Wadia 321 DAC, anyone have any experience with it?


Wadia Transport
Exogal Comet DAC (recently replaced Wadia DAC)
Cary SA280 V12R
Classe Monoblocks (600 watts)
Infinity Epsilon speaker system (recent crossover upgrades)
Velodyne SMS (bass mgmt for Epsilon woofers)
Velodyne DD 18 subwoofer
Cardas Golden Cross interconnects/cables
wscdvm93
For future reference. I picked one up for $1500 from my local dealer and I am pretty happy with it. I upgraded from a peachtree iDAC (which was a decent implementation of a Sabre). I got it primarily because of the price and the reviews about the "warm characteristics" as I am running class D amplification. Like the reviews say, it has a nice analog presentation. Tank like construction. I think one review stated the USB was not as good as the other inputs. I only use Coax for CD and a W4S moded Sonos player. It makes my cheapo Sony DVD/CD player sound great. I normally run a Rogue pre but its down until I get knew tubes. So it was nice to be able just to bypass the pre and go balance strait to my amp. I like the sound of the pre in the mix but the Wadia still sounds really good without it. I think the price on these came down cause Wadi came out with DSD support on the new model (321i). So if you don’t need DSD it’s a good deal. And if your just streaming or playing files and want to get rid of a component (preamp) I think it’s an excellent deal especially if your amp has balanced inputs. The one knock is the footprint. I like the auto sleep mode as well.  My neighbor came over and listened to it a promptly went a purchased one,lol.
I just bought one new off Agon for $1,000, a great deal. I compared it to the Bel Canto Dac 3 and NAD M51. It bested the Bel Canto in total output, finesse, and certainly bass. The NAD was really close but I preferred the warmer sound of the Wadia on my higher efficiency speakers.
The case is huge for a DAC and almost too big for normal shelves depth-wise.

On the flip side, most dacs are crammed into very small chassis, so it's really a personal preference. The DAC delivers as good or better performances than almost anything out there.

It is very rich and analog sounding. However, I also have an Audio-Gd 7 DAC, which is more hifi sounding and may appeal to some types of audiophiles.

As mentioned previously, i also have an NADm51 and have owned numerous other Class A Dacs. FWIW, the only ones I personally would upgrade to would be DCS, Empirical Audio, MSB and ARC Ref. It's not a steal, but very economical way to get reference level performance.
I have to say the casework on that DAC is spectacular for the price it sells. The inside looks pretty sparse....
There's a review here:

http://www.absolutesounds.com/pdf/main/press/HFN_Wadia32_June2015.pdf

IMO the lack of many reviews probably supports the conclusion drawn by the reviewer which I interpret as Ok, but nothing too special.
Thanks. I ended up going with the Exogal Comet as it is hard to find any reviews about the 321; just comments about its appearance which is quite impressive. Exogal is a newer manufacturer started by original Wadia engineers who left Fine Sounds just before the 321. Couldn't be happier with the Comet but would love to hear the 321.
I have one and it's about as good a dac as I've heard, especially for the price.

It's in the same league as all the reference dacs selling for 2-10 times as much. It's also a clear step up from the log jam at the $2k price tag.

The NAD M51 can get fairly close to it's performance for less money, but not much else I've heard.