With Wadia, pre-amp or no pre-amp

JSL,
Your response is scary as your experience mirrors my own.
I too am thinking of selling my 50se. It's been sitting on standby for 6 months now since I received my statement upgrade from GNS. I may wait till I get a new set of cables and upgrade to the new 51se before finalizing my decision.

Running the unit direct is so sweet now. I can't say that I miss the pre at all. If you enjoy detail and no veils to your music, running direct can be a beautiful thing. However, I didn't always enjoy the direct sound prior to my mods. The sound was often too transparent and edgy at higher volumes. Thats all gone now fortunately.

I all depends on your listening habits. I have been selling Wadia equipment for almost 10 years. The digital volume does affect the sound.

If you like to listen at low volume levels late at night, you will really miss the lost resolution of the digital volume control at lower settings. In this case you will be better served with a good preamp. (A top notch preamp will not get between you and the music. Look at Wyetech, First Sound, Lamm, Pass)

If you normally listen at levels that are at 85% or higher, then the digital volume control should not be a problem.

It is possible to adjust the voltage output of the Wadias in order that you will have your digital volume setting at 85% or higher for your preferred listening volume.

Hope this helps

Go direct !!! I use Wadia 9 + 7 combo direct connect to the power amp, and I tell you there is no going back. I use to have the Mark Levinson No. 26S, that I just sold. Enough said ? Hope this help.

Regards
William

PS. I'd try to connect my old SAE cd player, that have variable out I try to connect to an el cheapo amp. Believe it or not, the sound and the resolution inproved the combo to the next level !!!

After experimenting w/ various pre-amps I keep going back to my Wadia 860x directly connected to my Audio Research VT-50. The resolution is outstanding (especially the low end), quick, quite and clean presentaion. You may find that w/ a pre-amp the soundstage will open up a bit more...but the other qualities out weigh this advantage. Make sure to adjust the voltage accordingly to mate with your amplifier and always use a balanced connection....if your amp is a fully balanced design of course. FYI...my speakers are ProAc 1SC monitors.

I own a Wadia 301 and used to own an 850. I've run them with and without preamps and concluded that CD direct will give more detail and subtle textures, but you will lose a little soundstage.

Whether the soundstage of the Wadias is more accurate or not, it is definitely somewhat more centered (narrower) than the preamps. My personal preference is toward the detail, especially since I listen mostly to acoustic music, so I've opted to run CD direct. The other posters are correct in that the Wadia digital volume control needs to be above 70-75 to really come alive (the owners manual clearly states this). My philosophy is to use the money saved on the extra interconnect and component to buy better cables and power conditioning/generating.