Wadia 861 Owners...

I've used my 861 with both ss and tubes (Levinson and CAT). Both work well; however, I recently inserted a Supratek Chenin preamp into the mix, and with my system, the 861 sounds MUCH better with the Chenin, than without!

I've owned a few Wadia players and I'm currently using an 861 with a GNSC Statement upgrade. I've used Spectral amps and preamps and ran the 861 straight into a 150 II and through a DMC 20 II and I preferred it without the preamp. I also used a Rowland 8TiHC with and without a Lamm L1. I still preferred the Wadia running directly to the amp. I have also run the Wadia straight into a pair of Tenor 75Wis and also connected it throught the passive volume attenuators and my preference was the direct route. I currently have the 861 going straight into a Boulder 1060 and I think it sounds more like the real thing to me. I've run both balanced and single ended and it's really a matter of preference because with an all balanced system you get more impact, but you lose a little something in top end finesse. That's not to say that there aren't some preamps that will work well because I sure others out there will attest that they do. Obviously I think you chose a great player to experiment with.

I'm running my Wadia861se GNSC into a Boulder 1012 pre-amp. I never seriously considered going direct to the amps for three reasons:
1. i wanted a greater range of volume setting than just affording by staying near the top of the Wadia digital attenuation
2. i required the ability to switch between a couple different source components
3. the Boulder is a fantastic pre-amp, and i believe that the buffering and drive capabilities of a good pre-amp should not be discarded off-hand (especially when mated to the same mfg's power amps).

just my opinion.

From a Purists standpoint you would think that running a Wadia straight into the amp/amps would benefit it's sonics by eliminating the pre-amp from the chain? In my trials I have done this, however when adding a revealing line-stage and adjusting the Wadia's internal dip voltage out switches to match the pre-amps input requirements it takes things to an entirely new level. If digital was my only source, maybe I would speak to Steve at GNSC to see if he could help? However once hearing the difference, I only have intentions of using the Wadia as a CDP with a pre-amp. Good Luck!

I'm a recent owner of a Wadia 861 myself & have played both with feeding the 861 directly to my solid-state Symphonic Line monos & feeding the 861 into my CAT pre. I lived w/ both setups for atleast 2-3 weeks before making a change & comparison. My conclusion is that I prefer the 861 thru my CAT pre any day, any time! For me the conclusion is pretty night & day. While the 861 direct has very good sound, the sound thru my tube pre is just in another world (for the better).
Like Audiobugged indicated, I had to set the internal DIP switches for the correct output voltage because both my monos & my pre have a lot of gain. There was no way that I leave the 861 output @ the max. & have any useful volume control range.
I also did not like the fact that the digital volume control in the 861 is a DSP volume control i.e. is lops off bits (LSBs albeit) each time the volume is reduced. They say that it has no effect on the sound but I'm a skeptic! To overcome this, I use a preamp wherein I can set the dig. vol. control to 100 (which multiplies the music signal by 1, i.e. has no effect) & then use the preamp vol cntrl to adjust the loudness level.
If you lose it @ the source, you are never going to get it back downstream!
Anyway, my personal opinion, FWIW.