Hi yall I'm in need of advice.
I have the grace m9xx, and my headphones are th900, T1, hd800, thx00, he500, d7k, hd650, hd600, x2.
Would the woo audio wa7 firefly be better or a upgrade to the m9xx.
Does the purchase make sense.
Thank you
I have the m9XX and the first edition of the WA7 and some of the same HPs you have.
My cut is the WA7 is a work of art and sounds quite nice with my HD600's which I usually listen to it with. I am really not a big fan of tube gear, but bought the WA7 to see why so many in today's age like the tube sound. I don't like waiting for it to warm up and remembering to turn it off after a listening session or the heat it produces, Mine has the upgraded Electro Harmonix 6C45 tubes and they usually introduce a bit of hiss like noise as they warm up which makes me usually wait about 10 minutes after turn on so that the audio is stable and dead silent like it should be. This is just the nature of tubes I believe and of course they will sound different as they age and eventually have to be replaced.
The m9XX is just an outstanding performer on anything I have thrown at it; high impedance, low impedance or planer. It employs AKM's flagship AK4490 DAC and Grace seems to really understand the chip and implements many filters to go along with it to suit most anyone's taste. The WA7 DAC is the TI PCM5102A DAC which sounds OK in my book, but many do elect to use the WA7 as the nice Class A tube amp that it is and provide their own favorite DAC.
I also like to compare HPs and find 2 or more jacks convenient as opposed to plugging and and unplugging. The WA7 has two jacks a 3.5mm and a 6.3mm but only one can be used at a time.
For my HD800 I like Sennheiser's own HDVD800 DAC/Amp and usually use a balanced cable which neither the WA7 or m9XX supports.