WA33 2nd gen

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Sonnet Pasithea, Laiv Audio Harmony; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Vinshine Audio x Kinki Studio Dazzle & Gold Note PA-10 Evo in mono on subwoofer; Headamp: Enleum AMP-23R; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Exact Express Flame, Furutech; Power delivery: 2 x Kinki/Vinshine Tai Hang on amps and source stack, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, AudioQuest FogLifters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system: Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Preamp/filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Cobra [on loan]; Subwoofer: Zu Method; Cable loom: Exact Express Earth; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra, Akiko Audio Corelli Corundum & Castello Solo; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Furutech cable lifts, Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
2nd headfi system: DAC: Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Headphones: Raal 1995 Magna, HifiMan Susvara
Desktop system: Source: HP Z2 work station Win11/64; USB bridge: LHY UIP; DAC + Head/preamp: Audalytic DR70 + HP70 both on LHY PSU-80 Dual; Speaker amps: Topping B200 monos; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Viper; Headphones: Final D-8000, aune SR7000, FiiO FT7
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7; Headphones: Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3
2nd upstairs speaker system: Source: FiiO R7; Integrated amplifier: Simon Audio Lab i5; Loudspeakers: ModalAkustik Musikboxx with Dynaudio S18 subwoofer
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Zu Submission; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: starting at $10K

Woo'ts up? I'd given the matter no thought. Why you'll appreciate in a moment. "Hello Srajan, how have you been? I couldn't believe that it's been over 15 years since we last spoke. I watched/listened to your Darko Fiio FT7 video. Appreciate your deep insightful information. I noticed that Immanis is your Mt. Everest. Our WA33 2nd gen will take it beyond the whelm. I'm looking forward to reconnect. All the best." Signed, Jack Wu of the eponymous valve-audio house. As a man of never too few words—sorry for that!—Jack's "beyond the whelm" phrase I'd not come across before, never mind in the last 15 years. Hey, like my Bengal cat Chai Baba, I roll over quickly. Just say the right words. Now Jack had my attention. Giving his website a look-see to reconnect my end, I honed in on the mentioned amp. If you've not hibernated under a rock, you instantly know what's wrong with the next picture. The Raal 1995 triple-ribbon Immanis jacks directly into the Woo amp without external impedance adapter. Running custom output transformers on his fully balanced tube circuit, Jack's iron performs double duty to step up this load's native 0.038Ω impedance for safe signal processing without Aleksandar Radisavljevic's usual coupling iron.

What a hack, Jack! Et voilà, a rare direct-drive valve amp for once not from Serbia's Dragan Solaja but still with proper 3.3A current outputs for true ribbon headphones. Not being a one-trick pony, the 2nd gen of course also sports XLR4, 4.4mm and 6.3mm ports for classic dynamic and planarmagnetic variants. But it does abscond with the pre-out of the 2017 original. It no longer doubles as a preamp. 10wpc into 32Ω welcome one 'n' all. Output impedance seems to be less than 1Ω. At 54 – 57lbs depending on Standard or Elite trim, this 9-tube auto-biased double decker doesn't come apart to decommission an external umbilical between power supply and tube head. The wiring routes inside the footers. $10K brings it home. Be it silver or black, that will make a statement on your rack and to your accountant; in reverse order unless you're a reviewer. Landing at your door happens only after the bill is settled. Should that seem risky, do what my contributor Simone did. He flew from Milan to Belgrade to have Alex demo Immanis in his hotel room before becoming the world's very first owner. With Jack Wu working out of NYC, taking a wee weekend bite out of the Big Apple could multi-task on so many different levels. For example, the New York Philharmonic's new conductor is Venezuelan wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel.

Despite direct-heated valves' tendency to raise the noise floor with subtle or overt microphonics, Jack promises better than 95dB S/NR for virtually 16-bit resolution. His output glass of choice are 2A3 triodes, their drivers 6C45 whilst a 5U4G rectifier occupies the centre. This multi-stage circuit uses interstage capacitors in a fully balanced push/pull class A configuration for claimed bandwidth of 10Hz – 60kHz -2dB. The Elite Edition's coupling caps become Mundorf MCap Supreme silver/gold jobs whilst the voltage filter gets three MTube versions. The hookup and output transformer wiring goes single-crystal copper, the 4-channel attenuator elite Alps RK50 in a brass housing. Connectors become Cardas XLR and WBT RCA. In short, the Elite Edition piles on the parts posh then flies a gilded decal on top deck to remind its owner of her special status. And a most special status it is. If you play at these heights, you've pretty much left far behind what speaker systems in untreated rooms can do, cost no object. It also implies that for you, HeadFi isn't the equivalent of an occasional chair or spare tyre but where your audio obsession works full time. For many, headphones come a far second to speakers. Their on-ear end game could be a FiiO FT7 planar driven by a 6½wpc discrete class A aune N7 for a swell ~€1.2K package. Today is for extremists who not only command the necessary scratch but can justify itching it on purely selfish kit. From Woo, a complete replacement set of stock tubes will set our small ego back just $705. Once we stroke the Big Ego, Woo can sell us a matched quad of Takatsuki 2A3 for $4'360. Want a Tak 274B rectifier? Add $1'350. A matched quad of Electro-Harmonix gold-pin 6C45Pi bags $405. So there's that.

