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Wadia 302 Direct to amp or via pre-amp

Wadia recommends that my 302 sounds best when connect to the amp and further recommends that its output be adjusted so that on its output scale of 1 to 100 it output should be in the top third of its range (67 or higher) and if it so regularily fall lower than 50 you should increase the level of its varible output control.

Wadia go on to recommend that when connected to a pre-amp you should run the metered out put level at 99(max) for best performance.

What I can understand, if 99 is the best when using a pre-amp, wouldn't 67+ be a degredation direct into an amp?

If I wanted to do an A/B comparison and assuming that my CDP's meter said 75 wouldn't I get a truer comparison of the quality of the sound by making it the same when I processed it thru a pre-amp.

I'm having a hard time understanding Wadia's position on this. Help......
newbee

Showing 1 response by aoliviero

aoliviero
271 posts
 
Newbee,

The volume in a Wadia (at least my 861SE)can be manipulated in two ways:

1) Digital Volume Control (1-100). By setting to 100, you have essentially bypassed the Digital Volume Control. If you use a preamp, you should set the DVC to 100. Do not use 99. In my system, I can hear dramatic differences between 99 and 100.

2) Dip Switches/attenuators. If at the 100 setting the volume is too low or high for a target preamp volume position, set the dip switches inside the cdp to increae or attenuate the signal. This is done in the analog domain so is not as detrimental. If using a preamp, don't use the DVC to adjust the volume.

Running direct vs through a preamp has pro's and con's and there are many Wadia threads that go into this.
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