Ever since I got into head Fi the WA5 has been my dream amp , the one to get & that was always my plan. But along the way I got a Stratus . Never planned on getting one because of the long wait time but one popped up for sale locally (one in a million chance of that happening) & I couldn't pass it up & it turned out to be the best amp that I have heard till date but the lust for WA5 still remained. A friend recently got a new WA5 LE (which is the same as old WA5 except no speaker outs) & i went over to his place with the Stratus for a side by side.
I am not good at writing audiophile comparisons & will write only my brief impressions. The HP's that we tried with them were HD800S, LCD X, XC, Hifiman Ed X, HE 6, Ether C, TH 900, The WA5 LE was running upgraded Sophia Princess tubes, the Stratus was running EML 5U4G + Shuguang 2A3C-T Natural Sound. After 45 mins of back & forth between both amps using all the above HP's me & my friend concluded that they sound so close to each other that we will not be able to tell a difference in a blind test. Maybe DNA has more sound stage depth, maybe WA5 LE has bit more bass extension but we are talking about less than 5% differences here. HE 6 was the only HP that sounds better on the WA 5 than the Stratus, the Stratus cannot drive them as well as WA 5. In the end I walked away extremely happy that my WA 5 lust has finally been cured.