So is that the new WA33 will drive any headphone made except for electrostats. That makes it a one 'n' done proposition whose OG version according to Joe Skubinski was designed around his Abyss 1266 planar. Hence the WA33 2nd-gen is also available as an Abyss version with JPS Alumiloy hookup wiring and a different tube set. To do justice to the 33 and Jack's above note about Immanis being my headfi Chomolungma—the Tibetan name for Mount Everest—I'd use it and the twin-ribbon Magna stablemate, the original HifiMan Susvara and my in-house replacement for it, FiiO's FT7. Of course for all of this to become an actual review not just extended news post, Jack had to embrace two-way ship fees to/from Ireland for not exactly lightweight or petite audio valuables, then wrestle 23% EU import tariffs or execute a complex temporary importation carnet to waive them. Would that small print blow up his initial excitement over reconnecting via a Darko podcast?

Since it was a dark dreary winter Sunday on Ireland's rural west coast when Jack's email arrived, I penned the above not knowing how things would unfold. If no loaner hardware came of it, I'd convert this page into an industry feature. Easy. After all, there could be Immanis users like myself who didn't yet know of this ambitious direct-drive all-tube solution. They'd certainly appreciate an informal it-exists notice. With Schiit's direct-drive transistor amp long discontinued though I still have mine, to my knowledge only Solaja still make tube-based versions; and now Woo, including Jack's above $24K/pr 300B monos which can direct-drive ribbon headphones, classic headphones or loudspeakers and take 45, 2A3 or 300B by swapping output keys.

The beyond. My earlier comment of going beyond speakers in untreated rooms referred to specific points. Like a lucky Irish clover, those are: 1/ linear amplitude without arbitrary room interference. 2/ superior time-domain performance from lack of lengthy room reflections and crossover phase shift. 3/ more complete bandwidth with no distance or leaky-wall losses. 4/ superior micro resolution from much lower ambient noise and lack of distance losses. Aside from these technical advantages, there's the social benefit of zero to modest sound leakage. From it comes the very practical upshot of being able to listen virtually anytime; and to what we're in the mood of rather than what co-dwellers and neighbours must tolerate. Where going beyond speakers fails headphones is soundstage and dynamic scale; and the on-skin tactility of low bass. After all, the average inter-aural distance is 15 centimetres or 6 moony inches. Add a bit more due to ear-cushion thickness and cup recess and you have headfi's operative imaging width whilst the actual soundstage location never truly disassociates from the bony skull cave. All of it is HeadFi 101 but deserved a refresher to condition that earlier statement. Because Raal ribbons in particular excel at a nearly complete lack of energy storage and absence of chamber resonances, their speed, resolution and dynamic response is something to behold. Anyone serious about wanting to know what is actually on their recordings re: tonal balance, bandwidth and micro detail before our rooms distort the lot must use headphones as a reference. They needn't become our primary transducers at all, just give us a frame against which to judge our speaker systems/s. Think of headfi as the magical ability to turn off your room contributions like a light switch. It'll tell you things that might be hard to swallow. Conversely, if a budding a'phile starts in headfi, she is in a far more educated position to later build a good speaker system; or chuck the entire endeavour until a suitable room with the necessary treatments becomes feasible. As in any game, if we want to win, we must first understand the rules. Making good linear undistorted sound with headphones is far more simple, compact and inexpensive than with speakers. One must however accept headfi's different gestalt. In fairness, some people never do. For them, only speakers do a proper job.

Magna, Susvara, FT7, SR7000, Cen.Grand DAC and headphone amp in my upstairs setup. Pass amp on prior review loan and by then returned. Raal impedance adapter beneath white FiiO R7 source.

In my own case, the original winged Raal SR1a ribbons so reset my sonic expectations that ever since I've attempted to approach their qualities with my speaker systems. Once I'd heard true full-range sound texturally consistent across the bandwidth, highly dynamic, expressively quick and with a lucid treble sans limitations, I could no longer enjoy free-space sound which dumbed down those qualities too much. It took me years of experiments and fine-tuning to get my speaker systems as close as my rooms and budget have managed as yet. That said, for pure resolution and least interference with the recorded signal, Immanis is still first amongst my transducers. Really, for our aural education an unassailable on-ear reference is extremely useful. So of course is having a cost-no-object amp to drive it with. Mine is an Enleum AMP-23R or Cen.Grand Silver Fox whilst pure class A specimens from aune and Soundaware too are powerful enough to drive my ribbons with their maker's transformer interface shown above beneath Magna. Again, the WA33 2nd gen's key differentiator is doing without it whilst processing a load whose impedance is 1'000 times lower than a standard 38Ω headphone.