Wadia 861

I had the opportunity to listen to the Wadia 861 in a friend's system. His system consisted of all-Gryphon(Danish) electronics & Dynaudio Confidence 5 (these are older speakers & out of production now but they sound better than today's Confidence series, IMO).
I can say that the Gryphon Adagio CDP beat the Wadia 861 convincing in my books.
The Wadia is etched in the high freq. extremes & it deceivingly gives the impression of more resolution & clarity. That is not true! It is distortion one is hearing. The Gryphon CDP is much more natural sounding over the entire audio band. In comparison to the Wadia 861 I thought that the high freq were rolled off but upon critical listening I found that all the content was there - it was just presented in more naturally.
Also, on the classical music that we were playing comparing the 2 CDPs, the Gryphon had better microdynamics as it was better able to flesh out the lower level details vs. the Wadia 861.
The Wadia 861 can be modified by Great Northern Sound & this might get rid of the etched high freq. I don't have any experience w/ this mod & am only mentioning it.
All-in-all I'd call the Wadia 861 an audiophile's CDP, one where the user is listening only to the sound of his/her system. The Gryphon CDP is a music lover's player, one where the user is listening to the music coming out of his system & where sound is only a means to an end - the music.

FWIW. IMHO. YMMV.

Well,,,,,,,

I have changed my opinion somewhat on the Wadia 861! I actually bought one despite my ho-hum to negative comments on it (vs. the Gryphon Adagio)!

Since I bought this player, I've had it on 24/7 & got a chance to take it over to a friend's place to compare to his Sony SA-777ES SACD player.

I'm using the 861 in algorithm B with the stock power cord. We max'd out the digital volume (bypass mode) & fed the analog out to his Spectral DMC20 2-chassis pre. The pre fed his Plinius SA-250 (used in class-A mode only) & that fed his N804 speakers.

Both the owner & I unanimously claimed that the 861 handily beat the Sony 777ES in BOTH redbook & SACD modes. I.E. the same hybrid SACD when played in the 861 sounded better than when it was played in SACD mode in the Sony 777ES. The 777ES redbook mode was far below the 861 redbook mode & the Sony turned out to be too bright.

Could be that the 861 is a better player? or, that the hybrid SACD was not well made? or, only algorithm B is better than the Sony & algo A, C are worse? or, my mind is playing tricks on me?

It was an Alison Krauss "New Favourite" hybrid SACD, which I was told was a DSD recording for the SACD.
We played several other CDs - Simply Red, SRV "The Sky is Crying", Grateful Dead to name a few.

I was *not* expecting the 861 to sound better than SACD after hearing all the news/talk/hype on SACD. I'm still in a bit of disbelief! Could this really have happened???

The Gryphon Adagio might still be better than the 861 but I now feel that that owner didn't give this CD player a fair chance. Maybe, at that time, we should have done the Adagio-861 comparison using algo B (instead of A)? Also, he had the 861 on for 1 hour before I arrived for the listening session. I know that Wadia recomends 72 hrs before critical listening.

IMHO. FWIW. YMMV.

Fbhifi,

I have to agree with your comment about running my 861 into a preamp. We were listening, at 1st, thru my friend's Spectral DMC-20 & it sounded really very good. Then we decided to take Wadia up on their reco to run it into the power amp directly. We had to reduce the digital volume to 55 or so (out of 100) and, just like you wrote, the sound was "devoid of meat, muscle, fat and color". In all fairness, per the manual, we should have opened up the unit & reduced the output stage max. level so that our optimum listening volume level would have been in the 75-100 range. We didn't do this & probably sacrificed far too many of the LSBs turning down the volume that much.

Well, the EMM Labs gear is mighty expensive & not affordable by many. Since it is so new, few pieces show up used & when they do, they are still very expensive!

I hope that one day I'll be able to hear the EMM gear. I wonder just how much better it is?? My observation has been that very few people here listen to music & most listen to the sound of their system!

Reb1208:
Unfortunately or fortunately (I don't know which??!!) I just acquired the Wadia 861 boat anchor.

Avnut:
It's a stock unit (so far). I plan to feed the analog out to my CAT pre. I'll be using TARA Labs Master Gen II interconnects.

Still wondering which power cord will be affordable & yet will do justice. I see that you use the King Cobra. I've seen many others use Silver Audio Wattmaster, V-D Nite, TARA Labs The One, Harmonix X-DC Studio series. All expensive! Looks like I'll have to save my pennies once again to afford a decent power cord! ;-(