With Wadia, pre-amp or no pre-amp

Thanks so much Wehamiltion for the great information on the 301!!!

I own the 860x for more than a year now, and have used it with and without pre-amp. My pre-amp was a BAT Vk-40, the BAT sounds Beautiful! but let me tell you when I tried my Wadia 860x Direct to my amps Oh man, incredible! Details,Details. I play lot of different flavor like smooth jazz, vocal jazz, Hip-Hop, Latin(jazz, salsa, merengue) oh yeah! you got to tried Paquito D' Rivera Tropicana Nights SACD format, Stunning!. I did match the output voltage of the Wadia 860x to match my amps and play at a reading of between 80-96. Sounds Amazing! My setup is:

Wadia 860x ( I want to do the Wadia Statement upgrade)
Krell KMA-100 mono block.
Icon Parsec 3-way speakers.
AudioQuest Anaconda 1.5m.
AudioQuest Dragon HL 1m two pairs.
3-Elco Power cables.

Peace!

I've got a Wadia 27 + Jadis JD2 drive (using Audioquest Pro2 optic fiber) Jadis JA30's + Kimber 1030 (interconnect) + (waiting for Jadis JPL to arrive in May) EAR 834L preamp (with Jadis valves) + Kimber Monocle XL (speakers' cable) + K'Horns.
I've actually tried connecting the W27 directly into the JA30's. It works but sound is more "together" with better imaging & slam with EAR preamp. I think the sound is more coherent and more "musical".
Added bonus: you can use more than one source (I've got a tuner) or you've got to have a Wadia 150 A/D converter (not available in 240 Volts).
So it seems that a good preamp would add/restore air and imaging to the sound and achieve a good synegy with drive and DAC. Now Jadis preamps have an impedance matching valve in their circuit.
Last week I went to somebody's place and listened to a huge system viz Genesis 1's driven by big Gryphon amps (150lbs each!). I was disappointed. Room? Amps? I heard the very same speakers with Wadia 9 + 7 + Jadis JPS2 preamp + Jadis JA200's a few years back: it was fantastic! Now the Gryphons were fed signal from a big Meridian combo: 800 drive + 861? with a "preamp card". Is that a real preamp à la Cello?
The thing is, every time I've listened to great systems it's always been with preamps in.
A (wise) piece of advice: stick to the same good high end dealer who will lend you equipment. That's what I've been doing for years and it works!

In my experience the only way a preamp is better, is if the component in question is not capable of driving the interconnect and amp. The Wadia gear is designed to be run direct. Remember folks, the *shortest* signal path is always the best. Keep those interconnects and speaker wire as short as possible..