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Gus

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https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/warm-audio-wa-8000
https://warmaudio.com/wa8000/
What NOS tube are they using? What is a French military 6au6?

The part with the tube overheating. So is it using an active cooler or just air cooling?
The real 800 cooler is to cool the tube wall enough to act like a cryopump.
If you know anything about vacuum systems you will understand.

Copy copy copy
why not improve the circuit.

From the SOS review I looked this up
https://www.zpmicrophones.com/
EDIT
found this
https://tubedepot.com/products/thomson-france-6au6wb-military-grade-tube
 
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The studio I work out of just picked one up. The heatsink is HOT. Just tried it for the first time Friday night on a female Pakistani vocalist. It was cool, but had a dull-weirdness in the mids on her, as did my BA-269 (Luke Audio capsule, can’t remember which tube off the top of my head, Moby BV12), to my surprise, as I’ve never heard that before with that one. Maybe it was the Stedman pop-filters on both of those that people say they can hear (that I’ve never heard previously)? The AMI/BA-47 (Thiersch Blueline M7 5906 tube, AMI BV08) was cool, but actually kind of boring on her. The BA-49b (Flea K47 Backplates modded by Luke Audio, 6947 tube, AMI BV11r) was runner-up with its focused and low-frequency anchored-sound. The BA-WRCP1 (Dany D7, 396A tube, Lundahl LL1940) was the winner with a special aurora on her.

Here’s a picture, but you can’t really see any of the mics all that well. I should have just attached a filter to a separate mic stand, but didn’t. I actually would like to pick up a Pete’s Place Blast Pad, a Triad-Orbit spring-clamp, and a couple of their goosenecks, but it’s always hard to justify to myself.

I agree, why not actually improve the design? Planning-out a comparison to the BA-8G (one I surprisingly still don’t have). It would be cool to have an AA to compare with as well, but not happening I’m sure.
 

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Does it have a peltier cooler or is it air cooled?

What does the grill capsule environment look like?

I have not found any inside pictures.
 
Peltier coolers are mainly good for cooling small objects down to very low temperatures. Peltier junctions mainly pump heat from one end to the other, at high temperature they may not remain mechanically stable.

JR

PS: I experimented with using peltier devices for a counter top cooker that would simultaneously cool my kitchen... it was a expensive failure.
 
JohnRoberts said:
Peltier coolers are mainly good for cooling small objects down to very low temperatures. Peltier junctions mainly pump heat from one end to the other, at high temperature they may not remain mechanically stable.

JR

PS: I experimented with using peltier devices for a counter top cooker that would simultaneously cool my kitchen... it was a expensive failure.
Click to expand...

Indeed. The number of times ion my work someone has suggested using a Peltier for thermal management in power applications or for instrumentation stability. And it's never been workable due to the temperature gradients involved.
 
Newmarket's post has one of the reasons I asked if it uses a Peltier.

The Sony appears to use a heatpipe to increase the cooling and have the temperature gradient move away from the microphone.
 
Of course the real question is why the 6AU6 needs a cooler to begin with. Works fine in the Sony C37, Altec M11, and other mics without it. Too tired to search right now, but IIRC someone here figured the cooler gave about 1dB of noise improvement.
 
The cooler acts something like a vacuum cryopump and adsorbs(not absorbs) atoms to the walls this cause less collisions in the tube
The Sony also uses a tube with a bigger envelope
 
Gus said:
The cooler acts something like a vacuum cryopump and adsorbs(not absorbs) atoms to the walls this cause less collisions in the tube
The Sony also uses a tube with a bigger envelope
Click to expand...
Sounds suspiciously like Audiophool technology ;) I suppose the larger envelope helps keep the inside of the tube from getting too cool (remember it is not a pure vacuum and there is thermal coupling from the pins). But the part about fewer collisions of atoms...? Again, I would like to see actual measurements with and without the cooler.
 
I would not call it Audiophool technology

The microphone sells for a good deal of money so why not go over the top.

The tube is run at higher current so adding the cooler should help with noise.

Vacuum tubes as diodes have a nicer turn on and turn off in the power supply

Another site questions the use of lower value capsule voltage divider resistors in the microphone
An old method to make a series supply act more like a shunt supply is to load the series supply.

