Well, the screws of my Wadia are a bit worn so I might have to replace them, but I will see what I can do. But I need a special screwdriver that I do not have at the moment. I can post a picture of my set up.

Sonik

Tanx guys. We all be waiting for some audio nudities.
Btw, Scott i'd like to see also some pics of you ESD dac.
IMHO there's nothing wrong with "old" DACs, their analog output stages are another matter: cheap op-amps, wimpy power supplies, and the like. Much of the improvement in sound that you get with an outboard DAC may be due to the DAC's better analog output stage.

I had the pleasure of listening to "the system" Since I have last listened to Scott's system it was last spring when we did our "ar9-vandersteen" shootout. Well at that time my vandersteens kicked his ar9's asses, "of course that is a verrry subjective opinion"

Anyway, Scott has completely re-vamped his system, I believe the only pieces that remain are his AR9's, Kenwood CDP, and his DAC. and I will say WOW, WOW, WOW.

I know this is suposed to be about the Wadia, I'm gettin to that. We had about an hour fore some critical listening, Scott did the A-B switching between the wadia and the kenwood, the sound comparison was almost, almost exactly the same, switching between the kenny and wadia, but there was a very very slight difference that I cant articulate into words as to how the wadia sounded better, but the difference was ever so slight.

So, the same day, we went back to my place and hooked up one of scott's old denon dcd 1500II cdp "cause it has an optical out" and my $34 toshiba dvd/cdp has an coax out. which we hooked both cdp's up to my entech dac. I no, I no this thread is not about my system, but hear me out.

We did the old A-B switching back between both cdp's and guess what, they both sounded almost IDENTICAL, except that the denon had a very, very, very subtle difference more apparent when there was one or two elements going on in the music, like acoustic riff, or strings, anyway the denon had a very, very slight edge in refinement, which I would take either cdp at this point.

Now back to the wadia, so the question that I have is that you have this really nice transport "wadia" and a carousel kenwood cdp, and they sound almost identical. and the same goes for my comparison in my system. WHY, why do they sound the same???? There should be a stark difference in sound, period. and there isnt.

my guess is that whatever 1+0 bit that is coming off the lazer and going to the dac, and the sound quality is limited to the quality of the DAC? Does that sound feasable? The comparison on both of our systems is kinda proving my point, maybe.

BTW, I was completely blown away at how good scott's system sounded, the differences from the last time I listened and then again yesterday, was incomparable, just lush, warm, smooth, tight, refined, all the big, good words I can come up with, anyway enough of me babbling, im not much of a writer, or audioafficianado.

elroy

Does anyone know if this is a CDM1 transportmechanism?

i dont know, but i'll pull the case off mine tomorrow and post some pic's.

That would be nice. I can't wait to see your pic's

I'll post some pics of the DACs I have later this week as well.

elroy,

I find your experience interesting.

I wonder what's making the difference? It really is an interesting topic.

I'd imagine disc stability is an issue, possibly quality of connector parts inside the unit (is that optical-out lense glass, or polycarbonate?), ect.

Maybe internal shielding? Any hum or nise getting picked up internally in the units? I've seen the nicer CDPs from Kyocera and Sony with copper shielding and ceramic isolation. Some even with copper walls built around certain chips, transistors and caps- like the busted Sony CDP-102 I just dismantled.

Also, if you -*test*-('")ed using a coaxial out vs digital out, maybe the cable had a small role in it as well. I'm not sure.

Well, I do not know the Kenwood but the Wadia sounds better then my Pioneer DV 747A through the same dac. Maybe this is beause I had a better clock build in my Wadia and had some other mods done. what I do know is that the Wadia performs very good, even compared to more recent cdp's or transports. I had a North Star Design 192 transport and although I did not own them at the same time I know there is not much difference between the two. Also when using the same dac with two different transports don't expect a big difference. At most little differences that will become more apparent after longer listening experiences. If the extra cost is worth this small difference is a personal matter. For me the answer is yes. Also try different dac, because good matching can bring out more differences. I own 4 dac's and I can tell you that the differences between the Wadia and Pioneer different depending on which dac I connect to them.

Here's some CDM1 transport pics' :







Here's a great link with some CDMs transports and lens:

http://www.ersatzteil.justone-schnepel.de/...rgallerie1.html

Of course the sound quality is limited to the quality of the DAC, but not only by that...
IMHO you guys should notice a "little more than a slightly improve" on sound...
So, in the worse case do we must consider a sort of a "problem" in the Wadia transport? Maybe...

A laser problem...?! IMO that will be the case here. You know, laser deteriorates because of usage or age, and lasers were officially less in quality than the lasers produced today. Cleaning is ok - one of the reasons i'd open the other topic.
Maybe with only a good cleaning the Wadia sparkle comes to life?

...or it has reached it's lifespan...?
Maybe you should consider try to find and keep a small stock of used spare lasers just in case. Better to have one now than to discover they are obsolete when you really need one.

BTW, replacing the electrolytics doesn't hurt either.

Here's from Sound Thinking "Links - Digital", an interesting reading:

http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_cdfaq9.html#CDFAQ_009

Can anyone see if it is the CDM1? I am not technical enough to see it myself

It is indeed a CDM1!

Take a good look at the page below, from Marantz/Philips web site:
- It's a Marantz cd94 that uses an identical CDM1 transport has yours.

Marantz cd94

BTW, here's some cdps' with CDM Philips transports :

CDM0:
Philips all old models like CD100, CD200, CD104, CD204, CD304, CD304 MkII
Marantz CD73, CD74, CD84
Cambridge CD1
Revox B225
Only the Philips CD304MkII and probably Marantz CD84 have digital output

CDM1:
Philips CD960, LHH1000 (the one alike Marantz CD12)
Marantz CD94, CD12, CD95
Wadia WT3200

CDM1 Mk2
Philips CD880, CDD882, CD850
Marantz CD80
Cambridge CD3

CDM2
Philips CD650
Marantz CD65/75
Cambridge CD2

I think the Arcam 170.2 is a CDM1 Mk2, and I am not sure about the Marantz CD85...

Are you sure about the list you included? Some of the players you listed under CDM0 are also listed having a CDM1 on the internet.

Bye the way, I decided to buy the EAD 7000 DAC.

No, i'm not.
But, i'm pretty sure about your Wadia transport.