Wadia 861 Owners...

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.

Gents, thanks so much for the thoughtful input. Obviously, system synergy is the bottom line and the variety of responses underscore the need for me to do some serious personal auditioning (oh, damn). It's encouraging to see that the 861 is successfully employed in such diverse systems. I'm attracted to the simplicity of running direct but, ultimately, if the sound is improved by the presence of an excellent pre- then that's the way I'll go. Consensus, so far, suggests that I head into tube territory.

I purchased the 27i/270 to go direct into SS monoblocks and fell in love. Lately tried running through a tube preamp into SS monoblocks and even enjoy it more. Might be backwards using a high end digital extraction to be processed by tubes and amplified by SS but the sound gives the answer.

Chrysler, may I call you Mopar?, I've employed a tubed preamp/SS amp combo for five years (with Meridian front ends) and this has been a very good combo. And it may be that I end up upgrading along that route. My feeling is, after dropping $7 or 8K on a front end, I want to maximize its value. What monoblocks and preamp are you using?

Islandear,

Mopar works for me. I am running the Wadia 27i/270 through a Mcintosh C2200 (mullard 10m's) and into Mcintosh 1201's. Speakers are Thiel CS6. The Wadia direct was great but I was able to lay back the soundstage of the Thiel's by using the tube preamp and swapping around the tubes. I am using the bypass so only the tubes are affecting the Wadia signal. The result is quite amazing.