[PoSR77]

Ok, got a Sophia Princess 274B Mesh new B-stock (slight blemish I can't even see and this amp will be used in low lighting conditions anyway)! Couldn't resist the pretty design.

Now to search for some driver tubes, which, from a brief look, I actually had trouble finding a matched pair in the 13DE7 variant. So I'm going to look at some "13***" tubes that Woo shows as compatible.

Do note that I'm sick (felt it coming on last night), so my cognition isn't performing the best and thus I might just be overlooking some source. (Also I have only shopped for tubes before for an old Vali 2, my Lyr+ which I already sent back, and an old, old Head-Direct EF1!--probably totaling about 5 tubes in all over 10 years, so I'm pretty much a newbie at this).

 

[ColSaulTigh]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1448713775...F3JeTGHQaC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1657411738...F3JeTGHQaC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

eBay has a bunch...

 

[PoSR77]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1448713775...F3JeTGHQaC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1657411738...F3JeTGHQaC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

eBay has a bunch...

Thank you, yet again!

I suppose I should have qualified that I was having trouble finding the Sylvania 13DE7s "yellow print" that jonathan c mentioned.

Ebay I find a little sketchy for tubes too, but, again, I know very little about shopping for tubes.

I guess if most any 13DE7s, (from a major maker at least) will be fine that broadens the options!

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Thank you, yet again!

I suppose I should have qualified that I was having trouble finding the Sylvania 13DE7s "yellow print" that jonathan c mentioned.

Ebay I find a little sketchy for tubes too, but, again, I know very little about shopping for tubes.

I guess if most any 13DE7s, (from a major maker at least) will be fine that broadens the options!

Ebay is fine as long as you research the seller first. Throw their username into the search bar on the Head-Fi main page and see what comes up. There are a few bad actors out there, but for the most part they get knocked down pretty quickly. When in doubt, feel free to ask the forum.

As for the 13DE7 Sylvania, I run 13EM7's (via Woo adapters) and the Sylvanias are good, but if I remember, are a bit noisy. I'm currently running matched International Servicemasters which are nice and punchy.

Personally, I'd wait until your Sophia arrives and give that time to settle in before you go hunt for any driver tubes. You may find the stock tubes are just fine...

 

[ColSaulTigh]

If you've got a little extra "FU" money but want literally the best rectifier I've ever experienced:

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/elrog-5u4g.40837/

Someone buy this....fast!

 

[PoSR77]

Ebay is fine as long as you research the seller first. Throw their username into the search bar on the Head-Fi main page and see what comes up. There are a few bad actors out there, but for the most part they get knocked down pretty quickly. When in doubt, feel free to ask the forum.

As for the 13DE7 Sylvania, I run 13EM7's (via Woo adapters) and the Sylvanias are good, but if I remember, are a bit noisy. I'm currently running matched International Servicemasters which are nice and punchy.

Personally, I'd wait until your Sophia arrives and give that time to settle in before you go hunt for any driver tubes. You may find the stock tubes are just fine...

Sure, but I've been burned many times by well-rated/reputable sellers on ebay so I'm just wary of it (or really buying anything used if there are other reasonable options). Haven't ordered anything electronic from there in years (I still buy books from there, new and used, though).

Noisy huh? That's not good. One of the reasons I hooked up the WA6 again after my Lyr+ fiasco is to see if it had any significant background noise with the Odins. It didn't (the Lyr+ did in the tube stage). So I thought before I jump into overkill for a second setup (HA-3 or HA-6; the latter could act as an alternative amp to the Oor in my main system though), I should just use what I have and see if I'm satisfied with that. So thus the "ok, time to finally try some tube rolling with the WA6 and see what happens" decision.

Yea, I realize that part of tube rolling is to try to single out how the replacement of certain tubes affects the SQ. So one should try to go about that in a parsimonious manner; viz, start with the simplest change first. So in the case of the WA6, start with the rectifier or the power tubes, but not both at once. See which has the biggest effect, to you at least, on the SQ. Perhaps just replacing either of them is enough. In that case, I should just wait and see how the Sophia Princess 274B Mesh does. But I am tempted to have some other driver tubes I can swap in and out to test with it!

 

[ebrandon]

Joining the WA6SE club, and found a bunch of tubes in my closet! Any red flags for tubes I shouldn't use with my WA6SE 1st gen?

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would often buy large boxes full of tubes on Craiglist. Grandpa the electrical engineer from 1950s/60s would pass away, and the grandchildren would sell the boxes of tubes he kept in the basement for the last 50 years.

I found many wonderful sounding tubes for my Elekit tube amps that way, and many super cool looking tubes I intend to use in various art projects.

Earlier this week, I bought this WA6SE 1st generation amp https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds...-lots-of-extra-tubes.40377/#hfc-comment-60995 and decided to go through my vast tube collection to see if there was anything that would work with it.

I found a bunch of rectifiers, which I'm eager to try. Some are quite a bit off the beaten path.

I'm posting this for two reasons:
1) Let me know if there are any rectifiers here you're curious about, and I can post my findings
2) Some of these rectifiers are getting quite a bit off the beaten path of regular 5U4 and 5Z4. Please let me know if you think I shouldn't plug them into the amp. I've put the weirder ones at the bottom of this post.

Woo manual lists 5Y3, but not 5Y3GT. Should be ok?

Another 5Y3GT. Same question as for the GE.

Another 5Y3 variant. Same question, not exactly a 5Y3. Is this OK?

Another 5Y3 variant, this one also listed as VT-193.

Similarly, the 5R4 is listed in the Woo manual, but not the 5R4GYB variant.

