New Wadia 381i vs Puccini

..thought i had to clarify "friendly": It is an absolutely clear window, with maybe the exception of piano initial attacks. no showoff with "nice" sounds, albeit they will be there if on record.

..sorry for not getting back earlier, lack of leisure!

Kamil: I cannot judge yet usb vs. cd/sacd, this is mostly due to the fact that my usb material is my own music, so naturally i always consider it "better" than from disc, but objectively, I cannot vouch for it. To be honest, I am much slower with detecting differences that matter than other people.
Still, I consider the Wadia as outstanding (congrats MSW1), and I could imagine, that with the GNS mods you can reduce the difference of 7 to 5 to 381 considerably. For my sake i wish, not too much.

i own the 781i with usb and gns mods... I consider it reference in its true sense. I own a bow zz8, which i love, and have heard extensively a dcs p8, which i didn't.
so only limited knowledge, but good gear.

the wadia is not friendly, but you can use it and it shows you a fantastic display of music - being a musician, i cannot call gear "musical" ;-)
if anything this wadia has a slight beautified piano attack, but it seems so clear nevertheless.

have not heard puccini, nor ayre.
fwiw.. i can only recommend to contact GNSC. Truly, just ask them - no affiliation whatsoever.