WA5LE Maxxed or Not

[stevendjm]

Hello everybody,

Recently I decide to buy a wa5le to go with my HD800.
Now the question is whether or not I should spend another thousand to take the part upgrade. I will go for tubes upgrades for sure, as Jack pointed out that tubes can improve the sonic performance greatly. but he did not mention how parts upgrade can influence the sound in real hearing.
Has anyone who has heard both the stock and Maxxed? I would appreciate it very much if you can share your thoughts.

Or, to those who are the current owner, is your wa5le stock or with parts upgrade?

I am new here, and I appreciate your ideas. Thanks !

Steven

 

[Dubstep Girl]

most people who get WA5-LE/WA5 seem to just go for the parts upgrade to make sure their WA5 sounds as perfect as possible and doesn't leave them wanting more. however, if money is an issue, the tubes would make much more of a difference than the parts upgrade will. 

 

[DefQon]

You could've gotten a better of an amp to pair with the HD800 than the WA5LE.

 

[stevendjm]

could you be more specific? I am still in searching stage now.

 

[stevendjm]

Quote:

You could've gotten a better of an amp to pair with the HD800 than the WA5LE.

could you be more specific? I am still in searching stage now.

 

[DefQon]

My net is being slow atm, but there is a thread in the Summit-Fi section listed with the best amp's for the HD800. Especially if you're going for a tube amp, check out Donald Norths Stratus, Eddie Currents balancing act, super 7, Cavali's LG/LF and the Zana Deux. All amp's I'd consider before going for a Woo.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

My net is being slow atm, but there is a thread in the Summit-Fi section listed with the best amp's for the HD800. Especially if you're going for a tube amp, check out Donald Norths Stratus, Eddie Currents balancing act, super 7, Cavali's LG/LF and the Zana Deux. All amp's I'd consider before going for a Woo.

Even a WA5 with double mighty 596's?

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Even a WA5 with double mighty 596's?

I've seen the insides of the WA5 and given the good quality parts used, the circuitry of it could be made more better and properly in accordance to good engineering. That bounces back that no matter how good of a tube/valve you roll in an amp, if the design is crap than the sound is going to be crap. That said most of Woo's amp's is focused on quality rather than sound performance and I can attest to the worksmanship Jack shows on his amp's as it is very good but some of the design can be improved. Maybe the only 2 amp's that are of decent performance is the WA3 and WA6SE as I've worked both of these before to replace the pot for a stepped attentuator, upgrade to mundorf caps for dcoupling and fix a blown tranny for a friend.

 

[givemevinyl]

Quote:

I've seen the insides of the WA5 and given the good quality parts used, the circuitry of it could be made more better and properly in accordance to good engineering. That bounces back that no matter how good of a tube/valve you roll in an amp, if the design is crap than the sound is going to be crap. That said most of Woo's amp's is focused on quality rather than sound performance and I can attest to the worksmanship Jack shows on his amp's as it is very good but some of the design can be improved. Maybe the only 2 amp's that are of decent performance is the WA3 and WA6SE as I've worked both of these before to replace the pot for a stepped attentuator, upgrade to mundorf caps for dcoupling and fix a blown tranny for a friend.

 
Care to expound?  You went on to mention some parts improvements, but can you tell me more about the design deficiencies?  Which phones did you listen on the WA5?