[magiccabbage]

   
im thinking of WA5 as well. 
 
originally i gave up on the idea of buying it since it uses double rectifiers and the idea of using 6sn7's, but many people are happy with it and Frank I holds it in really high regard, so i am considering trying it out, preferably a used one or hearing one at a meet. it would also work with HE-6 and be able to drive just about any headphone (in any specification according to Jack Wu lol....).
 
 
other considerations for me are the Glenn 300B amp (supposed to be about as good as 300B amps get) and the DNA Stratus 2A3.

I want to have a Glenn 300b beside a Stratus some day - it would be nice 

 

[Dubstep Girl]

might take a while for me to get a new amp/headphones.
 
saving up for car stuff 

 

 

[magiccabbage]

  might take a while for me to get a new amp/headphones.
 
saving up for car stuff 

 

What car stuff? Sure your car is fine. Take your time though, with the amps - I want to have my Stratus before you!

 

[Dubstep Girl]

  What car stuff? Sure your car is fine. Take your time though, with the amps - I want to have my Stratus before you!

 
lol you probably will since no-one is selling except Senson but he is asking for more than it costs.
 
 
well thinking of buying some accessories for better appearance, currently I want the illuminated star as well as nicer rims and maybe better tires. oh and theres also a couple ECU tunes available that will give the car about 35-40 HP, but the good ones are like $2k+

 

[magiccabbage]

   
lol you probably will since no-one is selling except Senson but he is asking for more than it costs.
 
 
well thinking of buying some accessories for better appearance, currently I want the illuminated star as well as nicer rims and maybe better tires. oh and theres also a couple ECU tunes available that will give the car about 35-40 HP, but the good ones are like $2k+

LOL - I cant even drive. I have no idea what you just said but it sounds good. I could be selling my WA2 soon and am definitely selling the T1 in July. 

 

[amham]

After researching and reading several reviews of the WA22 by "respected" audio professionals it is interesting to read how they state the balanced HP output connectors impart a significantly higher quality signal.  So, given the WA22 balanced connectors are purely for "convenience" and, in fact, are NOT truly balanced, how do they  rationalize their statements?  Seems to support my long held suspicions...that many in the  audio press are no more SQ knowledgeable than the rest of us.

 

[ardilla]

Well, the cabling will be different so you cannot say it doesn't matter... ,)

 

[tomlink]

  After researching and reading several reviews of the WA22 by "respected" audio professionals it is interesting to read how they state the balanced HP output connectors impart a significantly higher quality signal.  So, given the WA22 balanced connectors are purely for "convenience" and, in fact, are NOT truly balanced, how do they  rationalize their statements?  Seems to support my long held suspicions...that many in the  audio press are no more SQ knowledgeable than the rest of us.

 
In all fairness to Woo Audio, the WA22 outputs are, in fact, balanced. They simply don't carry a differential signal pair that most folks associate with a balanced audio circuit - and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong in assuming that in today's hyper buzz-word audio world.
 
As I mentioned in my WA22 post, it is unclear what audio advantage would be gained by employing a differential pair output from the transformers of the WA22.
 
Given the fact that the 1/4" TRS and XLR outputs are electrically the same, you are correct in wondering how some reviewers can extoll the virtues of one output over the other.
 
Sennheiser has been in the pro audio industry for decades. They don't make junk and I know they shipped good 1/4" TRS copper with my HD800. I also have a custom 4-pin XLR HP cable wired for amps with differential pair outputs.
 
I couldn't hear the difference between the two cables with my WA22. Doesn't mean there isn't any, I just can't hear it.
 
I worked in the pro audio industry for 20 years, and spent a lot of time in recording studios, broadcast facilities, film post, etc. I had the opportunity to work with pros whose ears were a lot more educated than mine, and whose careers depended on having tools that could produce extremely high-resolution, phase-coherent audio. With all the millions of dollars in equipment budgets, I rarely saw anyone use anything more exotic than a $50 Mogami audio cable for equipment connections. Doesn't mean you can't buy bad cables that add capacitance or inductance to the circuit, but once you get to a certain quality, the view was, good copper is good copper.
 
Doesn't mean there wasn't a difference, they just couldn't hear it.

 

[amham]

Tomlink, thanks again for your intelligent reply.
 
What puzzles me is if each signal in a differential pair is 180 degrees out of phase then why do they not cancel each other out yielding zero output?  I must be missing something basic here...

 

[tomlink]

  Tomlink, thanks again for your intelligent reply.
 
What puzzles me is if each signal in a differential pair is 180 degrees out of phase then why do they not cancel each other out yielding zero output?  I must be missing something basic here...

 
amham,
 
You're correct, and that is how you can benefit from balanced cable runs with a differential signal pair:
 
Line-level audio cables, especially long ones, can pick up a lot of noise induced from other electrical equipment. By using a pair of balanced signal conductors, the induced noise will have the same amplitude on each signal conductor. The original audio signal is fed through one conductor (+) and an inverted version of the signal is generated and fed through the other conductor (-) (aka a differential signal pair). When the signals reach their intended destination, you have two versions of the original audio signal (in-phase, and inverted) both with identical induced noise signals. The inverted signal is then re-inverted to its original phase and summed with the original signal. Now both audio signals are in phase with each other but the noise is now 180 out of phase and is largely cancelled out when the two signals are summed.

 

[amham]

Tomlink,  thanks, I was missing the inversion of one of the pairs.  Once again, thanks!

 

[Prophet293]

all the techno jargons is hurting my head, someone please explain to me in a nutshell:
 
Can you take advantage of its full potential on RCA?

 

[ardilla]

 all the techno jargons is hurting my head, someone please explain to me in a nutshell:
 
Can you take advantage of its full potential on RCA?

 
(edit: Unless you have a very new one) NO
 
1) But - it is still good. It is not like it is 50% worse, just do not have as much juice. And if you have cans that do not need that extra juice, you are fine. I have enjoyed the WA22 for countless hours with a RCA input. But buying the WA22 and not planning for adding a balanced source in the future should make you think about other options - like the WA6SE. 
 
2) I read somewhere that Woo was going to add unbalanced to balanced converters to the RCA inputs, which makes the difference a lot smaller than before (edit: see posts below). Then you get the full power capabilities of the WA22 even with the RCA inpiuts. You just get an extra converter in the signal chain, which might not really do much harm at all. 
 
3) You do not need a balanced headphone cable to get the full advatage of the balanced inputs because of the output transformer layout. This is opposed to mostly all the other balanced amplifiers out there and is the reason for this head hurting discussion

 

[whirlwind]

So, are you saying I can go from my 3 pin balanced outputs on my dac to the balanced inputs on the wa22 and have balanced sound just using the regular headphone jack....or do i need a balanced headphone cable plugged into the balanced 4 pin headphone jack.

 

[ardilla]

  So, are you saying I can go from my 3 pin balanced outputs on my dac to the balanced inputs on the wa22 and have balanced sound just using the regular headphone jack....or do i need a balanced headphone cable plugged into the balanced 4 pin headphone jack.

 
That is correct. You can use a normal 1/4' TRS plug. As long as the inputs are balanced, you get balanced amplification. XLR and TRS outputs are wired in such a matter that they are the same anyhow. The XLR outputs are just for convenience and looks.