Woo actually recommended the WA5 for me over the WA33 since i have the Ether Flow and planning to get Focal Clear. I have to do some investigation but I am getting noise through my system when either A/C unit in house kicks on and you get that quick brown out. I'm using PS Audio Dectect at the moment and when I called tech support they said it shouldn't be doing that. It going to be a while before I finally decide.
Yeah, the WA33 and WA5-[LE] are very different amps, as is the WA6-SE, all of which could easily drive your Ether Flows. Apart from overall power and balanced versus single-ended design, the WA33 uses 2A3 power tubes, which sound lovely but put out very little power on their own, hence using them in a fully-balanced amp to at least double your power. The WA5[-LE] uses 300B's, which are great and have about twice the power of 2A3's, but have a midrange "blossom" so aren't tonally as neutral. The WA6-SE puts out the least power of all using dual-triodes as combined driver/power tubes, originally 6DE7 's but now 13DE7's because the 6DE7's are so hard to find. (I think I read they were created at first to use in portable TV sets ... ???) I love the sound of my older WA6-SE with NOS TungSol 6DE7's, don't really know much about the 13DE7's. It's also getting hard to find any, much less good, 2A3's. 300B's are still around but Western Electric made the best by far, I think, and *may* resume production this year ... All three amps use 5U4G rectifier tubes for the AC power, but only the WA5[-LE] uses two of them for truly separate power to both channels. Another thing to think about, disregarding cost, is the WA5[-LE] with the premium parts using the superb but almost extinct Black Gate capacitors along with Mundorf's and V-Caps. It's almost worth the extra $1250 just to get the Black Gates and when they're gone, they are gone for good (as in not made anymore) not available, officially, for the WA33 or WA6-SE. I've never heard the WA33, which started its life (no retail sales, just Woo-owned prototypes) as the "WA22-SE" until Jack Wu went nuts (<joke>) and built the WA33. I imagine it's great if you need that much balanced power and can find some really superb NOS 2A3's (a matched quad or matched set of four). I'm still very fond of the WA6-SE within its limits because I think it sounds "purer" than either the WA5[-LE] or the original WA22; but mine has those 6DE7's and I trust Woo but have never heard 13DE7's. Although my WA6-SE pairs superbly with my original Ethers, I don't know anything about the Ether Flows. Jack knows far more about his amps than I do, but I think his suggestion of the WA-5[-LE] is solid; just spring for the parts upgrades if you can and try to find some great NOS 300B's, just not the Takatsuki's (way overpriced) or the Sophia Royal Princess's (too unreliable). The exception with Sophia Princess, in my own experience, is the 274B Sophia Mesh Plate rectifier tubes (direct replacement for the 5U4G's), with just a touch of tonal warmth, run OK in practice, and are just very, very pretty to look at. I got my WA5-LE before Woo offered the parts upgrades (darn) but used two 274B Sophia Mesh Plate rectifier tubes, some NOS Phillips 6SN7 driver tubes, and a pair of slightly-used but well-matched Western Electric 300B's, I got a great overall combination on anything from my Ethers to original HE-1000's to the original Abyss AB-1266's (which I didn't have for long because, I'm sorry, but for that much cash, they just shouldn't look that ugly or weigh so heavily on your head). I think I've said enough (except for, "Go, Moon Audio, your cables rock ... ").
