George Chronis
100+ Head-Fier
All good. Just wanted to make sure anyone who was potentially trying to buy it had the right info...
Woo Audio Amp Owner Unite
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I had a WA5-LE so thought the WA5 had the same design life. Looks like the WA5-LE V2s design was taken from the OG WA5. Interesting.
George Chronis
100+ Head-Fier
Correct. The LE v2 also has (almost) the same power to the headphone outs that the OG WA5 had to the speaker or the K1K out. I'm sure that has something to do with it
I also have the OG WA5-LE. I've been debating on switching it for a gen 2, but decided against it... I love this amp!
The WA2 arrived today. I honestly can’t believe how much I like it. I love the WA22, but holy smokes, this thing is impossible to turn off. I spent the entire afternoon DeoxIt-ing and polishing the pins on all of my compatible tubes while listening and rolling them.
(Crummy pic, I know, but I’m super tired and rocking out to The Dead Weather, and I could only be bothered to pull the Atriums off for a max of 15 seconds.)
I still landed on the 421a and 7236 as my top 2, but for this one the 421a seems to have a clear advantage to my ears. I’m using the Woo-provided upgrade Mullard GE EZ80 rectifiers and the lowly Tungsram ECC88 drivers (my Brent Jesse and EBay purchases aren‘t going to make it until Tuesday), which have barely gotten any mentions that I can find online, and any I have seen place them pretty low on the list of 6922 options… It just doesn’t seem to matter, this thing absolutely rocks. It is dead quiet, which is a little bizarre after the humming I have come to expect with the WA22, and the sound from this thing is so musical and infectious I just cannot get over it. Just for laughs I tried the Clear with it and did get a tangible example of the importance of damping factor, so the limitation with Lo-Z headphones is very real.
I suppose for the purposes of driving low impedance or low sensitivity headphones, the WA22 will still be very useful to have. I really expected the WA2 to have much lower resolution than the WA22, but that’s just not the case - it is very clear and clean, especially with the black background, and plenty resolving to my ears. Paired with the Ares and Iris 12th (even through the Ares’ notoriously sub-par SE output), it has the most natural-feeling sound I have heard from an amp, period. Even with the marginal driver tubes (according to what I’ve read about it - unlike the E88CC, the ECC88 is not even considered an audio-grade tube, similar to the 6DJ8) this thing just simply rocks. It has shown me the point of the HD 6XX (which I was about to sell in favor of keeping only the HD 600, but I think I’ll hold off for now). I guess this thing is just magic. If you guys are saying it’s only going to get better with better drivers, I’m almost afraid, but very excited! And nobody really said this, but I’m also sure Mundorf interstage coupling caps won’t hurt either.
I’m not sure what the WA5-LE is doing, but hearing the change from the WA22 to this amp, I am more open to the idea that there are levels of audio nirvana that I have yet to experience. Still, I think I will be happy here for a good little bit. Someone is going to have to use a crowbar to pry my butt out of this seat…
(Crummy pic, I know, but I’m super tired and rocking out to The Dead Weather, and I could only be bothered to pull the Atriums off for a max of 15 seconds.)
I still landed on the 421a and 7236 as my top 2, but for this one the 421a seems to have a clear advantage to my ears. I’m using the Woo-provided upgrade Mullard GE EZ80 rectifiers and the lowly Tungsram ECC88 drivers (my Brent Jesse and EBay purchases aren‘t going to make it until Tuesday), which have barely gotten any mentions that I can find online, and any I have seen place them pretty low on the list of 6922 options… It just doesn’t seem to matter, this thing absolutely rocks. It is dead quiet, which is a little bizarre after the humming I have come to expect with the WA22, and the sound from this thing is so musical and infectious I just cannot get over it. Just for laughs I tried the Clear with it and did get a tangible example of the importance of damping factor, so the limitation with Lo-Z headphones is very real.
I suppose for the purposes of driving low impedance or low sensitivity headphones, the WA22 will still be very useful to have. I really expected the WA2 to have much lower resolution than the WA22, but that’s just not the case - it is very clear and clean, especially with the black background, and plenty resolving to my ears. Paired with the Ares and Iris 12th (even through the Ares’ notoriously sub-par SE output), it has the most natural-feeling sound I have heard from an amp, period. Even with the marginal driver tubes (according to what I’ve read about it - unlike the E88CC, the ECC88 is not even considered an audio-grade tube, similar to the 6DJ8) this thing just simply rocks. It has shown me the point of the HD 6XX (which I was about to sell in favor of keeping only the HD 600, but I think I’ll hold off for now). I guess this thing is just magic. If you guys are saying it’s only going to get better with better drivers, I’m almost afraid, but very excited! And nobody really said this, but I’m also sure Mundorf interstage coupling caps won’t hurt either.
I’m not sure what the WA5-LE is doing, but hearing the change from the WA22 to this amp, I am more open to the idea that there are levels of audio nirvana that I have yet to experience. Still, I think I will be happy here for a good little bit. Someone is going to have to use a crowbar to pry my butt out of this seat…
AudioDuck
Headphoneus Supremus
Yup. It takes serious willpower to tear yourself loose.
