Gustard H20 vs Woo Audio WA6

Short answer

  • More power: the Gustard H20, with 12.00 W into 32 Ω; the Woo Audio WA6 has 580 mW. The Gustard H20 drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Woo Audio WA6 cannot (Symphonium Titan).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the Gustard H20 costs $170 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Woo Audio WA6 shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $929 against $1099.

The Gustard H20 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Woo Audio WA6 on 566.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationGustard H20Woo Audio WA6
Power into 32Ω12.0 W580 mW
Power into 150Ω2.7 W536 mW
Power into 300Ω1.3 W460 mW
Power into 600Ω670 mW400 mW
Output impedancenot publishednot published
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$929$1099
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
567566

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadGustard H20Woo Audio WA6
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩPublishedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩPublishedPublished

Both makers publish a power rating. Gustard H20 publishes at 32 Ω, at 150 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Woo Audio WA6 at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 150 Ω only the Gustard H20 figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Gustard H20 but not on the Woo Audio WA6 — Symphonium Titan.

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the HiFiMAN HE400se: Gustard H20 has +31 dB of headroom there against +18 dB. 13 dB is about 21 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Gustard H20 and Woo Audio WA6 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsGustard H20 headroomWoo Audio WA6 headroomGustard H20 hissWoo Audio WA6 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+49 dB+36 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+29 dB+16 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+38 dB+28 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+34 dB+29 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+31 dB+18 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+27 dB+24 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+23 dB+18 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+21 dB+10 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Woo Audio WA6 costs $170 more than the Gustard H20, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Woo Audio WA6 handles and the Gustard H20 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Gustard H20 drives one model to 100 dB that the Woo Audio WA6 does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Both pages in full

Each in full: Gustard H20 and Woo Audio WA6.

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