[davehg]

It's human nature; eventually you'll want to come back to headphones so you may want to keep the WA-22 for that time.

That was my thinking too. My Lumin streamer sounds better with balanced outs so the WA22 fits the bill, and it takes up less space, and i feel less guilty about what I’ve sunk into it vs the WA5. If the Leben headphone outputs were as good as the WA22 or if it had balanced inputs and outputs it would be nice to just use one amp for space reasons, but the Leben is pretty austere as a headphone amp, which is not its core purpose.

I’ve got a bit of a dilemma on the headphones too.I love the pairing of the LCD3 and WA5 - just amazing. The Focal is fine too, but the difference between the WA5 and WA22 is not as big on the Focal as on the Audeze. The HD650 is happy either way. The Leben seems to prefer the LCD3. I may just keep all the headphones for the time being and save them for a rainy day when I want to reconnect and switch things up.

 

[Randy Myers]

I use both speakers and headphones. Since recently getting my WA22 2nd Gen I have been using headphones a whole lot more . And you are right, a world class headphone system will cost less than decent speakers usually cost....

 

[ksorota]

Just going to throw this up here. I have posted a want ad, but since the amp is older I may have better luck on this thread.

Looking for a WA3...PM me if you have one that you would be willing to part with.

Thank you,
Keith

 

[CAJames]

I use both speakers and headphones. Since recently getting my WA22 2nd Gen I have been using headphones a whole lot more . And you are right, a world class headphone system will cost less than decent speakers usually cost....

I use both speakers and headphones as well. WA22 is a great preamp and a great headphone amp IMO.

 

[jonathan c]

Just going to throw this up here. I have posted a want ad, but since the amp is older I may have better luck on this thread.

Looking for a WA3...PM me if you have one that you would be willing to part with.

Thank you,
Keith

Check your p/m…

 

[davehg]

Link to my WA5 for sale for anyone interested. I decided to keep the WA22 for now, as it has balanced inputs for my Lumin T2, and the WA5 is a bit larger than the space on my audio rack.

 

[MasonStorm]

Greetings all,

I've been using WA-234 monoblocks together with a Chord BluDAVE, tending to keep the monoblocks' volume knobs at the 9 o'clock position, and the DAVE around -30 dB. I read that it's better for the amp to be set with its volume all the way up, and to turn down the DAC's volume, especially when using one of the DACs that doesn't (or at least claims that it doesn't) deprecate the signal as its volume is turned down. (I'm not at all sure that "deprecate" is the correct word here - I mean to write that the signal loses information when the volume is decreased.)

I've just added a solid state amp (currently the Bakoon AMP-13R) so that my girlfriend and I can listen at the same time. (The DAVE allows for this since it sends the signal out of both its RCA and XLR outputs concurrently.) I usually use a Focal Utopia in the Bakoon, and an Abyss Phi TC in the WA-234's. I found that when I turn up the Bakoon and the WA-234's to their maximum volume settings, that if I set the DAVE to around -40 dB, that we can both listen comfortably/well. Then, in my mind's eye, I worry about an upcoming moment in which one of the vacuum tubes might go kaput in the middle of a listening session, or a power outage, lightning strike or the like. Is there any danger of a catastrophically loud sound then being issued through the headphone attached to the WA-234's? One that might permanently damage my hearing? Has anyone experienced such a thing? I realize that I could turn down both amps and turn up the DAVE, but then the theory goes that some of the sound signal will be deprecated by the amps.

 

[mammal]

Then, in my mind's eye, I worry about an upcoming moment in which one of the vacuum tubes might go kaput in the middle of a listening session, or a power outage, lightning strike or the like. Is there any danger of a catastrophically loud sound then being issued through the headphone attached to the WA-234's? One that might permanently damage my hearing? Has anyone experienced such a thing? I realize that I could turn down both amps and turn up the DAVE, but then the theory goes that some of the sound signal will be deprecated by the amps

I would like to know an answer to this as well. For context, Viva Egoista 845 has an RCA input that bypasses it's premap. I thought or using Bartok's preamp instead, but then the amp is on full power and I am scared what if Bartok glitches or something happens and I blow my brains out.

