[ColSaulTigh]

Curious if anyone has tried the Elrog yet. Their 274b did not play nice in my Woo WA5-LE, but I may have just gotten a bad one. Their 5u4gs work perfectly and sound great!

 

[corbin1]

I've owned a WA5 Gen 1 for quite some time now and love it, no complaints. But I've been a little bitten by the WA33 siren song. I searched through this thread looking to see if anyone had migrated from the WA5 to the WA33 and had observations. Best thing they ever did, no comparison between the two, no regrets. Not enough difference to justify upgrading. They actually like the WA5 better... I normally use either LCD-3's or 4's, 4's I use the high gain jack with my WA5 being gen 1. I could really use some advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

I've owned a WA5 Gen 1 for quite some time now and love it, no complaints. But I've been a little bitten by the WA33 siren song. I searched through this thread looking to see if anyone had migrated from the WA5 to the WA33 and had observations. Best thing they ever did, no comparison between the two, no regrets. Not enough difference to justify upgrading. They actually like the WA5 better... I normally use either LCD-3's or 4's, 4's I use the high gain jack with my WA5 being gen 1. I could really use some advice. Thanks in advance.

I'm sorry, but I'm missing the main question here. What exactly are you asking for advice on?

 

[corbin1]

Sorry, thanks for the reply. Basically if someone who owned a WA5 sold it to upgrade to a WA33 and felt whether or not the upgrade was worth it. Huge positive difference, minute negligible difference? They Love the 33' much more or in retrospect wish they had just stuck with the 5'. That kind of thing. Thanks

 

[ThanatosVI]

Sorry, thanks for the reply. Basically if someone who owned a WA5 sold it to upgrade to a WA33 and felt whether or not the upgrade was worth it. Huge positive difference, minute negligible difference? They Love the 33' much more or in retrospect wish they had just stuck with the 5'. That kind of thing. Thanks

I heard neither of them but had my eyes on them for a while back then.

From what I gathered back then the Wa33 is more detailed and better extended while the Wa5 has a thicker more Musical sound.

So for quite different tastes and a "direct upgrade" to the Wa5 is more the Wa23 instead of the Wa33.

However this might just be my Interpretation of what I read, I have NO listening experience with any of the Woo Audio amps

 

[pippen99]

I moved from a Gen 1 WA5 to a WA33 EE. At the time my primary headphones were the LCD-4. The tubes I had at the time were the upgrade available when new the Sophia Electric Princess 300B and 274B. Later upgrades became available such as the EML, Elrog, PSVane and Takatsuki power and rectifier tubes. These might have made a difference in my decision making as the Sophias are good but not top-level. With the Sophias and the LCD-4 the sound signature was a very warm enveloping almost gooey blanket but I loved it. I them moved to the WA33EE and the world came into focus. The WA33 presents a much clearer picture of the recording. The entire sound spectrum is more focused. Drums snap, guitars slash, cymbals crash. Vocal presentation was more lifelike and human.

Now the downside. The price to get there is daunting. I cannot speak to the WA33 base unit. I went straight to the Elite Edition. I do not know how close a base gets to the EE. I do know that to get the most out of a WA33(actually out of any Woo amp) you are going to spend some serious cash for upgrade tubes. I went through some serious dollars buying power tubes(EML,RCA,Takatsuki). I bought the Tak 274B right at the start and despite trying a bunch more(KR, WE and USAF) the Tak is king. To get a truly satisfying sound signature you will spend 3-5$K more on tubes. Are you prepared for that? Also you will face the reality and/or the desire to upgrade the rest of your chain.

Of course I would do it again. I am nuts(look at my signature).

 

[corbin1]

Just looking ahead, I have a SONY NW-WM1A with the 4.4 balanced and 3.5 standard headphone jacks. If I wanted to use it as a source to output through a WA33 whats the best way to do that? I have the SONY specific USB adapter for the port on the bottom for charging and output but that would exclude DAC. So I'm thinking a cable with a 4.4 balanced connector on one end and and something on the other end. Does anyone make a 4.4 balanced to dual RCA? Or 4.4 balanced to XLR? Or is there an even better method? I admit I'm cable challenged. I'd love to pick up something used off HeadFi. Thanks!

 

[orrman]

Just looking ahead, I have a SONY NW-WM1A with the 4.4 balanced and 3.5 standard headphone jacks. If I wanted to use it as a source to output through a WA33 whats the best way to do that? I have the SONY specific USB adapter for the port on the bottom for charging and output but that would exclude DAC. So I'm thinking a cable with a 4.4 balanced connector on one end and and something on the other end. Does anyone make a 4.4 balanced to dual RCA? Or 4.4 balanced to XLR? Or is there an even better method? I admit I'm cable challenged. I'd love to pick up something used off HeadFi. Thanks!

I'm not familiar with DAPs and if this will even work with your use case but a cheap cable option I can think of is this one by Hart

https://hartaudiocables.com/products/tc-3-4-4mm-pentaconn-to-dual-3-pin-xlr

And Woo also makes one

https://wooaudio.com/accessories/wooaudio-specialty-cables

 

[lucasratmundo]

Any suggestions on where to buy the 417A and matching WA33 adapter? Prices seem to vary drastically between retailers...

 

[joseph69]

Woo Audio

 

[Shane D]

Just looking ahead, I have a SONY NW-WM1A with the 4.4 balanced and 3.5 standard headphone jacks. If I wanted to use it as a source to output through a WA33 whats the best way to do that? I have the SONY specific USB adapter for the port on the bottom for charging and output but that would exclude DAC. So I'm thinking a cable with a 4.4 balanced connector on one end and and something on the other end. Does anyone make a 4.4 balanced to dual RCA? Or 4.4 balanced to XLR? Or is there an even better method? I admit I'm cable challenged. I'd love to pick up something used off HeadFi. Thanks!

Thrre is a digital line-out cable from Sony, but they don't talk about it in Sony Canada or even Sony USA, I think. I am attaching a pic. I bought it to make my DAP the source for my DAC. Worked great for a long time with my SMSL SU-8. However, it would not work with my Schiit BF2. I had to re-assign a laptop to be my juke box.


I bought it from Amazon, but it had to ship from japan.

 

[Contrails]

Is the WA33 voltage configurable between 110v and 230v like the WA22?

 

[orrman]

Is the WA33 voltage configurable between 110v and 230v like the WA22?

No

 

[rivonlol]

Is the WA33 voltage configurable between 110v and 230v like the WA22?

There are options for 100v, 110v, 120v

100 for 100-109
110 for 110-119
120 for 120-129

 

[pippen99]

My second Tak 274B in less than three years fried tonight. Makes me very scared about the 2A3 quad. Back to the 596 for now. Hope the Elrog is back in stock soon. I cannot keep buying these things every 18 months.