[hunter9002]

Has anyone upgraded their WA7 DAC from 1st generation to 2nd generation? What differences have you noticed?

My unit is currently in for repair at Woo and they're offering me this upgrade for $499. I either get that or I spend $180 to repair my broken USB port. So essentially I'd be spending $320 more for the new DAC. Thoughts?

https://wooaudio.com/accessories/wa7dacupgrade

 

[tumpux]

At 499, I won’t bother upgrading the dac board. I won’t even bothered to have the usb port fixed. Woo’s dac is not that great. If you need one, get a separate unit, you can get something better with that budget.

 

[attmci]

Has anyone upgraded their WA7 DAC from 1st generation to 2nd generation? What differences have you noticed?

My unit is currently in for repair at Woo and they're offering me this upgrade for $499. I either get that or I spend $180 to repair my broken USB port. So essentially I'd be spending $320 more for the new DAC. Thoughts?

https://wooaudio.com/accessories/wa7dacupgrade

I agree that's a lot of $ for such a small board. Also you should consider the resale value of your WA7.

There are also some useful information here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/woo-hoooo-wa7-fireflies.649097/page-165

 

[hunter9002]

Thanks. If you had to ballpark, what do you think the resale value is? In 2014 I paid $600 for this first gen WA7 used. Got the upgraded tubes in there too.

 

[JamesB797]

Hi, I recently tested the WA6-SE in my system with the LCD-3F and noticed a slight metallic twinge in the treble that was pretty irritating to listen to. I switched over to the gilmore lite mk2, which provides a similar amount of power, and it went away. My impression of the mk2 is that it should be a slightly brighter amp, though I know the WA6-SE is pretty neutral for a tube amp, so I'm suspecting the mk2 might have better power filtering than the WA6-SE.

I'm considering getting a power conditioner to test if that's really the issue. Any other ideas or recommended brands from people who have had the same kind of issue with a woo amp before?

Thanks!

Edit: The WA6-SE has a Sophia Princess tube, the power tubes have not been changed

 

[JLoud]

I use an Emission Labs 5U4G in mine. Never noticed metallic twinge. But I did notice a blacker background when I added a PS Audio Dectet. $500. So not crazy expensive but cleaned up the sound nicely. But depends on how clean your incoming power is and what else you have on the outlet.

 

[JamesB797]

Thanks for the reply. I looked more into power conditioners and realized my current setup is almost as terrible as it could possibly be, as I have the WA6-SE plugged into a power bar full of random chargers with another power bar with monitors and chargers plugged into the first power bar. Plus my computer is plugged into a similar power bar in the same outlet -_-.

I ordered the Furman PST-8D and will report back once I've tested it to note if there's any difference. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the issue It'll still be a good purchase since it'll protect my gear from random power issues.

 

[JamesB797]

Wow. The warmth is back. The bass is back. The treble isn't wack! Buying thousands of dollars of gear and feeding it with garbage power was a bad idea after all. Totally satisfied, will definitely consider Furman for audio setups in the future. The noise is gone and I don't get the feeling I'm listening to a carbonated drink anymore.

Honestly it's not that big of a difference, but whatever was in there before that was making the WA6-SE close to unlistenable is gone and I'm happy.

 

[JLoud]

Glad it solved the problem. It definitely helped my system as well.

 

[joseph69]

Wow. The warmth is back. The bass is back. The treble isn't wack! Buying thousands of dollars of gear and feeding it with garbage power was a bad idea after all. Totally satisfied, will definitely consider Furman for audio setups in the future. The noise is gone and I don't get the feeling I'm listening to a carbonated drink anymore.

Honestly it's not that big of a difference, but whatever was in there before that was making the WA6-SE close to unlistenable is gone and I'm happy.

Glad it solved the problem. It definitely helped my system as well.

I purchased the Furman 8-DIG a couple of months ago, which replaced my 25+yr old Adcom ACE-515. I bought the 8 just so I could plug all of my gear into it, (as well as for surge protection, of course) being the 515 was limited to receptacles for the amount of gear I'm using. I found the 8 to very slightly warm the sound being the 3 digital receptacles are filtered and I have my ultraRendu, KTE SU-1 and KTE Spring DAC plugged into them.
Out of curiosity I tried plugging my amps into the digital receptacles and found the amps to suffer from dynamic loss.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Wow, holy moly, my new (to me) WA5 arrived from Joe at Abyss, good Lord. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard height portrayed with headphones, on my 1266 and ZMF Autuers, it giving me goosebumps and this is with the stock tubes!!! I want to get a better feel for the Amp before I dive down that rabbit hole.

Call me a convert to the House of Woo!

 

[pippen99]

I miss mine.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

I still remember listening to it at the Meet in Nashville, I’m still blown away! Does your LAu convey a similar soundstage? Are you planning on coming to the Bluegrass Meet?

 

[pippen99]

I was planning on selling both to fund a WA33 but then got caught up in Zach's offerings and that plan blew up(plus going a bit overboard on the new car). I don't remember much difference in soundstage between the two.

Absolutely will be there. I would never miss an opportunity to reconnect with Zach and Bevin.

 

[Mikey99]

Wow, holy moly, my new (to me) WA5 arrived from Joe at Abyss, good Lord. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard height portrayed with headphones, on my 1266 and ZMF Autuers, it giving me goosebumps and this is with the stock tubes!!! I want to get a better feel for the Amp before I dive down that rabbit hole.

Call me a convert to the House of Woo!

I have been very tempted by the WA5. Good to hear that it plays well with the Abyss!