Wadia ?

agree that Wadia has had 1 too many financial hiccups that would give its client base a scare & would want them to run elsewhere w/ their money.
I understand that in the latest financial shuffle that took place in the latter half of 2005 the management team that was running Wadia's day-day operation (namely John Schaeffer & his colleagues) have bought out the company from the venture capitalists that used to own the company ever since they took it over from Don Wadia Moses the original founder. I believe that this move is much better for Wadia now as the people who own the company are the ones who used to live & die by it anyway & were the ones who designed & manuf & sold the products anyway. So, it appears that the people who own the company are the ones that believe in it.
It's like opening a restaurant where the owner is the head chef - you know that the food quality will remain superb.
Wadia service can be better - agree. However, their product more than makes up for their mediocre service.
Also, as suggested by many others, contact Steve Huntley @ GNSC. He often has the ability to fix a wider range of Wadias than the manuf owing to his stash of parts for prev models. No guarantee that he will fix your Wadia but very much worth a try to contact him. Plus, he is a super guy to deal w/.
Is the 581 a great product? if their past products serve as any history, then the 581 will also follow suit. However, see if you can audition it before you buy. I'd advise this even if you wanted to buy some other CDP that was equally pricey.
And, don't listen to these Wadia nay-sayers! They don't like Wadia for reasons - some fickle & some less fickle - doesn't mean that you have to get on their bandwagon. you'll find as many nay-sayers as ya-sayers for this brand. Make your own INFORMED choice.

Actually guys, there is no magic parts stash at GNSC sorry to say. We stock whatever we possibly can to support the units we have modified but the day comes with all custom built gear that it can no longer be supported. If Wadia can't fix it I'm sure we can't either. We have a strong commitment to support units we modified for as long as we possibly can, (thats why we turn away far more gear than we take in) but we don't have a bottomless pit of parts so we pretty much only service units we've modded...those clients come first always.

I've just got a digital input upgrade on my 830, they also fixed the transport which my local repair shop couldn't. Fast turn around time.

I see no reason to not stick with Wadia, I haven't heard of anything for less money and comparable sound than my 830 that is an all in one transport/dac/preamp upsampling cd player; if there is something, it would be good to know.

Bombaywalla,
Thanks for your measured comments. I have to say the 16 had been a joy to listen to, so I will exlopre the Wadia option.

Gnsc,
Steve, I just sent you a mail regarding my 'situation'. Please let me your your thoughts. Thanks!

Ledoux, Sorry to hear your having trouble with Wadia, but your problems are all too familiar. I had my dealer send them my 830 for a repair, and after they had it for two months, I called them up and they had no idea what I was talking about. My dealer finally got them to find my unit and repair it but it took another month after that for me to get it back. I think Wadia makes a great product, but I wouldn't buy another one due to the company's instability and poor service. Almost everyone says to deal with Great Northern as you can see from the Wadia threads here. Good luck with getting your problem resolved.