Wadia direct into amp, Sound a bit too lean??

Your sound is anaemic because you're starving your amp. Up the voltage (and set the gain on the Rowland on 26db if you;re not there already). OK, so the volume won't go over 90... but, at least you'll get to judge the combination by the actual sound the thing produces -- not by lack of energy.

Ch5588, I'm curious where you heard that an output voltage of 1.0 V is best for balanced interconnects? I too have a Wadia 861se and am running balanced into a Bat vk5i preamp and then balanced into a Rowland 302. I contacted Wadia today because of this thread. They emailed the instructions for adjusting the output voltage. The thing is, in the instructions, it says that the output voltage can be adjusted for 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.13*, and 4.25 Vrms. (*= factory setting) I asked the customer service person about 1.0 Vrms for balanced. He had never heard of that, but said that he didn't know everything about the unit. Did you try your unit at the 2.13 setting? I did try my Wadia directly driving my Rowland 302 amp and my listening level was about 85-90. I think that my unit is at the factory 2.13 Vrms setting. I preferred the sound of the Bat preamp included in the audio chain. It gives a fuller (better body/texture), more musical sound, than the stand alone Wadia. Although, the Wadia by itself was slightly clearer. Stan

Hi Stan,
The voltage setting for my Wadia is 0.5vrms, and I'm using Balanced outputs which doubles up to 1.0vrms (I think I found this info in Audio Asylum). I can only keep my volume level above 85 with this setting to get the maximum resolution from its digital based volume control. In other words, this setting is my only choice. Do you prefer Wadia with a preamp or without?

Jerry

Hi Jerry, At this point, I prefer the Wadia with a preamp; however, I'm still breaking in my amp, which was a demo. The Rowland 302 had 100 playing hours on it, but then sat at the dealers for 6 months without being used. I've put about 60-70 hours on it so far. I've heard that there's about 300 hours of breakin. What's your experience with the Jeff Rowland 302? Mine sounds better after several hours of play, but it still has a long way to go, considering what I've heard about the amp when it's broken in. Stan

Two things, I don't think Wadia doubles the voltage into balanced IC. Also it's possible to run with a RDP-1 even though it's not a transport and dac. Just use the digital out and in. Wadia is built for this purpose considering the clocklinked I/O