Digital Drive

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Re: Mark Levinson 390s & Wadia 861se comparisons?

Posted by JohnActon on September 12, 2004 at 21:52:37:
I am not at all familiar with the Meridian, but I hear it's a very capable player in its own right. That said, I have owned both the Wadia 861 (not SE version, though) and the Levinson 390S. Both are outstanding players, albeit considerably different sounding in the context of a high-resolution system.
First off, the Wadia has a digital volume control. As long as I kept the setting in the top 1/3 of its range, I noticed no deleterious effects stemming from bit truncation. The Levinson has an analog volume control, and there is no loss in resolution at any setting. The output stage of the Levinson seemed to be more robust, capable of outputting some 14+ volts.
The sound of the Levinson was very much about analog warmth, smoothness and coherence. The 390S didn't sound "digital", but not in a colored, overly opaque manner; it just seemed to put the music out there. I've seen the 390S compared to vinyl, and I can certainly see why. However (and maybe this is partly responsible for its analog-like sonic signature), the Levinson does possess some extra warmth in the mid and upper bass. It just plain sounds warmer (than the Wadia, than the Cary players, than the Sim Audio players), a little thicker and meatier. In my system, it worked to help counteract some midbass leanness elsewhere in the chain, so that was to my advantage. In an already full or rich-sounding system, this may be too much of a good thing.
The Wadia was much more precise, very upfront and dynamic. It made the Levinson sound a little slow and soft in comparison. The Wadia didn't have the analog smoothness, but had more jump factor. It also imaged spectacularly, almost certainly a result of their proprietary Digimaster digital filtering scheme. The Wadia just sounded very clean. It scraped through every layer on a recording, showing you all that was going on. Very addictive.
So, both players are excellent. I miss them both. I sold the Wadia in favor of the Levinson warmth (again - in a less lean system than mine at the time, it might have been different), and recently sold the Levinson for financial reasons.
Lastly, I used both running directly into an amp as you indicated you would like to try; both performed well in that situation. Oh, and while both players do very well with single-ended connections, there are small but discernible benefits to be derived from running balanced if you can.