Wadia CD players direct to power amps opinions

I am thinking of trying a pre amp to see which I like better. But I hate to drop 3 to 4K to experiment but maybe if I do not think it is worth I would hope I could get my money back. I would prefer to stay in the Tube Class A family since that is how my amps are running and the Wadia is balanced

Vx700: out here in the other side of the pond - i can say i was among the very few who tried the Wadia Direct Link approach BACK IN THE EARLY 90s when the very first Wadia entered the shores of the Philippines.

I used the one-box Wadia 6 direct to various SS amps: Threshold Stasis, White Audio Lab, "another amp of Threshold DNA" @ bi-amp configuration, and finally via MF XA-200 + XA-50 BI-AMP - it was only with the WAL that the performance was crap BUT surprisingly, it was with the Musical Fidelity combo that the system gave it's best in my system.

I would still go for the same set had my W6 not died in 2004. I was ready to get a W17 to insert my turntable+phonostage and use the W6 as control BUT it did not have an input (and then it died a natural death).

Going without pre-amp has benefits but is not for everyone, and definitely, not for the casual testers or tweakers - no sir - you gotta decide that it is what you want to do because if you consider system synergy as important, with a Wadia Direct Connect, synergy IS AN ABSOLUTE... and that's not easy.

I would still go that route even if i am currently running an entirely tube system; problem is the Wadias are really very costly - but come to think of it: a 10-year lifespan for the lens on the W6 is not bad! not bad, really :-)

Test, listen, listen, listen.
no short-cuts.

Best wishes.
.e.

Hello Egay

I have been spending more and more time listening to the Wadia direct via my Audio Valve Challenger Mono Blocks (running 6 ea KT 88's) connected with a pr of MIT Shot Gun Magnum MA Balanced interconnects and the sound is so involving clean and deep. The sound stage is just like being there. I am pleased and not sure if I could bring myself to drop another $3800 + for a pre amp just to run the volume up and down. Even if I had another digital device or even an anaolog I still really do not need a pre amp. I am happy with this for now, to the point that I might just spend the cash on some tube rolling. I also have a Jungson 280 intergrated amp that runs 80watts class A I might try that and see which amp is better.