[simonpickard]

Hello all,
 
Got my wa7tp for Christmas day! So amazed with the quality of these two little boxes with my T1 headphones.
I read a lot of the thread and it seems there are a few people with T1's. I was wondering if I could ask a few questions...
 
1. Does the wa7tp 'burn in'? I've only got about 20 hours on it so far and love the sound but do think it's slowly changing (for the better). Was just wondering if others have found this and if so how long did you run yours for before it was fully settled.
 
2. T1 owners... Do you run the impedance gain at high or low? I think mines set to the default of low.
 
3. T1 owners... What tubes are you rocking? I've tried some Sylvania Jan 5814A's but actually prefer the stock tubes I think. I love the soundstage and detail from the stock tubes. I know the bass on the Jan's is bigger but I'm not a big bass head. Is there anything out there better than the stocks for soundstage / detail over the stocks?
 
All the best everyone and I'm very excited to be part of the club!
 
Regards,
Simon

 

[acguitar84]

  Hello all,
 
Got my wa7tp for Christmas day! So amazed with the quality of these two little boxes with my T1 headphones.
I read a lot of the thread and it seems there are a few people with T1's. I was wondering if I could ask a few questions...
 
1. Does the wa7tp 'burn in'? I've only got about 20 hours on it so far and love the sound but do think it's slowly changing (for the better). Was just wondering if others have found this and if so how long did you run yours for before it was fully settled.
 
2. T1 owners... Do you run the impedance gain at high or low? I think mines set to the default of low.
 
3. T1 owners... What tubes are you rocking? I've tried some Sylvania Jan 5814A's but actually prefer the stock tubes I think. I love the soundstage and detail from the stock tubes. I know the bass on the Jan's is bigger but I'm not a big bass head. Is there anything out there better than the stocks for soundstage / detail over the stocks?
 
All the best everyone and I'm very excited to be part of the club!
 
Regards,
Simon

Simon, did you have the solid state power supply and the wa7 before getting the wa7tp? If so, how much improvement is there? Was it worth it? It's interesting you prefer the wa7tp stock tubes. Maybe if I purchase the wa7tp I should just get it with stock tubes and worry about tube rolling later.

 

[groovyd]

  Hello all,
 
Got my wa7tp for Christmas day! So amazed with the quality of these two little boxes with my T1 headphones.
I read a lot of the thread and it seems there are a few people with T1's. I was wondering if I could ask a few questions...
 
1. Does the wa7tp 'burn in'? I've only got about 20 hours on it so far and love the sound but do think it's slowly changing (for the better). Was just wondering if others have found this and if so how long did you run yours for before it was fully settled.
 
2. T1 owners... Do you run the impedance gain at high or low? I think mines set to the default of low.
 
3. T1 owners... What tubes are you rocking? I've tried some Sylvania Jan 5814A's but actually prefer the stock tubes I think. I love the soundstage and detail from the stock tubes. I know the bass on the Jan's is bigger but I'm not a big bass head. Is there anything out there better than the stocks for soundstage / detail over the stocks?
 
All the best everyone and I'm very excited to be part of the club!
 
Regards,
Simon

I have the T1 and WA7tp and can say for certain they are high impedance cans.  Typically use the setting which delivers the most output volume for the same volume setting.  That means it is most efficient at that impedance.
 
Burn in is real... just keeps getting better.  I would say a good 60 hours before you are in the long tail.
 
I'm using Mullards at home and sylvania 6350 at work.  If you prefer the stock to JANs you would probably also love the Mullards.  The T1 are already a little bright so probably best to avoid the cleartops.

 

[simonpickard]

Hi,
 
Nope, didn't have the WA7 on it's own beforehand. Jumped right in with the dual amp / power supply.
I'd say for sure go with the stock tubes to start with. It's not like the Jan's sounded bad. It was a 'bigger' sound, especially in the lower end. But it wasn't as sharp or detailed and the soundstage was vastly reduced on some tracks. Just felt a little muddy compared to the clarity of the stock tubes to me.
 
