[LNCPapa]

Mine finally bit the dust last night - will no longer present the DAC to my machines no matter how long I leave it on first. My WA7 is toast unless I get a DAC to put in the chain

Unfortunately that means I can't attend my scheduled headphone meet up this coming Saturday

 

[stargazer713]

I just got a gen 1 wa7/wa7tp, mistakenly installed the gen2 XMOS driver. Used that for a week and actually had no problems with the amp or connection. Then I discovered that I should have been using the gen1/wa7d Cmedia driver and installed that. Question to HiFiGuy528, do you expect this to make a difference in sound? I actually think it improved, but I am not sure if it's placebo and I don't want to reinstall drivers again to find out.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I just got a gen 1 wa7/wa7tp, mistakenly installed the gen2 XMOS driver. Used that for a week and actually had no problems with the amp or connection. Then I discovered that I should have been using the gen1/wa7d Cmedia driver and installed that. Question to HiFiGuy528, do you expect this to make a difference in sound? I actually think it improved, but I am not sure if it's placebo and I don't want to reinstall drivers again to find out.

The audio driver is purely for Windows compatibility. Does not impact the sound. Windows 10 Creators Edition now supports USB2 natively, just like a Mac does.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ada78f3fa0/get-the-windows-10-creators-update

 

[robthemac]

First Gen WA-7 owner here. Bought second hand without a manual. Can't seem to get any output from the RCA, no matter where the three-way switch is set. Options are Optical/USB/RCA - no joy with any of them. Does anyone recall if the first-gen is capable of pre-amp out via the RCA cables? No copies of the (1st gen) owner's manual online.

Cheers!

 

[groovyd]

First Gen WA-7 owner here. Bought second hand without a manual. Can't seem to get any output from the RCA, no matter where the three-way switch is set. Options are Optical/USB/RCA - no joy with any of them. Does anyone recall if the first-gen is capable of pre-amp out via the RCA cables? No copies of the (1st gen) owner's manual online.

Cheers!

Those are inputs if I remember correctly. Actually inputs when the switch is set to RCA, outputs for USB. Not sure they do anything when set to Optical since the DAC would have no power. My guess is they are only outputs with USB setting and assuming your USB is powered.

 

[Sound Eq]

can i ask how does the w7 first gen stand against other brands newly released from other companies within the same price range

 

[td2004]

I have the same problem with wa7 first gen and for sure I won't buy any woo products again. The worst 1000 euro spent for me. Returning product for service to them is expensive and time costly. Upgrade to 2 nd gen is stupid. Probably will fail like first gen. Woo audio is not reliable. Just a shiny and expensive piece of furniture.

 

[td2004]

Hallo again!
I'm so happy today. After changing expensive usb cables, inspecting the device inside, testing device with other pc's with windows 10 (on windows 8.1 worked every time), I finally solved my problem. Wa7 was recognised by my win10 desktop pc with an old, cheap usb cable. I've tested 7 usb cables, mine or borrowed from my friends: Charlin, Qed, Oelbach, Kimber, , Audioquest, Chord and Tellurium. Nothing worked.
Later last year, after almost 2 years of working fine, wa7 gen1 wasn't recognised by my win 10 anymore. It said " usb not recognised error 43". I was using an Qed reference usb cable. I was so mad. I wrote to Woo audio and their solution was to send the device back to them and upgrade to 2nd gen for 400 usd. Since I'm not in the US, this wasn't an option for me. Too long, too expensive. Today, after installing the new win 10 update, I thought I'd give it a try. I was lazy enough not to go next room where I've stored the expensive cables, so, I picked up the cheap one that was in my desk. Big surprise, it worked. I thought that win 10 update did something and changed the cheap cable with the expensive ones ( qed and charlin). The device doesn't worked. Canged back with the cheap one, worked again. I did restart the pc, shut down, everything was ok. I still don't know what caused this issue is ( maybe my motherboard or the pc source), since the device worked on my win 8.1 laptop with all the above cables and my fiio k5 worked also with the same cables on win 10 and win 8.1.
I hope it will last and hopefully woo audio will include a tested usb cable with their products.

 

[td2004]

Yeah, my happiness didn't last. At startup this morning same problem occur. Now it doesn't work also on my win 8.1 laptop. Sad again.

 

[Igor01]

Been fighting with the same issue on my first gen WA7 for a couple of years. Tried a bunch of different cables, both the CMedia and Xmos drivers, several different PC's, tablets and Mac computers - no combination of these made any difference. Ended up throwing a standalone DAC into the chain, this solved the issue immediately and with 100% reliability. The problem definitely lies with either the USB controller or the DAC itself used in WA7.

 

[td2004]

Been fighting with the same issue on my first gen WA7 for a couple of years. Tried a bunch of different cables, both the CMedia and Xmos drivers, several different PC's, tablets and Mac computers - no combination of these made any difference. Ended up throwing a standalone DAC into the chain, this solved the issue immediately and with 100% reliability. The problem definitely lies with either the USB controller or the DAC itself used in WA7.

The local hi-fi store that sold me the wa7 find out about my problem reading a review that I've made and asked me to bring it for service. So, hope they will found the problem. And yes, I did put another dac inbetween, but I hope I will use wa7 as a combo again..

 

[groovyd]

You would think Woo would step in and make it right... but then again that would lower their profit for the year

 

[Igor01]

@td2004 - I hope the store is able to help. Please post here what their findings are.

 

[td2004]

The store wasn't able to help. The motherboard of the dac is faulty.. Woo were non-cooperative, their answer was the same: sent it to us and for 500 euro we will replce the dac with 2nd gen. So, the only way to use it is just as an amplif and some other external dac.

 

[groovyd]

yeah I had to deal with Woo support a couple times and they were always purely profit driven. Always charging excessively to let them fix their own mistakes. Will never again buy a Woo even though they have decent sound when they work.