danmagicman7
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2006
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Well, my WA6 has been burning in for a very long time. It's gotten a lot of use over a month, probably up to about 250 hours. I'm really not sure, it's just been a lot. Scroll down (a long ways) to see my initial review a while back.
I just have received my Senn 650's, and boy, are those amazing with the WA6. Classical recordings leave me speechless.
To be honest, I wouldn't know where to look for improvements with "burn in." The fact is this amp sounded great out of the box, and I've been able to appreciate its sound even more as the hours have rolled by. It sounded awesome then, and it sounds just as awesome now. I just appreciate the present sound more than ever.
I will reiterate again how awesome the 650's sound with this amp. Honestly, the Senn 650 gives a much more natural, revealing, natural, and refined performance than my MS2's. MS2's are a fun headphone that emphasize and color the sound so that it sounds exciting and aggressive. Which, is really fine by my watch.
When I go home every few months to visit my parents, I of course have new toys that I like to show off. Usually I let them have a little listen, they kinda give the "Uh huh...very nice" normalized response to show some fake interest in my hobby. This time with the WA6, I handed one of my parents the 650's and then played selection of music. On several occasions a genuine "Woah, that's amazing!" squeaked out. And, that is exactly how I feel about my WA6 after all this time
.
So, that's my final review of the WA6. No complex audiophile anecdotes talking about the bass, mids, and highs, just a further appreciation of what the amp has to offer. I haven't heard any other pure tube amps (Besides a hybrid and a handful SS amps), so take that in mind.
[size=medium]Some more pictures...[/size]
The setup
In the dark
Swooping in from down low...
My favorite
[size=medium]Tuberolling![/size]
To fully appreciate the intricacies of the the WA6, the Senn 650 really brings it out. Therefore, since the 650's are much more of a reference can than the MS2's are, that's what I'll be doing most my tube rolling impressions on.
Now, lets get to some tube rolling. All tubes are NOS, and I let them warm up for at least 20 minutes. The difference were pretty subtle, but they were there.
Please note these impressions are initial impressions with about 10-15 hours of burn in on the tubes. I'm always listening to the tubes, so I'll post more if my impressions change a little.
RCA 6FD7's
I found myself listening to these tubes...a lot. I liked their sound signature. Lush, laid back, and warm. These RCA's are very nicely refined with a big soundstage. I thought they sounded pretty similar to the 6DE7's, but with an extra layer of tubular goodness lopped on top. More "wow" factor with some songs, especially with the additional bass. On the Senn 650's and the MS2's, they were very nice.
GE 6CY7's
These tubes aren't as refined as the 6DE7's or the 6FD7's, but they are a bit more forward, bright, and fun. They can definitely get congested and a bloated in the lower midrange and bass regions and somehow managed to get a bit grainy in the high end. So, they are a bit of a warmer and more forward sound, at the sacrifice of refinement and soundstage. On some simpler recordings they added some fun dynamics. Interesting FQ curve on this guy.
On some music I really didn't care for it with the Senn 650's because they just had too much bloated bass, but i liked these for the Grados a lot. They have good low end bass, and they didn't sound too congested because the grados are already forward. So, pretty good for rock! I do miss the clarity of the 6FD7's or 6DE7's.
RCA 6DR7
I liked these tubes, but they seemed just more laid back and warm for my tastes with some of the bloated bass that the 6CY7 had. and not quite as dynamic as the other tubes. Sounded a little boring. Similar to the 6FD7. Alright. I think these were a very "tuby" sound.
United 6DE7 (stock tubes)
Well, of course, these are where it all started. and have the most listening on. Good transparency and neutrality, sounds similar to the 6DF7. Since these are stock, they've had the most use. Like coming back to a familiar sound. Exciting upper end, detailed, big soundstage. Everything is so well controlled on these tubes and just sounds right... probably because that is what the WA6 was designed for! They have a kind of magic that I really like listening to.
An interesting thing to note is that all of the other tubes had more bass and sounded more warm. However, I thought the 6FD7 retained most of the upper end clarity without losing too much bass.
My Picks
1. 6FD7 for warmer, more bassy sound. My favorite.
2. 6DE7 for more clear and transparent dynamics.
3. 6CY7 if you really want some more bass, but can live with uncomplicated sound. Coolest to look at! Perfect for MS2's.
4. 6DR7 - get the 6FD7 instead
[size=medium]Notes on the construction of the tubes[/size]
6DE7
All the tubes have a large heater and a smaller heater. The larger heater is triode 1, and the smaller is triode 2. Triode 1 is the Power (oscillator) and Triode 2 is the drive (amplifier). The 6DE7 is the only one without a Power Heater that looks like a mesh (look at pics below for similarties between 6CY7 and 6DR7/6FD7). Looking at stats, the 6DE7 has a triode 1 voltage of -11V and the others have a triode 1 voltage of -3V. This could explain why the bass sounds different on all the other
tubes.
