To my ears, I preferred the sonics of the Wadia 861 to the Electrocompaniet DAC. The DAC throws a huge sounstage and has great bass but did not sound as real in the vocals as the Wadia. It was close and I could live with either one. For transports, I used a Sony SCD-777ES, Audiomeca Mephisto II.X and a modified Shanling. The Wadia was warm, refined, had black background, good soundstage and details. The Wadia was very easy to listen to also and you can run it direct without a preamp.
Hope this was helpful.
Hope this was helpful.