[skhan007]

I'm looking at possibly purchasing the Woo Audio WA22 or the Woo Audio WA2. The difference between the two: The WA22 is transformer coupled with both balanced and single-ended ins/outs. The WA2 is OTL with single-ended ins/outs. Both have roughly the same tube topology. The former is $1K more expensive than the latter.

My DAC is an RME ADI-2 that has balanced outs, but as I read here on Head-Fi, it's not "truly" balanced. It uses an inverting opamp to create a second polarity to provide a balanced output.

That being said, my question is about whether or not there could be an appreciable/audible/measurable benefit to using the balanced set up of my DAC, WA22, and balanced headphone cables into my HD800S?

I suspect (based on what I've read) that besides increased power/dB, there may not be an appreciable difference to justify the additional cost of the balanced amp.

 

[gregorio]

My DAC is an RME ADI-2 that has balanced outs, but as I read here on Head-Fi, it's not "truly" balanced. It uses an inverting opamp to create a second polarity to provide a balanced output.

I’m not quite sure what was meant by that. “Balanced” potentially has two meanings, it can mean “balanced impedance“ or the use of a differential signal (or in some cases both). It maybe that someone is stating it’s not “truly balanced” because it’s only using a differential signal, rather than a balanced impedance, although the latter makes no difference in consumer analogue audio applications.

That being said, my question is about whether or not there could be an appreciable/audible/measurable benefit to using the balanced set up of my DAC, WA22, and balanced headphone cables into my HD800S?

I suspect (based on what I've read) that besides increased power/dB, there may not be an appreciable difference to justify the additional cost of the balanced amp.

All things being equal, there will be no audible difference providing your SE amp can cleanly output the additional power that a balanced (differential signal) connection would provide. However, there’s no guarantee all things will be equal, tubes are notoriously nonlinear and *may* be different (or behaving differently) in the two amps. My guess is that there would be no difference providing you don’t need to drive the SE amp too hard in order to power your HPs sufficiently/equivalently to the balanced amp but this is only a guess!

G

 

[Roseval]

there may not be an appreciable difference to justify the additional cost of the balanced amp.

If they are like the WA7 https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-wa7-wa7tp-dac-and-headphone-amp-review.7028/ it is indeed doubtful if there will be any audible difference as the coloration by the amp itself will camouflage this.

 

[hakunamakaka]

I'm looking at possibly purchasing the Woo Audio WA22 or the Woo Audio WA2. The difference between the two: The WA22 is transformer coupled with both balanced and single-ended ins/outs. The WA2 is OTL with single-ended ins/outs. Both have roughly the same tube topology. The former is $1K more expensive than the latter.

My DAC is an RME ADI-2 that has balanced outs, but as I read here on Head-Fi, it's not "truly" balanced. It uses an inverting opamp to create a second polarity to provide a balanced output.

That being said, my question is about whether or not there could be an appreciable/audible/measurable benefit to using the balanced set up of my DAC, WA22, and balanced headphone cables into my HD800S?

I suspect (based on what I've read) that besides increased power/dB, there may not be an appreciable difference to justify the additional cost of the balanced amp.

I will simplify for you.

If you have wider variety of headphones or plan to have such in future choose transformer coupled version

If you plan to use amp with high impedance headphones HD600/800, ZMF lineup…go with OTL option