Recomendation on a small DAC & Headphone amp for office desk

Yes, I own them. Surprised there is such a calculator, though I’m not much of a HP guy aside from work purposes. Are the Clears hard to drive? Got these to run Senn 660S’s.

Thanx all… I just ordered the Woo Audio FIreflies 2nd gen for $899 free shipping.

Why? Tubes. Seriously, that was the clincher. I love tubes. So clearly, this was an emotional decision based on almost no real data. I hate this. Another bit of rational is I have a drawer full of tubes I can swap out both for entertainment and sound tweaking. For those who love tubes, you know that tube rolling can really change the character of gear.

I will post later what happens… like tears or cheers.

Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

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Their stuff I’ve listened to at shows was great. I bet you’ll be a happy camper. The one that boggled my mind as a long term user of Senn 600-series HPs for work, was when they came out with the 800’s and I listened at the Senn table through their amp. meh. Not my thing. Then later listened to the same HPs through a Woo. Woo Hoo! Literally took them off my head in disbelief to check that I was listening to the same HPs.

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Excellent choice. You will be pleased.

I am right now listening to my Schiit Valhalla headphone amp/preamp.
It cost $349.
I inserted Telefunken 6 volt tubes.
They cost roughly $600/pair
They caused a $949 investment to actually sound like $2,249.
Tubes can be magic.

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Well I got my Woo WA7 Fireflies the other day. In short, I am very happy. The gen 2 is on sale for $899 free shipping… return but you pay a 10% restocking fee. The gen 3 is out but more expensive and has more features.

I am listening with my Focal Clears (55 ohm)

The good:
1 - very very musical
2 - huge stereo separation… odd as I never used this as a description of equipment before
3 - appears very well built, cool design, appears well thought out… but this stuff really is not important to me… cool looks wear off fast.
4 - tons of rythm… the bass is a little big and fuller than maybe it should but it is very pleasant and has me tapping my foot
5 - plays all my formats including DSD 128

The bad:
1 - veiled… but I don’t care because of the musicality. The veiling is really odd… the more I listen… well I hear all the detail… but it is veiled. really weird. The veiling is at the highest frequencies but appears non-existant in the bass. I can hear electric bass notes clearly articulated.

The bad about the good or um… the good about the bad
1 - The top frequencies are rolled off. This is not cool but not at all bad. I can listen to harsh recordings without fatigue. I just played an old great tune, Keely Smith When Your Lover Has Gone (a great tune … wow what a voice!! … but such a stupid arangement for a sad song). The tune has that big band accompaniment and it can sound really congested … better to not play this too loud. But through the WA7, it never sounded so musical.
2 - For headphone listening, this is a great product but I am not sure if it would fly as my main DAC in my big rig… may sound a bit dead…
3 - I am listening to an old recording of the Association… good recordings… and I can follow all the voices very well… this is odd as if it is veiled, this separation of voices should not happen.

Anywho… I am relieved! this thing is not a dog. It is a nice piece of equipment that I am really enjoying … alot! I am confused as for as veiled and as rolled off as it is, it should not sound so good… so easy to hear each instrument… odd.

It comes with two Sovtek 6C45 … I am not familiar with this little triode tube… gotta go through my inventory that goes back about 30 years or so… gotta figure what the substitutes are. Must learn the sound of this amp first. Then some fun follows. 6C45

I am loving it right now. Not on par with my Directstream DAC in my big rig, but … what a great headphone experience. Oh… and it does have that high-end sound. Yay!

Thanx all for your help

Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)

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I’ve been told it needs 3,000 hours to burn in.

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Great review and report.

My recollection is the sound is not veiled, but is rather relaxed and not etched. As you note, you can hear everything. Compare his to live acoustic instruments. They also have relaxed highs once you are a little distance from them.

A neat thing about Woo is they wind their own transformers.

Of course, play with other tubes and find your sound.

I am pleased this is your choice. :slight_smile:

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I am really getting off on the definition… yea relaxed is a good word. Just listened to Santaria (Sublime)… wow… what a nice amplifier.

Found one tune that does not quite work… Yusef Lateef Love Theme from Spartacus… his horn pierces my brain… wha? This is odd. Beautiful music… but I had to turn this one down. Weird. Maybe this needs to break in.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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I imagine it needs a bit of break in.

So the lifetime of a set of tubes? You sure it’s not 10,000 hours lol?

Yup, 10,000 is the sweet spot! :grinning:

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Anyone have experience with this tube? 6C45

The Woo website confused me… I thought I could use an 12AU7 tubes, a very common tube… of which I have quite a grave yard. But this 6c45 is a new beast to me.

Any information would be appreciated.

BTW, my main amp is a PrimaLuna… I have rolled tubes on that one and had quite a bit of fun doing that… I have since put all the original tubes back into the unit and fully understand why PrimaLuna chose those tubes. Each tube make and type impart different characteristics on the sound hence the fun in tuning a unit.

Anywho… I make no claims that this Woo amp can be changed for the better, again, just part of the fun of owning tubes.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

If anyone cares, I contacted a few tube suppliers and either no one carries this tube or they only have the Sovteks that came with the Woo unit. Hmmm…

Peace
Bruce in Philly

My (koff, koff) “beef” with HP’s vs. Speakers generally. There is no sonic reality other than HPs/in ears where the left and right channel are sonically isolated from one another. By your skull. And one of the nice features of the Zen Signature - a “crossfeed” circuit like the HeadRoom amps of yore.

But this is totally a side note/quibble - I would take the Woos any day.

Ha!! I had one of those HeadRoom amps… I used it on all my traveling for my profession… you loaded that thing up with batteries…that thing criss-crossed the country a ton of times. I liked that little amp… I think I gave it away and I don’t remember why. That crossfeed circuit… I could never figure out if I really liked it or not. It definitely made listening less fatiguing… but I dunno…

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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I had the WA7 for a few years. They sound fantastic. I regret selling them. But I did go up the food chain to the WA5-LE (2nd gen).

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Same here - used to take it on the plane. It for sure was less fatiguing (which tells you something right there) and that was the point for me. I think if you looked at it from an audiophile perspective, “Is this Better? Do I Like it? What’s it Really Doing? Is it Purist?”…that was not the point. It sounded somewhat more natural to me than the artificial separation of 'phones.

HPs are certainly necessary and a plus in professional applications. When you are recording audio, you USUALLY can’t have monitors on in the same room. And as someone who started out in video production as a Sound Guy, you’re typically listening to mono anyway. But they were not for fun, IMO.

I almost forgot… Chord Mojo!!!

Here’s one at a decent price:

This may be an interesting music recording/production side note regarding HPs for some:

Headphones can cause you to sing slightly off key with the track you are singing to vs. referencing the music from a speaker in the room. I’m not exactly sure why this is.

Side-side note/experiment: When putting on headphones, hold them a foot or two away from your head, and try to get a sense of the key of the music. Hum or sing it out loud to yourself. Then put them on and see if that changes.

Until recently, I had not heard of the technique of placing a small monitor at head height on the opposite side of the singer from a cardioid microphone as an alternative to headphones. This allows the singer to hear the track, their voice and the room. The speaker is so much quieter (and in the cardioid pickup pattern’s null) than the vocal that it is largely inaudible on the track, and any noise in the rests can be removed with editing if necessary.

And they sing on key.