Well let's say that the Wadia sounds a little bit better than the Krell (but not much). However my old KPS28C always works without any problem and reads all CD's. If I need service I can just bring it to the Teac repair center which costs me about 20% of what the Krell distributors calculate.
In the last years I had about 5 Wadia CD players of which 3 had problems (new players). So I guess their reliability is not that great. But all problems were solved quickly and after that they functioned well without problems. So in the end they are still good and reliable.
GNSC is right. I wanted to have the first 581 available and to make sure I got it I did already a payment. Knowing Wadia for their great CD players I have no doubt about it that the sound will be great. I prefer to have a unit that is tested and reliable and if it then takes a little longer for Wadia to produce it that is no problem to me.
Sound wise there is Wadia and the rest. No other player is as musical and still has great dynamics and bass as the Wadia. The Krell is better in the bass but the overall performance of the Wadia is better.
I am curious about the SACD also. So far I never heard an SACD player that with SACD can beat my Krell KPS28C on CD. I had the Sony SACD1, SACD777 and Marantz SA11 and SA17 and Teac DV50S. All sounded worse on SACD than the Krell on CD. I guess if you want to beat a 10.000 $ CD player on SACD you need also a 10.000 $ SACD player.
I had 4 Krell CD players of which only one had a problem.