Better Amp, Wa6 or Lyr.

[HPiper]

Looking at getting an amp for my HD700/650 and was looking for opinions between these two. Fairly close price wise but how do they compare in sound. Mostly listen to Pop and Jazz along with a bit of classic rock.

 

[TonyNewman]

I don't own a Lyr, so can't compare the two options. I do own a WA6/HD600 combination - and love it. The sound is warm and engaging - easy to listen to for extended periods. A lot of fun.
 
A couple of words of caution regarding the WA6:
 
1) Tube rolling is a must. The stock tubes on the WA6 as delivered are, frankly, kinda lame and do not showcase what the WA6 can really do. I am using an EML 274B mesh rectifier and 7N7 drivers from Woo Audio. The difference they make from the stock sound is STUNNING. The Sophia Electric 274B is good, the EML 274B is better IMHO. I own both, and will only be putting the Sophia back in if the EML breaks.
 
2) The WA6 scales better with a quality DAC than you would expect from an amp in its price bracket. I have an Auralic Vega DAC that I use to feed my 'reference' setup - Auralic Vega + Taurus MkII + LCD-X. Replacing my 'ordinary' DAC with the Vega gave a bigger quality jump (in relative terms) with the WA6/HD600 setup than with the Taurus/LCD-X setup. That was surprising and says a lot about the quality of the WA6.
 
If you are willing to spend some time and $ tube rolling, and have a quality source, the WA6 will reward you.

 

[rb2013]

I had a Woo WA6-SE, with Nos drivers and rect tubes. With my HD800 it was great, very musical. I read about the Lyr on 6moons and bought one. After some serious tube rolling, I was blown away. The Woo was so polite, but a little boring after a while. The Lyr was exciting, dynamic, with incredible musicality and sound staging. Sold the Woo, and kept tube rolling. The Lyr takes the umbiqitous 6922, so many choices! Finally I settled on the magical Russian 6n23ps.

I love this combination. The Lyr with the right tubes punches way over it's weight class.