Woo Audio WA2 headphone amplifier review

Woo Audio WA2 headphone amplifier Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Reviewed on: 26 November 2008

Performance
We spent two months with the WA2 before putting our thoughts to paper, during which time we listened for hours, daily, with a range of headphones, including Denon AH-D5000 and AH-D7000, Sennheiser HD 650, AKG K 701, Audio Technica W1000, W5000 and AD700, and more recently the Grado GS1000s, to name some favourites. And of course SACD was used where possible.

The beautiful aluminium finish makes it look elegant and features indented lettering

The hype this amplifier receives is highly justified, with truly divine sound quality across the board. Its deep, powerful performance with the HD 650s were particularly enjoyable, along with the K 701s and both Denon models mentioned.

If we had to pick a single word to describe the Woo Audio experience, it would be 'luscious' -- deep, smooth bass, rich vocal reproduction, and a sweet, spacious, notably airy treble that's smashing for live classical performances. Switching to even a £250 headphone amp will make a huge difference over the integrated headphone amps on a modern hi-fi amplifier, but the WA2 pushes this difference into a new dimension.

It's not a small amp, so be prepared to lose some shelf space

Listening to Mary Black's 1989 studio performance of Columbus, for example, was one of the defining moments when testing the WA2. Not only was her naturally beautiful voice delivered more perfectly than we've heard before, but every aspect of the recording was too good not to grin to during listening. The double bass produced notes astoundingly deep at times, yet remained under perfect control, and the hi-hats, violin, guitar and delicate drumming were spine-tingling in their clarity and presence.

But our listening wasn't restricted to music typically enjoyed through gear like this -- we listened to just as much hard dance, brutal death metal, even classic recordings of Balinese gamelan, as we did jazz and the entire career of Pink Floyd. There was nothing we found the amp couldn't handle as well as other amps, but many it could handle significantly better. Feed it vocals, jazz, orchestral, soul, folk, country, easy listening, even R 'n' B, hip hop and dance, and you're in for a treat.

The rear layout is simple but full-featured

Conclusion
We're used to to the sound of our most highly rated headphones through our existing, impressive-in-their-own-right amplifiers, but the WA2 breathes phenomenal new life into even the greatest headphones on the planet, our favourite for use with this setup being the Sennheiser HD 650s or Denon AH-D7000.

It may not rise to the greater heights reached by the more costly Woo Audio gear, but at this price point it blew away everything we've ever heard. Highly recommended.