Woo Audio WA6
- Thread starter Zing
- Start date
GreatDane
Well-Known Member
Zing said:
Sure does suck. My Woo 3 had a deep scratch on the power supply cover. I sent a pic to Jack and he mailed a new top quickly. Your problem seems to be much worse.
I have a defect with my last portable amp from Justin Wilson at HeadAmp. The battery charge light for the internal lithium doesn't work but it still charges. The battery and amp have lifetime warranty so I'm not worried...Justin told me to send it in but I'm in no hurry. This amp was over a year from pre-order to delivery.
Please update us on the W6 status.
Here's the longer version.
Once I set it up, I noticed a smudge by the power light. It wouldn't rub off. Running my finger over it, it felt smooth to the touch so I knew it wasn't any kind of substance. Closer inspection revealed it was some sort of blemish (scratch, gouge, scuff, etc) and someone made a poor attempt to cover it up. Also, the screws that attach the faceplate to the unit look beat up. The black anodizing has been worn off and the exposed silver just stands out.
Appearence issues aside, I fired it up using the AKGs first. It seemed very quiet so I turned the volume knob up to about 12:00. It still wasn't loud enough so I turned it to about 2:00. Now I'm hearing distortion. Naturally, a little more volume just made the distortion that much worse. And when I say distortion, I mean distortion. A sloppy, garbled mess of overdriven noise. So I connected the Denons. Those were plenty loud with the volume knob in the 12:00 position but they distorted too with increased volume. Not as bad as the AKGs but it was noticeable.
So I contacted Jack. He inquired about shipping damage (which there was none), he asked if anything sounded loose inside (which it didn't) and then he asked me to remove the tubes and reinstall them (that didn't help). This morning he asked me to remove and reinstall one more time (I did) but that didn't help either. So naturally he asked me to ship it back to him and said he'll look it over and either fix it or build me a new one.
I'm still waiting to hear back from him regarding my last question which was "will you be issuing a call tag?". I don't want to be difficult but I really don't think I should have to pay to send this back to him. I bought an amp, I paid for its shipping to me and what arrived should've been a flawless working amp. What I got looks like a B-stock or a return and it doesn't work like I think it should. So I have to spend more money to get the flawless amp I should've had originally? I think not! If he tells me I have to pay for the shipping, I'm just going to ask for an RMA and be done with it.
In fairness, Jack is doing what he should. He's trying to make it right with me and for that I'm appreciative. But this shipping thing could be the proverbial straw.
Once I set it up, I noticed a smudge by the power light. It wouldn't rub off. Running my finger over it, it felt smooth to the touch so I knew it wasn't any kind of substance. Closer inspection revealed it was some sort of blemish (scratch, gouge, scuff, etc) and someone made a poor attempt to cover it up. Also, the screws that attach the faceplate to the unit look beat up. The black anodizing has been worn off and the exposed silver just stands out.
Appearence issues aside, I fired it up using the AKGs first. It seemed very quiet so I turned the volume knob up to about 12:00. It still wasn't loud enough so I turned it to about 2:00. Now I'm hearing distortion. Naturally, a little more volume just made the distortion that much worse. And when I say distortion, I mean distortion. A sloppy, garbled mess of overdriven noise. So I connected the Denons. Those were plenty loud with the volume knob in the 12:00 position but they distorted too with increased volume. Not as bad as the AKGs but it was noticeable.
So I contacted Jack. He inquired about shipping damage (which there was none), he asked if anything sounded loose inside (which it didn't) and then he asked me to remove the tubes and reinstall them (that didn't help). This morning he asked me to remove and reinstall one more time (I did) but that didn't help either. So naturally he asked me to ship it back to him and said he'll look it over and either fix it or build me a new one.
I'm still waiting to hear back from him regarding my last question which was "will you be issuing a call tag?". I don't want to be difficult but I really don't think I should have to pay to send this back to him. I bought an amp, I paid for its shipping to me and what arrived should've been a flawless working amp. What I got looks like a B-stock or a return and it doesn't work like I think it should. So I have to spend more money to get the flawless amp I should've had originally? I think not! If he tells me I have to pay for the shipping, I'm just going to ask for an RMA and be done with it.
In fairness, Jack is doing what he should. He's trying to make it right with me and for that I'm appreciative. But this shipping thing could be the proverbial straw.
Huh, that blows. If it weren't for the cosmetic issues (hopefully just cosmetic, no major shock damage under the hood), I'd say ask him to send another set of tubes and try that... but maybe that's too much trouble on both sides. When I got the HiFiMan EF-5 - a hybrid amp - I had to go through three tubes - of my own! - to get it to work properly, and yeah I was pissed off about it considering the price.
Aaron German
Active Member
When I got my headphone amp (whatever it was, I can't remember anymore), it had some parts loose. In fact, I never did open it up to secure them, so they are still loose.
My point in posting this is to add fuel to the fire behind this question: WTF is up with all these headphone amps arriving with problems?
My point in posting this is to add fuel to the fire behind this question: WTF is up with all these headphone amps arriving with problems?
If I pay a fiar price for a product, I expect it to operate exactly as advertised. If I can improve it by working on it at my own expense, then great, but it should operate properly when I get it.
I find this experience, and now those others are mentioning, to be completely unacceptable.
I find this experience, and now those others are mentioning, to be completely unacceptable.
Not owning, or having owned Woo Audio products, I'm shooting from the hip, but considering their reputation, someone at Woo (Jack) needs to get their quality control issue squared away. Considering the build time from order date until ship, it seems to me there is plenty of time to put the amp through its paces before it was shipped. Quality control should have intercepted Zing's amp before it left the company. Because of quality controls error, you now have a customer who is waiting, and perhaps displeased, plus you have a do-over when the amp arrives, not to mention the shipping cost and time lost.
Rope
Rope
:text-bump:
Update: I shipped the amp back to Woo Tuesday morning and just now got the following email reply from them:
"We checked your amp today. Indeed, there is a problem in your amp. We will need to spend more time to find the root cause. Because of this reason, I will send you new unit, fully tested. "
Update: I shipped the amp back to Woo Tuesday morning and just now got the following email reply from them:
"We checked your amp today. Indeed, there is a problem in your amp. We will need to spend more time to find the root cause. Because of this reason, I will send you new unit, fully tested. "