Wadia 781i SACD Player

Wadia 781i SACD Player
Lightly used, remote control has some cosmetic damage, some dings/scratches

Review by The Absolute Sound's Hi-Fi+: (http://www.cmy.com.my/catalog/images/Wadia_781i_HiFi_Plus_12-09.pdf)
In the world of product marketing, brand value is hard
won and should be jealously guarded. It’s something that
Wadia have done well and few products are as instantly
or unmistakably identifiable as those emanating from
their factory. The 860 CD player that first appeared in
Issue 4 of Hi-Fi+ was not a new product then, but it is virtually
indistinguishable from this model under review. My own 860
evolved through 861 and 861SE guises without so much as
turning a hair, surviving for many a year at the top of my own
personal digital tree, seldom surpassed (and then only by players
at a far higher price) and only once equalled by a machine
that might be considered a serious competitor. But whilst
that longevity and upgradeability are both commendable and
reassuring, they also masked a worrying reality. As good as the
861 is, should it really take ten years to better its performance?
And while that reflects a degree of design atrophy on the part of
the competition, it also reflects something of a hiatus for Wadia
itself, a decade of uncertainty and shifting fortunes that created
the first cracks in what had been an industry edifice. Things
were moving fast and the digital landscape was shifting rapidly –
only Wadia wasn’t. Suddenly, that four-square casework didn’t
seem quite such a virtue. Stuck with aging if still impressive
products, the sharks began to circle – only to receive a bloody
nose. Wadia is back and in a big way; and best of all it’s still the
Wadia that was. 
First indication was the 581 CD/SACD player reviewed in
Issue 60, which quickly re-established its benchmark status.
Pure Wadia, it shared the casework, essential operating
principles and functional versatility on which its predecessors built their considerable reputations. It added
an entirely new clock design, a massively
reengineered and heavily regulated power
supply section, SACD replay (with its own
dedicated decoding algorithm) and a new
discrete Class A analogue output stage. Add
in the optional digital inputs and outputs along
with the necessary switching and a cleverly
executed digital volume control, and you
had a thorough going update on everything
that made Wadia what it was – including the
sound. But the really sly move, the sucker
punch if you like, was the i170 transport,
a neat little iPod dock with a difference; it
didn’t just connect a portable player to your
system, it was able to extract a digital signal
from the little beast, transforming it in one fell
swoop into a potential audiophile plaything.
After all, WAV files encoded on a solid-state
memory combined with the 581’s decoding
capabilities make for pretty serious sound
quality.
And just when you thought it was safe
to revisit your record collection, along comes
the 781i, essentially a tuned and tweaked
581 that offers the latter’s input, output
and switching options as standard, adds
a larger power transformer, more reservoir
capacitance and regulation, and tops that off by extending the inductive filtering to embrace the analogue sections as well,
whilst also adding additional mechanical damping to deal with the vibrational
energy generated by all those extra PSU components. This is as good as it
gets in a single box, at least as far as Wadia are concerned.

Digitally speaking, the heart of the DAC remains a dual processor driven
gate-array, running Wadia’s Digimaster 2.5 decoding software. With a sampling
rate of 1.4112 GHz and 24bit resolution, this offers three alternative algorithms
for CD replay (which could be summed up as A – standard, B – crisp and
dry and C – warmer and a little rounded) and Wadia’s own SACD algorithm,
which they claim restores rise-time deficiencies in the original encoding. In
current production the AT&T glass optical input has been replaced with the
now essential USB connection, making the Wadia more computer audio
compatible and, therefore, future-proofed.

