I've never heard the standard WA33 but I own the WA33 JPS elite and it is an extremely fast sounding amp but of course this also depends what dac you pair with it.
The Elite really is a big difference over standard. They don’t even use the same transformers. It’s a big upgrade, though the standard still sounds great too at half the cost. I think the speed and bass are perfectly fine on the WA33 EE JPS. I haven’t heard your Red October, but I love my WA33 EE JPS.
I've never heard the standard WA33 but I own the WA33 JPS elite and it is an extremely fast sounding amp but of course this also depends what dac you pair with it.
yes, i wish at these audio shows,especially with hi end amps like wa33 & wa23 that vendors would have 2 or 3 different (hi end)flavored dacs to demo with their respective amps,like a great r2r,nos dac,a great 1 bit dac like mola mola etc because a mismatched dac or wrong tube pairing can give you a bad impression,of an outstanding amp.
funny,there is most always every type of headphones in these rooms.
at canjam new york,this past february,the wa23 was playing out of the dac in the woo wa11 portable?
this totally did not make sense to me,but sounded good none the less....
The Elite really is a big difference over standard. They don’t even use the same transformers. It’s a big upgrade, though the standard still sounds great too at half the cost. I think the speed and bass are perfectly fine on the WA33 EE JPS. I haven’t heard your Red October, but I love my WA33 EE JPS.
Hey @Somatic - I'm running my Susvara off of it and am really, really enjoying it. Have not tried Susvara with a speaker amp though. I can tell you that I did try some headphone amps at CanJam (not the best environment to test, but left enough of an impression) that were more powerful than the WA23 but I didn't like them more and ended up getting the WA23. The WA23 still sounds huge and has a powerful bass, but in a more refined way vs. something like the Riviera AIC-10. I own a Ferrum Oor (w/ Hypsos, important to note) and will try the WA23 as a pre with that using Susvara and can report back when I do.
It was.... odd. It did something weird
to the sound - where it pushed everything back and there was no up-front punch. It was odd enough that I think something might've been off and my guess would be the cables I'm using to connect the WA23 to the Oor - XLRs, but not really audiophile quality. I want to try again just to see with the same cables after having some space from that last experience and try some other cables if that doesn't work out well. Could be something else too, but I did play around with output voltages and volume on the Oor and WA23, but the sound didn't change much.
It was.... odd. It did something weird
to the sound - where it pushed everything back and there was no up-front punch. It was odd enough that I think something might've been off and my guess would be the cables I'm using to connect the WA23 to the Oor - XLRs, but not really audiophile quality. I want to try again just to see with the same cables after having some space from that last experience and try some other cables if that doesn't work out well. Could be something else too, but I did play around with output voltages and volume on the Oor and WA23, but the sound didn't change much.
It was.... odd. It did something weird
to the sound - where it pushed everything back and there was no up-front punch. It was odd enough that I think something might've been off and my guess would be the cables I'm using to connect the WA23 to the Oor - XLRs, but not really audiophile quality. I want to try again just to see with the same cables after having some space from that last experience and try some other cables if that doesn't work out well. Could be something else too, but I did play around with output voltages and volume on the Oor and WA23, but the sound didn't change much.
Thank you for your valuable Input!!!!! Personally I plan to try AQ XLR to RCA cable also many AQ cables has great vocal. May I ask did you notice any change for low ends?
Besides, the volume control in Wa23 is on par of Wa33 elite level, so personally speaking I wouldn't add external pre especially ones at lower level.
For people who own or have spent time with the WA23-- do you find it favors certain headphone types over others (planar vs. dynamic, low vs. high impedance, etc)?
If anyone has any more impressions of this amp, please share. Haven't seen a proper review of it yet. Wondering what headphones have a good synergy with the Luna.
If anyone has any more impressions of this amp, please share. Haven't seen a proper review of it yet. Wondering what headphones have a good synergy with the Luna.
I've been cycling it through my headphones (Audeze LCD2 & LCD3, ZMF Verite Closed & Atrium and HifiMan Susvara) and it sounds amazing with all of them. I think the Susvara and the amp though is particularly special. The balance of tone and power is perfect to me.
I found a dealer, Audio 46, that had 1 in stock (their only one)! I ordered it 2 days ago and I get it today! I'm looking forward to using it with my Grimm MU1/Innous PhoenixNET, and Bricasti M1SE DAC. Headphones in my collection that I'll try with it are the Susvara, DCA Expanse, 1266TC, Utopia and Verite Open. I also bought several tubes to roll into the WA23.
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