with a built in DAC?

Nope. I use the Auralic Vega.

 

[kyle1010]

Is anyone able to compare the WA7/WA7tp with the Schiit Mjolnir/Gungnir (pairing with the LCD-X of course)? I've never heard a tube amp, and I'm a bit confused as why it's so popular. It does look awesome, I'll admit

I think I can answer this. I listened to Schiit's whole line of solid state amps with my LCD-Xs from bottom to top at CanJam recently. They sound fantastically clear and dynamic, but dry dry and more dry compared to tubes. If you're going for accuracy as in what the artist intended you to hear then go for the Schiit. Tube amps sound just as detailed but can give a warmer, smoother, and sometimes full on liquid 3D sound that is flat out beautiful. They do this by inherently adding small amounts of even order harmonic distortions. Not the crackley harsh odd order distortions like if you crank crappy earbuds to the max on a phone, but basically inaudible rich and pleasing distortions that sound amazing. Kinda hard to explain, you gotta hear it.

Anyway, another advantage of tubes is you can change the sound signature to what you like. Solid state Schiit you're stuck with how it sounds out of the box like it or not. My advice would be to start with the WA7tp if you wanna try tubes. I switched from that amp to a WA22 recently, but kept the WA7 cuz it's that good. Also, swapping tubes for the WA7tp is relatively cheap. You can get that amp to sound more flat and accurate, wide and clean, or fully deep, lush, and liquid for $30-$150 per set of upgrade tubes. It's so cool. And it looks fantastic! Also, it is a known fact that even the guys at Woo advertise in their marketing, that the WA7tp and LCD-Xs are a marvelous pairing. You won't be disappointed. There's even an extensive tube swapping guide thread for the WA7 here on head-fi. Anyway, good luck! I'm excited to see what you decide!

Edit: Disadvantage of tubes is they don't last forever. I think most tubes are rated to last 5000-9000hrs from new or New Old Stock(NOS..older model tubes that have been sitting around somewhere for decades new and unused). That's a LOT of listening. Most people stock up on the ones they really like though. However, some of the absolute best sounding ones are a bit hard to come by, but not impossible and DEFINITELY worth it.

 

[Travis9]

I think I can answer this. I listened to Schiit's whole line of solid state amps with my LCD-Xs from bottom to top at CanJam recently. They sound fantastically clear and dynamic, but dry dry and more dry compared to tubes. If you're going for accuracy as in what the artist intended you to hear then go for the Schiit. Tube amps sound just as detailed but can give a warmer, smoother, and sometimes full on liquid 3D sound that is flat out beautiful. They do this by inherently adding small amounts of even order harmonic distortions. Not the crackley harsh odd order distortions like if you crank crappy earbuds to the max on a phone, but basically inaudible rich and pleasing distortions that sound amazing. Kinda hard to explain, you gotta hear it.

Anyway, another advantage of tubes is you can change the sound signature to what you like. Solid state Schiit you're stuck with how it sounds out of the box like it or not. My advice would be to start with the WA7tp if you wanna try tubes. I switched from that amp to a WA22 recently, but kept the WA7 cuz it's that good. Also, swapping tubes for the WA7tp is relatively cheap. You can get that amp to sound more flat and accurate, wide and clean, or fully deep, lush, and liquid for $30-$150 per set of upgrade tubes. It's so cool. And it looks fantastic! Also, it is a known fact that even the guys at Woo advertise in their marketing, that the WA7tp and LCD-Xs are a marvelous pairing. You won't be disappointed. There's even an extensive tube swapping guide thread for the WA7 here on head-fi. Anyway, good luck! I'm excited to see what you decide!

Edit: Disadvantage of tubes is they don't last forever. I think most tubes are rated to last 5000-9000hrs from new or New Old Stock(NOS..older model tubes that have been sitting around somewhere for decades new and unused). That's a LOT of listening. Most people stock up on the ones they really like though. However, some of the absolute best sounding ones are a bit hard to come by, but not impossible and DEFINITELY worth it.

Wow, thank you so much! You helped a whole lot! I think you may have just made my decision for me. Wa7tp it is! I can't wait to hear how it compares to my O2+ODAC Combo.

 

[ezekiel77]

I think I can answer this. I listened to Schiit's whole line of solid state amps with my LCD-Xs from bottom to top at CanJam recently. They sound fantastically clear and dynamic, but dry dry and more dry compared to tubes. If you're going for accuracy as in what the artist intended you to hear then go for the Schiit. Tube amps sound just as detailed but can give a warmer, smoother, and sometimes full on liquid 3D sound that is flat out beautiful. They do this by inherently adding small amounts of even order harmonic distortions. Not the crackley harsh odd order distortions like if you crank crappy earbuds to the max on a phone, but basically inaudible rich and pleasing distortions that sound amazing. Kinda hard to explain, you gotta hear it.