Consider the 781i as a DAC, digital pre-amp and control centre, which
happens to have a darned good transport section tacked on and you start
to get the picture. It really has got pretty much everything you could require.
Wadia even offer a separate A to D converter that could be used to route the
signal from an occasionally used turntable through your digital pre-amp and,
who knows, onto a hard-drive or server-based system – such is the way of
the hi-fi of tomorrow

But the real question remains, does it justify the price hike over a 581ise
on sonic grounds? The answer to that is a resounding, “Yes!” All that work
on the power supply has really paid off, with the 781 delivering a noticeably
lower noise floor, expressed as greater transparency, focus and dimensionality.
Backgrounds are blacker, stages deeper and more dimensional. But what
really tells is the increased sense of stability, both in the way that images and
the acoustic stay anchored in space and the added jump and faster rise time
on dynamics, large and small. These differences are neither particularly subtle
nor unimportant. Indeed. Anybody familiar with the 581 is going to immediately
recognize the significant increase in musical authority and communication that
flows from the 781’s output sockets. Straight from cold its qualities are manifest
(although they do blossom over the first 48 hours or so, and the review machine
was already well run-in) hardly requiring side by side comparison. Having said
that, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the 581 in-house for quite some time
and it stayed throughout the 781’s extended visit too. Do you get the sense of
a certain reluctance to part with these players?

The Lim K2 CD re-master of the Solti/LSO recording Romantic Russia
is a perfect example of the 781’s clear sonic and musical superiority. Even
an orchestral pot-boiler like ‘Night On The Bare Mountain’ benefits from its
advantages. As impressively present and dynamic as Solti’s reading is on the 581, the 781 adds a greater sense of
acoustic space, orchestral layering and
dimensionality. Instruments have more body
and shape, with the identity and tonality of the
bass instruments in particular being far more
natural and floating in a more convincing way,
the floor clearly audible beneath them. Timing
and phrasing improve too, meaning that even
when you know what’s coming the drama
and impact of the orchestral tuttis still thrill,
the dynamic contrasts are still extreme. Solti
takes the piece at a fair old clip, contrasting
that with pauses between passages, and the
torrid, almost frenetic pace which sounds
hurried, tumbling and two-dimensional on
the 581 gains poise and a driven purpose on
the more accomplished player. 

While the spatial differences are perhaps
the most immediately apparent effect of the
781’s internal improvements, it is actually
that precision when it comes to the timing,
placement and weighting of notes that makes
the musical and expressive difference. Take a
listening to the Esoteric SACD re-master of
Curzon playing Mozart’s Piano Concertos 20
and 27 (Britten and the ECO). With the 781
doing the talking, the almost crystalline clarityand beautifully judged shaping of Mozart’s melodic lines are perfectly poised
against the orchestral backing of the ECO, Britten conjuring colour and texture
from the modest forces available to coax every last ounce of drama from the
intricate score of Mozart’s final piano masterpiece. Curzon’s playing is both
brilliant and sensitive, with a delicacy and intimacy that is almost magical. It
is the Wadia’s ability to reveal this extra depth in the reading and beauty in
the playing that sets it apart. Never artificially warm or excessively polite, the
brilliance here is clearly artistic, the advantage over the 581 (and other players)
in the expressive range it allows the performers. It simply digs deeper into their
technique, their playing and the performance as a whole, taking you closer to
its sense and purpose.

This ability to unravel the structure and direction that underpin a musical
performance is central to the 781’s appeal, whatever genre you choose. And
whilst there are plenty of machines that will pull a performance apart, the
781 simply reveals its layers and relationships, an exercise in clarity rather
than dissection, one that increases musical communication and involvement,
qualities that become even more obvious once you start to play SACD discs.
As impressive as the 581 when it comes to SACD replay, the lower noise floor
and dynamic advantages enjoyed by the 781 really show what the format is
capable of; doubters should form an orderly queue…

But the 781i is nothing if not democratic or generous with its abilities. A
perfect piece of pop de jour like Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ gains just as much
as Puccini or Astor Piazzolla. The heavily layered and manipulated vocals that
open the track are easily separated and understood, their manipulation and
the almost Meccano like constructional symmetry of the hard-edged techno
beats is laid bare, adding momentum to the rhythmic imperative and offering
up the perfect lead into that telling hesitation that heralds the Summer’s most
sublimely catchy pop chorus. That brief pause is what adds barbs to the hook.
Now you know – not just that ‘Poker Face’ is one of those perfect cultural
collisions where style, fashion and ennui all combine at a single point in time
to create a pop phenomenon (think Britney and ‘Baby One More Time’),
but now you know the how too. And yes, if the 781i can unearth the drivers
and emotional tags of bubblegum pop, then believe it can do the same for Beethoven or Brahms, Coltrane or Cannonball Adderley. This is all about
access and intent, not the ‘definition über alles’ control freakery that robs
music of its life, energy and flow. The slashing guitar riffs that tumble across
the Cure’s Head On The Door carve rents across the soundfield, Basie’s brass
section rips out in perfect unison. The 781 is one of those all too rare products
that deals not just in the what and the where, but also in the how and the why
– a level of musical insight that escapes all but the best hi-fi equipment.

