Fast , Meridian g07 , g08 and Wadia 301 in the house

[Welly Wu]

boodi:

that, my friend, is the Wadia house sound even though the Wadia 302 is considered by most who have heard it to be a radical departure to the point whereby it is even considered Analog just like a vinyl turntable.

I am not a believer in voodoo crap, but Wadia does recommend that you "burn in" the CD player for a long period of time. If you can afford to do so, try not to sell anything you just got and live with it for at least a month.

I think that you will be intoxicated by the Wadia sound moreso than the Meridian. It is a matter of preference, yes, but don't discount Wadia as a proponent for the Compact Disc format.

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts IIRC, Edwood took a pic of the inside of G08. I can't remember where in the forum I saw it, though. EDIT - Found the thread. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the pics. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...=129387&page=4

Thanks for the G08 internal pics. Very typical for a big-name company: lots of money spent on the thick, beautiful chassis, lots of money spent on advertising, lots of empty space inside the chassis, competent engineering, decent parts, and lots of people buying them.

I do like the G08's sound, but not at that price...

 

[Luco]

Jon L, you'd obviously love Esoteric sources: there's no space to park a fly inside. Wadia should be similar though.

 

[boodi]

fast update, I'll try to post only concise "sure" thoughts that I'm building up in my mind with listening

1 . all 3 units have their merits . This is a sure thing
2 . The g08 own what's likely the more refined sound and sound signature of the 3 , and has the more elegantly built processed sound .
3 . The g07 seems (is) still superior to the Wadia for pure detail retrieval and show ability ; no harshness , no digities.
4 . The Wadia and the Meridians are high-end relatively recent sources so it's not that easy to point out evident faults .
5 . The Wadia has better prat and timings . The Wadia has the fastest bass I've heard .
6 . The Wadia even after some IC change seems to show some harshness in the highs , not something to be unhappy with but something that's easy to point out Vs meridians smooth dense character and smooth highs .


Now
The Wadia sound is a surprise , as welly says the sound is quite radically distant from a cd player sound . It's not analoguish : it seems to be analogue ; can't express better .
There's a solidity in the sound that recall to ears vynil , not cd .

I've modded , and still in the process of modding , my Shanling s100mkII to make it reach for my ultimate sound desire and to improve his strenghts , which are musicality , speed , micro detail retrieval , air , precision with delicacy , and nice balance ; and nice deep bass too ; but it is not on an analogue mood .Very good cd sound , and that's a source I feel lucky to own and to have somewhat discovered myself and chosen among others , but it's not analogue sounding .

Both the Meridian seem to lean to the analoguish route . Both have a slowness in their character , and both have what I think it is the Meridian character , smooth , rich and detailed sound . Both are refined players , I'm sorry to be boring repeating this but that's a thing that's worth to tell . Using copper Vs silver on Meridians helps really to gain in fun prat and liveliness .

Bit OT , but I'd like to say I'm grown fun oriented lately with music , and even if I definitely appreciate to give a listen to a very accurate system , it's quite a need for me to have sincere fun from music , period . Accuracy is on very top of my pleasures .

 

[boodi]

double post , sorry

 

[Alwayswantmore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boodi Hi all. Fast post ; Wadia 301 is finally here. The meridians are here from a while instead. I must say that I've not been overly impressed from meridians preliminaries 1 impress little more then the other two refined unit but both fall short on fun , unfortunately for me they're lacking some ( upsampled or not ) bits of joy , trying still to get used to the sound though I'm plugging up the Wadia in a few time . back later

Are you running balanced or unbalanced?

 

[boodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alwayswantmore Are you running balanced or unbalanced?

unbalanced at the moment , might go for balanced in a time

It's definitely an hard choice and I don't think 30 days would be enough to set on a unit .

The Wadia 301 is clearly the best player in my speaker rig , producing a vynil sound and a timbral weight that's solid , fast and airy , analogue . b e a u t i f u l in a word .
..It seems also the Wadia plays -very- well old cds ( 70/80/90 rock sound the best on the 301 ) while the meridians play sensibly better newer or well/very well recorded productions .
On my headphone rig , the Meridians seem to have the edge for a bunch of reasons you may be able to understand from the previous considerations I've listed up .

 

[Canman]

The Wadia 301 is a great piece. When I had the 301 I was wowed by the extra detail offered by the G08. After owning the G08 for awhile though, I felt it was not dynamic enough.

 

[Alwayswantmore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boodi unbalanced at the moment , might go for balanced in a time

Is the Headamp Gilmore Reference balanced? If not, I recommend you try hooking up a set of balanced phones to the back of the Wadia.

I've heard 650 / Zu in balanced and unbalanced directly from Wadia 831. The difference in SQ between balanced and unbalanced is remarkable (soundstage, bass and to a lesser degree detail all improve).

Thank for the review, and good luck

 

[mysticaldodo]

May I ask how much does your Shanling plus all your tweaks total cost?

 

[boodi]

I don't know the price of a Shanling s100 mkII at the moment ; probably it is between 500$/900$ depending on where do you want to get it from ..

it's true .
Changed : 1 output stage opamp(s) , 4 (2x2) opamps ( and got some spare pairs of them before choosing the best combination ) , costed around 100$ ..
Capacitors , costs depending on how many caps do you want to change , and what caps do you get ..
Power supply 40$ ..
I'm getting another power chord and I'll change the clock hopefully soon ( 200/300$ )
The s100 mkII now do not sound any *worse* then the other 3 .

 

[mysticaldodo]

I know what you mean.

The prices from what I've seen in Hi Fi Choice (UK mag) are much higher then what I get here.

 

[gpalmer]

Alwayswantmore has a very good point. Very often players do have different sounds through their balanced and unbalanced connectors. If you're thinking of going balanced I would try to give both outputs a listen to see how it affects the sound.

 

[Alwayswantmore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpalmer Alwayswantmore has a very good point. Very often players do have different sounds through their balanced and unbalanced connectors. If you're thinking of going balanced I would try to give both outputs a listen to see how it affects the sound.

If you have the Wadia and the cans, you are only one aftermarket cable (or retermination of an existing cable to XLRs) away from going balanced. Everything else being equal, balanced is usually better. [Why? Less noise and double the slew rate.] See the link to 650s balanced in my sig for more on the Wadia as a balanced headamp. Good luck.

Note: You need female XLRs.

 

[boodi]

http://www.zerogain.com/forum/archiv...hp/t-4702.html