Wadia 850 and Spectral DMA 150 matching without pre-amp

I was running a Wadia 850 direct with a Densen DM-10 Amp. Current passed directly through and blew out my speakers. After sending the 850 back to Wadia (before they moved to Ann Arbor, MI), I learned that the Densen and Spectral are both constructed with similar architectures with wide bandwiths. I subsequently replaced the Densen with a Jeff Rowland, and the problem never reappeared.

Hello Nathanu,

You blew out your speakers (what speakers did you use?) but why send your Wadia back?

Did you blew your tweeters or the bass?

I know you're never supposed to use the spectral power amps with non spectral pre amps. The wadia might be acting like a preamp, sending a signal in to the power amp, but it ain't the "spectral" signal that the amp needs. What do others think about this??

It blew out a woofer on a pair of Aerial 5s. I sent my amp and CD player in for a checkup, not knowing what the problem was.

This following is the email reply from Wadia on this topic:

Thank you for your email message and loyalty to Wadia. I must inform you that the customer, Joe, is correct about the incapability between the Wadia 850 and the Spectral amplifiers. We are uncertain as to why these two components do not work well together, but we have unfortunately found that these units are not compatible. Spectral amplifiers are the only brand of amplifiers that we have found to be incompatible with the Wadia. I hope that this is helpful.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance at this time.

Best Regards,

Jennifer ZehrGrimm
Sales Coordinator