Woo Audio WA22 Balanced Headphone Tube Amplifier and Pre Amplifier
Strengths:
-Powerful for hard-to-drive headphones
-Bold warmer leaning sound
-Good Pre-Amp
-Good Esthetics
-Tube Rollers will enjoy
-Superb Match for LCD-5 * for my preferences
-many more listened with 7 headphones watch the video for the rest.
Opportunities:
-May not suit some efficient/sensitive headphones or in-ears
Nice review. Thanks for giving the WA22 some love.
I enjoyed the video. I always appreciate the inclusion of a comparison of headphone/gear used.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey WA22 fam! Just grabbed one of these, and I’m loving it so far. Still trying to find the perfect tubes for it, but it’s already sounding pretty sweet with LinLai 6SN7 Elite and Sylvania NOS 5998A. I’m about to do a little surgery to replace the coupling caps. I know it’s a little risky to try this and potentially void the warranty with having just gotten this, but I’m sure the fine folks at headphones.com will never find out 
. I just can’t resist after hearing the difference it made to upgrade my coupling caps in my main stereo’s VTA-70 amp.
I’m curious if anyone here has done any mods / DIY on the WA22 second gen. I’ve seen at least one other person online who also swapped a couple of the resistors for Mills resistors, but I’m not sure that would make much of a difference when I look at the signal path. I still have a lot to learn about tube amps, so any feedback is appreciated, but for the moment, my only planned upgrade is to change out the 4 coupling caps connecting the drivers to the power tubes from the stock Vishay - a decent cap from what I’ve read, and again, it already sounds good - to Mundorf MCap Supreme EVO Silvergold without oil.
Hope everyone’s 2024 is off to a great start with much beautiful music!
I went for it with the capacitor mod! Copying my post from Head-Fi below in case anyone is interested.
Prepping the patient:
Operation complete:
It is sounding awesome! To be fair it sounded awesome before, but I think it made the 2 exact subtle improvements I wanted. Of course it is entirely possible that it is placebo effect, but I think there is a significant improvement of bass control and the authority with which it is delivered to my low impedance Focal Clear OG’s. The second, and more subtle improvement I have noticed is a very slight reduction in top end hash. Finally, the power tubes I’m using (NOS Svetlana “Winged C” 6H13C) have a very low hum when music is paused, but unexpectedly the hum itself feels like it somehow moved farther out to the sides and forward in the soundstage - I haven’t noticed a difference in staging of the music. Overall, I’m very happy with the upgrade, and I don’t foresee going back to do the resistors, as it sounds pretty much exactly as I had hoped at this point. From here on, I’m going to focus on enjoying the music and rolling some tubes for a while 
