Wadia 381i CD player

[admin_exported]

OK, just traded my Audio Research CD5 for the Wadia 381i CD player. One word: beautiful CD playback. Almost makes redbook CD's as good as SACD on high end CD players (5000+ quid). Takes a good time to burn in and warm up. Also got a new MIT rca Magnum MA interlink. So now my Magnum MA cabling is complete (speaker cable, XLR between amps, rca between CD and pre). Like MIT states on their website a synergy is achieved when using cables of the same series throughout the system. Thought it might be a commercial thing but I can tell right now that it's not. All the cables' performances are elevated. The last bit of artificialness in the highs and lows are gone. It's as if I bought a new amp or player (it DOES have a price tag of a cd player or amp), the effect are that obvious. And the rca is still burning in... it can only get better from here.

OK, up to a speaker upgrade now. The cable part is done for now, the next step in the series is way beyond my budget.

Am also testing if bypassing the preamp will sound better. Some people say it does and others not. That would save a lot of money.

 

[Anonymous]

First impressions:

Wadia 381i (source and preamp Wadia 381i) vs Spectral 30-SL (source:
Wadia 381i)

poweramp used: Spectral DMA-250

Results so far:

Transparency: Wadia, subtle

Resolution: Wadia, subtle

Timbres: Spectral

True to source: Wadia, less colouration, wether it sounds better depends
on preference. i.e. female vocals lose a shiny glowiness with the Wadia
as a pre, but do sound more like their real voice.

Soundstage: Spectral, Spectral, Spectral. By a wide margin.

As you can see it's pretty evenly matched. I will post more of my
findings later on.

 

[MattSPL]

Good to hear your enjoying the new cd player and cables.
Ive always liked Wadia players myself.

Are you using upgraded mains cables in your system or Audio grade fuses?

 

[Anonymous]

MattSPL:Good to hear your enjoying the new cd player and cables.
Ive always liked Wadia players myself.

Are you using upgraded mains cables in your system or Audio grade fuses?

Yes I'm using upgraded mains by wireworld and MIT. Thinking of changing al my mains to Shunyata though, they're really good at power.

Not yet using audio grade fuses as I'm moving to a new house next year and I will get the electricity treated over there. The way my dealer does it is very special and kind of costly so I'll wait a bit. The results are staggering though.

 

[MattSPL]

Most equipment has a fuse at the Ac inlet, either accessible from the outside in a little drawer, or sometimes inside the equipment beside the Ac inlet. They are generally 5x20mm.

I changed all mine to Hifi Tuning Silver star fuses. Im waiting on 1 in the post for my new pre amp.

They make a great improvement akin to a high end power cord upgrade.

Ive found Ps audio's Xtreme premier sc power cords to be the best ive heard at any price.
They have been replaced by the Ac-12 but both can still be had for under £300 on ebay if you look around. The premier sc retailed for well over 1k when released.

The downside, or upside, depending on how you look at it, is that they only come with U.S plugs on them.
This has the advantage of having no fuse in the plug for better sound.
But you will have to buy and install a U.S socket to plug them into. I have an Isoclean audio grade socket.