[Dubstep Girl]

I have owned all and they all sound the same

I have a pair of 421A western electric and they sound almost the same too. Price is more though cause they cooler looking and slghtly more extended

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Just placed an order for a matched pair of these from eBay - relatively low cost upgrade for WA2. Only driver tubes remain stock now but they are more expensive to replace. Thanks for all the tube recommendations  


Edit: Ended up getting a pair of Amperex Bugleboys too! Dammit DSG!

Hmm the RFT EZ80 listing I bought from says RFT in the item description and photo but the summary says the brand is Tunsgram.... hopefully just a typo

 

[VladBath]

Hello, I have a question for the people who use WA2 with all those great upgraded tubes mentioned in this thread - anyone uses WA2 as a preamp?
How well does it perform as a preamp with UPGRADED tubes? I have HD600 cans but rarely use them, now looking for a powerful preamp with great dynamics to use with my Berning ZH-270. As I have a matched pair of Mullard 6060 at hand, I thought of getting WA2 as a preamp and occasionally using it as a headphone amp (the idea in question is using power tubes in a preamp for greater headroom/dynamics). Any info will be much appreciated.
P.S. I hope my question isn't considered offtopic as it concerns WA2 with tubes upgrades.

 

[magiccabbage]

Hello, I have a question for the people who use WA2 with all those great upgraded tubes mentioned in this thread - anyone uses WA2 as a preamp?
How well does it perform as a preamp with UPGRADED tubes? I have HD600 cans but rarely use them, now looking for a powerful preamp with great dynamics to use with my Berning ZH-270. As I have a matched pair of Mullard 6060 at hand, I thought of getting WA2 as a preamp and occasionally using it as a headphone amp (the idea in question is using power tubes in a preamp for greater headroom/dynamics). Any info will be much appreciated.
P.S. I hope my question isn't considered offtopic as it concerns WA2 with tubes upgrades.

I used my WA2 with Keff R500 and a rotel integrated amp. I cant remember the name of the Rotel but i could find out. Anyway i wasn't that impressed with the sound. I don't know if it needed to a be a power amp or if the Rotel was up to the task or not, but i remember how excited i was to try it and then i also remember being very underwhelmed. 
 
It probably depends a lot on the rest of the rig. I wouldn't advise buying it without hearing it though. 

 

[Rizlaw]

Hello, I have a question for the people who use WA2 with all those great upgraded tubes mentioned in this thread - anyone uses WA2 as a preamp?
How well does it perform as a preamp with UPGRADED tubes? I have HD600 cans but rarely use them, now looking for a powerful preamp with great dynamics to use with my Berning ZH-270. As I have a matched pair of Mullard 6060 at hand, I thought of getting WA2 as a preamp and occasionally using it as a headphone amp (the idea in question is using power tubes in a preamp for greater headroom/dynamics). Any info will be much appreciated.
P.S. I hope my question isn't considered offtopic as it concerns WA2 with tubes upgrades.

I own the WA2  and a Decware CSP3. I have used the WA2 as a preamp (good but not great results) and currently use it as a headphone amp. Your post states that you are looking for a preamp, that is "powerful . . . with great dynamics", therefore, I suggest you look at the Decware CSP3. http://www.decware.com/newsite/CSP3.html  IMO,it has what you're looking for and much more. Steve Deckert also provides a 30 day trial and lifetime guarantee.

 

[VladBath]

Thanks a lot, guys! I see that using a headphone amp (and particularly WA2) as a preamp may not be as good an idea as it seemed. At leat WA2 is not likely to be much better than modded VTL TL2.2 pre which I have now. Thanks for your suggestion, I shall certainly look into the Decware unit (if I get it I will rebuild it into a normal chassis though, and add a remote volume). I was also thinking of the Bottlehead Bee Pre (an inexpensive DIY 300B preamp). But I guess this is for a different thread.

 

[StanT]

Hello, I have a question for the people who use WA2 with all those great upgraded tubes mentioned in this thread - anyone uses WA2 as a preamp?
How well does it perform as a preamp with UPGRADED tubes? I have HD600 cans but rarely use them, now looking for a powerful preamp with great dynamics to use with my Berning ZH-270. As I have a matched pair of Mullard 6060 at hand, I thought of getting WA2 as a preamp and occasionally using it as a headphone amp (the idea in question is using power tubes in a preamp for greater headroom/dynamics). Any info will be much appreciated.
P.S. I hope my question isn't considered offtopic as it concerns WA2 with tubes upgrades.

I guess that I'll disagree with the others. I use an upgraded WA2 as a preamp, probably 50% of my listening is through speakers. My WA2 has Blackgates and I'm using GEC 6AS7G, Mullard EZ80, and Phillips E88CC SQ. I use an Emotiva UPA-2 for power and play through PSB Imagine Bs. 
 
I'm very happy with the performance of the WA2 as a preamp. In my system, all of the characteristics that I love about the WA2 and T1s carry over to my speakers. I'm not really good with audio adjectives; but even through speakers, it sounds like a WA2.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

  I guess that I'll disagree with the others. I use an upgraded WA2 as a preamp, probably 50% of my listening is through speakers. My WA2 has Blackgates and I'm using GEC 6AS7G, Mullard EZ80, and Phillips E88CC SQ. I use an Emotiva UPA-2 for power and play through PSB Imagine Bs. 
 