 

[Odin412]

I've just added a solid state amp (currently the Bakoon AMP-13R) so that my girlfriend and I can listen at the same time. (The DAVE allows for this since it sends the signal out of both its RCA and XLR outputs concurrently.) I usually use a Focal Utopia in the Bakoon, and an Abyss Phi TC in the WA-234's. I found that when I turn up the Bakoon and the WA-234's to their maximum volume settings, that if I set the DAVE to around -40 dB, that we can both listen comfortably/well. Then, in my mind's eye, I worry about an upcoming moment in which one of the vacuum tubes might go kaput in the middle of a listening session, or a power outage, lightning strike or the like. Is there any danger of a catastrophically loud sound then being issued through the headphone attached to the WA-234's? One that might permanently damage my hearing? Has anyone experienced such a thing? I realize that I could turn down both amps and turn up the DAVE, but then the theory goes that some of the sound signal will be deprecated by the amps.

I haven't experienced a tube going bad while listening, but I have experienced sparking in the output tube on my WA3. The result was a very loud cracking/scratching sound in my headphones. Very unpleasant, but thankfully no hearing damage. Bottom line, if your tubes go bad while listening you're in for an unpleasant experience no matter which level your volume control is set. My best advice is to just continue to enjoy your WA-234s. Besides, my experience is that electronics tend to fail at power-on, not during operations.

 

[pippen99]

I haven't experienced a tube going bad while listening, but I have experienced sparking in the output tube on my WA3. The result was a very loud cracking/scratching sound in my headphones. Very unpleasant, but thankfully no hearing damage. Bottom line, if your tubes go bad while listening you're in for an unpleasant experience no matter which level your volume control is set. My best advice is to just continue to enjoy your WA-234s. Besides, my experience is that electronics tend to fail at power-on, not during operation.

That has been my experience. I have had tubes gradually get noisier until they intruded on the music. I also had a catastrophic failure on startup.
No catastrophes during operation.

 

[VandyMan]

@MasonStorm I set my DAC to unity gain (0dB gain) and then adjust my amp's volume control. My understanding is that most amps have higher distortion and lower performance when turned all the way to max gain. Since your amps all have very high quality volume controls, I think I'd chose to get the full signal out of my DAC. I know some DACs claim not to do decimation, but I *think* they all reduce the dynamic range of the signal unless they control the volume in the analog domain (ie after digital to analog conversion), which has its own issues, ha.

 

[Randy Myers]

I personally would never open any piece wide (full volume). If there are two volumes in line I keep both at reasonable levels. I have the signal being feed from my preamp and usually set the Woo WA22 to about 2 o'clock and control from the pre-amp. Allows me to control the volume with a remote . I have considered going straight off my DAC but I do occasionally listen to an album through headphones so the pre-amp needs to be inline.

 

[MasonStorm]

Thanks for your replies, everyone!

 

[davehg]

WA5 owners, a question. The buyer of my WA5 has experienced an odd problem. One channel is low output and the rectifier was very brightly lit on power on, then it is normal after 10 min of warmup. He swapped rectifier tubes left to right and it followed the tube, suggesting a tube problem. But his pal brought over another set of rectifiers and had the same experience. One other point, it is noisy until the amp is warm. I don’t think he has a tube tester which would resolve many questions.

any thoughts? He’s close to Woo so having Mike check out the amp is my suggestion, but symptoms suggest tubes, not amp. I’ve suggested removing bottom plate on both chassis to see if he can spot any discoloration or obvious issue with restores or caps.

 

[hodgjy]

WA5 owners, a question. The buyer of my WA5 has experienced an odd problem. One channel is low output and the rectifier was very brightly lit on power on, then it is normal after 10 min of warmup. He swapped rectifier tubes left to right and it followed the tube, suggesting a tube problem. But his pal brought over another set of rectifiers and had the same experience. One other point, it is noisy until the amp is warm. I don’t think he has a tube tester which would resolve many questions.

any thoughts? He’s close to Woo so having Mike check out the amp is my suggestion, but symptoms suggest tubes, not amp. I’ve suggested removing bottom plate on both chassis to see if he can spot any discoloration or obvious issue with restores or caps.

Not a WA5 owner, but I have enough experience with tubes to feel confident that it's most likely a tube issue. If the problem follows the tubes, that's usually the giveaway. Also, noise is another telltale sign of bad/old tubes. His pal may also have aged tubes. They may sound fine on his gear, but if they are pushed harder on other gear, like the WA5, they may show their age.