[Rizlaw]

Okay, it just got here and has been running for about 6 hours now...


i am getting STATIC/POPPING NOISES on the RIGHT CHANNEL 

even when the song is playing or the volume is turned all the way down,

the static is THERE every few minutes or so....


also, the LEFT CHANNEL seems to be STRONGER than the right channel,

like there's MORE BASS on the left side of my headphones....

i switched around the RCA's in the back of the WA2 (red to white, white to red) to see if maybe it was

coming from my SOURCE (macair, apogee one) and the RIGHT CHANNEL

was still weak.

LAmitchell,

I just noticed your post. It looks like you received your WA2 at the same time I received mine 12/4/10) and it looks like we have similar issues. In my case, the biggest problem was that the preamp left channel output was significantly lower in volume than the right. So much so, that it sounded "off" when using the WA2 as a preamp only through my powered speakers. The right channel totally overpowered the left. I also heard two loud pops from the right channel in my headphones during the first two hours of use, but none thereafter. It's been dead quite. I'm not happy that I have to turn my DACT volume control up to 1 or 2 o'clock to get a reasonable (not loud) volume level, but Jack says it's normal.

I immediately contacted Jack. He had me swap tubes from left to right and change cables. The channel imbalance persisted. Jack asked me to take a photo of the wiring, I did and he said he saw nothing wrong. In the end, I had to return the amp to him for examination and repair.

While my WA2 is gone, I made an adapter to run my LCD-2s off the speaker outputs of my Classe CAP-2100 SS integrated amp. It works great and is totally silent.

I'm glad to see you're keeping your amp.

 

[tdoggystyle]

Wow, it immediately has to go back for repair? Did they offer your money back? Did they do a pick up so you are not stuck with shipping? I always fear this so I stick with the big name in business forever with a reputation for quality and excellence and manufactures the major components in house in the USA. I understand all of the Woo components are sourced from China, that could be the problem with their machines. Chinese could care less about quality control.

 

[LAmitchell]

Hey Rizlaw,
 
Thanks for the response. Jack is sending me a replacement power tube. GE 6080 is the stock one right? Well, that's the ones that came with mine but it makes me wonder b/c i saw someone recommended them for tube-rolling... didnt make sense if they are the stock ones....??
 
 
Also, i ordered a V-DAC to replace my apoggeeONE, so i'm curious to find out how things will sound once i put that in place.
 

 

[Golden Monkey]

Quote:

Quote:

The transformer in an amp is much more responsible for the sound quality  than the tubes selected or the cables and interconnects.  The C220 sounds fantastic with the McIntosh branded Chinese tubes and it sounds fantastic with NOS Mullards and Tellefunkins and everything in between. It's not the tubes, it's the transformers

Does this guy remind anyone of someone in particular?  Starts with P ends with 82?

He's not covered in nearly enough ERS paper though...
 

 

[Rizlaw]

Tdoggystyle,

Did they offer your money back?

No, and at this point I didn't ask for one. Jack's a nice guy and I believe he will do the right thing and find and fix my problem. Basically, I think it was either shipping damage or lack of a good final Q/C check on Woo Audio's part. It's the Holiday season, they are probably trying to get lots of orders filled before Christmas and they are a very small company.

Edit: 12/17/10: I personally picked up my repaired WA2 from Jack at his place of business and my problem was fixed. Jack told me that the problem was very rare - apparently during construction of the amp, the ground and positive wires were both soldered to the left channel preamp out + connection on the female chassis RCA jack and this created a short. A simple visual inspection couldn't find it because it was hidden by the shrink tubing surrounding the connection.

Did they do a pick up so you are not stuck with shipping?

Again, no. But, apart from places like Amazon, Zappos, sometimes NewEgg, there aren't many online or brick & mortar business that pay for return shipping, particularly if they are very small companies. So, I did pay for return insurance and shipping.

I always fear this so I stick with the big name in business forever with a reputation for quality and excellence and manufactures the major components in house in the USA. I understand all of the Woo components are sourced from China, that could be the problem with their machines. Chinese could care less about quality control.

As far as I can tell, Woo Audio uses high grade audio parts and I did opt for the expensive Black Gate mod, amongst others. Even high quality parts can fail on first/early use and a poor or cracked solder joint can happen on any essentially hand-made product like the WA2. I'm no expert on these things, but I'm sure China can and does make some high quality products. As a general proposition, in electronics, I wouldn't say that China cares less about Q/C than other countries. I think, overall, Woo Audio, has a solid reputation for quality and excellence on these forums, and I'm sure elsewhere.

 

[Rizlaw]

Hey Rizlaw,


 


Thanks for the response. Jack is sending me a replacement power tube. GE 6080 is the stock one right? Well, that's the ones that came with mine but it makes me wonder b/c i saw someone recommended them for tube-rolling... didnt make sense if they are the stock ones....??

