Wadia? Should You Go Direct In Or Preout

Tbone, I ran an 860 for 1.5 years and recently upgraded to the 861. The 860 is not even in the same league as the new 861. The x upgrade does very little by itself to improve the sound of the 860 and it's included on the 861. With the 861 you can now select between 3 different digital filter algorithms. As an additional measure, I had the 861 upgraded by former Wadia's former sales manager, Steve Huntley at (greatnorthernsound.com). The player is now so much better than the 860 it will blow your mind. My sincere recommendation is to find an 861 and start from there. By the way, running the player direct into an FPB600c yields a superior transparency and dynamics. The player is most transparent and dynamic at the 2 volt output setting. 4 volts uses additional gain devices and lower settings puts the signal through an additional resistor. Since one can hear the effects of something like dirty connectors, how can we ever think of a preamp and another cable knowing that it will be several steps removed from the event. ANY separate preamp will add coloration and a signature to the presentation. To be successful, and this is a cutdown to the Krell FPB600c, only run the Wadia direct while using amplification with input sensitivity of 2 volts. This will let you get the most from the Wadia running direct...

Tony, what's the switch config of the 2v setting? Wish they would include a chart with the player, took trail and error to set mine. Thanks pete schein@mindspring.com

I would advise that you run the Wadia direct. I just pulled my Audio Research LS-3 out of my system and am running my 850 direct. Everything has improved and since CD is my only source I was able to scale down my system to just an amp and CDP. Good Luck...John

tbone--i run my 850 directly into cj's prem. 12's. i'm much happier than when i had a pre-amp in the mix. pet--shoot me an e-mail with your fax number and i'll send you the open/close switch chart that wadia faxed me.

Not so fast, you direct connectors ! I've been using Wadia transports and dacs exclusively for over 7 years now. I presently have a 270/27i combo. I held on to the belief that running the 27i directly into my various amps had to sound better, because there was less "stuff" between the signal and the speakers. I now run an ARC REF. II between the 27i and ARC VTM 200 monoblocks (previously ARC VT-200) with much improved results. The Wadia output stage in the 27i (their highest end dac) is very transparent, but has a very lean, "skeletal" sound to it. The leading edge transients are great, very clear, but the remainder of the tone is thin and baren and certainly not fully "fleshed out." You must use a very high quality pre-amp and interconnect, but if your equipment is up to it- your sound definately improves. By the way, I've spoken with Steve Huntley several times over the years (he was, in fact, employed by Wadia for many years) and he discoved that a PASS ALEPH pre-amp was better in his system than a 27 direct. Steve is a super knowledgable guy nad I understand that his mods are very effective.