6CY7
An interesting thing to note here is that this tube design differs greatly from any of the other tubes. It has a heating mesh that isn't enclosed by a metal plate, but is rather in the center with a plate on either side, including another plate with a heating element in it. So, its really neat to peek and see the heating mesh unexposed like that.
6DR7 and 6FD7
These tubes are virtually identical in construction. However one weird thing that I noticed is that one of the heater elements was not glowing. On the 6FD7 they actually glow a tiny tiny bit as you can see in the pic. The left heating element is sticking up a little bit, but is not glowing, just getting reflected light from the other. Also notice the "mesh"-like heater that you can see through the holes in the plate to the right.
[size=large]Old pictures and initial review (1/15/2009)[/size]
Without further a adieu, the pictures
Solid block of styrofoam!
The WA6, lying there, without a tube in the world.
Nekked.
You can see the PDPS by looking for the two gold "chips" and the extra cap. I'm no expert, but I found that by looking at the WA6 photos on wooaudio.com, I was able to figure where the mod took place.
Here is the picture from wooaudio's website...
Anyways, on to MY WA6...
Tubes, waiting for their home.
Its...alive!
...and glowing!
Complete audio setup.
Headphones happily plugged into the WA6
A little about me
I've had a hi-fi speaker setup for over 3 years now. That was my first entrance into hi-fi sound. I did plenty of critical listening, reading about audio stuff, and etc.
My inception into real headphone audio started when I got my 595's two years ago. My HD 25's soon followed. A year after that, I got my UHA-3, which started my leap into sound that was actually really good. This year I've owned Beyer 770 DT's, and now have Alessandro MS-2's.
I recently acquired a Lite DAC-AH, and now I have my WA6...that leads us to here.
Initial Impressions of the WA6
This thing looks awesome. When I was opening up the packaging, I was impressed with how it was packaged, how it looked, and how hefty the construction was. When taking the bottom panel off, I was wowed how high quality the metal enclosure was. Nice, really thick, incredible looking anodized aluminum. Of course, looking inside of the the WA6 shows the expert craftsmanship that was taken to build this thing. Inside and out, this is a quality piece of equipment. It's also awesome to glance over at with the tubes glowing orange beside the sweet black anodized aluminum.
Initial Sound Impressions
Initially, I wanted to compare the WA6 with my Leckerton Audio UHA-3. For those of you that don't know, the UHA-3 is a portable DAC/amp. I fed them both with my Lite DAC-AH. After a few minutes of swapping, I realized doing A/Bing between a puny portable amp and the WA6 was about as silly as comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari - everything was just so much better.
When reviewing a portable amp, one talks in simple terms. Reviews go top down from highs to mids to bass, then they tack on a slight aside about soundstage and detail. When one reviews a high-class amp such as the WA6, simple terms simply fail to describe the sound - if it can be fully described.
So, I wondered to myself why I still was keeping the UHA-3 on my desk. Yea, what the heck was it doing there? I wanted to put the old sound that I heard in the past out of my memory. So, it went in my Sennheiser HD 25 tote bag, probably not to be seen or heard out of in a long time.
Let's take a stab at the initial things I noticed about the WA6. First of all, I usually work while I listen. Several times I got distracted from what I was doing, drifted off, and concentrated on the music. It so involving, rich and pure.
The soundstage was massive, expansive, surrounding.. The WA6 gave my Alessandro MS-2's soundstage that I'd never thought they were capable of. With my Senn 595's, the soundstage is something to behold. Truely amazing.
Of course I heard plenty of details I hadn't heard before. Instrument separation is incredible. Where complex movements got muddied up and compressed on the UHA-3, they bloomed on the WA6.
Bass was deeper, more detailed, and "fast" than I had heard before. I didn't know there was so much I was missing out of bass. Well, I was.
Overall sound is very pure, warm, and pleasant. Not at all harsh. It's very easy to turn it a little too loud because the sound is so warm and inviting!
The reason I didn't give any mention of the high's or mids is because I don't feel they need mention. The sound was so balanced and "right" to my ears, everything just fits into place in the musical spectrum. Supurb.
The Woo Audio 6 steps into a realm of audio that brings you on a journey inside your music. It's a playground of sound out there, and your ears get to experience a wonderful slice of it from the WA6. Even within my first hours of listening to the WA6, there have been several moments where I literally get a tickling sensation in my ears that travels down my spine and gives me goosebumps. I think that's definitely a feeling I could get used to.
