Emm Labs SE combo versus Wadia 581-SE

I have the 581se and I disagree with Rtnl when he says that the Wadia will take 1000 hours to break in. Mine was pretty amazing right out of the box. I will say though that after about 200-300 hours it moves to an even better level of production where it has now seemed to settle.

Agree that Wadias in general take some break-in time, and also that they sound best after they've been plugged in and turned on for a good 24 hours or so.

I owned an 861SE and it sounded perfect out of the box. the 1000 hours is bs. i put on several thousand hours and my system never got better.

i ran it direct to my speakers and kept it on 24/7 as i used it as a preamp for multiple sources. i replaced it with a Linn Unidisk 1.1.

The Wadia 581-SE is in the system. Fresh out from the box sounded a bit conjested but 24 hrs later, it sang beautifully. I'm sure it will get better with more hours and initial audition was very pleasant.

The pre amp section is very good even though had been said better with a active pre amp. I'm going to try a Spectral 30SL and see what happens.....

I also plugged in the Accuphase PS-1200V mains regenerator with the 581 and the improvement was amazing.

Cheers. :)