Woo Audio WA8 Review - Head-Fi TV
Dec 17, 2017 at 5:53 AM Post #469 of 887
Any word on tube upgrades? Not that i think the stock tubes aren't good, and not that i know anything about tubes either. But who doesn't like upgrades right? Take my money!
 
Dec 24, 2017 at 9:51 AM Post #475 of 887
No I meant in general, tubes can cost more than $1000 each. I explicitly said in the post above that “I doubt the ones for the WA8 will though”.

As someone who uses tube guitar amps and also has an ALO CDM - neither of which use exactly the same tubes as the Wa8 of course - I’d be surprised if the tubes in the Woo weren’t very affordable. Happy to be told that the tubes are a big part of the cost of a Wa8, but i’d be quite shocked if that were the case.
 
Jan 11, 2018 at 7:10 PM Post #476 of 887
The challenge with subminiature tubes is not price, but availability. Even when you find them, they frequently sell in lots of 10-500 units. But per unit price is low - around $10. These must be soldered directly on to the amp PCB or a proprietary adapter that only the amp maker sells. Therefore, the audiophile market for these is tiny.

I have a WA8 on the way. While I love my current gear, I do miss the Woo Audio house sound ever since I owned the WA7 and auditioned the WA8 prototype.
 
Jan 11, 2018 at 11:20 PM Post #477 of 887
WA8 is my first tube amp and I would to play around with tubes. So very likely we have to depend on Woo if we want to roll tubes since the tubes are soldered into the circuit board? Also, if we change tubes for the WA8, would it make small/big change in sound say compare to the bigger tube amp? Thanks guy!
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 12:41 AM Post #478 of 887
WA8 is my first tube amp and I would to play around with tubes. So very likely we have to depend on Woo if we want to roll tubes since the tubes are soldered into the circuit board? Also, if we change tubes for the WA8, would it make small/big change in sound say compare to the bigger tube amp? Thanks guy!

Yes, we will need to source from Woo Audio unless they decide to sell the bare PCB like ALO does. As for change in sound with different tubes, we won't know until we try. There are a lot of 6021 compatible tubes.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 1:26 PM Post #480 of 887
As a soon to be owner, I have some basic questions:
  • Does the WA8 always need to be positioned as pictured with the tubes standing up or can I lay the WA8 down with tube window on top?
  • Does the 3.5mm output have a lower gain than 6.3mm?
  • Does Woo Audio provide Windows ASIO drivers?
I also read through some old posts regarding the charger. It seems to me the "power supply" is a LiPo charger where the charging circuitry is built in the charger itself and not the WA8. Looking at the specs, it's identical to ALO CDM, but the plug size looks different. LiPo charger will shut itself off when the battery is fully charged. I'm not sure what will happen to the WA8 battery if you just plug in a 12V power supply. A power supply does not shut itself off.
 

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