[shigzeo]

 
Ken is a beast! He's got the photo world bottled up with excellent SEO and now the audio world, too. Well done. Anyway, I'm a little less excited than he is, though I think the WA7 is a very good amp/DAC combo. My review is up.

 

[hedphonz]

quite a thorough review above - has the first negative comments i heard regarding build quality and interesting to hear your observations regarding it being best suited for 80 ohm + headphones
 
BTW - ohmage 6 and porridge 3 - what score is that out of  ? 6 or 10 ?

 

[olegausany]

Quote:

I've ordered my WA7 a few days back along with the upgrade tubes.  While waiting for it, I am searching for a USB cable to go with it.  Any suggestion?

I got several USB cables from The Cable Co library plus one from Best Buy. Tried 2 out of 5 so far and out of those 2 I prefer DH Labs SilverSonic USB. Will update this post if anyone interested

 

[shigzeo]

Quote:

quite a thorough review above - has the first negative comments i heard regarding build quality and interesting to hear your observations regarding it being best suited for 80 ohm + headphones
 
BTW - ohmage 6 and porridge 3 - what score is that out of  ? 6 or 10 ?

Hello hedphonz,
 
The porridge and ohmage aren't out of anything. Where I decide to apply marks, I apply them. Porridge is something I like to eat, but I recognise that it isn't everyone's favourite. Therefore, it is a negative. 'ohmage' on the other hands, is a positive. If I decide to make points at twenty places, then it is out of 20. 3+6, otherwise, equals nine. I'm trying to keep ohm image out of the full marks review sites and interested in highlighting the product and its most important features. I hope it isn't too confusing.

 

[hedphonz]

Quote:

Hello hedphonz,
 
The porridge and ohmage aren't out of anything. Where I decide to apply marks, I apply them. Porridge is something I like to eat, but I recognise that it isn't everyone's favourite. Therefore, it is a negative. 'ohmage' on the other hands, is a positive. If I decide to make points at twenty places, then it is out of 20. 3+6, otherwise, equals nine. I'm trying to keep ohm image out of the full marks review sites and interested in highlighting the product and its most important features. I hope it isn't too confusing.

Ohm I see 

 
points are always so subjective anyway - i take little notice of them when it comes to music reviews or i would have bought a truckload of crap by now.

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

[..]  My review is up.

 
Quote from the review:

Fireflies sports coaxial SPDIF inputs as well as this decade's Ubiq, USB.

 
Hmm - I looked and then looked again, but the coax S/PDIF input must be really well hidden. Even the WA7 manual doesn't seem to know about it...
That's a porridge from me for otherwise fine review.

 

[shigzeo]

Quote:

 
 
Hmm - I looked and then looked again, but the coax S/PDIF input must be really well hidden. Even the WA7 manual doesn't seem to know about it...
That's a porridge from me for otherwise fine review.

Porridge indeed. Fixed and thank you.

 

[Macross]

Quote:

I got several USB cables from The Cable Co library plus one from Best Buy. Tried 2 out of 5 so far and out of those 2 I prefer DH Labs SilverSonic USB. Will update this post if anyone interested

This should be interesting. I was thinking about DH Labs or the Blue Dragon from Moon since their price range is similar and not too expensive.  Kimber Kable Ag seems nice, but out of my budget. 

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Outside of better shielding... One USB cable will deliver audio identically to any other USB cable. Sorry, but anything beyond that is aesthetics and wishful thinking. Just get a medium price cable from Amazon and be done with it.

 

[atomicbob]

Quote:

Outside of better shielding... One USB cable will deliver audio identically to any other USB cable. Sorry, but anything beyond that is aesthetics and wishful thinking. Just get a medium price cable from Amazon and be done with it.

+1  Unless the cable is incompetent, there will be no effect. There are performance standards for these cables and a maximum length imposed given the operational digital frequencies.

 

[mrbigsby]

Much more noticable results from a good power cable than from a USB. Im 32 so my hearing wont be as good as a 16-21 Y-O, but its still pretty good as i dont crank my cans too much. That being said i cant notice any remarkable difference between my "fancy" usb cable i bought (starlight), and the $700 equivalent in the same brand. Power cords i do notice. They dont change the whole game up, but they can provide a noticeable "clean-up" of sorts. Just when you think you have a black background and dynamic sound- change to a quality power cord and you realise there was still slight room for improvement. 
 
This isnt all to say that a $1000 cord is better than a $250. I cant make that judgement as i havent done enough research and comparison with a control rig. I suspect a good cord is a good cord, as apposed to the differences in say differently priced headphones and amps where there would be far greater variables in every aspect than mere materials, braid, and shielding. Again just an assumption though. What i do know for a fact is that a decent power cord will sound better than a printer cable. 
 
Theres a fantastic blind test that gets linked around these forums quite a bit over the years. It shows that majority of blind testers didnt notice a wiz bang audio cable or results in the best cases can easily be assumed chance, nor a USB, but power cords showed an obvious spike in the results. This blind test report is what made me first try a good power cord. I bought one, never bought a second though as i never use more than one device at a time.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Theres a fantastic blind test that gets linked around these forums quite a bit over the years. It shows that majority of blind testers didnt notice a wiz bang audio cable or results in the best cases can easily be assumed chance, nor a USB, but power cords showed an obvious spike in the results. This blind test report is what made me first try a good power cord. I bought one, never bought a second though as i never use more than one device at a time.

I'm a bit dubious about to what degree a power cable would effect the sound, but I can believe that far more than a USB cable. Do you happen to have the link you mentioned available? Also curious what cable you went for, if it was something special or just a standard copper cable with some solid shielding.

 

[LNCPapa]

Got my WA7 in today - all set up and listening already.

 

[desertblues]

Congrats! Mine is due tomorrow, can't wait to hear it.

 

[Ranma13]

I just got mine today and I've been listening to it, but I noticed that the impedance switch on the back doesn't seem to increase or decrease the volume as expected, at least nothing like how the Pico Headamp's impedance switch does. Anyone else experience the same thing?