CAT JL-3 Sig Mk2s direct from Wadia 781i?

If you are not playing vinyl, you can fine-tune most Wadias to work directly with your amp. The issue is that most DACs and CD players make **way** too much output voltage, causing the user to run low volume control settings. On a lot of DACs, this is a problem because the built-in volume control will cause a loss of resolution at the lower settings.

With most Wadias there are jumper switches (refer to the owner's manual) that allow you to reduce the output of the unit so you can get around this issue to a certain extent. With Wadias there is a noticable reduction in resolution when you run the volume below '85'; so in most cases you want to set the jumper switches for the lowest output that the unit can make. This will allow you to run higher volume control settings, and the results can be quite good.

BTW this issue with DACs is an argument for a quality preamp as most preamps have better volume controls than any digital unit with a digital volume control. In such a case you would run the DAC at full volume and the preamp would then be controlling the gain.

I have no idea why DAC/CD manufacturers insist on higher than standard outputs (the standard for AUX level inputs is one Volt); even if you run a passive volume control such high DAC outputs is completely misguided and interferes with your ability to get the best performance out of the setup- that's more than you need to clip almost any amplifier made!

fwiw, I owned the CAT Ultimate preamp, a wadia 301 with reference GNSC mods and a Joule preamp. I preferred the 301 with a preamp. I did not care for the 301 with the Joule preamp. The wadia and CAT Ultimate, for me, were an excellent match. Matched with a remote controlled preamp, I liked it with a CJ 16LS2 and a Thor mk1000. Good luck, Jeff

Atmasphere,

You have shown a very deep understanding of the subject,I am most impressed

I have mentioned it in the past , and fully concur with your observations.Bravo.

You will need a preamp. I tried the Wadia's volume control a few times with the 581ise and it does benefit from a good preamp.

I think it's important to clarify the reason that Wadia allows for higher output level settings than the CD standard. They want their DAC's and CD players to be able to feed a very wide variety of amplifiers on the market directly. While it's true that MOST amplifiers require less than 1 volt to reach rated output, it's certainly not the case that all amplifiers are that way. We've run across amplifiers that require almost 3 volts input level to reach their rated output. So I can say that we have dozens of clients who use the full 4.5 volt setting on their Wadia players. The nice thing about the Wadia volume control design though is that you can set that maximum level to suit your particular systems efficiency. There are many people that would be forced to use a pre-amp if the Wadia players had just one or two volts output.

We feel you can get very musical results going direct...no doubt a really good pre-amp can be beneficial in some systems. There are trade-offs in my opinion and each person must weigh their own sonic priorities...and of course budget.