Congratulations and welcome to the WA2 Club!
I remember after I got mine (a mere $350 more than I’d spent buying a used Feliks Echo- and that’s no slouch of an amp, either)… I wrote a “thank you” email to the Head-Fier who sold it to me. It completely blew me away. And that was BEFORE I started upgrading tubes, swapping in a new fuse/power cord, etc.! So yes, it DOES get better, too.
I seriously don’t see any need to go beyond my WA2 with top-notch tubes and upgraded fuse/power cord (I know, c o n t r o v e r s i a l…)- dead silent, dynamic, rich midrange, deep bass, detailed treble, broad soundstage… air around the musicians/performers, you name it.
I’m sure more expensive/higher-end tube amps can go further, but to me there is simply no need. There is a reason why Woo Audio has been building WA2s since 2004.
Nicolas Yance
100+ Head-Fier
Hey! quick question. Do you guys know if any of these 2 contact cleaners will work with tubes?
https://a.co/d/4azmpkT
https://a.co/d/hkUEzU7
One of my 300Bs has developed a noise that is correct by cleaning the pins with a dry cloth every time I want to power on my WA5. But I'm afraid that I'm wearing out the tube socket little by little by doing this.
https://a.co/d/4azmpkT
https://a.co/d/hkUEzU7
One of my 300Bs has developed a noise that is correct by cleaning the pins with a dry cloth every time I want to power on my WA5. But I'm afraid that I'm wearing out the tube socket little by little by doing this.
Those should be fine for cleaning. I got their vacuum tube kit - it’s the DeoxIt Gold GX-MD with that one. I think it’s rated for high temp and you can keep a very thin coat on your tube pins / sockets to lubricate and seal them. I’ve also been using a handheld Dremel Lite with the D100L and some of the Dremel polishing compound and a compressed felt polishing head to take the grime off of the pins on NOS tubes. It might just be in my head, but I definitely think it helps the sound when you have old tubes with cruddy pins.
Even the stock tubes with my WA2 were filthy. Amazing how much they cleaned up, and I think it wasn’t a night and day improvement in sound, but it seemed to improve resolution a tiny bit.
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Nicolas Yance
100+ Head-Fier
I think you are refering to this one, https://a.co/d/fRc1CRH.
Actually, this is the one -
CAIG Labs, Deoxit Gold Vacuum Tube Survival Kit SK-GXMD https://a.co/d/8kpWGZA
New tube day!!!!! 
@AudioDuck - Just as expected, the Siemens, which I believe is similar to Amperex, are extremely clear, balanced, maybe a tiny bit bright, but they seem lovely - I definitely haven’t broken them in because I have been listening for the past couple of hours to the Mullard / RTC 7308 pair, and they are just as you said, warm, somewhat bass boosted, but not lacking for detail when you look, just not overly etched. They’re making my HD 600 sound like they have the bass of the 6XX, but then these little details will pop up just to surprise and delight
The Mullards will be getting the burn-in treatment first. They are both much more clear / detailed than the stock tubes. It never fails to stun me in this hobby how you just don’t know what you’re missing, right up until you do… So, @AudioDuck 
- fantastic recommendation!
@AudioDuck - Just as expected, the Siemens, which I believe is similar to Amperex, are extremely clear, balanced, maybe a tiny bit bright, but they seem lovely - I definitely haven’t broken them in because I have been listening for the past couple of hours to the Mullard / RTC 7308 pair, and they are just as you said, warm, somewhat bass boosted, but not lacking for detail when you look, just not overly etched. They’re making my HD 600 sound like they have the bass of the 6XX, but then these little details will pop up just to surprise and delight
The Mullards will be getting the burn-in treatment first. They are both much more clear / detailed than the stock tubes. It never fails to stun me in this hobby how you just don’t know what you’re missing, right up until you do… So, @AudioDuck - fantastic recommendation!
At long last my coupling caps arrived this weekend, and this morning I had some time to do a little swap!
Here’s the WA2 before:
A closeup of the Mundorf MCap Supreme Evo Silvergold (no oil)
A closeup of one of the coupling capacitors slated for replacement:
And after! New caps in! I was a little concerned that I might need to bend the leads more around the one on the left in this picture (right channel when flipped back over) so I partly wrapped it in electrical tape to prevent accidental contact with another component. The beauty of the Woo amps is that there is a good bit of internal height, so turns out I was worried about nothing, so I didn’t bother to get really good coverage with the tape. Just wanted to mention if anyone wondered why the lead looked black on that one.
This is the 3rd amp I’ve done cap upgrades in - though I’ve done several changes in that first amp. They still need time to settle in, and, to be fair, the tubes I’m using are still breaking in too, so it’s a bit early to get a clear comparison. With all of that said, I must say this has been the least impactful capacitor upgrade I have done by a good margin. I actually expected this upgrade to be the most meaningful, as it’s the first single-ended amp I’ve done, and there are not a ton of components in the signal path. I think this amp did not need much of an upgrade, and I think the Vishays that were in there may have already been relatively high quality caps.
