[Roasty]

Didn't have a good impression of the WA33 as a pre.. But for some reason or another I decided to give it another go.

Swapped out some cables and tried the TWL Digital power cord and Cardas Clear Reflection XLR into the Apollon power amp. Using an Arctic Cables Palladium speaker tap adaptor.

Not sure if it is the cable swaps or having run in the power amp recently, but I really don't remember it sounding so good. Previously I was getting really stringent constrained sound and lack of low end. Treble was a pain.. But it sounds very smooth now and there is definitely no shortage of bass or sub-bass.

Perhaps my evaluation of the wa33 as a pre was premature.

 

[mammal]

What’s the consensus on WA33 Standard Edition + JPS wiring with all upgraded (maxed out) tubes, vs WA33 Elite Edition without upgraded tubes, as it kinda adds up to the same cost?

 

[littlej0e]

Didn't have a good impression of the WA33 as a pre.. But for some reason or another I decided to give it another go.

Swapped out some cables and tried the TWL Digital power cord and Cardas Clear Reflection XLR into the Apollon power amp. Using an Arctic Cables Palladium speaker tap adaptor.

Not sure if it is the cable swaps or having run in the power amp recently, but I really don't remember it sounding so good. Previously I was getting really stringent constrained sound and lack of low end. Treble was a pain.. But it sounds very smooth now and there is definitely no shortage of bass or sub-bass.

Perhaps my evaluation of the wa33 as a pre was premature.

Thanks for the insight, Roasty! Quite helpful for me personally as I'm planning to use the WA33 as a preamp too.

Truly beautiful set up by the way. Love the all black look. Very sleek...

 

[pippen99]

Does anybody know the input sensitivity of the WA33? I can't find it in the specifications on the Woo website or in any review. I have a new DAC ordered which has balanced output of 0.2V, 0.6V, 2.0V, or 6.0V. My current DAC has an output of 2.8V. For those of you with DAC's with different options for output, what are you using?

 

[Adamtl]

2v unbalanced and 4v balanced so if your dac uses 2v unbalanced use that. Side note, a dacs balanced output is almost always double the unbalanced, are you sure your dac is 2v/6v?

 

[mammal]

are you sure your dac is 2v/6v?

Those are the options with dCS dacs

 

[Adamtl]

Oh! Ok so use 2v rca.

 

[Adamtl]

Also for what it’s worth many ppl here with a Dave use it balanced at 6v in dac mode with seemingly no problems so if you want to run your dcs balanced at 6v go ahead.

 

[pippen99]

You are correct when saying the balanced output is usually twice the unbalanced. The DCS website does not specifically state the output values are for balanced or unbalanced. They state the values are electronically balanced and floating(whatever that means).

 

[Adamtl]

Right so you have to set it to 2v and use rca or set it to 6v and use xlr.

 

[yagislav]

I had a similar question. I have a Auralic Altair G1 Streamer / DAC which outputs at 4.5VRms on BOTH RCA and XLR. It is a Auralic thing.

I prefer the WA33 in Low Impedance and High Gain, but with this DAC it is already very loud for me at 9 o'clock. I've read that the WA33 sounds best near the 12pm mark.

In the Auralic DAC settings I can actually lower the output level by -6dB which is essentially half of 4.5Vrms. By doing so it allows me to up the volume to 12pm on the WA33 and not be too loud.

My question is, SQ wise, would it be better to lower the DAC output by -6dB to get the WA33 to play comfortable levels at 12pm or keep the DAC at 4.5Vrms and WA33 at around 9am?

 

[Roasty]

@yagislav

Probably better to lower the dac output and have the wa33 at 12 o'clock. I have asked Mike at Woo about this before and this was his reply about anything above 4v: "Anything beyond that will "clip" the input of any amplifier causing distortion in the sound."

*edit

I have tried my dac at full internal volume and xlr output (5.8vrms) to a wa33 and I get too much emphasis on treble and the mids and bass get all sucked out.

However at the same time, ive tried chord Dave at full internal volume (xlr 6.3vrms) to a wa33 and it sounds fine.

I assume the attenuation in the dac plays a part (wavelight is +8dB gain and Dave is - 6dB gain) but I'm not sure.

 

[Roasty]

Thanks for the insight, Roasty! Quite helpful for me personally as I'm planning to use the WA33 as a preamp too.

Truly beautiful set up by the way. Love the all black look. Very sleek...

Thanks man. Keeping it all black has been tough as there are some components I like which only come in silver... Oh well.

By the way, you have a great list of gear man! How do you feed your WA33 using the pareto custom? It has analog out?

 

[Ciggavelli]

Ever since the controversy of the DAVE dac volume, I put it to -6db. I put the WA33 at 12o'clock low/low with the TCs and 10o'clock-ish low/high with the Susvaras. I never had problems with clipping on the DAVE in pre-amp mode before, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[littlej0e]

Thanks man. Keeping it all black has been tough as there are some components I like which only come in silver... Oh well.

By the way, you have a great list of gear man! How do you feed your WA33 using the pareto custom? It has analog out?

Nah, you made the right call. Black is where it's at! So much easier to add, change, or delete the decor around it based on WAF. I went the exact same route.

Thanks! I can't wait until I receive everything and get it all set up. I expect I won't see the light of day for a while when I finally do...

The Pareto server is quite interesting. It will connect to my Holo May DAC via USB-A to USB-B, then the DAC will connect to the WA33 normally via XLR. But Pareto added a bunch of custom "cool sauce" features and connectivity options. For example, my design includes:

1. Modular design with a fully external power supply. I'm going with an HDplex to start with, but I can upgrade to a Sean Jacobs, Paul Haynes, etc. whenever I wish. Plug and play.
2. 4 port PCIE SFP+ fiber NIC
3. Expandable NVME storage
4. 2.4 and 5 GHz Wifi
5. Custom BIOS/firmware, CPU clamping, Linux tweaks, shielding, etc., etc. to limit interference, maintain SQ, and provide upscaled content to multiple endpoints at the same time. The last one is a particularly big deal for me. Seems most higher-end streamers have gimped CPUs and can't do this.
6. Multiple USB-to-fiber network converters that will serve as distributed Roon interface endpoints. These will ride my 10 gig fiber backbone to avoid noisy copper ethernet or wifi signals to maintain end-to-end SQ across the network.

If the Pareto 80/20 mantra is legit ("we aim to deliver a system with 80% or more of the sound quality of a "cost is no object" solution at 20% of the price"), I should be getting a server/streamer that is capable of producing similar SQ as a server in the the $40,000 price range. We shall see. Even if it doesn't, it is incredibly nice to have a boatload of custom options, especially the built-in fiber connectivity. The value here is staggering. I hope the SQ is too...