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Linn vs. Wadia

I was just checking out the specs on the Linn Ikemi and Wadia 830. The head-to-head comparison of the specs are quite interesting... MSRP Price: Ikemi $3500, Wadia $3250-$4000 depending on options Transport: Ikemi - proprietary design from the $20k Sondek CD12 (regarded as best CD player in the world). Hundreds of thousands went into R&D. Constructed from machined aluminum. Value of transport alone is around $2k since the Ikemi transport doubles the price of the Genki, which is essentially the same player (chassis, DAC and power supply). Wadia - dipped into the Pioneer parts bin and modified(?) the transport that originally went into sub $1k mass-market Pioneer machines. Value of transport around $200? DAC/Digital filter: Ikemi - less sophisticated variation of the Sondek, but still a proprietary 24k delta sigma design that decodes HDCD beautifully. Wadia - no HDCD decoding, because you get Digimaster (whoopie), DAC is from the same parts bin as everyone else. Chassis: Linn - same dated but functional box as their lesser models. Wadia - not much better until you move up to the 850/860. Preamp: Linn - have to use preamp or integrated, like you are supposed to in hi-end. Wadia - digitally shreds the sound up like the volume control on my personal computer. Sound: I have not heard either so I won't comment. Guess which player I'm expecting to give better sound? :) Where's the beef? I'm rather appalled that a "leader" in digital audio technology like Wadia hasn't in their over 10 year history even bothered to develop a transport that pushes the state of the art. So where are all the R&D bucks supposed to be going? I always thought that Wadia was like a pure bred Ferrari, but now I find that this "Ferrari" has a Honda engine and a Ford transmission!
hifinut604
stang500hpaol
51 posts
 
i wish all the audio nuts me included that put feeback would really know what they are talking about. i have listened to cd players for 2 years before buying one from $700 to $15,000. there is no question that the best cd player is the one that fits your ears and system matching. i fortunally have found my cd player which is the wadia 860 which is detailed clean has good imaging and sound staging. i had a hdcd player and though it sounded great the the hdcd however i was wrong the wadia player made then come alive and sounding 10 times better. i tested them side by side. stop reading all the junk in the magazine. these guys get payed for the junk they write. listed with your own equptment. i really believe if you spend well over $5 grand for a cd player if it doesnt sing. send it back fellow wadia owner for life.
jla
231 posts
 
I absolutely agree w/ Stang500hpaol. I too have owned a HDCD player (Classe CDP.5) and when I upgraded to a Wadia 850 everything came alive. Another fellow Wadia owner for life.
stang500hpaol
51 posts
 
hi jla these guys that read all the junk are just listening to someone else. hey i admit when i first got into audio i knew nothing. so i read everything. got burnt when i bought some audio components from listenig to some articals hey some are good but yu just have to listed to the system in person and do an a/b comparison. my hdcds play so good with my wadia i fliped out. it felt like the room opened up with speakers all around me. any wadia player is good. hey if you want to spend 15,000 for about 5% better sound quality go right ahead. me ill spend less get the same sound quality and buy better cables or some more cds. there are so many players on the market its sick. i just listeded to the new sacd player from sony. they just droped the price from orignally 5,000 to 3,500 now crutchfields is selling it for 2,499. i guess there is another dead format. my cds sounded better on my wadia then the sacd from sony and they dont even have balanced interconnects. just rca jacks. some high end piece of equiptment. ha.
hifinut604 OP
54 posts
 
For the record, I don't subscribe to audio mags. They are mostly advertising propaganda and I only flip through them in the newsstands to get the scoop on new products coming out and check out the specs and all I am doing is stating the facts. If you guys claim that Wadia gives the best sound in your system, and you want to bow down to your 50lb shiny machined aluminum box, it's your money and your call. I'm sure they have a nice markup and profit margin since the cost of the parts they put in are so cheap and they don't have much R&D costs. The R&D is all picked up by Teac which has the same transport as the 850/860 (since they developed and built it!). Teac sells their own high end CD players for only $3k. Teac sells transports to Wadia at a marked up price, who then put it in a nicer box and add some tweaks here and there and then further mark up the price for the final consumer. I can't believe Wadia would go out of business unless it's the fact that fewer and fewer audio lovers are being fooled by the fancy box. I'll definitely give it an audition when I'm ready to upgrade, but I'm blindfolding myself so I don't get sold by the shiny metal box!
underwoodwally
60 posts
 
Having been in the audio biz for over twenty years and not owning either of these products I would make the following comments:1)Pioneer is a very large company and if the transport is only $200 it is because of their giant build quantities. If they were Linns size that same transport would probably cost $500-$750. 2) Pioneer and Teac probably spent as much if not much more on the R&D of their respective transports than Linn. 3)Wadia's experise has always been in the Digital to Analog domain which is where the majority of the audible difference in Digital comes from if you start with a reasonably high quality transport. All 3 of these companies have a reasonably good transport, irrespective of the cost price. 4) In the end its all about sound and I have heard great things about both Linn and Wadia. Finally, it seems to be pointless to talk about the sound quality and value of these two highly regared products and companies until you have put both units into your own system and listened!!
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