Wadia 861 or keep Electrocompaniet mk2

I used to run direct and it was fantastic- so much speed and transparency! I have used a number of players and have listened to nearly every player that has a built in volume control. From my experience the Audio Aero Capitole mkII is king when it comes to running direct- its so musical you can listen for hours and hours on end with no fatigue. I sometimes wish I still had it- yup they are that good! The problem with wadia and accuphase is the digital volume control tends to drop bits, which ultimately is little parts of the music- its not noticeable when you've grown accustomed to listening that way(I used to use accuphase digital and thought it was great, until I heard a good analog volume control implemented) but if you get a chance to audition an analog based volume control in your system you will not believe what you were missing! All of that being said the electrocompaniet and BAT combo probably sounds pretty good- body and texture galore. You may be ahead financially to make this move and it may be more to your liking as well, you should try and arrange an audition.

You have a world class pre-amp, and IMO have no need to consider bypassing it. In my experience, doing so will cause you to lose dynamics, and, in the case of the WADIA, lose resolution as well as reduced volume comes at the expense of dropping bits. We keep yearning for more resolution ,,, SACD ,,, DVD-A ,,, Upsamplers ,,, etc - so I do not understand Wadia's scheme at all.

stay with the electro/bat

...within the limits explained in the manual.

If you keep the volume control in the range where it has full resolution (approx. 65-100), it is really the best solution. It adds _no_ distortion, unlike an analog pot. which add a bit at all volumes.

So if you can live with only a quite narrow window of volume-adjustment, Wadia's implementation of volume control is superior. If you need to be able to play both very loud and close to silence, then it wont work for you.

For me it works. Critical listening is done from 70 and up, and when played at lower volumes, it's just for background music where I dont care about the reduction in resolution.

Go with the Wadia. I like BAT products and owned a VK50se a couple years back with a ML CDP and Wadia 850, but it is nowhere near as transparant or dynamic as a stand alone Wadia product. This comparison was with an 850 too mind you which is a step down from the current 861 player your looking at. As for the digital resolution. If you like to listen to music at low levels your ears arent going to pick up any theoretical loss of "resolution" regardless. I dont know why some people even bring up that fact as its pretty useless.