[Silent One]

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Still I would love to hear some Klipschorns out of the back of a WA5, that would be an awesome system

How about some Decware ERR radials?  I have some of those coming next week.  That was my main justification for getting a WA5 - speaker amp also.  I have been trying to find reasonable cost speakers that sound as good as my headphones but that has been a challenge.  The Decwares will be my third pair to try.... high efficiency requirement does narrow the field a good bit.   Maybe I should have just found some vintage Klipschorns???

 
 
You don't have to go vintage, Klipsch still sells them directly online, they're pretty reasonable really:
http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/klipschorn-overview/

 
But they really need to be in the right kind of room, as they are made to use the walls/corners of the listening space. My roommate in college brought them into the living room (where he was sleeping) in our one-bedroom apartment, and I developed a real taste for their sound.
 

They're gorgeous... always wanted a pair! While in college I read quite a bit about them. Also read a lot about McIntosh systems at that time. Both remained unseen and unheard by me until one fine day, as luck would have it, I came face-to-face with both of them at the same time. Found myself in someone's listening room, enjoying Champagne among a rack full of McIntosh gear, backed by a huge pair of lovely wood finished Cornerhorns.
 
Reception aside, I did two hours of critical listening before settling down with some French bubbly. I was floored... and fascinated. I kept peering into the sides and back of the speakers while the owner proudly explained their concept. A few months after that experience, someone showed me their Nakamichi Dragon setup. I haven't been right since! I have been lusting after both vintages from that point on no matter what other gear I acquire.
 
Thanks for your pix & post, it felt good to reminisce.
 
 

 

[Silent One]

New Year's Eve~
 
Earlier in the day I purchased Pure Music v1.7 for music playback on the Mac/Woo combo. Loaded my playlist with lots and lots of vintage Karen Mok. She was deliciously fun even before the upgrade. And now? Mmmm...

 

[mikemalter]

Sometimes it seems to me that the Mac is better for music.  I have never had a Mac, but I get the impression you get more choices and they are of high quality.

 

[dannie01]

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New Year's Eve~
 
Earlier in the day I purchased Pure Music v1.7 for music playback on the Mac/Woo combo. Loaded my playlist with lots and lots of vintage Karen Mok. She was deliciously fun even before the upgrade. And now? Mmmm...

 
Karen Mok? You're Chinese or you just like some Chinese ladys' songs.

 
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Sometimes it seems to me that the Mac is better for music.  I have never had a Mac, but I get the impression you get more choices and they are of high quality.

I did heard a lot nice impression about Mac and Weiss D/A combo or others with firewire input, too. And also some say the Mac with Amarra sound very great even in a Mini Version.

 

[Icenine2]

Although cost is an issue I will say we........and I mean the wee Woo folk here..........are impatient.  I include myself as well.  When I bought the WA22 I didn't even wait minutes before starting to order new tubes.  Having broke in the amp for about 8 hours w/stock tubes I could have been happy for quite a while with those until I upgraded.  I immediately popped in the EML and Shuguang Treasures from their respective boxes (BTW the EML box is really cool while the Treasures box looks like it was stored in an Indiana Jones style warehouse for 50 years).  The 5/5LE I'm sure could be run on stock tubes for quite some time and sound great.  So then it's just a save and wait to buy the new 5LE tubes since I don't think Jack sends them out with junk tubes laughing an evil laugh.  Then the last hurdle for some would be the dreaded "wife factor".  Mrs. K here has proclaimed the WA22 looks like "some sort of science experiment".  I can only laugh my evil laugh thinking of the proclamations about a twin chassis WA5LE!!!!

 

[Icenine2]

6 Moons did a review of Channel D Pure Music and dumped his Amarra.

 

[grokit]

Is Pure Music single license or can I install it on all of my Macs? Is there an iTunes/Windows version? I run 5 different iTunes platforms...
 
edit: Never mind, I just found that the license will run on 8 machines but I don't think it "does Windows". Looks nice though, I think I will get it as I have been considering Amarra Lite which needs a frickkin' dongle and is only for one computer. It will run on all three Macs though, even the one running OS10.5.

 

[SpudHarris]

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Although cost is an issue I will say we........and I mean the wee Woo folk here..........are impatient.  I include myself as well.  When I bought the WA22 I didn't even wait minutes before starting to order new tubes.  Having broke in the amp for about 8 hours w/stock tubes I could have been happy for quite a while with those until I upgraded.  I immediately popped in the EML and Shuguang Treasures from their respective boxes (BTW the EML box is really cool while the Treasures box looks like it was stored in an Indiana Jones style warehouse for 50 years).  The 5/5LE I'm sure could be run on stock tubes for quite some time and sound great.  So then it's just a save and wait to buy the new 5LE tubes since I don't think Jack sends them out with junk tubes laughing an evil laugh.  Then the last hurdle for some would be the dreaded "wife factor".  Mrs. K here has proclaimed the WA22 looks like "some sort of science experiment".  I can only laugh my evil laugh thinking of the proclamations about a twin chassis WA5LE!!!!

 
The Wife Factor indeed.....
 
I really don't have room for the WA5 and that's me talkin not her indoors. But when I showed her my next significant purchase (WA22) she thought I was mad spending so much money on it, if only she knew what I'd spent on tubes this past year I'd never hear the last of it. I will definately be happy with the WA22 as I just can't afford and don't have room for the 5LE period. I will however be upgrading sources etc to get every ounce from it. I am on a budget though so the DAC Magic is looking good at the moment and initially from the USB of my netbook, I will build from there.
 
I am getting very exited at the prospect of the WA22 I look at it daily and drool, one day my precious you will be mine haha.

