[George Chronis]

loveislove, I got the LCD-X already, so the LCD 2 is not an option. I may try the WA22 with it, if I can find someone with a WA22 around here. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Frank, I saw the post on the LCD-X thread about the Meir Classic. I have the Mjolnir here now and I may also get the WA7. We shall see how I feel with these after a week or two and I'll add the Meir to the list. I had looked at his products a few years back and they were great amps. Apparently, the tradition continues. Thanks of the input.

 

[Frank I]

They are no bad choices just what suites you taste best they are all excellent products

 

[Stratosfera]

George, have you considered the HeadAmp GS-X mkII ? Cheaper than the 5 LE and without tube rolling annoyance....

 

[George Chronis]

That's a great amp from what I read. I may get one in the future or buy used, if I can find one. It's a bit over the final budget right now. I ended up with $1k for the amp after buying the LCD-X, two B&W Nautilus 805's and looking at a speaker mono block or integrated as well. So, I bought a Mjolnir and a used WA7 to see what works best. I'll go with that for a while, then look into a 2-3k phone amp.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, though! I have my eyes on it...

 

[Stratosfera]

.....and about Mjolnir or WA7 what do you prefer? you've already heard them deeply?

 

[George Chronis]

Well, the WA7 shipped yesterday, so I don't have it here, yet. The Mjolnir is definitely nice and powerful. Compared to my WA6, the sound is wider and beefier and also more detailed. More air between the instruments and better resolution. The WA6 can certainly drive the X adequately, even though it's very underpowered compared to the Mjolnir, but the Mjolnir just makes for better sound. I'll update when I spend some time with the WA7.

 

[Stratosfera]

Ok. See you soon.....

 

[MattTCG]

The WA7 was just brilliant with the lcd-x. Great pairing. I haven't head any other Woo amps with the x though. 

 

[andyschaub]

Hi,
 
300B's have a nice midrange blossom but they are not as linear as the tubes used in the WA6-SE. I have a fairly extensive headphone collection and three sets of tubes for my WA6-SE, all of which work very well with my LCD-2's. I also have a WA7 with Jack's tube upgrades and that works well with the LCD-2's, although because I use it at work I need sealed headphones so I use Beyerdynamic T70p's with the split modification by Moon Audio using Blue Dragon cable and a Furutech FP-704(G). All that said, if I had the physical space for it, I would likely try the WA5-LE, but would want to use Western Electric 300B's, which are no longer made, so just finding a matched NOS pair would be hard and likely quite costly.
 
Thanks.

 

[amham]

Well, the WA7 shipped yesterday, so I don't have it here, yet. The Mjolnir is definitely nice and powerful. Compared to my WA6, the sound is wider and beefier and also more detailed. More air between the instruments and better resolution. The WA6 can certainly drive the X adequately, even though it's very underpowered compared to the Mjolnir, but the Mjolnir just makes for better sound. I'll update when I spend some time with the WA7.

Very interesting thread!  FWIW, I am using LCD-X after selling LCD-2/LCD-3, much too dark for my tastes.  The LCD-X addresses all of the shortcomings of the former Audeze models.  I've been searching for just the right amp.  I'm currently using a Mjolnir and a WA6-SE.  I sold the Burson Solist, flat and too smooth for my tastes and the volume design annoyed me, never could find the right setting.  The Mjolnir is obviously more detailed BUT the WA6-SE is more open and airy (read soundstage), seems we differ there.  I've toyed with a balanced amp such as the WA-22 but never heard it and do not want to go through the hassle of returning or selling at a significant loss.  I'm sure that I would be happy with the WA5-LE but the price with upgrades is just too steep and I would be forever be wondering what the more expensive tubes/upgrades sounded like (audio nervosa).  So for the time being I'll stick with the very fine equipment I own (including Grace 903/Benchmark DAC2-HGC/Marantz 8005.  BTW. the Marantz is outstanding, easily the equal of the other DACs and, maybe, better! 

 

[George Chronis]

 
Very interesting thread!  FWIW, I am using LCD-X after selling LCD-2/LCD-3, much too dark for my tastes.  The LCD-X addresses all of the shortcomings of the former Audeze models.  I've been searching for just the right amp.  I'm currently using a Mjolnir and a WA6-SE.  I sold the Burson Solist, flat and too smooth for my tastes and the volume design annoyed me, never could find the right setting.  The Mjolnir is obviously more detailed BUT the WA6-SE is more open and airy (read soundstage), seems we differ there.  I've toyed with a balanced amp such as the WA-22 but never heard it and do not want to go through the hassle of returning or selling at a significant loss.  I'm sure that I would be happy with the WA5-LE but the price with upgrades is just too steep and I would be forever be wondering what the more expensive tubes/upgrades sounded like (audio nervosa).  So for the time being I'll stick with the very fine equipment I own (including Grace 903/Benchmark DAC2-HGC/Marantz 8005.  BTW. the Marantz is outstanding, easily the equal of the other DACs and, maybe, better! 

