ML no39, Wadia 850, Classe 1.0, or Sony?

Copland 289.

Go for the Wadia, excellant bass,very clear highs, I havn't listened to the 850,but I own its big brother the 860x,they shoud be similar.

Thanks for the initial comments guys.. I was hopeing someone could shead some light as to how each or any of the four players sound different. I'm sure many have been in my position and have A/B these players head to head and can comment in this way? I don't have a local dealer for Classe or Sony ES and the Wadia and ML dealers are 70 miles apart... Thanks Tom

Have you read reviews of any of these? It might give you some idea of how they perform, although the reviewer usually doesn't compare one directly with another. Sometimes they do...I think it was either The Inner Ear, or The Audiophile Voice that reviewed the CD50 about a year ago. (There are many others for it.) The Wadia 850 was reviewed in Stereophile about 2 years ago. I'm not sure about the Classe player, but SPHL reviewed the Classe DAC-1 about 5 years ago. There are many reviews of the Sony just about everywhere. I don't recall seeing any of the ML 39, but I'm sure there are several.

Hi Tom; You've described your preferences in music and music character, but much also depends on your room acoustics, and the rest of your system. I use and like the Sony XA-7 and consider it to be tonally well balanced or near neutral. But in my room, and with my system, it is tilted to the "polite" side of the music spectrum rather than the forward "in your face" side, so it may not appeal to you. But if you have a bright room you may actually prefer components that are somewhat laidback; in a dull, overdamped room brighter electronics may be preferred. Most people buy their electronics then tear their hair out until they get the music quality they want by Judiciously treating the room-- I know I did when I first got involved in this crazy affliction. Consideration of room acoustics is absolutely critical (unless you're lucky enough to stumble into the right combination of electronics and room acoustics accidentally). There's absolutely no substitute for in-home audition. Yeah I know, I like to read reviews too, and it's a good place to start, but I've read teriffic reviews of components only to be disappointed when I actually got the thing in "my system". Sorry, didn't mean to lecture, just want to help out.