 

 

[WindyCityCy]

WA22 will be your precious soon!

 

[grokit]

Attention WA22 users, balanced pre-amp for sale (not mine lol):
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/526623/balanced-tube-preamp-ys-audio-a2-se-pics

 

[khollister]

Pure Music can be used on multiple computers, but I have spent hours today going back and forth between PM 1.7 and Amarra Mini 2.1.1 (I have a 14 day unlimited trial with my iLok). While I think the price of Amarra is borderline criminal, I am definitely convinced it sounds better, especially when you use the playlist mode and not drive it from iTunes. PM seems airier and more spacious at first, but there is something wrong with the timbre of instruments - the harmonic texture is off. Amarra is clearly better on my rig if you get past the HiFi wow factor and listen to the dimensionality of individual instruments and the harmonic structure of them. PM ends up sounding "digital" to me compared to Amarra. And while my system is pretty good, it is far from being state of the art in resolution.
 
The ultimate test was when I quit concentrating on minute changes and listened to a song while I was working on something else at the other computer. With PM I all of a sudden was drawn back to the sound as being artificial and a little fatiguing. With Amarra, I forgot about the equipment for a few minutes and just enjoyed the music - when I snapped back to attention and listened to the sound (as opposed to the music), I was struck by how natural it still sounded. 
 
Sorry about your wallet, but Amarra is the superior player IMHO. I'm tempted to use the tubes versus transistors analogy - while there are good SS amps and not so good tune amps, the difference here is similar to the stereotypical tubes vs SS sound.
 
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Is Pure Music single license or can I install it on all of my Macs? Is there an iTunes/Windows version? I run 5 different iTunes platforms...
 
edit: Never mind, I just found that the license will run on 8 machines but I don't think it "does Windows". Looks nice though, I think I will get it as I have been considering Amarra Lite which needs a frickkin' dongle and is only for one computer. It will run on all three Macs though, even the one running OS10.5.

 

[Xcalibur255]

I've found myself wondering what kind of tubes come stock with the WA5.  The 300B tubes at the very least can't be NOS as there likely are none left that are affordable enough to send out with the amp like that.  They must be Shuguangs or something.  This is not a slight against Jack in any way, but to be honest I do feel the stock tubes which came with my WA6 were junk compared to what I have for the amp now.  The Russian recitifer went into the garbage about a month after I got the amp because it sounded so bad compared to what I had been buying, and the RCA 6FD7 output tubes had major noise problems, the only pair of output tubes I've ever had with audible microphonics wile playing back music.  I also find myself wondering how much closer the WA6 gets to the WA22 in sound after adopting the 6SN7 output tube.  The amp takes on a whole different level of resolution and depth compared to the 6DE7 family tubes, though I've discovered they really need the EML rectifier to show that potential.  I wasn't especially impressed by how my 6DE7, 6EW7 and 6FD7 tubes sounded with the EML in comparison to the 6SN7.  Using lesser rectifiers the comparison is closer admittedly.

 

[mikemalter]

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Although cost is an issue I will say we........and I mean the wee Woo folk here..........are impatient.  I include myself as well.  When I bought the WA22 I didn't even wait minutes before starting to order new tubes.  Having broke in the amp for about 8 hours w/stock tubes I could have been happy for quite a while with those until I upgraded.  I immediately popped in the EML and Shuguang Treasures from their respective boxes (BTW the EML box is really cool while the Treasures box looks like it was stored in an Indiana Jones style warehouse for 50 years).  The 5/5LE I'm sure could be run on stock tubes for quite some time and sound great.  So then it's just a save and wait to buy the new 5LE tubes since I don't think Jack sends them out with junk tubes laughing an evil laugh.  Then the last hurdle for some would be the dreaded "wife factor".  Mrs. K here has proclaimed the WA22 looks like "some sort of science experiment".  I can only laugh my evil laugh thinking of the proclamations about a twin chassis WA5LE!!!!

I am afraid to turn myself loose with a 5LE.  I would just have to get all of the hardware upgrades, and then I know I would not be happy until I had the best tubes.  I think it's definitly safer for me to stay with the WA22 for a while.
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

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Although cost is an issue I will say we........and I mean the wee Woo folk here..........are impatient.  I include myself as well.  When I bought the WA22 I didn't even wait minutes before starting to order new tubes.  Having broke in the amp for about 8 hours w/stock tubes I could have been happy for quite a while with those until I upgraded.  I immediately popped in the EML and Shuguang Treasures from their respective boxes (BTW the EML box is really cool while the Treasures box looks like it was stored in an Indiana Jones style warehouse for 50 years).  The 5/5LE I'm sure could be run on stock tubes for quite some time and sound great.  So then it's just a save and wait to buy the new 5LE tubes since I don't think Jack sends them out with junk tubes laughing an evil laugh.  Then the last hurdle for some would be the dreaded "wife factor".  Mrs. K here has proclaimed the WA22 looks like "some sort of science experiment".  I can only laugh my evil laugh thinking of the proclamations about a twin chassis WA5LE!!!!

I am afraid to turn myself loose with a 5LE.  I would just have to get all of the hardware upgrades, and then I know I would not be happy until I had the best tubes.  I think it's definitly safer for me to stay with the WA22 for a while.

 

X2!
 
I can't believe I am considering selling my iPad and spending considerably more for than a new Schiit Lyr to buy four more pieces of glass (you know what I am talking about lol). I feel like we are all part of some kind of weird cult sometimes on this thread!

 

[Skylab]

Indeed! And I too have stayed away from 300B amps for the same reason - I can't imagine the damage I would do to my wallet if I started buying 300B tubes...