cotdt
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2005
- Posts
- 3,220
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- 17
I went to Aaron's place today and we had a minimeet. What a blast! As you all know, the Woo6 and Doge 6210 are transformer-coupled tube amps that are known to sound tubey, unlike the Darkvoices and many OTLs I've heard which sound very solid state. They are also known to be able to drive low impedance phones well. The Woo6 and Doge use different tubes, but are about the same size. The build quality of the Woo6 is very nice, but my Doge 6210 was also well built. I've seen other Doge 6210 that were poorly built, but those are limited to ones sold by a certain dealer that will remain unnamed, because he is a member of this forum whom you all know. Neither the Woo6 nor the Doge 6210 has any hum. The Doge 6210 does have the small advantage of preamp capability, though.
Both our amps were not stock. Mine is using the GE EL84 with GE 5751 as driver tubes, and I switched out the mylar .22uF coupling capacitor for a film one. Meanwhile, Aaron mentioned that he spent more money on his tubes than the Woo6 amp itself. So basically you have two maxed out amps going that each other's throats. Well, let's get to the point: the sound. You guys will not beleive this, but they sound the same! Somehow we had picked just the right tubes for our respective amps to make both amps sound indistinguishable, and the different interconnects we used made far greater difference than the difference between the two amps. I'm both surprised at the massive difference the interconnects made, while the amps did not make any difference with the ATH AD2000 headphones and Sinnheiser HD600 and Sinnheiser HD650 headphones. However, my Doge 6210 did not drive my low-impedance 25-ohm current-hungry Denon D2000s. It was a little muddy in the lower midrange because the dampening was poor. The Woo6 used a lower impedance output transformer so it is clearly better for ultra low-impedance phones, which pretty much only include the Denons. The Woo6 is a very good amp indeed, and Aaron has figured out what the best tubes for it are, so you guys can ask him how to configure the Woo6. Both these amps sound amazing and you can't go wrong with either of them, especially since they can be configured to sound the same. If they were the same price though, I would get the Woo6 because it works better with my Denons. Hmmm... but on the other hand, the Woo6 tubes get hotter than the Doge 6210 tubes and since my amp sits near my legs the cooler-running Doge might actually suit me better. There were incidences today where I touched the Woo6's tubes and burned my fingers, and later Aaron did the same thing (and burned his fingers), while the Doge's tubes you can touch.
Both our amps were not stock. Mine is using the GE EL84 with GE 5751 as driver tubes, and I switched out the mylar .22uF coupling capacitor for a film one. Meanwhile, Aaron mentioned that he spent more money on his tubes than the Woo6 amp itself. So basically you have two maxed out amps going that each other's throats. Well, let's get to the point: the sound. You guys will not beleive this, but they sound the same! Somehow we had picked just the right tubes for our respective amps to make both amps sound indistinguishable, and the different interconnects we used made far greater difference than the difference between the two amps. I'm both surprised at the massive difference the interconnects made, while the amps did not make any difference with the ATH AD2000 headphones and Sinnheiser HD600 and Sinnheiser HD650 headphones. However, my Doge 6210 did not drive my low-impedance 25-ohm current-hungry Denon D2000s. It was a little muddy in the lower midrange because the dampening was poor. The Woo6 used a lower impedance output transformer so it is clearly better for ultra low-impedance phones, which pretty much only include the Denons. The Woo6 is a very good amp indeed, and Aaron has figured out what the best tubes for it are, so you guys can ask him how to configure the Woo6. Both these amps sound amazing and you can't go wrong with either of them, especially since they can be configured to sound the same. If they were the same price though, I would get the Woo6 because it works better with my Denons. Hmmm... but on the other hand, the Woo6 tubes get hotter than the Doge 6210 tubes and since my amp sits near my legs the cooler-running Doge might actually suit me better. There were incidences today where I touched the Woo6's tubes and burned my fingers, and later Aaron did the same thing (and burned his fingers), while the Doge's tubes you can touch.
