It has begun! :music-rockout:
(wow taking a picture of a black metal object with lots of shiny bits is harder than it looks...)
That's the WA6 with the stock tubes. It's a heavy little beast, but actually not that much heavier than my Jade. Tube amps tend to be hefty because of the various transformers.
The WA6 is a SET OTC - output transformer-coupled. In the WA6 circuit design, which I've studied a little bit while trying to better understand tube amp design in general, the large tube is a rectifier - meaning it's part of what transforms the AC wall power into DC current for the amp output. The audio signal does not go through it directly, but according to Jack Wu anyway, it's a critical part of the sound. Each little tube in the WA6 is essentially a two-stage amp, containing two triodes of differing specs. Basically one side of the tube feeds into the other, and then to the output transformer and finally to the headphones. The output transformer is presumably the bulk of the weight, though the case is pretty thick heavy metal too.
This is very different from my Jade, where the (single) small tube and the large tube both have two identical channels, but the large tube is a dual triode not a rectifier, so the audio signal goes directly through both tubes, first the little one and then that feeds into the big one, then out to the headphones; the Jade is OTL - output transformer-less. Its weight is mainly in the transformer used for AC power conversion, not done with tubes in this case.
Anyway, sorry, not trying to sound snooty or lecture over-much, just passing on a little of what I've learned.
So, on to some listening. I've just recently done some critical listening with the Jade, though I briefly repeated the 10 demo tracks on it this morning. First up, I will listen to the WA6 with the stock tubes.
To be continued...
(wow taking a picture of a black metal object with lots of shiny bits is harder than it looks...)
That's the WA6 with the stock tubes. It's a heavy little beast, but actually not that much heavier than my Jade. Tube amps tend to be hefty because of the various transformers.
The WA6 is a SET OTC - output transformer-coupled. In the WA6 circuit design, which I've studied a little bit while trying to better understand tube amp design in general, the large tube is a rectifier - meaning it's part of what transforms the AC wall power into DC current for the amp output. The audio signal does not go through it directly, but according to Jack Wu anyway, it's a critical part of the sound. Each little tube in the WA6 is essentially a two-stage amp, containing two triodes of differing specs. Basically one side of the tube feeds into the other, and then to the output transformer and finally to the headphones. The output transformer is presumably the bulk of the weight, though the case is pretty thick heavy metal too.
This is very different from my Jade, where the (single) small tube and the large tube both have two identical channels, but the large tube is a dual triode not a rectifier, so the audio signal goes directly through both tubes, first the little one and then that feeds into the big one, then out to the headphones; the Jade is OTL - output transformer-less. Its weight is mainly in the transformer used for AC power conversion, not done with tubes in this case.
Anyway, sorry, not trying to sound snooty or lecture over-much, just passing on a little of what I've learned.
So, on to some listening. I've just recently done some critical listening with the Jade, though I briefly repeated the 10 demo tracks on it this morning. First up, I will listen to the WA6 with the stock tubes.
To be continued...
