Running this tube combination right now in my WA6/HD600 rig - wonderful sound. Really takes the WA6/HD600 setup places I didn't think it could go.
Not as resolving or technically impressive as my WA5/HE6/HD800 rig, but it sure is fun
That WA6 Brimar, NU and HD600 rig is fantastic. If there was no top tier options I would be happy with that rig.
It is very relaxing.
Dear all,
Have been lurking for a few months here. None of you know this until now, but I am quite indebted to many of you for all the experience and wisdom you have shared with your Woo gear. It was really this thread that urged me to take the plunge on a WA22, which I took delivery of a few weeks ago. The WA22 is my first ever tube amp, and I've had a blast so far running it on the Woo Audio stock then upgraded tubes fully balanced with my LCD-3fs.
Naturally, the next step is tube rolling, which I will try to do with the benefit of having read (and re-read, many times) some of the related tube rolling threads on Head-fi. To start with, I would really appreciate some help on what must be terribly noob questions:
When I put in a pair of (supposedly) NOS 6AS7Gs yesterday, in the left channel the headphone runs dead quiet, albeit the music that I hear seems relatively "closed" needing to be opened up. In the right channel unfortunately there is strong rustling (somewhat like a radio with bad reception) that makes the music un-listenable - we are not talking just microphonics here. I know it's got to be one of the tubes, because the amp and the whole setup ran without issue on both the Woo stock and upgraded tubes.
As further background which may be relevant: I cleaned the pins with Deoxit lightly though did not leave the solution on overnight; and I also noticed that the tubes went into the sockets with a lot less resistance than what I am used to.
So the noob questions, likely in increasing order of cluelessness, are:
Do tubes, and 6AS7Gs in particular, run noisy and would this go away after hours of burn-in?
Could loose contacts be the culprit / could the pins be too thin? What can be done if anything?
If it's the right channel which has a problem, is it the tube on the right (looking at the front of the amp) that is responsible?
Thanks for all your input, and once again, thank you for having pushed me to the dark side!
Dear all,
Have been lurking for a few months here. None of you know this until now, but I am quite indebted to many of you for all the experience and wisdom you have shared with your Woo gear. It was really this thread that urged me to take the plunge on a WA22, which I took delivery of a few weeks ago. The WA22 is my first ever tube amp, and I've had a blast so far running it on the Woo Audio stock then upgraded tubes fully balanced with my LCD-3fs.
Naturally, the next step is tube rolling, which I will try to do with the benefit of having read (and re-read, many times) some of the related tube rolling threads on Head-fi. To start with, I would really appreciate some help on what must be terribly noob questions:
When I put in a pair of (supposedly) NOS 6AS7Gs yesterday, in the left channel the headphone runs dead quiet, albeit the music that I hear seems relatively "closed" needing to be opened up. In the right channel unfortunately there is strong rustling (somewhat like a radio with bad reception) that makes the music un-listenable - we are not talking just microphonics here. I know it's got to be one of the tubes, because the amp and the whole setup ran without issue on both the Woo stock and upgraded tubes.
As further background which may be relevant: I cleaned the pins with Deoxit lightly though did not leave the solution on overnight; and I also noticed that the tubes went into the sockets with a lot less resistance than what I am used to.
So the noob questions, likely in increasing order of cluelessness, are:
Do tubes, and 6AS7Gs in particular, run noisy and would this go away after hours of burn-in?
Could loose contacts be the culprit / could the pins be too thin? What can be done if anything?
If it's the right channel which has a problem, is it the tube on the right (looking at the front of the amp) that is responsible?
Thanks for all your input, and once again, thank you for having pushed me to the dark side!
Thank you both Mikelap and Badas for your input. Badas indeed I had followed your comments about the 6AS7Gs from earlier, I was just hoping against hope that your experience is isolated ...
I tried a number of things earlier this evening:
- No blue flares upon turning on, in response to Badas' question.
- Swapped the tubes around and the noise witched channels, so definitely one of the tubes is responsible for the noise.
- The noise is more like a strong hum and less the bad radio reception rustling I spoke of. It's not faint and loud enough to be in the way of the music.
- No additional noise when tapping on the amp or directly on the tubes themselves, so doesn't seem like a microphonnics issue.
- No noise at all when the amp is being powered up and the light is blinking ... hum starts right away when the light had steadied. Sorry if this is blindingly obvious to everyone but I just mention for completeness.
- Did a more thorough cleaning job with the Deoxit short of soaking the pins in solution for hours ... no improvement whatsoever.
It's been a long day at work, so finally I decided to admit defeat and just pop back the working 7236 tubes to enjoy some music.
Anyway, if anyone has further ideas for a diagnosis / solution, please give me a shout! And thanks again for helping me get into this hobby in the first place.