Personally I'm not bothered about booming bass so the stocks are perfect (to my ears). If you want clarity and detail I'd say the stock tubes are an amazing listen. If you want fuller low end try the Jan's.
 
I will try a few other tubes at a later date I'm sure but I'd be amazed if anything to me sounds better. I just can't imagine how it could at this stage I'm that happy!

 
One other thing I will say about this setup is how amazing normal CD quality lossless sounds. I'm not kidding when I say my 44,000 16bit tracks sound as good now as any hi def stuff I've got. It's like the amp / psu pushes the quality of CD quality higher. On other setups I could hear a slight difference between cd and 24bit high sample recordings. I honestly can't on this setup with the T1's. It all sounds amazing.
 
Lastly.. The DAC. I've tried a few different DAC's over the last few days and keep returning to the built in one. I either can't hear a difference or it sounds worse. I've wanted a kick ass all in one system for a while now. An end system if you will. For me this is it and everything else is going up for sale.
 
it looks amazing during the day, stunning at night. Plug it in and away you go.
 
I'm going to add the following to it soon (it's in the post).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet®-Wireless-Receiver-wireless-streaming/dp/B00O0U37HO
 
I'll then have a system I can stream to without having to connect my laptop, etc.
 
Done.

 

[simonpickard]

 
I have the T1 and WA7tp and can say for certain they are high impedance cans.  Typically use the setting which delivers the most output volume for the same volume setting.  That means it is most efficient at that impedance.
 
Burn in is real... just keeps getting better.  I would say a good 60 hours before you are in the long tail.
 
I'm using Mullards at home and sylvania 6350 at work.  If you prefer the stock to JANs you would probably also love the Mullards.  The T1 are already a little bright so probably best to avoid the cleartops.

Hi,
 
Do you know which Mullards you use? I will give them a go at some point I'm sure but I'm so happy with the stock tubes for now.
Thanks for the tip regarding the high gain. I switched over last night and it does sound better. A little more bass / sub bass was added I noticed as well.
 
Regards,
Simon

 

[acguitar84]

 
 
 
Lastly.. The DAC. I've tried a few different DAC's over the last few days and keep returning to the built in one. I either can't hear a difference or it sounds worse. I've wanted a kick ass all in one system for a while now. An end system if you will. For me this is it and everything else is going up for sale.
 
 

Which dacs did you try? I have a concero hd and to me, it's superior to the internal dac on the wa7. I just love the amp though. For me, the combo of the concero hd and the wa7 is amazing. I have the solid state power supply though, and can't help but wonder if that would make my rig sound even better.

 

[groovyd]

 
Hi,
 
Do you know which Mullards you use? I will give them a go at some point I'm sure but I'm so happy with the stock tubes for now.
Thanks for the tip regarding the high gain. I switched over last night and it does sound better. A little more bass / sub bass was added I noticed as well.
 
Regards,
Simon

yeah go to upscale audio website and get the mullard CV4003  (http://www.upscaleaudio.com/mullard-cv4003-12au7-vintage-new-old-stock/) you won't be disappointed.  They are the same basic signature as stock but more extended and more dynamic with tighter bass and smoother more extended highs.  They are the same basic sound, but just better all across the board.
 
matched impedance does improve the bass and sub-bass simply because the amp is not as taxed and is therefore able to provide more power across the spectrum instead of burning it away because of an impedance mis-match.  Bass and sub-bass are the first things that will be affected by a power struggle.  Some say the T1 is the perfect match for a OTL (output transformer-less) amp like the Bottlehead Crack because it matches the impedance of the tube output stage directly without transformer and therefore is one less component getting between you and your music.  You might want to take a look at buying or building a Bottlehead if the T1 is your main cans but the WA is also a very good amp for them.

