Wadia S7i direct to amp

I agree with Inpieces. When the level is reduced to 90, there is a very substantial drop in dynamics and detail. I'm not sure I can accurately differentiate 99 vs. 100 in a blinded trial, but definitely 90 vs. 100.

If you like the Wadia direct, great. But you are missing things, just FYI. With a separate preamp, music sounds great from 45db to 95db (measured by SPL meter).

01-28-11: Inpieces
I also tried the level adjustment at my Wadia.
I use a JRDG C-500 and 381. If i lower the level, i can clearly hear that the sounds becomes less dynamic and full/punchy.
It's heard directly (- no question!), if i lower the level from 100 to 97.

as it turns out, if you connect the wadia to the preamp and lower the volume at the preamp you would notice a similar phenomenon. it's just a characteristic of the mechanical nature of speaker cones (not to mention the limitations of your own hearing and/or room acoustics) that volume level affects the sonic character of a musical presentation.

just out of curiosity, as this thread is about the s7i, i am wondering if you any of you compared the s7i and the 381. from what i can tell, the main difference (aside from some cosmetic differences in the display) is that the s7i adds additional regulated power supplies so that more subcircuits have their own regulated power supply whereas in the 381 more subcircuits share a common power supply. i'm wondering how much that design change affected subjective impressions of the 2 units.

Even when volume is matched, there is unacceptable loss of dynamics when the digital volume attenuator is used. It is a flaw of the technology, and is not dependent upon the number of power supplies. Apparently, those last couple of bits really matter. Luckily, it can be bypassed. The series 9 has six independent power supplies per channel, and suffers the same fate with volume.

If people like their unit without a preamp, then great. They also should know that they may like it even better with a good preamp.

02-01-11: Rtn1
Even when volume is matched, there is unacceptable loss of dynamics when the digital volume attenuator is used.

first, the comparison that you suggest is highly unreliable; it's just hard to listen to one configuration, change the configuration and then try to get the same volume level from memory.

second, i agree that listen to a wadia in a direct connect configuration is likely to sound different from that of a through-the-preamp configuration. to that extent, if you prefer the sound of the through-the-preamp configuration, then you are going to prefer the "dynamics" because you just like the configuration better. that's not a matter of any "flaw in the technology" it's just a matter of your own preferences.

i'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong if you say that you prefer the sound of the wadia through a preamplifier. for my own part, for some recordings i sometimes find that i prefer the sound of the through-the-preamp configuration, other times i prefer the sound when going direct to the amplifier. from my observation, the preamplifier acts as a kind of tone control that does change the sound character of the musical presentation.