WA7 received the Positive Feedback "Writers' Choice" award 2014. A shout out to
@mikemercer for he great review. and for choosing our WA7 Fireflies.
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue76/awards2014.htm
Michael Mercer
This year has been a little overwhelming, in terms of the sheer amount of decent gear that's been offered. The personal audio space in-particular, has seen even more innovation that's resulted in some amazing products that don't cost an arm and a leg. This year I'm giving my PF Writers' Choice Awards to products that I've been using a lot lately—but haven't had a chance to review yet. Each product earning the award will be getting the full review treatment here at PF ASAP. I just got off the phone with Dr. David William Robinson: Letting him know about my choices and why. I loved his response—and I can't quote him precisely, but he basically said: "I've done the same Michael". "Hey, if I'm using a component often and I haven't had a chance to write about yet, I have to give it it's due". "I'm not going to wait a year to do that." Here here! All three of these products have been wow'ing me lately, and I've experienced many sunrise listening sessions (all-nighters) with each of them. Now, any product that's part of a system that keeps me so glued to the music that I can't go to sleep—well, I think that deserves an award, don't you?
Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies tube headphone amp/DAC $999 (w/ stock tubes and solid-state power supply)
Admittedly, I'm a little late to the WA7 Fireflies party. The personal audio community has been showering this tube headphone amp/DAC with accolades continuously since its release in 2012. Even my own website, Audio360.org, gave the WA7 a glowing review (and it was the world's first six-way writer
review). I wasn't a part of that review unfortunately, for the simple reason that I already had too many headphone amp/DACs to review at the time! Well, I'm regretting not being a part of that review now, because the WA7 is actually my personal favorite Woo Audio headphone amp (with their up-coming WA8 portable prototype closely behind). That statement isn't meant to take away from any of Jack Wu's wonderful amps. This is simply a matter of taste, and for me, the WA7 Fireflies is both sonically addictive and downright fun to listen to. It also plays very well with all sorts of headphones. That's an important characteristic in a headphone amp/DAC for me. I don't want to invest in a headphone amp and be tightly limited when it comes to my choice of cans! As I like all sorts of headphones: Planar-magnetic, dynamic-driver, on-ear, over-ear, as long as I can get lost in the music I don't discriminate when it comes to cans, and the Woo WA7 Fireflies doesn't seem to either. There are pairings I haven't loved—but everything can't be perfect!
The WA7 runs via a pair of 6C45 tubes. It comes stock with a pair of Sovteks.
Now, as my friend and partner Warren Chi said first (in the Audio360 review)—echoing his belief here: I think if you're going to pull the trigger on the WA7 just get upgraded tubes out-of-the-gate. They offer a matched pair of Electro Harmonix 6C45s with gold-plated pins for a hundred bucks. Consider that a part of the price of the amp/DAC. The musical changes/enhancements that I've been hearing with the upgrade tubes far exceed the price. Everything gets a notch in gain and clarity. It's like the old cleaning-the-windshield analogy. This is the unfortunately perfect example of where that awful cliché fits! The components is also built like a tank, but aesthetically it could live comfortable at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The glass block hugging the tubes, especially when lit, is probably my favorite-looking headphone amp. Its fit and finish are also spectacular. The tube sockets have slightly raised outer-ridges to insure a proper fit with the glass block for example. The greatest aspect of the WA&, when I think about it, is that fortunately it sounds as sweet as it looks.
It's a straight-up tube amp, with a 32-bit USB DAC as well. The Wa7 can act as a headphone amp/DAC combo, headphone amp, or USB-bus powered DAC (no AC required). While the DAC is 32-bit, I think it's the weakest link in the WA7. I'm being relative here—so I'm not stating the on-board DAC is crap, merely that you can greatly enhance the WA7s performance with a better DAC. But, as an all-in-one, at this price, if you're in the market for this kinda product just do it. You'll have nice upgrade paths too, which is nice, as you can personalize the system. Woo Audio offers a tube power-supply for the WA7 that transforms the unit into something else entirely (to be covered soon). And, for example, just putting iFi Audio's Micro iDSD DAC in front of the WA7 produced one of the most pleasurable listening sessions I had all year! So, you have a killer component to start with, and you can move forward with it as a base as well. I love all the little things...
I own a couple of very high-priced reference-level headphone amplifiers, solid-state and vacuum tube—and the WA7 can hang with them sometimes, musically. I was listening to "Baro", the introductory track to Recondite's new
Iffy
album (reviewed
HERE at PF) and the track begins with these hovering synths, sitting in the lower and midrange frequencies, while these seeming sparks and other sounds move about the soundstage with such transient snap it's delightful ear-candy. Once the kick-drum drops, I get hooked if the systems up to the task. The WA7, along with my trusty Audeze LCD-XCs (closed-backs) mesmerized me with its reproduction of the entire Recondite album. I've listened to that album on that combo so many times now it's ridiculous. The WA7 is also capable of capturing subtlety and nuance. I loved listening to Damien Rice's "9 Crimes" off
9
. It's a heart-wrenching piano and strings-driven ballad with Rice and Lisa Hannigan backing him up. Their voices do this morose dance through a wonderfully sparse sound-space, except for the piano, strings, and minmal instrumentation. It's dark, without being intentionally so. Again, a systems gotta be revealing to reproduce this song in a way that moves me, as I've seen him live. The WA7 pulled it off with ease, and I've heard how much better it is with the tube power-supply! More coverage on this beauty, sonically and physically, ASAP. Most highly-recommended.