The 5W4 series are not listed in the Woo manual. I think this is because they're very old and rare. Should work, right?

Finally two really weird tubes. A very large "Ward Airline" 5U4G.

And a very large and heavy "Chatham Electronics" JAN-CAHG-5R4WGA

What do think? Am I ok trying all these?

 

[ebrandon]

Also in my boxes of tubes I found some tubes that might be of interest to WA6 version 1 owners.

These are 6CG7/6FQ7 tubes that can be used with this adapter https://www.ebay.com/itm/193444245987
They're in pristine brand new condition. People seem to like them a lot.
Unfortunately, you can't use them on the WA6SE version 1, only the WA6.

I'd be willing to trade either set for a similarly desirable pair of tubes I can use - 6DE7, 6FD7 fat bottles, 6DR7
Or both sets for NOS Mullard GZ32, GZ34, GZ37, CV593, 5V4G rectifier

Three International Servicemaster tubes

And a pair of yellow label Sylvania tubes, also in like new condition.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Also in my boxes of tubes I found some tubes that might be of interest to WA6 version 1 owners.

These are 6CG7/6FQ7 tubes that can be used with this adapter https://www.ebay.com/itm/193444245987
They're in pristine brand new condition. People seem to like them a lot.
Unfortunately, you can't use them on the WA6SE version 1, only the WA6.

I'd be willing to trade either set for a similarly desirable pair of tubes I can use - 6DE7, 6FD7 fat bottles, 6DR7
Or both sets for NOS Mullard GZ32, GZ34, GZ37, CV593, 5V4G rectifier

Three International Servicemaster tubes






And a pair of yellow label Sylvania tubes, also in like new condition.

Those 6GC7's will sell fast to the Stax folks - I'm using them in my Stax SRM-007t. I literally just bought quads of both though. Someone will scoop them up.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Joining the WA6SE club, and found a bunch of tubes in my closet! Any red flags for tubes I shouldn't use with my WA6SE 1st gen?

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would often buy large boxes full of tubes on Craiglist. Grandpa the electrical engineer from 1950s/60s would pass away, and the grandchildren would sell the boxes of tubes he kept in the basement for the last 50 years.

I found many wonderful sounding tubes for my Elekit tube amps that way, and many super cool looking tubes I intend to use in various art projects.

Earlier this week, I bought this WA6SE 1st generation amp https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds...-lots-of-extra-tubes.40377/#hfc-comment-60995 and decided to go through my vast tube collection to see if there was anything that would work with it.

I found a bunch of rectifiers, which I'm eager to try. Some are quite a bit off the beaten path.

I'm posting this for two reasons:
1) Let me know if there are any rectifiers here you're curious about, and I can post my findings
2) Some of these rectifiers are getting quite a bit off the beaten path of regular 5U4 and 5Z4. Please let me know if you think I shouldn't plug them into the amp. I've put the weirder ones at the bottom of this post.









Woo manual lists 5Y3, but not 5Y3GT. Should be ok?


Another 5Y3GT. Same question as for the GE.


Another 5Y3 variant. Same question, not exactly a 5Y3. Is this OK?


Another 5Y3 variant, this one also listed as VT-193.


Similarly, the 5R4 is listed in the Woo manual, but not the 5R4GYB variant.


The 5W4 series are not listed in the Woo manual. I think this is because they're very old and rare. Should work, right?


Finally two really weird tubes. A very large "Ward Airline" 5U4G.


And a very large and heavy "Chatham Electronics" JAN-CAHG-5R4WGA


What do think? Am I ok trying all these?

I can tell you that the Chatham "potato masher" tube is an excellent rectifier and works great in the WA6. The Ward's tube above it is a rebrand and will work just fine also.

All those 5Y3 variants are fine as well.

The 5U4"B"s worry me a bit. Get verification they aren't a different type before using them. I don't think they're the same.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Ok, yeah, this is what I thought I remembered about them....

"There is common misunderstanding that 5U4G and 5U4GB is the same. 5U4GB is a version, with lower internal resistance and higher peak current is allowed. The GB version is not the same tube as the G Version. Replacing 5U4G with 5U4GB may result in higher rectified voltage, so should never be done. Replacing 5U4GB with 5U4G may result in lower rectified voltage, and may result in damage of the 5U4G rectifier."

 

[ebrandon]

Ok, yeah, this is what I thought I remembered about them....

"There is common misunderstanding that 5U4G and 5U4GB is the same. 5U4GB is a version, with lower internal resistance and higher peak current is allowed. The GB version is not the same tube as the G Version. Replacing 5U4G with 5U4GB may result in higher rectified voltage, so should never be done. Replacing 5U4GB with 5U4G may result in lower rectified voltage, and may result in damage of the 5U4G rectifier."

Fantastic information. Thank you!

 

[Astral Abyss]

Fantastic information. Thank you!

BTW, after doing additional checking, it does look like you can swap the 5U4GB into the Woo without any problems.

 

[ebrandon]

BTW, after doing additional checking, it does look like you can swap the 5U4GB into the Woo without any problems.

Even better. Thanks for the correction.

 

[PoSR77]

Ok, got a Sophia Princess 274B Mesh new B-stock (slight blemish I can't even see and this amp will be used in low lighting conditions anyway)! Couldn't resist the pretty design.

Received the SP Mesh today from Sophia Electric: fast shipping, great packaging, looks wonderful (I mean, wow, for that alone it was worth the price) and works just fine!

No sound comparisons yet to the stock WA6 rectifier because my cold has gone from stuffing up my nose to stuffing up my ears so my hearing is not great right now.