Wadia 860, Levinson & Aero Cap Direct into Amp

As a rule the direct route will give the most life and detail. I am surprised micb's experience took away midrange. I heard a comparison of a Wadia direct versus thru a Lamm preamp at a group meeting and agreed that the sound was less brilliant and the general preference was to go direct. It is easy to see however that if you wanted less on top that an active pre may suit your taste. I have not heard the Levinson so no opinion concerning the comparison.

I know a guy who had both the upgraded Wadia 861SE and the Audio Aero Capitole for quite a while. He sold the Wadia...

In a hobby where changing a power cord can make the difference between thinking you just purchased sonic nirvana or the worst piece of junk ever made, one must be careful when making blanket statements about gear! That being said, I have owned many of the aforementioned players and would have to say that the Levinson 39/390S delivers a substantially better presentation across the board...extended, controlled, dynamic with tons of texture tone color and spaciousness. The Wadia was refined but a bit forward and closed in, lacking air...otherwise superb! I own neither currently as long term listening revealed their sound to be a little overdone or surreal if you will. Live music, truly live acoustic music treads a fine line of dynamics, control, ease and subtelty that are missed with most digital gear.

Well, we all have excellent ears and the best systems but a great cd player can only be as good as the cables that hook it up.A moded 860 should eliminate the these 2 players with out much trouble,however, a mode is not cheap to do with GNSC.A GNSC mode is able to provide a level of musicality that only the top players are capable of, to my ears and Steve at GNSC. The cable of choice is the VD Master for i/c and p/c,if you know the cable then you know what it can do.I also have the VD BX inwall wiring and can say that it is a major upgrade to all the pieces in ones system.I think that Wadias offer huge performance with the right cables and modds,but you need to deepen your investment to achieve truly reference system.If you are looking for a bargain then you get what you pay for.