I'm in general agreement with what Tvad and Slaw3 have posted. The CI may be less bright and a little warmer sounding than the NuForce or AR amps. With any of these amps, going straight in from the Wadia could yield a bright presentation from the Sonatas.
I think James was on the right track. What I recommend is buying a Monarchy M24 tube DAC/Linestage and using the Wadia as a transport to feed the M24's DAC stage. Put a pair of Siemens E88CC gold-pin tubes in the DAC stage. You'll need to use the Monarchy's tube linestage to get volume control and you can play with the two tubes in the linestage as well. The stock military Russian 6DJ8s are not at all bad.
In my view, you'd move a lot closer to the sound you've described by using a tube DAC or a tube linestage -- rather than changing amplifiers.
If you go to a good tube unit and still want a little more dynamic pop and slam, the NuForce Reference 9.02's should fill that bill nicely.
I think James was on the right track. What I recommend is buying a Monarchy M24 tube DAC/Linestage and using the Wadia as a transport to feed the M24's DAC stage. Put a pair of Siemens E88CC gold-pin tubes in the DAC stage. You'll need to use the Monarchy's tube linestage to get volume control and you can play with the two tubes in the linestage as well. The stock military Russian 6DJ8s are not at all bad.
In my view, you'd move a lot closer to the sound you've described by using a tube DAC or a tube linestage -- rather than changing amplifiers.
If you go to a good tube unit and still want a little more dynamic pop and slam, the NuForce Reference 9.02's should fill that bill nicely.