Anyway, another advantage of tubes is you can change the sound signature to what you like. Solid state Schiit you're stuck with how it sounds out of the box like it or not. My advice would be to start with the WA7tp if you wanna try tubes. I switched from that amp to a WA22 recently, but kept the WA7 cuz it's that good. Also, swapping tubes for the WA7tp is relatively cheap. You can get that amp to sound more flat and accurate, wide and clean, or fully deep, lush, and liquid for $30-$150 per set of upgrade tubes. It's so cool. And it looks fantastic! Also, it is a known fact that even the guys at Woo advertise in their marketing, that the WA7tp and LCD-Xs are a marvelous pairing. You won't be disappointed. There's even an extensive tube swapping guide thread for the WA7 here on head-fi. Anyway, good luck! I'm excited to see what you decide!

Edit: Disadvantage of tubes is they don't last forever. I think most tubes are rated to last 5000-9000hrs from new or New Old Stock(NOS..older model tubes that have been sitting around somewhere for decades new and unused). That's a LOT of listening. Most people stock up on the ones they really like though. However, some of the absolute best sounding ones are a bit hard to come by, but not impossible and DEFINITELY worth it.

 
Helped me a lot as well, thanks for that. To think I found the best explanation of SS vs tubes in a headphone thread.

 

[Badas]

   
Helped me a lot as well, thanks for that. To think I found the best explanation of SS vs tubes in a headphone thread.

Yeah. It was a fantastic post.

 

[kyle1010]

Wow, thank you so much! You helped a whole lot! I think you may have just made my decision for me. Wa7tp it is! I can't wait to hear how it compares to my O2+ODAC Combo.

Sweeeeet. I listened to the O2+ODAC at CanJam too. You're in for a big difference with the WA7tp. Hopefully the upgraded dac in the newer WA7 has a significant edge over the older one, which itself was no slouch. Either way I'd immediately grab some $30 Sylvania JAN 5814 power supply upgrade tubes to play around with. They're an amazing bang for buck set of tubes to get you started. Enjoy!

 

[bahula03]

I think I can answer this. I listened to Schiit's whole line of solid state amps with my LCD-Xs from bottom to top at CanJam recently. They sound fantastically clear and dynamic, but dry dry and more dry compared to tubes. If you're going for accuracy as in what the artist intended you to hear then go for the Schiit. Tube amps sound just as detailed but can give a warmer, smoother, and sometimes full on liquid 3D sound that is flat out beautiful. They do this by inherently adding small amounts of even order harmonic distortions. Not the crackley harsh odd order distortions like if you crank crappy earbuds to the max on a phone, but basically inaudible rich and pleasing distortions that sound amazing. Kinda hard to explain, you gotta hear it.

Anyway, another advantage of tubes is you can change the sound signature to what you like. Solid state Schiit you're stuck with how it sounds out of the box like it or not. My advice would be to start with the WA7tp if you wanna try tubes. I switched from that amp to a WA22 recently, but kept the WA7 cuz it's that good. Also, swapping tubes for the WA7tp is relatively cheap. You can get that amp to sound more flat and accurate, wide and clean, or fully deep, lush, and liquid for $30-$150 per set of upgrade tubes. It's so cool. And it looks fantastic! Also, it is a known fact that even the guys at Woo advertise in their marketing, that the WA7tp and LCD-Xs are a marvelous pairing. You won't be disappointed. There's even an extensive tube swapping guide thread for the WA7 here on head-fi. Anyway, good luck! I'm excited to see what you decide!

Edit: Disadvantage of tubes is they don't last forever. I think most tubes are rated to last 5000-9000hrs from new or New Old Stock(NOS..older model tubes that have been sitting around somewhere for decades new and unused). That's a LOT of listening. Most people stock up on the ones they really like though. However, some of the absolute best sounding ones are a bit hard to come by, but not impossible and DEFINITELY worth it.

Why did you omit the Mjolnir 2, which is a fantastic hybrid tube amp? 

 

[kyle1010]

Why did you omit the Mjolnir 2, which is a fantastic hybrid tube amp? 

I didn't listen to that one so I can't really comment on it. I was more pointing out the differences between SS and an all tube amp's sound and/or why tube amps are so popular. I've only heard hybrid tube amps in portable form. They do sound slightly smoother, but not even close to an all tube setup(WA8 as example..huge difference from hybrid portable sound). I'm curious. How would you compare the hybrid MJ2's sound to an all tube rig?