I'll be sure to post more impressions (as well as headphone pairings) after I reach over 100 hours listening to this. I can actually see the tubes *burning in*, so we'll see how much the sound changes. I might have to change my signature message then...can't wait to listen more!
Cheers!
I just have received my Senn 650's, and boy, are those amazing with the WA6. Classical recordings leave me speechless.
To be honest, I wouldn't know where to look for improvements with "burn in." The fact is this amp sounded great out of the box, and I've been able to appreciate its sound even more as the hours have rolled by. It sounded awesome then, and it sounds just as awesome now. I just appreciate the present sound more than ever.
I will reiterate again how awesome the 650's sound with this amp. Honestly, the Senn 650 gives a much more natural, revealing, natural, and refined performance than my MS2's. MS2's are a fun headphone that emphasize and color the sound so that it sounds exciting and aggressive. Which, is really fine by my watch.
When I go home every few months to visit my parents, I of course have new toys that I like to show off. Usually I let them have a little listen, they kinda give the "Uh huh...very nice" normalized response to show some fake interest in my hobby. This time with the WA6, I handed one of my parents the 650's and then played selection of music. On several occasions a genuine "Woah, that's amazing!" squeaked out. And, that is exactly how I feel about my WA6 after all this time
.So, that's my final review of the WA6. No complex audiophile anecdotes talking about the bass, mids, and highs, just a further appreciation of what the amp has to offer. I haven't heard any other pure tube amps (Besides a hybrid and a handful SS amps), so take that in mind.
[size=medium]Some more pictures...[/size]
The setup
In the dark
Swooping in from down low...
My favorite
[size=medium]Tuberolling![/size]
To fully appreciate the intricacies of the the WA6, the Senn 650 really brings it out. Therefore, since the 650's are much more of a reference can than the MS2's are, that's what I'll be doing most my tube rolling impressions on.
Now, lets get to some tube rolling. All tubes are NOS, and I let them warm up for at least 20 minutes. The difference were pretty subtle, but they were there.
Please note these impressions are initial impressions with about 10-15 hours of burn in on the tubes. I'm always listening to the tubes, so I'll post more if my impressions change a little.
RCA 6FD7's
I found myself listening to these tubes...a lot. I liked their sound signature. Lush, laid back, and warm. These RCA's are very nicely refined with a big soundstage. I thought they sounded pretty similar to the 6DE7's, but with an extra layer of tubular goodness lopped on top. More "wow" factor with some songs, especially with the additional bass. On the Senn 650's and the MS2's, they were very nice.
GE 6CY7's
These tubes aren't as refined as the 6DE7's or the 6FD7's, but they are a bit more forward, bright, and fun. They can definitely get congested and a bloated in the lower midrange and bass regions and somehow managed to get a bit grainy in the high end. So, they are a bit of a warmer and more forward sound, at the sacrifice of refinement and soundstage. On some simpler recordings they added some fun dynamics. Interesting FQ curve on this guy.
On some music I really didn't care for it with the Senn 650's because they just had too much bloated bass, but i liked these for the Grados a lot. They have good low end bass, and they didn't sound too congested because the grados are already forward. So, pretty good for rock! I do miss the clarity of the 6FD7's or 6DE7's.
RCA 6DR7
I liked these tubes, but they seemed just more laid back and warm for my tastes with some of the bloated bass that the 6CY7 had. and not quite as dynamic as the other tubes. Sounded a little boring. Similar to the 6FD7. Alright. I think these were a very "tuby" sound.
United 6DE7 (stock tubes)
Well, of course, these are where it all started. and have the most listening on. Good transparency and neutrality, sounds similar to the 6DF7. Since these are stock, they've had the most use. Like coming back to a familiar sound
. Exciting upper end, detailed, big soundstage. Everything is so well controlled on these tubes and just sounds right... probably because that is what the WA6 was designed for! They have a kind of magic that I really like listening to.An interesting thing to note is that all of the other tubes had more bass and sounded more warm. However, I thought the 6FD7 retained most of the upper end clarity without losing too much bass.
My Picks
1. 6FD7 for warmer, more bassy sound. My favorite.
2. 6DE7 for more clear and transparent dynamics.
3. 6CY7 if you really want some more bass, but can live with uncomplicated sound. Coolest to look at! Perfect for MS2's.
4. 6DR7 - get the 6FD7 instead
[size=medium]Notes on the construction of the tubes[/size]
6DE7
All the tubes have a large heater and a smaller heater. The larger heater is triode 1, and the smaller is triode 2. Triode 1 is the Power (oscillator) and Triode 2 is the drive (amplifier). The 6DE7 is the only one without a Power Heater that looks like a mesh (look at pics below for similarties between 6CY7 and 6DR7/6FD7). Looking at stats, the 6DE7 has a triode 1 voltage of -11V and the others have a triode 1 voltage of -3V. This could explain why the bass sounds different on all the other
tubes.
