the Wadia WT3200 arrived yesterday, i was at work so unpacking and set up waited until today. its a nice looking piece, here's some of another unit http://www.sound-thinking.org/index.php?sh...indpost&p=40162, and packs quite a nice heft. its got two outputs, an optical toslink and a funky non-RCA coax that is of no use to me at this point. hooked it up with a basic toslink cable and i was in business. on first listen it sounded very good. surprising though because it sounded very much like the Kenwood dvd player it replaced. so much so that i hooked the Kenwood up via a digital coax to see how they compared side by side. in this configuration both units were feeding into the EAD dac, allowing me to switch between the sources with the push of a button.

i listened to three different cd's that, in addition to having copies of, i am very familiar with. it took only three because i was convinced of my conclusions well before the third disk, but i put it on anyway just to humor myself. what i heard was an absolute nil margin between the two players, there was no doubt, this was an easy draw to call. i'm a bit puzzled here, the rep on the Kenwood is very good cd playback, but the Wadia is supposed to be a cut above. i wasnt expecting a revelation, but i was expecting a noticeable improvement, i got neither. the draw is even more puzzling as i've been able to discern differences between players without much trouble. perhaps i'm being limited with the botl toslink cable? maybe, when i struck the deal for the Wadia, in anticipation i orderd a fairly razzu Wireworld toslink (SuperNova 5+) from The Cable Company. this is by all accounts a very capable cable, so we'll see when it gets here if the Wadia fares any better. it will be a tougher -*test*-('") since i will have to switch the cable between the players, but i am confident i will be able to spot any differences with a fair amount of accuracy. the jury is still out.

Verrrrrrrrrrry interestingggggggg......

My advice?

Try the wadia with a good RCA interconnect.

Back in those days Toslinks were not highly regarded upon, so most manufacturers just put them there for marketing reasons. I´d venture to say the Wadia´s optical output is nothing to write home about.

I´m really curious to read your findings with the RCA output, for this is where Wadia put their money on.

Jorge

well i guess it does help to read the manual ... in addition to the toslink and the funky coax (turns out its a BNC instead of RCA connection), its got a third output that i didnt notice before, an ST fiber optical.

so now what do i do? when i cut the deal for this transport, no cables were included, i didnt think i needed any so i didnt ask. the EAD dac has an ST connection and i have looked for these cables now and again, i havent found any to date. i decided to call The Cable Company and see if they had any suggestions. turns out that, due to the technology of the time, the toslink would be the worst option to use with this transport (apparently todays toslink technology is not lacking), and i can get a true 75 ohm cable in exchange for the toslink cable i ordered. they are sending me a Stereovox XV2, it uses BNC termination with RCA adapters, all i need to do is remove an RCA connector (they unscrew) from one end and i'll be in business. when i receive the Wireworld toslink, i just return it unopened. my hope is renewed!

IMHO if you have an excellent transport, you need an excellent cable. With a transport like the Wadia every little thing matters. ...but some of the "little things" are expensive...Like the Nordost Silver Shadow...
Btw, with what amp did you listen the Wadia?

bi-amping with a Yamaha B-2x and a Rotel RB-970BX.

I've been told the preferred cable, that glass one, was outstanding. The problem? The glass is easily broken when the cable gets bent and kinked. Therefore, the technology was good, but flawed in matters of durability.

not only that, but the cheapest i've found is over $400.

Once you start climbing the ladder to reach hi-end you have spend more money in all hi-fi chain...sometimes it takes a lifetime to reach Nirvana...
Are using the low end with the Yamaha B2X and the high end with Rotel ?

yep.