After much difficulty trying to find a proper means of expression, here are my impressions of the WA33 Elite Edition with JSP "Alumiloy" wiring (hereafter commonly referred to as the WA33).
TL;DR - Listening to music through the WA33 is akin to listening in a pitch black, empty 747 airplane hanger. The sense of depth, space, and pinpoint imaging are truly amazing. The WA33 is extremely sensitive to whatever is around and put through it. If you have any weaknesses in your chain, the WA33 will amplify them. It will painstakingly reveal every triumph, wart, sublimely delivered note and poorly mixed catastrophe. In other words, the WA33 is the cherry on top of your delicious super audio nerd ice cream sundae and probably shouldn't be used in any other compacity. Furthermore, it will do just about anything you ask it to, then smile at you and say, “thank you, sir! May I have another?!?” Needless to say, this thing is pretty nuts...
Sound
Staging & Imaging - The WA33 has next-level staging and imaging. It is the most "3D" sounding amp I have ever heard without fake software trickery. No other amp I've tried comes anywhere close. If I had to pick one specific feature, I'd say staging and imaging are the most impressive "headline" features of the WA33. For reference, imagine taking a piece of paper and curving it into a semi-circle around your face. That is basically the soundstage you get from 90% of amps -a semi-circular, but mostly flat stage presentation with little-to-no depth. Even if you do manage to get a decent sense of depth by focusing on one specific detail or by using "test tracks", everything still tends to bleed together into a curved “wall of sound" when you relax your focus. Not so with the WA33. Depth is conveyed with a real, palpable sense of space with near pin-point accuracy. Almost like the WA33 somehow assigns different volume levels to individual sounds and instruments, then carefully places them in different locations within a three dimensional space. On some tracks, you can hear the precise depth where sounds are coming from relative to the microphones. It is pretty friggin' amazing, but can also completely ruin your favorite music. Be warned. It can make vocals sound recessed into oblivion, make instruments sound uncomfortably close to your ears, or any combination of the two. Again...mix, source, and surrounding components (in that order) are absolutely vital with this amplifier.
Detail, Clarity, & Separation - Surprise, surprise...all three are fantastic. If you are reading this chances are you already know what good detail, clarity, and separation sound like. If you don’t, listen to Apocalyptica’s cello players’ breathing on “Nothing Else Matters”, Billi Eilish delicately pressing her tongue against the roof of her mouth to accentuate the word "that" at the end of each chorus line in "When the Party's Over", or the distinction between wind, strings, percussion, and horns in London Symphony Orchestra's "Symphony No. 1 in C minor ("The Bells of Zlonice"), B9". The WA33 just flat out excels in all three of these categories. I should also mention the WA33 sounds more like a solid state amp and doesn't sound tube'y at all to my ear. It is quite extraordinary. Are the tubes in this thing just for show?!? Did Woo Audio secretly hide a SS amp in the WA33, because that’s what it sounds like to me.
Tone & Impact - next to staging and imaging, tone is my next favorite part of the WA33. It has an unmistakable tone compared to anything else I’ve heard. Almost like the entire frequency range has been somehow elevated into a higher, more pure realm of existence. Honestly, I think this is the genesis of the euphoric sound I hear coming from this amp. To be clear, I wouldn’t consider the sound to be the most accurate or analytical in existence, but definitely the most musical and emotionally engaging. It really has a tone all its own and you just have to hear it to understand what I’m talking about. Impact is quite good as well. It reminds me of the HSA-1b in that regard. It isn’t over-the-top bassy, but can still kick like a mule when you ask it to. The bass impact does seem to suffer a bit with the Tak power tube, but the trade-offs are well worth it in my opinion. Again…this amp is incredibly dependent on whatever you feed it and will do just about anything you ask it to.
Notes
Sensitivity - To beat a dead, rotten, and decomposing horse, hopefully for the last time, the WA33 is extremely sensitive to (and will likely scale linearly with) whatever you put around and through it. I really can't emphasize this enough. For this reason, I honestly don't know what the true limits of this amplifier really are. Incidentally, I'm starting to understand why the WA33 supposedly pairs so well with the Abyss AB 1266 Phi TCs (though I have yet to hear them on the WA33). Both seem to be the undisputed kings of transparency.
Recommendations - I can’t blindly recommend the WA33 for one reason: synesthesia. This system generates the very best sound I have ever personally experienced, and not by a particularly close margin. However, I did some extended listening tests with my wife and mother-in-law and discovered that while they were impressed with the sound, particularly with staging and emotional impact, the "wow" experiences were rather short lived. They kept saying, "wow...this sounds amazing...it's like you are really there". However, by the third listening session the "wow" effect seemed to have worn off almost completely unless I played a well recorded track they had never heard before. Furthermore, they both experienced
far less euphoria than I did when listening. These are particularly interesting results and lead me to believe the WA33 just so happens to pair particularly well with my synesthesia. The key takeaway here is find a way to listen to it before you buy it (I realize this can be quite difficult) and don't buy it blindly without listening to it like I did. I just so happened to get extremely lucky.
