Vx700: out here in the other side of the pond - i can say i was among the very few who tried the Wadia Direct Link approach BACK IN THE EARLY 90s when the very first Wadia entered the shores of the Philippines.
I used the one-box Wadia 6 direct to various SS amps: Threshold Stasis, White Audio Lab, "another amp of Threshold DNA" @ bi-amp configuration, and finally via MF XA-200 + XA-50 BI-AMP - it was only with the WAL that the performance was crap BUT surprisingly, it was with the Musical Fidelity combo that the system gave it's best in my system.
I would still go for the same set had my W6 not died in 2004. I was ready to get a W17 to insert my turntable+phonostage and use the W6 as control BUT it did not have an input (and then it died a natural death).
Going without pre-amp has benefits but is not for everyone, and definitely, not for the casual testers or tweakers - no sir - you gotta decide that it is what you want to do because if you consider system synergy as important, with a Wadia Direct Connect, synergy IS AN ABSOLUTE... and that's not easy.
I would still go that route even if i am currently running an entirely tube system; problem is the Wadias are really very costly - but come to think of it: a 10-year lifespan for the lens on the W6 is not bad! not bad, really :-)
Test, listen, listen, listen.
no short-cuts.
Best wishes.
.e.
I used the one-box Wadia 6 direct to various SS amps: Threshold Stasis, White Audio Lab, "another amp of Threshold DNA" @ bi-amp configuration, and finally via MF XA-200 + XA-50 BI-AMP - it was only with the WAL that the performance was crap BUT surprisingly, it was with the Musical Fidelity combo that the system gave it's best in my system.
I would still go for the same set had my W6 not died in 2004. I was ready to get a W17 to insert my turntable+phonostage and use the W6 as control BUT it did not have an input (and then it died a natural death).
Going without pre-amp has benefits but is not for everyone, and definitely, not for the casual testers or tweakers - no sir - you gotta decide that it is what you want to do because if you consider system synergy as important, with a Wadia Direct Connect, synergy IS AN ABSOLUTE... and that's not easy.
I would still go that route even if i am currently running an entirely tube system; problem is the Wadias are really very costly - but come to think of it: a 10-year lifespan for the lens on the W6 is not bad! not bad, really :-)
Test, listen, listen, listen.
no short-cuts.
Best wishes.
.e.