I'm very happy with the performance of the WA2 as a preamp. In my system, all of the characteristics that I love about the WA2 and T1s carry over to my speakers. I'm not really good with audio adjectives; but even through speakers, it sounds like a WA2.

 
also note that you are using fairly decent tubes and the best power tubes for the WA2 (im talking about the mullards and GEC here).
 
from what ive noticed, everyone who has enjoyed the wa2 as a preamp has also used upgraded tubes. its a pretty big difference in transparency and just overall refinement vs stock wa2 which i don't really like as much.

 

[kazsud]

Awesome. I knew different tubes would render better results.
I'll be running airmotiv 6 active monitors on mine

dac-100> Wa2> emotiva airmotiv 6s

 

[StanT]

   
also note that you are using fairly decent tubes and the best power tubes for the WA2 (im talking about the mullards and GEC here).
 
from what ive noticed, everyone who has enjoyed the wa2 as a preamp has also used upgraded tubes. its a pretty big difference in transparency and just overall refinement vs stock wa2 which i don't really like as much.

For sure and to be fair, I've never even plugged in the stock tubes. I moved from a WA3 to the WA2 with very strong opinions on power and preamp tubes. I got lucky with rectifiers.

 

[VladBath]

I guess that I'll disagree with the others. I use an upgraded WA2 as a preamp, probably 50% of my listening is through speakers. My WA2 has Blackgates and I'm using GEC 6AS7G, Mullard EZ80, and Phillips E88CC SQ. I use an Emotiva UPA-2 for power and play through PSB Imagine Bs. 
 
I'm very happy with the performance of the WA2 as a preamp. In my system, all of the characteristics that I love about the WA2 and T1s carry over to my speakers. I'm not really good with audio adjectives; but even through speakers, it sounds like a WA2.

 


Very interesting! That's why I was highlighting with caps the part about upgraded tubes in my enquiry. I already have a pair of Mullard 6080 and a pair of Mullard ECC88, and sourcing a pair of GEC EZ80/81 to boot isn't going to be too hard. For upgrades I also have spare caps like PIO K40Y-9, teflon FT and K72 for line circuit and 100uf oils for power supply, and Audioquest top silver wire for hookup. The question is whether the result can be comparable to (or better than) good used preamps that show up for $2-3k like Cary SLP98, Shindo Auriges, Jadis JPL, Valvet Soulshine8, EAR 868, BAT VK5 etc. May be I am asking too much of WA2? But I know that the best tubes often completely transform the sound of humble electronic components. And part of the appeal is that to my eye silver WA2 looks much sexier than all preamps I've mentioned above))) I wish I could compare them side by side. I am looking for improved dynamics, more saturated tonal colours, and a heavy dose of magic / musicality. Call it a coloration, but I want it to do tricks like garbage in > good music out (I heard Shindo gear do that to bad recordings of good music). That's why I wonder about using power triodes (including 300B) in a line preamp.
The preamp is going to be in good company: MacMini (Amarra), NAD M51, Berning ZH-270, Gallo Reference Strada II, B&W PV1, Kimber KCAG and 4AG.

 

[aive]

+1

the soundstage isn't huge but its definitely not small.

extended and linear is the best way to describe them for sure!

My RFTs just arrived and in my WA2 I agree with the assessment above - it is a very noticeable improvement over the stock tubes. In terms of soundstage it's a definite improvement over the stock rectifiers, so if there is more to have I guess the journey continues!

 

[Kimakaze]

I have had my WA2 for about a month now.  I have been rolling in various tubes such as the Tung Sol 7238, Chatham 2399, RFT EZ80 and recently Amperex orange PQ 6922.
 
I do prefer the Chatham 2399 over the Tung Sol 7236.  The RFT EZ80 was also a nice upgrade.
 
Well.  I was testing out a used pair of Amperex PQ 6922 I got from Ebay.  When I went to pull one of them out, the glass broke in almost a perfect line just above the bottom where I grasped them.
 
Does anyone use a tube puller/removal?  Is there a proper way of removing the tubes?  Is this just bad luck with a used tube?
 
I my WA6 and WA6-SE, I always pulled straight up on the tube due to the recessed sockets.  Those WA2 sockets sure are tight when new.
 
Thanks for the any comments/advice.

 

[billerb1]

I got my WA2 today.  Oh my God.  Guess I'm playin' with the big boys now...
 
Running Tung Sol 5998's, RTF EZ80's and Philips Miniwatt E188CC SQ's.
Have quite a few other combinations to run but if it gets much better than this
I might just fall over and die.

 

[ngxbao]

I just started rolling serious tubes. Learn much from the board and am now see if I can contribute.
 
Regarding using W2 as preamp, make sure that your amp out is analog if not most amp will redigitalize the signal which sort of making the warmth of tube analog signal invalid. I'm using the HK990 Harman Kardon. Sweet.