I owned the 25 (mated to a Denon DCD-1520 as transport) for
about a year before switching to the one-box 860 back in
late '97. At the time Wadia (both marketing and engineering
reps that I spoke to while considering the switch) felt the
860 was essentially the 20 transport and the 25 dac in a
single box and gave up only a very little bit to the
seperates in terms of overall performance.
The 25 is a fabulous dac. As Samujohn indicated, the last
adjective I would use to describe the Wadia "house sound" is
"sterile." Dynamic with a front-of-hall perspective is the
way I usually describe the Wadia sound.
One question though...
The 25 certainly can't decode a DSD data stream. Does the
Sony SCD-777es downconvert SACD to one of either 44.1khz or
48khz sampling rates on the digital out? Is the digital out
operational at all when playing an SACD?
about a year before switching to the one-box 860 back in
late '97. At the time Wadia (both marketing and engineering
reps that I spoke to while considering the switch) felt the
860 was essentially the 20 transport and the 25 dac in a
single box and gave up only a very little bit to the
seperates in terms of overall performance.
The 25 is a fabulous dac. As Samujohn indicated, the last
adjective I would use to describe the Wadia "house sound" is
"sterile." Dynamic with a front-of-hall perspective is the
way I usually describe the Wadia sound.
One question though...
The 25 certainly can't decode a DSD data stream. Does the
Sony SCD-777es downconvert SACD to one of either 44.1khz or
48khz sampling rates on the digital out? Is the digital out
operational at all when playing an SACD?