[skhan007]

My first thought is the rectifier arcing. I'd be inclined to give it a decent burial and move on if your amp is OK with the stock rectifier but if you insist on trying the old one I wouldn't put it back in until you have your spare fuses. It's possible if you put it back in it will work fine... for a while. But IMO once a rectifier arcs it is done.

Yes, makes total sense. I'm not sure if it actually was the rectifier or, as suggested, it could've been static, or who knows what. I will heed this advice and when my fuses arrive, I'll give it a go.

Question: Do you guys have your headphones unplugged and volume to zero when you turn on your WA22?

 

[VanHai]

Question: Do you guys have your headphones unplugged and volume to zero when you turn on your WA22?

I turn on the amp then plug-in my headphones. When finish, unplug the headphones and turn off the amp. Volume control remains at the hearing level.

 

[BillinSF]

Question: Do you guys have your headphones unplugged and volume to zero when you turn on your WA22?

HP's plugged in first. There's a "turn on" process in the owners manual.

 

[BillinSF]

I turn on the amp then plug-in my headphones. When finish, unplug the headphones and turn off the amp. Volume control remains at the hearing level.

I never unplug HP's, except when I put them away. Why would one? I leave the tubes plugged in too

 

[VanHai]

I never unplug HP's, except when I put them away. Why would one? I leave the tubes plugged in too

Just a precaution to protect the drivers of the headphones in case of power surges on the amp.

 

[CAJames]

I turn the volume all the way down before I power off amp, and leave it at zero when I turn it on. I leave the HPs plugged in.

 

[Promee]

We would all love to hear from Glenn. But sadly, he has been away from the website for more than a year due to his health. I follow the Glenn amp thread from time to time and I may fear the worse.

I took the amp to a local valve amp repairman and he managed to fit it all in there. The guy had also worked on Pink Floyd’s equipment when they were touring NZ (back in the good old days). He charged me $50 NZD for the whole job.

Wow, that’s quite a deal on the amp, sounds like you found a truly uniquely qualified person to do it, too. I’m very sorry to hear about Glenn. It sounds like he has been at this a long while and would absolutely know best about these things. I think us younger people in the hobby are going to find it much more difficult over the years, with a lot of the knowledge about the finer points of these amps being lost. Hopefully we can pick up plenty of knowledge to keep these traditions going, because tube amps are truly a unique and beautiful thing. It also sounds like if both of those guys thought the resistors were a good idea, then I have some more research to do to understand how they help the sound. I think there are a few places in town that work on tube amps, perhaps they could assist with the install / give me some pointers on doing those trickier jobs…

 

[Promee]

Yes, makes total sense. I'm not sure if it actually was the rectifier or, as suggested, it could've been static, or who knows what. I will heed this advice and when my fuses arrive, I'll give it a go.

Question: Do you guys have your headphones unplugged and volume to zero when you turn on your WA22?

I leave them plugged in. Never thought of turning the volume all the way down for power on, but couldn’t hurt. I’m thinking of my stereo amp, and I wouldn’t unplug the speakers to power on. In fact, I’ve been told and have read that it’s a bad idea to turn on tube amps with no load. To that end, I actually have made up a pair of resistors soldered to speaker wire and banana plugs to put in along with some cheap tubes when powering up after new mods. The manual does say you can change headphones with it on with the volume all the way down, so I assume there is some kind of mitigation built in to reduce the likelihood of whatever failure mode might happen with no load.

 

[BillinSF]

There is a thread on Head-Fi that quotes Jack Woo himself in response to questions about the WA6. He's talking about "open circuits" which is my concern when HP is unplugged either at start up, at turn-off, or in between. No load = risk. For example, I would never run a speaker amp without speakers connected.

Link to thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/so-...rn-on-tube-amps-with-headphones.465005/page-3

Excerpts:

(1)
J: It is recommended to switch on the amp with a headphone on. This would avoid the amp being open circuit - not a good thing for any tube amps. You will not harm the amp at all if you leave an open circuit for a short period of time. The loud noise/abnormal sound is normal the tubes are warming up to get into the working state. A proper way to use the amp is 1) plug in your headphone, 2) mute the volume or stop your source 3) switch on the amp and let it warm up for at least 10 seconds, and that's all.

