Woo WA6SE and the Sophia Princess 274B

[CarlSeibert]

Just an update. Now I've had the Woo WA6SE long enough to form an opinion or two.

Remember the restaurant scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent asks about the shake?

"It's a rectifier tube? It's not in the signal path?

[buddy nods]

and it's $150?"

[buddy says yeah]

"And you don't put bourbon in it or nothin?"

A few minutes later, Vincent takes a sip...

"Damn! I don't know if it's worth $150."

"But that's a pretty fucking good rectifier tube!"

There you have it. For me, the Sophia Princess 274B turned out to be more than pretty freakin good, it's more in freakin must-have territory. I'm not the first to say this, but if you have a Woo 6SE, you probably need the Princess, or some NOS exotica that's probably even more expensive.

In my rig, the stock Sovtek tube tilted the tonal balance downward. Things were bassy and over warm. The Sophia fixed all that. The upper mids opened up. Bass was tight and right. Dynamics were better (OK, now THAT I can actually visualize coming from a rectifier tube, but tonal balance?)

My Sennhieser 650s were OK with the stock tube. I figured the K-701s would fare better - complimentary flaws and all that. Not even a little. The AKGs just didn't cut it with the stock tube. I had heard my 701s on Gene's 6SE and they were fine, so I wasn't all that surprised when I put the 274B in and they just came alive. But I'm scratching my head anyway. Now they sound really very good. Go figure.

All standard disclaimers apply - my ears, my tastes, your mileage may sound different, etc. That said, with this tube installed (and I haven't even thought about rolling the 6DE7s yet) I'm enthralled with the 6SE.

-Carl