The 581 retains its benchmark status
because of its price-point. It’s not that it
is necessarily better than players like the
Audio Research CD8 or dCS Puccini, but
it is the mark against which they should be
measured or assessed. The 781 sits on a
higher step altogether and yes, in this case it
is better than these other machines: it needs
to be better than the 581 and easily justifies
the difference in price; the Puccini is perhaps
closest in style and also offers the option of an
external clock to bridge the price and quality
gap; but perhaps ironically it’s the Red Book
only CD8 that offers the most enlightening
comparison. 

Take something that’s played with real
passion; the BBC live broadcast recording
of du Pre and Barbirolli performing the
Elgar Cello Concerto in Prague is a perfect
example. At first it’s easy to conclude that
the CD8 delivers more body, a richer woodier
tone to du Pre’s instrument, but as attractive
as that rounded warmth and body is, you’d
be wrong. The clue lies in the clarity and sense that the Wadia makes of the acoustic space, something you’ll pick up
in the air as the mics come up, in the incidental noises and shuffles of the
orchestra and audience. With the 781 there’s much, much more information –
about the hall, about what made that noise and where exactly it was. du Pre’s
opening notes are focussed and held in space, not leaner or paler than the
CD8 delivers, but more concentrated and with greater texture and attack, a
fact that becomes abundantly clear in the pizzicato sections. So as impressive
as the CD8 is – and when it comes to sheer orchestral sweep it’s impressive
indeed, with real weight, colour and body, the 781 matches it and builds on
those qualities. Colour and harmonic tone may fall short of good analogue
sources but are more than a match for any of the players mentioned here.
Likewise, absolute immediacy isn’t in the same league as a good record on a
good record player. But having said that the stability, resolution, transparency
and dynamic contrasts are up there with the best. So, despite initial impressions
(and possible assumptions) while the Audio Research has romance running
through its veins, the Wadia tempers it with a little less excess and more
finesse, texture and dynamic discrimination, allowing the orchestra and soloist
a wider emotional palette, a more sophisticated range of expression. 

It is this ability to deliver both detail and the sort of instrumental identity
and warmth that makes players like the CD8 so appealing that moves the 781
so close to the digital ideal. Switch to SACD hybrid discs and the Wadia’s
superiority over standard Red Book replay becomes even more apparent. Yes,
there will always be even more detail, more natural colours and more immediate,
more lifelike micro-dynamics; we are, after all, a long way from the live event.
But the 781’s innate sense of balance and unexaggerated presentation belie
its capabilities. It doesn’t sound warm or rich until you compare it directly to a
player like the CD8. It doesn’t sound massively dynamic until you hear other
machines struggling to match its sense of musical purpose. It doesn’t sound
like it’s digging deep, deep into the recording until you realize just how much detail and insight other players are leaving behind. What it does sound is right
– and that makes it engaging and satisfying in equal measure. The whys and
wherefores might take some working out but the immediate musical appeal of
the 781, the absolute authority with which it delivers a musical performance,
cuts straight to the heart of both that performance and what hi-fi should be all
about – the music rather than the means by which it arrives. 

If you are in the market for a top one-box optical disc player then the
Wadia 781i should be on your must hear list. It ticks all the musical boxes, offers significant added value in terms of its
versatility and ability to handle more than
one digital source... and it plays SACD too.
Having been happy for so long with the
861se, the GNSC mods giving it a timely
boost in performance to match the challenge
of the 581, it is sobering to acknowledge just
how soundly both machines are trounced by
the musical dexterity and expressive range of
the 781i. I guess negotiations start now…