Wadia 861

I had a Statement 861 from GNSC. Before the upgrade, I listened to many players in many systems. As my ears and taste improved, I began to find the 861 lacking for all the reasons you may read about in these disussions.

I decided to not give up on the 861 and ponied up for the mod. The mod, for me, made the player everything I thought a real high end player should be. I found that I did not need a preamp. I also found that using a preamp less than $6-8k retail after the upgrade was a waste.

If I thought that I was getting a thin sound I would first try warmer ic's like Caras or Wireworld (copper), or perhaps get a tube preamp or amps. The 861 can truly make music. It does require some tweaking though. Good listening!

Reb1208:
Unfortunately or fortunately (I don't know which??!!) I just acquired the Wadia 861 boat anchor.

Avnut:
It's a stock unit (so far). I plan to feed the analog out to my CAT pre. I'll be using TARA Labs Master Gen II interconnects.

Still wondering which power cord will be affordable & yet will do justice. I see that you use the King Cobra. I've seen many others use Silver Audio Wattmaster, V-D Nite, TARA Labs The One, Harmonix X-DC Studio series. All expensive! Looks like I'll have to save my pennies once again to afford a decent power cord! ;-(

The CAT unfortunately will not address to problem with the 861- IMO. Perhaps a Jadis or maybe a Cary.

I have used 2 of the above mentioned CD Players in my set up;

The Wadia 861 - Basic [Silver] & Electrocompaniet EMC-1 up.

However, I have not done a head to head comparision since they both were owned by me at different times.

Even the electronics I used them with were not the same, hence trying to draw up a comparision would not be right.

The EMC-1 up was used with Pass Labs X-1 & Brystons [7BST]
& the 861-B was used with Pre + Power from Gryphon Audio.

The Speakers in both cases was from Dynaudio [Confidence 5].

SCHWINNINDIA

LIST OF AUDIO GEAR OWNED AND USED :-

SIMAUDIO MOON ECLIPSE CD PLAYER [SerialNumber A-211294-CD]
SIMAUDIO P-5 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number A-081291-PRE]
ELECTROCOMPANIET EMC-1 24/192 CD PLAYER [Serial Number 01334]
AUDIOMECA MEPHISTO II CD TRANSPORT [Serial Number 2001045]
AUDIOMECA ENKIANTUS 24/192 DAC [Serial Number 2001073]
METRONOME T1A MK II TRANSPORT + UP SAMPLER
METRONOME C1A MK III TUBE 24/192 DAC
WADIA 861-B CD PLAYER [Serial # 086 130 0343]
BRYSTON BP-25 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 251744]
BRYSTON 7B ST POWER AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 773775 & 773793]
PASS LABS X-1 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 010388]
DYNAUDIO CONFIDENCE 5 SPEAKERS [Serial Number 729879 & 729990]
XAVIAN - XN360 SPEAKERS [SERIAL # 31 & 32] - CZECH REPUBLIC
VdH THE SECOND BALANCED INTERCONNECTS 1M
VdH THE FIRST ULTIMATE UNBALANCED INTERCONNECTS 1M
VdH THE REVELATION SPEAKER CABLE 3M
VdH THE MAINSTREAM HYBRID POWER CABLE 2M
XLO ELECTRIC TYPE 4.1B AES/EBU DIGITAL INTERCONNECT CABLE 1M
THE GRYPHON ADAGIO CD PLAYER [Serial # 0401111]
THE GRYPHON SONATA ALLEGRO PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial # 8890099]
THE GRYPHON ANTILION STEREO SIGNATURE POWER AMPLIFIER [Serial # 118]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY MERLIN PRO CD TRANSPORT [Serial # 301209]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY DRAGON 5.1 PLUS JITTER REDUCER [Serial # 103584]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY UTHER D/A CONVERTOR v2 Mk5 [Serial # 501202]
THE GRYPHON GUIDELINE REFERENCE BALANCED INTERCONNECT 1M
THE GRYPHON PSC REFERENCE SPEAKER CABLE 2M
THE ARGENTO VDM MASTER REFERENCE XLR BALANCED INTERCONNECT 1M & 1.5M
THE ARGENTO VDM REFERENCE SPEAKER CABLE 3M
WIREWORLD SUPER ECLIPSE 5 XLR BALANCED & RCA UNBALANCED INTERCONNECT - 1M
JORMA DESIGN JPC 2.5 POWER CABLE - SWEDEN - 2M - ALL ELECTRONICS
DC-CABLE TAIWAN POWER CABLES - CUSTOM TERMINATION [Front End Electronics - Digital]

I too agree the Wadia when driven directly lacks body and color but when run thru a pre it is something else with all the res but with a mid-range to die for in my system(Hovland HP-100, Merlin VSM-MX, Cadence Canasya Monoblocks[quad 845's per ch])

Regards,

Satyam.