Right before I bought a Wadia 301, jefemeister sent me a 302 to demo for a few days and bring to a NY Head-Fi meet. The 302 was a strong departure from the 301's sound. From what I remember, the 302 had a much more liquid and natural signature than the 301. In addition to the Grado HP-2 I had at the time, I also used it with the RKV/K1000 and had it hooked up to my uncle's Genesis speaker system. It's been a while since I've heard one, but I remember it very favorably.
I have great experience with the G08 thanks to Mulveling. I always enjoy the G-08's smoothness and impressive soundstaging. The G-08 is definitely a step better than my SACDmod SCD-555ES and my Modwright Pioneer, so the G-08 is a great choice.
I've spoken to Tom Hankins, and he thinks that the Cary is the next best thing. Tom really know his stuff and based on my experience with the G-08 and the Cary 306-200, the new cary should be just as good if not better.
If you don't mind getting a used CD player and get it mods, I highly recommned the SCD-777ES with modification packages from Richard Kern. I recently acquired the 777ES w/ number of mods from Audiogon and it is amazing. To my ears, It is more superior to both G-08 and Cary 306-200 in terms of resolution, soundstage, bass, and smoothness. The 777ES w/ Kern modded really open my ears/eyes to what I've been missing from my old sources. The musical experience from my current up (modded 777ES, HD-650 w/ Zu, and 1st Gen SDS) is very close to Tom's ultimate setup (HD-650 balance w/ Zu, Sony SCD-1 w/ Audio AeroDAC, and SDS-XLR).
The 302 does not have A/D conversion. The optional input board is toslink, coax, and ST Glass only. There are no analog inputs although you can use an external A/D converter at up to 96kHz sample rate.
Ha-ha. So you have finally achieved the 'silence of the lambs'?
The way I approached my upgrade was, if worst came to worst, the choice of CDP I made had good resale potential. Bite the bullet. Enjoy. Write up your impressions. No doubt there will be niggling issues with the 302. That's par for the course. As long as your ears are smiling most of the time.
I think you've made a good choice. While Cary, Ayre, Musical Fidelity, and Marantz are tremendous players, Wadia and Meridian are really in a league of their own as far redbook goes (Esoteric is the way to go for SACD). The only problem with you getting a great player like this is that you will want to start upgrading (Wadia 861? 581?) once you hear how amazing it sounds, just to see how it can get any better. That's what happened to me when I got the Meridian 508.24. It sounded so good to me that I couldn't stop thinking about the 588 and the G08 (or, if I win the lottery, the 808).
Originally Posted by Welly Wu To be honest with you, I am leaning toward the Wadia 302 and the fact that Wadia is an official Head-Fi.Org sponsor is a big plus in my careful calculations.
I haven't tried them all, so I can't really make a fair judgement of which is better. However, I have tried the G08 and I found it very nice to listen to. Obviously, it wasn't as good as some of the higher end alternatives that I've listened to.
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