[flea22]

I bought 2 TS 5998s from ebay for ~345 recently. I don't understand why Woo charges almost 2x for any tubes I find elsewhere on the net. But, I guess you can rely on the fact that they have matched and tested to give you the best set of tubes for what you pay?

Thanks, Just found a matched pair of 5998's for $400. Will give the 421A we a miss. I read mixed reviews of the tubes.

 

[thecrow]

Thanks, Just found a matched pair of 5998's for $400. Will give the 421A we a miss. I read mixed reviews of the tubes.

Some say the we421a are supposed to be a bit better than the ts5998.

I’ve only heard one pair of the we421a and i am happy to go along with that. That is compared to two pairs of ts5998 i have heard/owned. So only a small sample size for me. Unfortunately the we 421a’s were a bit noisy and i returned them.

So if prices are the same i would lean to the we421a or even pay a little bit more of a premium (say 10-20%) as i would forever be wondering. But that’s me.

 

[Roasty]

I received the Brimar 5z4g Rectifier tube the other day. Compared to the stock rectifier tube:

- the Brimar sounds very smooth. I'm not sure how to describe it, but is a very pleasant/pleasing effect. Female vocals sound very good with this tube. Very luscious. Overall, the music sounds like it's a little "thicker".
- the bass has slightly more texture. Perhaps a tiny bit more oomph/slam.
- the highs are very well controlled, perhaps slightly rounded up top. Which is a good thing to me.
- the sound stage to me is only very slightly larger.

For such a cheap tube, definitely worth a try. Not going to be a night and day difference from stock, but any small bit of improvement is still an improvement.

I have a Sophia 274b princess, and matched pairs of Mullard 6080 and TS5998 in the mail.

I also have a pair of RCA 6SN7 GT tubes coming. Are there any other tubes (which are relatively easy to acquire) which are worth trying?

 

[kartikey]

Got my WA22 delivered today !!!

 

[flea22]

Got my WA22 delivered today !!!

congratulations! I hope you enjoy the amp. I am also a new owner of a wa22 and I'm loving it.

 

[kartikey]

congratulations! I hope you enjoy the amp. I am also a new owner of a wa22 and I'm loving it.

Yep! The only upgrade I see from this is buying new headphones and not a new amp lol. This sounds amazing even with stock tubes. I will be putting TS 5998s for a start though.

 

[moemoney]

Yep! The only upgrade I see from this is buying new headphones and not a new amp lol. This sounds amazing even with stock tubes. I will be putting TS 5998s for a start though.

You’ll be surprised even more after 150 hour break in the sound gets much better, you’ll notice After the first 25 hours.

 

[kartikey]

So I tried low and high impedance setting with my HD800S and noticed that low impedance brightens and loudens the sound but also narrows down the soundstage like crazy. While the high impedance is more laid back, wider sound stage and lesser volume at the same volume level. So weird.

 

[Gibson59]

Guys how much should I expect to spend on a good matches pair of TS 5998?

I’m willing to spend some dough to get some. But most of the offerings I see on eBay are “best offer” and I don’t want to overspend. Anyone see any for sale that I should spring for?

I already have some rectifier and power tube options that I’m enjoying. But I really wanna upgrade the driver tubes.

 

[Roasty]

Guys how much should I expect to spend on a good matches pair of TS 5998?

I’m willing to spend some dough to get some. But most of the offerings I see on eBay are “best offer” and I don’t want to overspend. Anyone see any for sale that I should spring for?

I already have some rectifier and power tube options that I’m enjoying. But I really wanna upgrade the driver tubes.

I searched on ebay but couldn't find something I liked. Ended up ordering a pair of TS5998 from Tubes Unlimited for 199bucks each.

They are an audible improvement over the stock tubes.

 

[hackstu]

Looking into buying a WA22, direct from Woo as I live in the UK, and I haven't seen them for sale in Europe used, apart from once and just wondering how will it pair with a sennheisier HD820?? I have a RSA raptor, and there is lots of background hiss can I expect that with a WA22 in balanced mode??

 

[flea22]

Hey guys. I received a match pair of 5998s today from tubes unlimited to find one tube is a lot smaller then the other one and one has a clear top. Should this be cause for concern?

 

[Roasty]

Hey guys. I received a match pair of 5998s today from tubes unlimited to find one tube is a lot smaller then the over one and one has a clear top. Should this be cause for concern?

I don't know if it would be an issue sound wise but goodness, mismatched in morphology would irritate the hell out of the OCD me.

The 5998 tubes I got from them were similar physically. Perhaps email them and see what they say?

 

[flea22]

I don't know if it would be an issue sound wise but goodness, mismatched in morphology would irritate the hell out of the OCD me.

The 5998 tubes I got from them were similar physically. Perhaps email them and see what they say?

Yeah its driving my ocd a little mad, they still sound good. I don't know too much about tubes but when I bought them I was told tubes needed to be matched by electric testing more then date matching.

 

[Roasty]

for power tubes.. I am quite liking the Mullard 6080 over the TS5998 and WE421A.

is it just me? because I've read so many posts on the awesomeness of the WE421A..