6CY7
An interesting thing to note here is that this tube design differs greatly from any of the other tubes. It has a heating mesh that isn't enclosed by a metal plate, but is rather in the center with a plate on either side, including another plate with a heating element in it. So, its really neat to peek and see the heating mesh unexposed like that.
6DR7 and 6FD7
These tubes are virtually identical in construction. However one weird thing that I noticed is that one of the heater elements was not glowing. On the 6FD7 they actually glow a tiny tiny bit as you can see in the pic. The left heating element is sticking up a little bit, but is not glowing, just getting reflected light from the other. Also notice the "mesh"-like heater that you can see through the holes in the plate to the right.
[size=large]Old pictures and initial review (1/15/2009)[/size]
Without further a adieu, the pictures
Solid block of styrofoam!
The WA6, lying there, without a tube in the world.
Nekked.
Here is the picture from wooaudio's website...
Anyways, on to MY WA6...
Tubes, waiting for their home.
Its...alive!
...and glowing!
Complete audio setup.
Headphones happily plugged into the WA6
A little about me
I've had a hi-fi speaker setup for over 3 years now. That was my first entrance into hi-fi sound. I did plenty of critical listening, reading about audio stuff, and etc.
My inception into real headphone audio started when I got my 595's two years ago. My HD 25's soon followed. A year after that, I got my UHA-3, which started my leap into sound that was actually really good. This year I've owned Beyer 770 DT's, and now have Alessandro MS-2's.
I recently acquired a Lite DAC-AH, and now I have my WA6...that leads us to here.
Initial Impressions of the WA6
This thing looks awesome. When I was opening up the packaging, I was impressed with how it was packaged, how it looked, and how hefty the construction was. When taking the bottom panel off, I was wowed how high quality the metal enclosure was. Nice, really thick, incredible looking anodized aluminum. Of course, looking inside of the the WA6 shows the expert craftsmanship that was taken to build this thing. Inside and out, this is a quality piece of equipment. It's also awesome to glance over at with the tubes glowing orange beside the sweet black anodized aluminum.
Initial Sound Impressions
Initially, I wanted to compare the WA6 with my Leckerton Audio UHA-3. For those of you that don't know, the UHA-3 is a portable DAC/amp. I fed them both with my Lite DAC-AH. After a few minutes of swapping, I realized doing A/Bing between a puny portable amp and the WA6 was about as silly as comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari - everything was just so much better.
When reviewing a portable amp, one talks in simple terms. Reviews go top down from highs to mids to bass, then they tack on a slight aside about soundstage and detail. When one reviews a high-class amp such as the WA6, simple terms simply fail to describe the sound - if it can be fully described.
So, I wondered to myself why I still was keeping the UHA-3 on my desk. Yea, what the heck was it doing there? I wanted to put the old sound that I heard in the past out of my memory. So, it went in my Sennheiser HD 25 tote bag, probably not to be seen or heard out of in a long time.
Let's take a stab at the initial things I noticed about the WA6. First of all, I usually work while I listen. Several times I got distracted from what I was doing, drifted off, and concentrated on the music. It so involving, rich and pure.
The soundstage was massive, expansive, surrounding.. The WA6 gave my Alessandro MS-2's soundstage that I'd never thought they were capable of. With my Senn 595's, the soundstage is something to behold. Truely amazing.
Of course I heard plenty of details I hadn't heard before. Instrument separation is incredible. Where complex movements got muddied up and compressed on the UHA-3, they bloomed on the WA6.
Bass was deeper, more detailed, and "fast" than I had heard before. I didn't know there was so much I was missing out of bass. Well, I was
.Overall sound is very pure, warm, and pleasant. Not at all harsh. It's very easy to turn it a little too loud because the sound is so warm and inviting!
The reason I didn't give any mention of the high's or mids is because I don't feel they need mention. The sound was so balanced and "right" to my ears, everything just fits into place in the musical spectrum. Supurb.
The Woo Audio 6 steps into a realm of audio that brings you on a journey inside your music. It's a playground of sound out there, and your ears get to experience a wonderful slice of it from the WA6. Even within my first hours of listening to the WA6, there have been several moments where I literally get a tickling sensation in my ears that travels down my spine and gives me goosebumps. I think that's definitely a feeling I could get used to.
I'll be sure to post more impressions (as well as headphone pairings) after I reach over 100 hours listening to this. I can actually see the tubes *burning in*, so we'll see how much the sound changes. I might have to change my signature message then...can't wait to listen more!
Cheers!
