wadia 781i vs dcs puccini

Steeovox works just perfect with Wadia, especially the BAL-600 cable. As suggested, try another power cord (Elrod, Electraglide or JPS Labs).

Maybe you should get Kubala-Sosna Emotion series of cables, you'll get excellent timbres and fantastic extremes.

i tried the wadia 780i with tara labs cobalt cable ($5000). It had extremely fast bass response with all the inner details.
I tried the DCS puccini which was more musical than the wadia.

But none could match the air, richness and huge sound stage of my stahl-tek DAC ($18k).

I agree with the Elrod Statement II PC suggestion. That would be my first move before I tried or did anything else. You can probably pick 1 up to try from the Cable Company for a very minimal cost, which would get applied towards any future purchases with them. A great way to try cords. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference the Statement makes. Alsom FWIW, the Statement had more bass weight and range in my system than did the VD Rev pc.

I have directly compared the DCS Puccini and the EMM LABS CDSA and I believe that the DCS is better in terms of transparency, resolution, low end, less grainy sound.

If I was looking for an one box player right now I would buy the dcs puccini!

Weiss is better though....lol