Right before Brian Hunter and I walked into the Woo Audio room at the 2024 Florida International Audio Expo, I turned to him and said, “Of course we should go in–after all, I used to own a Woo Audio WA3.” Brian seemed shocked and said, “You never told me that before!” While Brian’s finger is on the pulse of the head-fi world in 2024, I was pretty dug in with headphones from 2007 to 2009 and I owned some truly superb components, including that maroon-ish/burgundy little Woo Audio tube amp that was oh-so-cute while providing a convincing synergy with my beloved Grado GS-1000s.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
Woo Audio is slightly different these days. As we marched up and down the corridor of the 14th floor, where head-fi reigned supreme, Woo Audio seemed to be the busiest room. I couldn’t believe all the new headphone amps from Jack Woo, all different shapes and sizes. The cosmetic design of these amplifiers was innovative and stylish–that WA3 was a cutey-pie, but it did look like a tube amp. This new gear is art.
While Brian and Jack Woo went off and talked about business, I sat down and indulged in all the different types of Woo Audio amplification solutions, some of which are downright affordable. (That was the appeal of my WA3–it was just a few hundred dollars.) There’s the small Woo Audio Tube Mini balanced headphone amp/DAC (from $499) that simply plugs into a USB port, there’s the gorgeous and compact WA7e Fireflies electrostatic headphone amplifier/DAC (from $1,399) that kept winking at me from the across the room, all the way up to the very serious-looking WA23 headphone amp/preamplifier (starting at $8,999) that represents the high end of Jack Woo’s product line.
I’ve always enjoyed the sound quality of my old WA3, and I regretted selling it. This new Woo Audio line-up, however, is impressive in every way–sound, looks and, most interestingly, price. I might have to prod Brian Hunter to put in a good word for me.
That must be Douglas Ip from Stax on the second photo.