[Lee Brindley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bach /img/forum/go_quote.gif The upgrades were the max he could do. If you have questions about them email Jack. I love my WA5 LE!!!!!!

I am in touch with Jack - I'll probably get my WA5 LE in stock form to start with....see how i get on. Can always return it in a year or so for updates.

Very keen to hear the 300b sound. Traditionally i not been so keen on tube HP amps - been thru loads (and loads of solid state) and have Stax SRM717 and RSA Apache in my system.

The WA5 will power my current weapon of choice - the Ultrasone Ed 9, which is simply divine.

Any other comments on the WA5 would make great reading.

Thanks and regards

Lee

 

[jamato8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bach /img/forum/go_quote.gif These are the upgrades: Here is the parts listed in sequence of their priority. I'd recommend to do 1 group or all but not individually. Also, the caps are over-sized which require a major wiring change; it'd be much easy to do it from scratch. 1. $150 V-cap 0.15/600V 2. $500 Jensen 220u/450V BG vk 150u/350V BG std 220u/16V BG std 470u/160V 3. $100 Mills-mrc50 750ohms/50W Mills-mra12 22k/12W Mills-mra5 7.5k/5W Mills-mra5 15k/5W Mills-mra12 62k/12W Audio Note tantalum 330/1W Audio Note tantalum 330k/0.5W 4. $200 Jensen 100u/500V

I would not use the BG std as there is a noticeable change in sound by going to the better nonpolar. The Audio Note tants are magnetic and can impart a slightly white noise. Even Audio Note does not use them in their most expensive gear but prefer good carbon resistors. I would not use the AN tants in anything. I have the older original tants and they are great but not available any longer. I would use either Kiwame or Riken Ohm. The rewiring isn't that big a thing.

The the resistors I would not use the .5 or even the 1 watt. Even if you only need a 1/8 watt it has been found by Audio Note UK, RSA and I have long used much larger wattage than needed, that 2 watt or greater sounds better. You get less shift due to thermal changes. The older tants I have are 1 watt and 2 watt and I use the 2 watt when I can. I would use 2 watt or larger Riken or Kiwame for their great transparency, non-inductance and neutral sound.

 

[mikeymad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif Quote: Originally Posted by mikeymad I really like the LE version (and it should sound better than the regular edition), ... why is that?

Sorry I guess that I never got back to this thread (in December). My thoughts on this were mostly the upgrades. My WA5 only has a couple of CAP upgrades. Also the fact that the LE is eliminating some additional circutry (selector switch, speaker terminals and the like) should streamline the design and could clean up the output a little bit.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

 

[jamato8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeymad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also the fact that the LE is eliminating some additional circutry (selector switch, speaker terminals and the like) should streamline the design and could clean up the output a little bit. Just a thought. Cheers,

I would have to agree. On my home system, now in storage, even the IC's are hard wired into the preamp I built. I even made my own design for balanced ICs, which are much better at the connections than any of the standard balanced types.

 

[Lee Brindley]

Any other users of WA5 LE on here?

 

[twoears&oneheart]

Any other WA5 or WA5Le users?

I like to hear your feedback on the amp and on low impendence headphones if u use it with the WA5 / WA5 LE

preferably GS1000...

T H A N K S

 

[Cakes]

I'm a WA5 -LE owner with a few mods. I've been listening with low impedence GS-1000s, medium impedence Senn HD-650s, and most recently, high impedance AKG-K1000s (all are Stefan Art Equinox recables).

All phones sound outstanding on the Woo, but to my ears, the AKG-K1000 using the high impedance jack is my clear favourite and the Woo sounds heavenly with this combo. It's taken me some time to get hold of the AKG's, but I'm so glad that I did as I believe it's a very special combination with the Woo 5. With many recordings the GS-1000s sound really, really good with this amp and on well-balanced discs with no leaning towards brightness the Grados are immensely engaging and have an enormous soundstage with prodigious levels of detail and low-down grunt. The SAA Equinox recable really helped bring the mids forward to create a sound which feels perfectly in balance. It gets you searching through all your recordings and leaves you with a big grin! My problem with the GS-1000s is with around 20% of my recordings which may lean towards slight brightness. With this material I have to take the GS-1000s off my head as the HF spikes are painful to me. That really tempers my enjoyment of the Grados with the WA5-LE and as a result I've not been listening to the headphone rig nearly as much as I should (criminal really). NB My GS-1000s are probably 500 hours burned in so I think they have reached a realtively steady state and should hopefully have completed the burn-in process fully.

The AKG's plugged in to the high impedance pot have solved all those problems. I've only had the combination for 2 days but my optimism for the Woo is now 100% back on. I can now listen to all my albums again. I have not heard the AKG's without the Equinox re-cable (WA5-LE did not have the XLR connection for the unmodded AKGs), but my initial impressions with the K1000and partly burned in cable (30 hours into an 80-90 hour process) is that I now do not need to perform any more upgrades on my system. I can happily imagine being content with this combination for many years to come. The low-end has much more impact than I imagined it might have, given the open design and distance from the eardrums. My favourite part of the K1000's sonics is the mid-range. Vocals are beautifully etched out and just cut through the overall presentation with perfect emphasis. The sound is just so balanced. The K1000s may miss a tiny amount of detail retreival and soundstage compared to the GS-1000s but I prefer the AKGs any day of the week. Why? Because they are just so perfectly balanced and have made me want to audition every single recording again and again. Two days since I've had the phones and two days of very late night listening sessions and more than a little red wine

So, ultimately my experience is of course representative of both the WA5-LE and the headphone sonics, but I would say that I did not know just how good an amp the WA5-LE was until the K1000s arrived. I've now reached the end of the upgrade path, and I'm very happy for it.

John

 

[dvb-projekt]

Fo me, as an owner of the WA6 maxxed, were very interesting how much the sound improvement is to your WA5-LE. I know that this is hard to say, but perhaps someone could write some impressions.

I think it could be Jack Woo...

 

[atbglenn]

I'd love to get a WA5 LE, but tube rolling would put me in the poor house. Sounds like an amazing amp.

 

[dvb-projekt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by atbglenn /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd love to get a WA5 LE, but tube rolling would put me in the poor house. Sounds like an amazing amp.

I think the main question is, how much is the difference in SQ between the WA6 maxxed and the WA5-LE.

But i don´t know, if somebody could tell us...

 

[atbglenn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvb-projekt /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think the main question is, how much is the difference in SQ between the WA6 maxxed and the WA5-LE. But i don´t know, if somebody could tell us...

Yes, we'd like to know......PLEASE

 

[Spareribs]

I agree that the K1000 and WA5 is great. For me, it's the best headphone and amp combo I've heard so far because it seemed the most natural in sound.

 

[Spareribs]

One of the great things about the WA5 is the tube choices. It's very easy to find premium tubes so tube rolling can be so easy. There's a ton of 6SN7s out there and lots of 5U4G rectifiers. The 300B tubes are out there too and are plentiful.

 

[cooperpwc]

That is a lovely amplifier you have there. Congratulations.

 

[yoginasser]

Would anyone here like to sell their WA5LE or WA6SE?