Value - Is it worth 20k? That is obviously for you decide. Personally, I would have paid twice as much. Simply because the euphoric sound, synesthesia triggers, and overall emotional impact are unparalleled and miles better than anything else I've tried. The only thing I have experienced that is arguably better is playing live music with other people (especially those with actual talent) - that’s it. Even that is a questionable comparison considering we were always playing on lower-tier instruments (see cheap guitars and out-of-tune pianos). Anyway…putting aside my relatively unique condition and use case, I don’t think I would spend 20k on this amp unless I was prepared to spend at least twice that on surrounding components to get anything approaching maximum performance out of the WA33. Otherwise, there isn’t much point in getting a WA33 in the first place. Regardless…listen to it, see what you think, then make your own decision.
Heat - The dual-stack aluminum chassis on the WA33 is basically a giant heat sink. Be mindful of whatever you put directly above or below it. You might be able to legitimately slow cook an egg on this thing - it can get
that hot. It can also significantly warm up a room. Be warned.
Sound Alteration - HQPlayer, Roon convolution filters, upsampling, digital EQ, or other digital alteration can have a significant impact on sound with the WA33. They all seem to compress the staging and/or imaging coming through the amp to varying degrees. This is particularly noticeable with some Roon convolution filters I've been using for the SR1a. So much so that I honestly don't use them anymore. The same is generally true with HQPlayer, though to a far lesser degree. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it's pretty easy to spot the differences and I wouldn’t consider myself to have a particularly sensitive ear.
Review Retraction - I recently reviewed a custom streaming server I had built through Pareto Audio (
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/pareto-audio-custom-streaming-server-review.958204/). Unfortunately, I have to retract what I said about hearing no difference between 44.1k from Roon versus PCM upsampling to 768k with HQPlayer. I can unmistakably hear the difference through the WA33 that I simply couldn't hear through the HSA-1b alone. Upsampling through HQP adds notable smoothness along with slightly more clarity and detail to the sound, but still compress the stage a bit. That's the trade off, so pick your poison. Personally, I find it hard to use anything other than the native stream from Roon, despite it having slightly less clarity, as I find the overall presentation to be superior. The presentation straight through to the WA33 is just that good.
Video Games - I'm an avid video game player and particularly fond of First Person Shooters. The "3D" audio out of the WA33 in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the Raal SR1a's should be outlawed. I can hear a terrorist fart from halfway across a map and know the exact direction it is blowing in the wind. Interestingly, this is the biggest and most grandiose sense of 3D audio I get from the WA33. It actually took some getting used to as my brain needed to adjust. This could be due to ancillary 5.1 audio processing in CSGO, or a laundry list of other things, I’m not really sure. But it’s friggin’ AWESOME.
Beauty - Ok, ok…I know this is completely pointless and subjective, but damn this thing looks pretty!!!
Comparisons
iFi Pro iCAN - No contest. At all. The clarity isn't terrible compared to the WA33 (or the HSA-1b for that matter), but certainly isn’t at, or anywhere near, the same level. This amp also murders the holographic presentation. It made everything sound constrained like it was inside a tiny, one-dimensional box. I’ll just stop there. Comparing a $1,500 amp to a $4,500 amp, then again to a $20,000 amp isn't particularly fair and akin to comparing a Lamborghini with a golf cart…but I thought I would include it as a point of reference anyway.
HSA-1b - clarity is a little behind the WA33, but not by much. It also has a slightly more colored and "exciting" sound with slightly better bass impact (with the Ether C Flow 1.1's anyway). The WA33 is significantly better in all other aspects, especially staging and imaging. As an aside, I wasn't particularly happy with the maximum volume level out of the HSA-1b. It wasn't until I started using the the WA33 as a preamp that I was finally able to get the volume I wanted. I'm probably half-deaf now, but at least I have MoAr MuSiCs! All things considered, the HSA-1b is actually pretty damn impressive when considering it's price-to-performance relative to the WA33.
Final thoughts
Personal Opinion - The WA33 EE JPS is a sublime translator of electrical signals into talent. It is a conduit for relaying the very essence of music. I would best describe the sound as an elegant bell skipping across a clear lake just before sunrise. The notes carefully reverberate in effortless whispers of sound that gently ride the rippling waves to the edge of your imagination. It is so calm, precise, warm, open, smooth, peaceful, emotional, euphoric, and deeply impactful. It is a transparently transcendent amplifier and completely unrivaled compared to anything else I've tried.
Paradoxical Opinion - The problem with my aforementioned opinions and observations is I am unable to distinguish between what is triggering my synesthesia and what is reality for 99% of people. Therefore, I cannot possibly provide an accurate review or impressions of the WA33. No matter how hard I try, I simply can’t overcome this paradox. If you are interested in the WA33 EE JPS, and you should be, I highly recommend finding a way to try it yourself. It was definitely worth it for me, but I'm not you. Please take the information above within the context of my situation and use it to make your own decision.
Hope you enjoyed the read. Feel free to hit me up with any questions.
