Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse
I’d been eyeing the Woo WA8 Eclipse amp/dac for a while, and finally had the opportunity to hear it at RMAF, with Sennheiser HD800s. In spite of the less-than-ideal circumstances at CanJam, I was impressed. When I got home, I ordered one using the 10% discount Jack Wu gave at the show (net price $1,619) and it arrived two days ago.
This is a great-looking little amp. It’s quite heavy for its size, and although it came packed in a nice hard case, it’s not exactly portable. Tyll Hertsens called it “transportable” - easily moved around the house or to the office, but not exactly one for the road. It’s battery-powered, with a rechargeable battery said to be good for at least 5,000 hours. Run-time on a full charge is 3-4 hours. I’ve been listening to it using an iPad with a lightning-to-USB adapter (the old ”camera connection kit,” functional but not ideal), Shure SRH1540s, and MrSpeakers Aeon Flow closed phones. The sound so far is excellent: very clear mids and highs, solid bass, and a very nice overall balance. Like my other Woo amps, the midrange is really quite special. The little mini tubes also create a nice glow. At the moment I’m listening to Hawaiian slack-key guitar from John Keawe, and it’s beautifully resonant and clear, and spacious even with closed phones. I have a Sonore MicroRendu streamer on order to go with it, which will be fed over the network by my SonicTransporter i7 running Roon. It will make a nice bedroom system. If you’re in the market for a small tube amp/dac combo in this price range, I highly recommend it. https://wooaudio.com/amplifiers/wa8 https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-P4JjgPb-M.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-jjk7w3M-M.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-vHfPmgM-M.jpg |
Great gear from Woo. Thanks for the report.
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Congrats Tony, I’m glad to hear you like it.
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Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse
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Thanks Steve. The MicroRendu arrived today and it’s an improvement over the iPad, and very convenient with Roon. |
I have been reading a lot about the WA8. I just picked up a pair of Focal Utopias and now I am debating about which amp/DAC to pair with them. So many options :)
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Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse
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Yes, so many options. The WA8 is a great amp and I don’t think you’d be disappointed, but at the level of the Utopia you might also look at the Woo W5-LE, or the Pass Labs HPA-1. |
Am a big fan of the WA6 with my Focal Clear and Audeze LCD-3. If I were to step up to the Utopia then I would give the WA22 a good look. Woo's line of amps are great for tube-rolling.
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Not related to the WA8, but I got a killer deal on a Bottlehead S.E.X. with every mod you can think of. This hopefully will hold me over with the Utopias until I save up enough to think about the WA22 or possibly even spring for a Linear Tube Audio Z10e (the thought of having a single reference amp for either Stax/MrSpeakers Voce and the Utopias is really tempting).
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I picked up the WA11 at the canjam nyc 2019 and like it so much, I bought the WA8 from Jack at the canjam NYC 2020. And I really love the WA8. More so than the WA11 even without the balanced outs. WA8 is a very special amp to my ears.
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Excellent. |
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