 
Hm... we have very similar equipment. The WA6-SE may as well have a wider soundstage than the Mjolnir. I only have the WA6, not the SE. Maybe the tube power supply of the SE makes a difference. It's very interesting that you have the Marantz 8005. I have the NA7004, which has the same excellent DAC as the 8005 and I am considering buying the 8005 for my Nautilus 805 speakers. Check out this thread.

 

[amham]

 

 
Very interesting thread!  FWIW, I am using LCD-X after selling LCD-2/LCD-3, much too dark for my tastes.  The LCD-X addresses all of the shortcomings of the former Audeze models.  I've been searching for just the right amp.  I'm currently using a Mjolnir and a WA6-SE.  I sold the Burson Solist, flat and too smooth for my tastes and the volume design annoyed me, never could find the right setting.  The Mjolnir is obviously more detailed BUT the WA6-SE is more open and airy (read soundstage), seems we differ there.  I've toyed with a balanced amp such as the WA-22 but never heard it and do not want to go through the hassle of returning or selling at a significant loss.  I'm sure that I would be happy with the WA5-LE but the price with upgrades is just too steep and I would be forever be wondering what the more expensive tubes/upgrades sounded like (audio nervosa).  So for the time being I'll stick with the very fine equipment I own (including Grace 903/Benchmark DAC2-HGC/Marantz 8005.  BTW. the Marantz is outstanding, easily the equal of the other DACs and, maybe, better! 

 
Hm... we have very similar equipment. The WA6-SE may as well have a wider soundstage than the Mjolnir. I only have the WA6, not the SE. Maybe the tube power supply of the SE makes a difference. It's very interesting that you have the Marantz 8005. I have the NA7004, which has the same excellent DAC as the 8005 and I am considering buying the 8005 for my Nautilus 805 speakers. Check out this thread.

Thanks for the interesting thread suggestion.  However, if you consider the 8005 read this thread/saga that has a happy ending.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/703634/new-marantz-sa8005-windows-driver-broken
 
To continue the similarities I have an old Pioneer VSX-TX09 sitting in cold storage (my den) that I rarely use, with an early digital input/converter that needs to be bypassed for almost decent sound.  On second thought, never could stand it in any mode!
 
Here is a sleeper, Little Dot MK IV SE headphone amp that I continually return to with any of my phones (Grado 60i/225i/Senn 650).  It has a bit of 60 cycle hum with very sensitive headphones but a very sweet sound/soundstage for not too much money.  Of course, over these many years I have collected and sold many pieces including high end but sold most and concentrate on stereo phones now.  Keeps the family happy...

 

[saer]

Well, the WA7 shipped yesterday, so I don't have it here, yet. The Mjolnir is definitely nice and powerful. Compared to my WA6, the sound is wider and beefier and also more detailed. More air between the instruments and better resolution. The WA6 can certainly drive the X adequately, even though it's very underpowered compared to the Mjolnir, but the Mjolnir just makes for better sound. I'll update when I spend some time with the WA7.

 
Anxious so see what your thoughts are between the WA7 and Mjolnir

 

[George Chronis]

Anxious so see what your thoughts are between the WA7 and Mjolnir

So far the WA7 is ok, but in orchestral pieces it's lacking compared to the Mjolnir. However, I have not done extensive listening yet. I was listening to the Elyssium soundtrack today and the instruments were getting kinda muddied together when passages got too crowded and at louder volumes. I don't know if you're familiar with the pieces (you can YouTube it), but it's a full orchestra with full choir and they're really going at it This kind of makes sense, since the Mjolnir has about 4 times the power of the WA7.

Here are some disclaimers before you guys eat me alive here:
The WA7 is broken in and has the EH tubes, cause I got it used.
The Mjolnir doesn't have that many hours on it.
The Mjolnir plays from MacBook to Marantz NA7004, while the WA7 plays straight from MacBook. It would be more fair to play them both from the NA7004, which I will when I sit down to compare them.
Elysium was downloaded from iTunes and we all know it's not the best quality sources they have there. My linn 192/24 material sounds a lot better, but it's not that complex. I'll have to try more stuff later during a more thorough and critical listening session.
I use Audirvana on the Mac and it's set to the highest bit rate settings. Elysium is at 44/16 though.

I will make another post/mini review when I get some time to listen more critically, so I can give you guys a better and more fair picture of what I perceive.

 

[planet]

I will make another post/mini review when I get some time to listen more critically, so I can give you guys a better and more fair picture of what I perceive.

 
Hi George, any update on your LCD-X + WA7 impressions?  I must say, I'm tempted by the WA7 as my first dac+amp, because it's portable enough to do secondary duty at work or up in the bedroom later on, should my tastes become more refined <cough, expensive, cough>.