Read up on vacuum system cyropumps, cold fingers
 
Gus said:
I would not call it Audiophool technology

The microphone sells for a good deal of money so why not go over the top.

The tube is run at higher current so adding the cooler should help with noise.

Vacuum tubes as diodes have a nicer turn on and turn off in the power supply

Another site questions the use of lower value capsule voltage divider resistors in the microphone
An old method to make a series supply act more like a shunt supply is to load the series supply.

Read up on vacuum system cyropumps, cold fingers
Click to expand...
It sells for good money so why not use audiophool tech? Audiophools are known for spending good money.

Vacuum tubes as diodes has zero to do with the cooling.

No interest in reading about cryopumps, cryotreatment of tubes, or cryopreservation of my brain after I die.
Cryo- means cold. It is abused as a prefix buzzword to sell all sorts of things.

Provide hard numbers or admit it is BS.
 
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Gus said:
I would not call it Audiophool technology

The microphone sells for a good deal of money so why not go over the top.

The tube is run at higher current so adding the cooler should help with noise.

Vacuum tubes as diodes have a nicer turn on and turn off in the power supply

Another site questions the use of lower value capsule voltage divider resistors in the microphone
An old method to make a series supply act more like a shunt supply is to load the series supply.

Read up on vacuum system cyropumps, cold fingers
Click to expand...

Gus I love you bro, ever since like 15 years you and me have been on these forums obsessed with the Sony and finding ways to improve on it. Lol

Gus don’t forget that the heater on this tube is actually underpowered at 5.7v. Yeah plate is like 230v but look at the spec sheet of Russian 6au6a it can easily take it. Look at Neumann u67 very similar to Sony but with de emphasis circuit actually look at m269 design I agree with everyone else. The peltilier element wasn’t needed in this design and I think the peltilier element is the reason the tubes go bad so often in this microphone

Jess
 
JessJackson said:
Gus I love you bro, ever since like 15 years you and me have been on these forums obsessed with the Sony and finding ways to improve on it. Lol
Click to expand...
Agreed, I meant no disrespect to Gus. It is Sony who are spouting marketing BS.
JessJackson said:
The peltilier element wasn’t needed in this design and I think the peltilier element is the reason the tubes go bad so often in this microphone

Jess
Click to expand...
Quite possibly due to the temperature gradient across the tube.

I am a bit curious about the claim of a larger glass envelope. Tubes were built to very precise specs "back in the day" and it didn't matter if you had an RCA or a Telefunken - they fit the same socket, same shield, same height, diameter, etc. Some more modern Soviet/Chinese tubes do have larger bulbs (I'm looking at you 12AX7!) and will not even fit in vintage pin straighteners or some sockets designed for shields. Anyone know the source of official Sony 6AU6?
 
mjrippe said:
Agreed, I meant no disrespect to Gus. It is Sony who are spouting marketing BS.

Quite possibly due to the temperature gradient across the tube.

I am a bit curious about the claim of a larger glass envelope. Tubes were built to very precise specs "back in the day" and it didn't matter if you had an RCA or a Telefunken - they fit the same socket, same shield, same height, diameter, etc. Some more modern Soviet/Chinese tubes do have larger bulbs (I'm looking at you 12AX7!) and will not even fit in vintage pin straighteners or some sockets designed for shields. Anyone know the source of official Sony 6AU6?
Click to expand...
Yeah the official 6au6a tubes used by Sony were just re-branded russian long body 6Ж4П stamped with a red Sony logo. A lot of the tubes are microphonic and Sony obviously purchased a stock pile and tested them all. If they weren’t up to audio spec, they utilized them as the two slow ramp up rectifiers in the power supply.
 
Thanks for confirming that Jess. I have used a lot of 6AU6 from Sylvania JAN types to RCA 6136 to NOS Telefunken but I have never used the Soviet "equivalent". I put that in quotes because some Soviet tubes have slightly different specs/curves/ratings, etc. I wonder if the mic was designed around the specs for 6Ж4П? I'll have to find that datasheet.
 
Hi everyone. I've got WA-800 for review. It has Thomson-CSF 6AU6WB NOS tube running in the solid alu cooler with Peltier inside. Heather is running on regulated 5V, and the plate has 235V. The mic is getting quite hot after one hour but sounds good to my ears.
 
 

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