With Wadia, pre-amp or no pre-amp

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.

Wehamilton....I have owned an 850 and as mentioned above currently own an 860x. Could you please comment on your experience with the new 301. All I have heard is that it has the potential to be the next killer cd player. Thanks....John (jla)

Jla, I've recently done extensive tests with my Wadia 301 against my buddy's Wadia 860-X. Also, we both previously owned 850's before buying our current Wadias.

My 301 took a very long time to break in. We did the first comparison test at about 40 hours on the 301, and it was disappointing. We did the second test at about 140 hours and it was a different story. We both felt the 301 is better than the Wadia 850 in general. I won't go into specifics, because we didn't have it available to A/B.

When we first compared the 301 to the 860-X, the 860-X had more weight and a more sophisticated sound (less digital sounding). But after the 301 was fully broken in, the two players were very close, and the slight glare I'd heard earlier in the 301 was gone. I still preferred the 860-X by the smallest margin, but my buddy thought they were really too close to say one was clearly better than the other, just slightly different. To be that close is quite an achievment for the new 301 at $3650, because the 860-X is no slouch even though it's now been superceded byt the 861. I believe the various new technologies on the 301 have substantially reduced the gap between the models, and eclipsed the performance of the older 850 in the process.

I should add that both players were evaluated using PS Audio Mini Lab Cables and a Power Wedge. They were running CD direct into a Cary V-12 amp, Soliloquy 6.3 speakers, AQ Anaconda interconnects and Stealth speaker cables (model unknown).