With Wadia, pre-amp or no pre-amp

9 times out of 10 no preamp is better!

Good luck and listen to the Wadia both with and without a preamp. Don't be afraid to be the judge. Remember, you not someone else has to live with it.

Happy listening.

I used to have a 850. Used it direct to a BAT VK200 and then to a BAT vk60. Later on, I added a BAT vk50se. Here is my experience, on a dollar basis, the Wadia is very very good. Especially at higher volume levels. You do loose resolution when the volume control is 75 or lower, you really start to notice it below 50. However, without a top notch preamp to directly compare it to...you won't miss much.

Also, I thought the preamp helps in dynamics and soundstage. That's my 2 cents...

i've never used wadia cd player but i know that it has digital volume control that degrades the sound on lower volume levels. you can use an external passive volume control(or passive preamp) and use fixed output with much better results if your rest of electronics are compatible with passive preamp.
the regular electronic preamp will bring you less headache in terms of figuring out and matching.

I guess I'd like to add one more comment to my above post, I think direct at higher volume levels the Wadia direct add a decree of imtimacy that the preamp just won't give you. However, the preamp does help in dynamics and soundstage like I said above. Depends on what's more important to you and what you want to spend.