With Wadia, pre-amp or no pre-amp

I own the 860x and have used it with and without, either the Rowland Synergy or Adcom GFP 750 preamps. In both cases I prefered largley the sound of the Wadia run direct. I think in a word it sounds more accurate and true to the natural sound of intruments in space. I did match the output voltage of the Wadia to match my amps and play at a reading of between 80-90.

I've sold the Wadia stuff for a few years now, and demo it on some high end gear. My experiences overall dictate that, in most systems, you're going to find the down side being that you'll lack dynamics and soundstage, yes, to a degree. If, like most people here posting probably, you listen to mostly instrumentals, vocals, string quartets, light classical, jazz, etc, you can probably get away with the "passive" approach, or dirrect CD/amp connection. If on the otherhand you want full bodied dynamic capabilities, and are into rock, pop, full scale stuff, heavy percussion, R&B, Metal, Reggae, world music, whatever, you'll be less pleased I think with the passive approach!..in this case a very good high end preamp will do you better justice, with minimal coloration, if any.
I've worked in many high end shops over the last 20 years, and can say this is the general trend, in passive vs active preamp dillemma...it's always a trade off it seems

KISS When I first got my 860x I ran it through my Krell krc3 because I "needed" the switching for my other components. After a couple of weeks As an experiment I tried it direct. There was no going back. After al who needs a cassette deck? and If i want to listen to the radio turn on the radio. Seriously The Pre never got plugged back in. Sold them all on AudiogoN. Upgraded my cables to Kimber Select, After all I only need one. The claim is that you loose resolution under about a volume setting of 70 But I really don't notice it because under 70 you are just using it for background anyway.

As others have said Trust your ears.

You will have enough left over for a good power cord. I can Highly recommend Synergistic Research Designer Reference and by all means get the Active shield. good listening.

when you go direct are you folks using single ended or Balanced?

As an 850 owner, I agree with the posts by Jfrech and Ejlif above. Wadia just sounds more palpable and natural direct. Through a good preamp you get some extra dynamics, but lose some sense of "real instruments playing" (superb timbre from Wadia's DSP). I've had a number of preamps in my system to test this out (e.g. Pass X1, ARC LS25, Levinson 380S). The direct Wadia sounds even better after the Great Northern Sound mod (which I did). As for RCA v. XLR, I doubt it would make much difference unless your system is truely fully balanced throughout. As for the volume control issue, many people seem to really sweat over this or criticize it, but it is really simple to resolve given the internal switches which can adjust output voltage between 0.25V and 4.0V. You can always adjust such that the volume will stay above 80 for most recordings.