When will Wadia 581 be available


Did anybody hear something about the Wadia 581 yet. I am waiting already for 5 months for the new CD player. I made already a payment and hope to get it soon. I heard they have problems writing the new software. Now I see some shops offering it while the German and Dutch distributor do not have it yet. Luckily I still have my Krell CD player but now I bought an 861B again for my second system since the 581 is not available (only vapourware).

What will the price be in America. In Europe it will be around 9000 euro new.

Peter
sprbggr
Wadia's marketing and timing are not their strength. but funny that it is precisely their unique, independent, detached, innovative, and solid ways that attracted me to their technology and products.

i agree that it is never fun to wait for a product already paid for to arrive. it was a painful 3 months to wait for my 861b, and 12 more months for the metal remote. but do you agree that the making of products of great quality should not be rushed?

i believe Wadia depleted its supply of TEAC transports, thus, is unable to make more 861...

best wishes to Peter and Wadia.
scott
So far still no Wadia. I am happy if I receive it before Chrismas. This means one year !!! waiting time. Let's wait and see. I am close to cancelling my order. I like the Wadia CD players but will stick to Krell since they are available and more reliable.
Your patience will be well rewarded. It's a great player and the production units are just beginning to ship now. I'm a little surprised someone took a deposit from you on a unit that wasn't even shipping yet, but if you want to get one of the first of anything I guess you have to be willing to accept that delays can occur in the roll out of product. I for one am just glad Wadia spent the time necessary to get it right and build something the truly breaks new ground.
Sprbggr,
Could you clarify? When you say that Krell is more reliable than Wadia, do you mean the company or the product or both?
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.