Tonality, resolution, dyanmics, all seem roughly the same. The only difference I think I am noticing is a slight alteration of sound stage - things seem slightly more clearly placed in space, like there is a more even distribution of possible angles for sounds to present from.
The only other change is the drop in my internal noise floor with that pesky voice that always tells me to push for maximum improvement. It’s quieter now that it knows the caps are there
If anyone else is thinking of this change, I think the juice is probably not worth the squeeze, at least for these specific caps, but I will report back if anything else becomes apparent!
Here’s the WA2 before:
A closeup of the Mundorf MCap Supreme Evo Silvergold (no oil)
A closeup of one of the coupling capacitors slated for replacement:
And after! New caps in! I was a little concerned that I might need to bend the leads more around the one on the left in this picture (right channel when flipped back over) so I partly wrapped it in electrical tape to prevent accidental contact with another component. The beauty of the Woo amps is that there is a good bit of internal height, so turns out I was worried about nothing, so I didn’t bother to get really good coverage with the tape. Just wanted to mention if anyone wondered why the lead looked black on that one.
This is the 3rd amp I’ve done cap upgrades in - though I’ve done several changes in that first amp. They still need time to settle in, and, to be fair, the tubes I’m using are still breaking in too, so it’s a bit early to get a clear comparison. With all of that said, I must say this has been the least impactful capacitor upgrade I have done by a good margin. I actually expected this upgrade to be the most meaningful, as it’s the first single-ended amp I’ve done, and there are not a ton of components in the signal path. I think this amp did not need much of an upgrade, and I think the Vishays that were in there may have already been relatively high quality caps.
Tonality, resolution, dyanmics, all seem roughly the same. The only difference I think I am noticing is a slight alteration of sound stage - things seem slightly more clearly placed in space, like there is a more even distribution of possible angles for sounds to present from.
The only other change is the drop in my internal noise floor with that pesky voice that always tells me to push for maximum improvement. It’s quieter now that it knows the caps are there
If anyone else is thinking of this change, I think the juice is probably not worth the squeeze, at least for these specific caps, but I will report back if anything else becomes apparent!
AudioDuck
Headphoneus Supremus
Apologies for missing this until now, @Promee . Great to hear the new tubes are serving you well, and that my input was helpful!New tube day!!!!!
@AudioDuck - Just as expected, the Siemens, which I believe is similar to Amperex, are extremely clear, balanced, maybe a tiny bit bright, but they seem lovely - I definitely haven’t broken them in because I have been listening for the past couple of hours to the Mullard / RTC 7308 pair, and they are just as you said, warm, somewhat bass boosted, but not lacking for detail when you look, just not overly etched. They’re making my HD 600 sound like they have the bass of the 6XX, but then these little details will pop up just to surprise and delight
I’ve been listening to my WA2 pretty extensively with my Verité Closed and Atrium Closed this weekend with a range of music. I continue to marvel at what the WA2 can do, held up against a $3,000 solid-state amp (my Apache)…
In general I prefer the WA2 (with RFT EZ81 foil-getter rectifiers, Tung-Sol 5998 power tubes, and Telefunken G73-R input tubes- and, yes, a fuse upgrade
to a Synergistic Research Purple) by a fair margin.That’s not to say anything negative about The Apache at all… But it puts the WA2’s performance ceiling in perspective. (And yes, I know those are some expensive tubes, but tubes are variable in price!)
Are those different from the RFT EZ81 that is stock on the WA2 now? Reading a little about these, I wonder if getting Woo’s GE EZ80 upgrade rectifier without researching was a mistake…Apologies for missing this until now, @Promee . Great to hear the new tubes are serving you well, and that my input was helpful!
I’ve been listening to my WA2 pretty extensively with my Verité Closed and Atrium Closed this weekend with a range of music. I continue to marvel at what the WA2 can do, held up against a $3,000 solid-state amp (my Apache)…
In general I prefer the WA2 (with RFT EZ81 foil-getter rectifiers, Tung-Sol 5998 power tubes, and Telefunken G73-R input tubes- and, yes, a fuse upgrade
That’s not to say anything negative about The Apache at all… But it puts the WA2’s performance ceiling in perspective. (And yes, I know those are some expensive tubes, but tubes are variable in price!)
It’s one of those things where I don’t know what I don’t know about the fuses, but I have blown so many fuses over time that I would lose it if I blew a several hundred dollar one…
AudioDuck
Headphoneus Supremus
I don’t honestly know, but I’d say if you’re happy with the sound you’re getting, I wouldn’t worry about it. Funnily enough, rectifier tubes have been “set and forget” for me once I got the RFTs.
I’ve actually never blown a fuse on any of my gear, so it hasn’t been a concern to me. All I can say is that to me, there was a significant and very audible difference with the new (SR Purple) fuse in place.
But, I know, fuse upgrades are a controversial topic. All I can do is share my experience.
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