Wadia vs. Audiomeca

I do like my Wadia very much, but I keep reading about the latest advances in digital and wonder what I'm missing. A couple years ago, it was Audiomeca, Audio Aero and Electrocompaniet. Now it's EMM and Reimyo. I realize the reviews are a often lot of unwarranted hype, but at some point, I'm going to try something else. I would like a greater sense of air and smoothness, but what I have now is really good. I hate to make trade-offs. When I upgrade, I don't want to give up the bass for something else. I want everyhting I've got, and then some. Not always easy, especially if you are not buying new (and can't use a dealer's showroom).
The other thing about the Wadia is that I've been running without a pre-amp. Now that I'm looking at preamps, I realize they have very distinctive personalities, and so far, it sems like you always lose something, even if you gain something elswe, when you add a preamp.

Honest1, if you can afford it try some hi-end paassive xformer like the Placette Audio passive preamp. There are others more reasonably priced like the Bent Audio that uses TX102 xformers, the Antique Sound Labs passive preamp, the recently S'phile reviewed Sonic Euphoria, etc. If a passive works in your system, it could be transparent?

Just went to a USB DAC using an eight...yes, 8-year old PC with a 200gb HD, as a source.

For the convenience of instantly selecting 1 of 4,500 tracks, I would have been happy if my Wadia had sonically remained king, but alas it was dethroned.

The train has left the station, and a slight light is seen at the end of the tunnel. One should think about jumping on the new train before being left with an expensive ticket, that can’t be parleyed for a ticket on the new train.

I dont know about parlayed, all I got was a lousy corn dog fer my ticket. Did I miss the free handout or somethin'

Honest1: Another possibility for you might be a hybrid integrated amp, i.e. one that combines a tube preamp stage with solid state output stage. In my experience this arrangement smooths out the CD sound without adding as much color as a separate active preamp, or without loosing some dynamics in the case of certain passive preamps. In any case, I do think that Wadia gear sounds a bit better through some kind of preamp.