 

[simonpickard]

 
yeah go to upscale audio website and get the mullard CV4003  (http://www.upscaleaudio.com/mullard-cv4003-12au7-vintage-new-old-stock/) you won't be disappointed.  They are the same basic signature as stock but more extended and more dynamic with tighter bass and smoother more extended highs.  They are the same basic sound, but just better all across the board.
 
matched impedance does improve the bass and sub-bass simply because the amp is not as taxed and is therefore able to provide more power across the spectrum instead of burning it away because of an impedance mis-match.  Bass and sub-bass are the first things that will be affected by a power struggle.  Some say the T1 is the perfect match for a OTL (output transformer-less) amp like the Bottlehead Crack because it matches the impedance of the tube output stage directly without transformer and therefore is one less component getting between you and your music.  You might want to take a look at buying or building a Bottlehead if the T1 is your main cans but the WA is also a very good amp for them.

Thanks for the link. Been trying to hunt some down in Australia this morning. Will keep trying!
If not maybe I could paypal someone to ship a pair over to Sydney?
 
Regards,
Simon

 

[simonpickard]

  Which dacs did you try? I have a concero hd and to me, it's superior to the internal dac on the wa7. I just love the amp though. For me, the combo of the concero hd and the wa7 is amazing. I have the solid state power supply though, and can't help but wonder if that would make my rig sound even better.

Hi,
 
I tried a bit frost and my portable Glacer DAC. Haven't used a concert hd. When you say superior in what way? More detail, etc?

 

[acguitar84]

 
Hi,
 
I tried a bit frost and my portable Glacer DAC. Haven't used a concert hd. When you say superior in what way? More detail, etc?

More detail, clarity, just everything. The low end is tighter too. It's just a darn good dac. I took the concero downstairs the other day and had a shootout with it vs. my internal sound card my trusty old m audio audiophile 24/96. The concero kicked it's butt. Just better all around. My son was there too and he said the concero actually seemed to have less low end, but what's down there is tight and focused. And horns sounded much more realistic on the concero.
 
The dac in the Wa7 seems to be on par with something like the audiophile 24/96. Decent and usable. But not like something like the concero. The amp on the wa7 is awesome though. Again the combo of the two of them and my PS1000e makes for some fun listening! I really love the amp in the wa7. Extremely quiet noise floor and good power. Very good tone.
 
When you said bitfrost did you mean bifrost? The multibit bifrost? I'd love to hear that unit sometime. You liked the wa7's built in dac better?

 

[simonpickard]

  More detail, clarity, just everything. The low end is tighter too. It's just a darn good dac. I took the concero downstairs the other day and had a shootout with it vs. my internal sound card my trusty old m audio audiophile 24/96. The concero kicked it's butt. Just better all around. My son was there too and he said the concero actually seemed to have less low end, but what's down there is tight and focused. And horns sounded much more realistic on the concero.
 
The dac in the Wa7 seems to be on par with something like the audiophile 24/96. Decent and usable. But not like something like the concero. The amp on the wa7 is awesome though. Again the combo of the two of them and my PS1000e makes for some fun listening! I really love the amp in the wa7. Extremely quiet noise floor and good power. Very good tone.
 
When you said bitfrost did you mean bifrost? The multibit bifrost? I'd love to hear that unit sometime. You liked the wa7's built in dac better?

Very interesting.
I'll have to try and borrow a concero at some point. Maybe it's my ears though. To me the internal DAC is pretty amazing compared to anything else I've used. Like I said after and hour of listening I couldn't actually tell the difference between the bifrost and internal, they both sounded amazing.

 

[simonpickard]

Hi,
 
Has anyone here upgraded to the wa7 Electro Harmonix tubes in the main Amp?
I've read a few things that say the difference in quality is tiny but can't really find anything so if anyone has swapped over, was it worth it?
 
Regards,
Simon

 

[HiFiGuy528]

  Hi,
 
Has anyone here upgraded to the wa7 Electro Harmonix tubes in the main Amp?
I've read a few things that say the difference in quality is tiny but can't really find anything so if anyone has swapped over, was it worth it?
 
Regards,
Simon

 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/763045/review-wa7-lcd-2f-dac-shoot-out-tube-guide-updated
 
"All that glistens – the Electro Harmonix Gold-Pin debate."

 

[groovyd]

no difference between stock and gold pins.

 

[JoeDoe]

Any WA7tp owners interested in tamradubg trading for an LCD3? If so, shoot me a PM!