Mine came with RCA 6080, so I suppose Jack has a bunch of different 6080s on hand. Because I had to send my WA2 back so soon for repairs, I haven't had many hours listening, but I didn't notice a big difference between my stock RCA 6080 tubes and my premium Sylvania 7236 tubes (purchased from Jack). I'm sure after a longer burn-in I will be in a better position to evalutate "tube-rolling" recommendations.

 

[kiddragonsoft]

mine came with an rca 6080 regular black base.  the 6080 that i said sounded much better was a westinghouse metal base 6080.  suggested you to get a better 6080 because of the cheap price.  different brands sounds different even if it's the same spec.

 

[akart]

@LAmitchell:
 
How's the break-in going? Has the amp improved? Would be interested to know what your opinions are on the WA2 now that you've had it for a few weeks.
 
Thanks a lot,
akart

 

[LAmitchell]

Seasons Greeting Akart,
 
I left town for the holidays, so a friend of mine is breaking it in for me.
 
Really can't wait to get back to it and hear how it sounds with the replacement tube
 
(one of the original stock power tubes had static)
 
 
also, I feel kinna silly, I was using an APOGEE ONE as my DAC, when in actuality it's
almost like NOT USING a dac at all. So i bought a V-DAC from LESCANARD here on head-fi
and will be hooking it up to the WA2 as soon as I get home.
 
 
 
p.s. do you have a review thread that you did on your T1? i'd like to read your thoughts on it.
 
 

 

[Henerenry]

As your ears adjust to the wa2, the biggest test is trying to listen to your headphones without it. I normally find that I cant tell straight away from a back to back testing, but give me something long term, then take it away, and you really notice something is gone.

 

[LAmitchell]

Quote:

As your ears adjust to the wa2, the biggest test is trying to listen to your headphones without it. I normally find that I cant tell straight away from a back to back testing, but give me something long term, then take it away, and you really notice something is gone.

when you say "trying to listen to your headphones without IT" ... what is the IT? the WA2?

 

[akart]

@LAmitchell, I am still waiting for my rig. Its been 14 days, but at this time of the year, I would imagine delays are common :-|
 
Happy Holidays!
 
Quote:

Seasons Greeting Akart,
 
I left town for the holidays, so a friend of mine is breaking it in for me.
 
Really can't wait to get back to it and hear how it sounds with the replacement tube
 
(one of the original stock power tubes had static)
 
 
also, I feel kinna silly, I was using an APOGEE ONE as my DAC, when in actuality it's
almost like NOT USING a dac at all. So i bought a V-DAC from LESCANARD here on head-fi
and will be hooking it up to the WA2 as soon as I get home.
 
 
 
p.s. do you have a review thread that you did on your T1? i'd like to read your thoughts on it.
 
 

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

Also, once you get this issue sorted out (bad tube is my opinion as well, btw), I'd avoid on/off/on/off powercycles.  If you're going to listen to it on any given day, then turn it on and leave it on...it's better for the tube's health and lifespan, and you can avoid the warm-up/cool-down sound quality issues.  It's like an incandescent lightbulb...ever notice that 99% of the time they blow up when you turn them on?  Same thing happens with tubes.  Typically what I do is if I'm planning on rocking some tunage, I turn the amp on around 30 mins before I put the headphones on.  This allows the tubes to come up to temp and settle down...if you listen closely to the tubes without any signal running through them when you turn the amp on you'll usually hear some pinging or ringing noises as they warm up.

FWIW:  Jack told me at one of the NY meets, not to leave any of his amps on for more than 8 hrs at a time.  He said they need time to cool off.

 

[khollister]

I don't get the "don't leave it on for more than 8 hours". All of Jacks' amps are open chassis design and should no more heat buildup than any other tube amp (and less than some enclosed designs), yet I have never had Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, etc tell me to turn it off to let it cool down. I would to know why Jack recommends this. I seriously doubt any of the other components in the chassis reach temperatures that are a problem, and small signal tubes (as opposed to large transmitter tubes in radio transmitters) don;t have a huge internal temp rise from what I remember when I was designing and building tube amplifiers. It is certainly good practice from a tube life standpoint, but it is hard to believe that damage will otherwise result from having the amp on for, say, 24 hours instead of 8. Stuff built exactly like this was commonly in service 24x7 back before transistors.

 

[fatcat28037]

There is some good information in this thread but it's heavily laced with innuendos, inflammatory trash talk and uninformed opinions. The idea here is to be helpful, like suggesting moving tubes from one channel to the other to determine if it's a tube problem. Presenting opinion as fact (McIntosh C220) and dispariging a company that has for years proven themselves to by a pillar of our community, not only doesn’t contribute, it detracts.