wadia making mistake?

Nsgarch - Not only is there a consensus that Steve Huntley does phenomenol rework on ARC and Wadia gear, but this last week I was able to witness his magic on just the first pass of him tweaking my Manley Ref DAC. It's not just an issue of replacing one part with another, but rather to know what type and possible value-change of a component to use. And not only was he able to identify what to change when he first popped the cover on the unit, but the results were absolutely stunning with just a handful of changes. It says much about the stock Manley unit but it says as much about Steve when he could bring on so much improvement with a little bit of effort. Now that's talent.

Compared to his Wadia DAC (actually, 270SE/27 combo), the stock Manley did very well in the mids but fell quite short at the extremes. But after the first round of mods, there was extension and openness on the top that I truly never would have thought possible with this unit. To get even half of the impreovements that Steve achieved would have been wonderful. Other than more definition in the bass with the Wadia, the modified Manley was right there and in fact excelled in many areas.

Next week when Steve completes the other half of the rework, if he can bring on the same degree of extension in the low-end, I will have a unit that performs at the level of all the DAC-of-the-month club models that are getting all the praise today. With this kind of performance, I am content to stay with redbook CDs. And I too am an analog guy which is why I like the Manley so much.

Until Steve's update, I was about to let go of the Manley and seek a "modern" model. And Steve's Virtual Dynamics PC did not allow the Manley to do its magic. Fortunately the Purist Dominus PC came to the rescue or this too could have been the end of the Manley. The Wadia is a nice setup but ohhhhhhhhhhh man, the updated Manley with the Dominus. Thanks a million Steve.

John

i don't think that it's about making a mistake @ Wadia by offering SACDs in their latest models. Their hand was "forced" so to say: TEAC has stopped making redbook only VRDS transports. They decided to make multiformat transports using some of their new technology. It's called the VRDS-Neo with the "Neo" having a dual meaning - Neo as in new & Neo because it uses Neodymium magnets.
Wadia had decided long ago that these VRDS transports were one of the keys to good sound & since they wanted to keep using VRDS transports, they had no choice but to offer multi-format players.
The DigiMaster algorithm has been getting updates regularly - if you look thru an 860 manual & an 861 manual, if I remember correctly, there is diff in version. However, there are only minor tweaks as the algorithm is pretty solid & completely debugged. It also is to Wadia's liking so they are not going to mess w/ it merely to update it for updating's sake.

Ok, I'll take the bite. I Have a Wadia 850 cd player and would like to hear from anyone who own a Wadia 850 and has had Steve do upgrades on their Wadia 850.
BTW, I'll take any well recorded cd that was recorded on good analogue equipment any day over those recorded on most digital machines to include what I have heard on some sacd
players

The new Wadia players DO NOT use VRDS-Neo transport mechanisms. What basicly happend, was that Teac priced-out Wadia from using it. They just wanted too much for them, so Wadia had to start using different (i.e. - non Teac)drive.

hello all ,i must say some great answers on wadia and sacd. I fill that there is so much more that can be obtained through red book mode with more R/D that to put to much effort into sacd when this format is technically [dead in the water] is just a waste ... steve huntley must be doing something right or i believe his backing concerning his expertise in gnsc modifications would not even be an issue ... bombaywalla you hit the nail on the head concerning wadias step into sacd waters... thanks...