[rschoi75]

I received a set of Noble K10 customs last week, and have been listening to them with my WA7d + WA7tp combo for at least an hour every day since I received them. To compare the WA7d + WA7tp combo, I've been flipping in between my iphone 6 and AK100ii; admittedly favoring the AK100ii, because that's what I use for the majority of the day at work. After about a week of jumping around, I realized two major things: 
 
1) I owe the people here a big thank you, so "Thank you to all the people here on Head-fi for the reviews, sharing of knowledge, and personal experiences with head-fi related products"! You guys & gals lead me to some pretty kick-a** products. Especially the fireflies.  
2) The iphone 6 is shockingly good for being a smart phone. Color me impressed. 
 
Now, with regard to the WA7... the K10 sounds incredibly rich, while still having superior clarity and imaging. The jump in sound quality with the noble K10 + WA7d + WA7tp combo compared to anything else I own is akin to the first time I tried audiophile quality headphones vs cheap panasonic earbuds. When compared to the both the iphone 6 and AK100ii, the WA7d + WA7tp combo is warmer, and more musical. The bass is easily deeper and more rich, yet still fast and tight. The mid's are just gorgeous, and the highs are never fatiguing. I'm also surprised about how low the noise floor is on this little guy. I have to turn the dial to more than 25% to finally hear the gentle hum (when plugged into the 3.5mm iem jack). 
 
Bravo to Woo Audio for a job well done. I can listen to every/any headphone or iem that I own, and the Fireflies drives all of them beautifully. It's powerful when it needs to be, and gentle when situation requires a lighter touch. 
  

 

[abvolt]

Your Noble customs look great and I couldn't agree more with you the WA7 is spot on..

 

[Paspasero]

Has anyone ever opened their WA7? Anyone ever seen a picture of the internals?

 

[abvolt]

  Has anyone ever opened their WA7? Anyone ever seen a picture of the internals?

I've never been able to find any pics of it's innards and I won't be opening mine. If I ever have issues Woo can open mine..

 

[Jeb Listens]

The beauty of the WA7 has to be seen to be believed.

Quick question: how long does the obsessive glass polishing phase last?

 

[Dogmatrix]

The beauty of the WA7 has to be seen to be believed.

Quick question: how long does the obsessive glass polishing phase last?

It never ends
Microfiber is a wonderful thing

 

[Jeb Listens]

 
It never ends
 

 
Just as I feared.  Thanks. 

 

[groovyd]

  I received a set of Noble K10 customs last week, and have been listening to them with my WA7d + WA7tp combo for at least an hour every day since I received them. To compare the WA7d + WA7tp combo, I've been flipping in between my iphone 6 and AK100ii; admittedly favoring the AK100ii, because that's what I use for the majority of the day at work. After about a week of jumping around, I realized two major things: 
 
1) I owe the people here a big thank you, so "Thank you to all the people here on Head-fi for the reviews, sharing of knowledge, and personal experiences with head-fi related products"! You guys & gals lead me to some pretty kick-a** products. Especially the fireflies.  
2) The iphone 6 is shockingly good for being a smart phone. Color me impressed. 
 
Now, with regard to the WA7... the K10 sounds incredibly rich, while still having superior clarity and imaging. The jump in sound quality with the noble K10 + WA7d + WA7tp combo compared to anything else I own is akin to the first time I tried audiophile quality headphones vs cheap panasonic earbuds. When compared to the both the iphone 6 and AK100ii, the WA7d + WA7tp combo is warmer, and more musical. The bass is easily deeper and more rich, yet still fast and tight. The mid's are just gorgeous, and the highs are never fatiguing. I'm also surprised about how low the noise floor is on this little guy. I have to turn the dial to more than 25% to finally hear the gentle hum (when plugged into the 3.5mm iem jack). 
 
Bravo to Woo Audio for a job well done. I can listen to every/any headphone or iem that I own, and the Fireflies drives all of them beautifully. It's powerful when it needs to be, and gentle when situation requires a lighter touch. 
  

beautiful setup and iems... i have had my eyes on them as a replacement for my ER-4s, mostly just for comfort issues but i am sure the performance is a huge step up as well.  how well are they driven by just the iPhone itself as I mostly use iems during travel and no longer carry an amp around with me. also how is the comfort and insertion removal effort?  the ER-4s is too deep and pressures my ear canals with any normal tips and with the custom molds i have is too much trouble inserting and removing and creates a sort of suction where every jaw movement i hear.  sound of the ER-4s is good however if you get the rest situated which is the big if.
 
regarding the WA7 showing hum at 25%, do you mean the 9 o'clock position or the 75% volume 3 o'clock position?  on my WA7 there is absolutely no noise floor or hum even at full volume, absolutely black with both 1/4" and iems.

 

[HemiSam]

I hear no hum with my UERM CIEM's out of the WA7.
 
HS

 

[rschoi75]

 
beautiful setup and iems... i have had my eyes on them as a replacement for my ER-4s, mostly just for comfort issues but i am sure the performance is a huge step up as well.  how well are they driven by just the iPhone itself as I mostly use iems during travel and no longer carry an amp around with me. also how is the comfort and insertion removal effort?  the ER-4s is too deep and pressures my ear canals with any normal tips and with the custom molds i have is too much trouble inserting and removing and creates a sort of suction where every jaw movement i hear.  sound of the ER-4s is good however if you get the rest situated which is the big if.
 
regarding the WA7 showing hum at 25%, do you mean the 9 o'clock position or the 75% volume 3 o'clock position?  on my WA7 there is absolutely no noise floor or hum even at full volume, absolutely black with both 1/4" and iems.

 
Thank you. The iphone 6 drives the iems very well. I can't go above 60%, before it gets too loud. It's a perfectly fine solution as long as you're ok with sharing battery life & storage space with other apps, camera, phone, etc... I don't really want to go into too much detail since this is the WA7 thread, but it's a perfectly good player imo. Especially since most phones can also stream spotify, tidal, or other streaming services. 
 
The hum on the WA7 can be heard around the 9 o'clock position. It's barely audible, but you can hear it with the K10's. It's not nearly enough to bother me though, as it all but disappears when the music kicks in. 

 

[groovyd]

sounds like an impedance problem.  you using low or hi Z switch setting? the 1/8 connector has a much lower output. perhaps try an inline 100 ohm resistor like they sell for the ER-4p and on ebay.  is a simple short cable with 1/8 on each end and a couple resistors in it.

 

[mikoss]

@rschoi75 any chance your power supply and wa7 are close together? I notice an audible hum when they are in close proximity to each other... moving them apart solved it for me.

 

[rage3324]

Few Questions:
 
1. Should my mac identify the WA7 as "Speaker" in Audio Devices?
2. Should I set the Format to 2ch-16,24, or 32 bit in Audio Devices?
 
I am running OS Yosemite 10.10.2. I am using Audirvana Plus as my media player and some of my music 24-bit. 
 
--Update--
I did some digging around and this might be normal, but just want to confirm

 

[groovyd]

yes, it is normal. i let JRiver MediaCenter set the format depending on the track automatically.  It always picks the best format for best sound.

 

[rschoi75]

  @rschoi75 any chance your power supply and wa7 are close together? I notice an audible hum when they are in close proximity to each other... moving them apart solved it for me.

 
Thanks for the suggestion. That seems to have done the trick.