(2)
Just to clarify, the problem of open circuit in an OTL tube amp is not as serious as output transformer (OT) coupled tube amp. In an OTL amp as the WA2, there is a pseudo load on the headphone output, which means you can switch on the amp without the headphone plugged in.

As for the OT coupled amp with custom pre-amp, there is a switch to enable/disable the preamp. When it is enabled, the pseudo load connects to the headphone out, making the amp safe to use without headphone plugged in.

Hope that help,
Jack

 

[BillinSF]

I had Tap Plastics (I think they are nationwide) make me this cover. Not for use while unit is on of course.

But holds down the dust and keeps dogs and housekeepers away.

 

[phthora]

There is a thread on Head-Fi that quotes Jack Woo himself in response to questions about the WA6. He's talking about "open circuits" which is my concern when HP is unplugged either at start up, at turn-off, or in between. No load = risk. For example, I would never run a speaker amp without speakers connected.

Link to thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/so-...rn-on-tube-amps-with-headphones.465005/page-3

Excerpts:

(1)
J: It is recommended to switch on the amp with a headphone on. This would avoid the amp being open circuit - not a good thing for any tube amps. You will not harm the amp at all if you leave an open circuit for a short period of time. The loud noise/abnormal sound is normal the tubes are warming up to get into the working state. A proper way to use the amp is 1) plug in your headphone, 2) mute the volume or stop your source 3) switch on the amp and let it warm up for at least 10 seconds, and that's all.

(2)
Just to clarify, the problem of open circuit in an OTL tube amp is not as serious as output transformer (OT) coupled tube amp. In an OTL amp as the WA2, there is a pseudo load on the headphone output, which means you can switch on the amp without the headphone plugged in.

As for the OT coupled amp with custom pre-amp, there is a switch to enable/disable the preamp. When it is enabled, the pseudo load connects to the headphone out, making the amp safe to use without headphone plugged in.

Hope that help,
Jack

Good reminder. And this is also in the WA22 owner's manual on page 10, just without any of the explanation.

 

[skhan007]

Well, good news that my tube rectifier was not the culprit for my fuse issue. The tube works fine and I put it through the paces.

 

[skhan007]

Just rolled in these GEC 6080's. Very nice sounding!! Looking forward to trying my various tubes from my stash, which have been sitting for years.

Also, my tube rectifier that came with my WA22 is the USAF 596 with the Frankenstein adapter. I honestly hear zero difference with it vs. the stock Svetlana winged-C rectifier. Knowing what I know about tube amps circuitry, the rectifier carries no audio signal and only smooths the DC current after the phase inverter stage. As a result, I'm concluding a good, working, tube rectifier should sound the same whether it's NOS or newer production. To my ears, anyway.

 

[VanHai]

Just rolled in these GEC 6080's. Very nice sounding!! Looking forward to trying my various tubes from my stash, which have been sitting for years.

Also, my tube rectifier that came with my WA22 is the USAF 596 with the Frankenstein adapter. I honestly hear zero difference with it vs. the stock Svetlana winged-C rectifier. Knowing what I know about tube amps circuitry, the rectifier carries no audio signal and only smooths the DC current after the phase inverter stage. As a result, I'm concluding a good, working, tube rectifier should sound the same whether it's NOS or newer production. To my ears, anyway.

Nice 6080 GEC tubes, USAF 596 is great rectifier but it is clean and sterile to my ears. Try Mullard rectifiers GZ37, GZ34, GZ32, GZ30 and 5V4G. I like them much better, warm and organic.

Currently i have TS 5998s, Metz 1578s and Mullard GZ37 ( wish i have fat bottle) and WA22 sounds sublime.

 

[CAJames]

...Knowing what I know about tube amps circuitry, the rectifier carries no audio signal and only smooths the DC current after the phase inverter stage. As a result, I'm concluding a good, working, tube rectifier should sound the same whether it's NOS or newer production. To my ears, anyway.

That is a common engineering analysis, but inconsistent with most listeners experience: that rectifiers have a profound impact on the sound. See for example:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/dub...mparison-rectifer-tube-rolling-thread.694525/

From an engineering perspective the argument could be made that since the rectifier creates the high voltage aka B+ that the audio signal rides on it is intimately involved in the audio signal. Also each rectifier has a unique "sag" which is how much the DC voltage is reduced after rectification and that determines the operating points of the signal tubes. But of course what matters is what you hear so FWIW, YMMV and all that.