rockeater Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) Item Condition: Very good used condition Shipping Options: Pickup available and you can audition.,Shipping is available at agreed cost. Suburb or Town: WANNEROO State: Western Australia Payment Method: EFT, Cash on Pickup Reason for selling: Can't afford to keep it Further information: This is the best CD player I have ever had in my workshop. When arrived, it did not do anything other than power up... Normal service of belt replacement and limit switches cleaning restored its function as a Transport. Reversing an incorrectly inserted display panel ribbon cable, restored control of the output, and replacement of one Burr-Brown BF-634 buffer restored distortion free operation in the right channel. So really a normal service and a $20 B-B buffer chip is all that was originally needed to get it going properly. For value comparison, please check: https://www.hifishark.com/model/wadia-16 The bad: I do not have the original remote controller. Included is an aftermarket one with all the functions programmed. Or if you have your favourite Logitech, all the functions are there. Just select Wadia 16. It is in a very good condition but not in a pristine one. There are some blemishes on the top cover from some tape being stuck previously and an odd scratch here and there (pls see pics). Nothing that is normally visible. It is big and heavy (over 20kg) and hence I would strongly prefer a local sale (where I can deliver and even set it up) rather than pack it for postage. But will do it, if no local interest is shown. The good: Fully balanced with 4 x Burr-Brown PCM-1702 laser trimmed resistor ladder DAC chips. Penultimate DAC to do this, before the onset of the current cheap Sigma-Delta ones. Two extra channels for single ended outputs derived by taking parts of balanced ones with error cancelling. Excellent SPDIF digital output. Better than Accupahse Dp-80L Transport, any Esoteric and any C.E.C. transport regardless of price. Please see the 2nd video at the end. 4 digital outputs and 4 digital inputs (yes, you can feed your other sources to this extraordinary DAC). The choice of SPDIF coaxial (on BNC), balanced AES/EBU, plastic optical Toslink and glass optical. Fully remotely controlled pre-amplifier designed to work straight into the power amp of your choice. Level control to match both domestic and professional studio gear. CD Transport is achieved by Esoteric VRDS as found in P-700 CD-drive and servo from one of the other Esoteric units (look similar to T-1 or maybe T-10/25) Laser unit is magnetically driven Sony KSS-151A which is only about 7 or 8 % used, with more than 90% of its life still ahead of it (pls see the video content). All of servo control is closed in Faraday cage underneath the DAC board with cables shrouded in extra screen foil tied to ground points. All power supplies are separate for all parts of circuit. DAC board alone has 11 voltage regulators with some more on servo board and input/output board. 14 or 15 in total. For clock fanatics, there is a extra stable clock factory fitted on the servo board and DAC board alone features 4 separate crystal oscillators. 95% re-capped using Nichicon and Nippon Chemi-Con made, low ESR, long life, high temperature capacitors. Only large value caps have been retained after testing OK. Plays virtually any CD or CD-R and exceeds error correction with ability to read Test CDs with 1.4mm data interruption and also 1.4mm black line painted on the surface (Red Book Standard calls for 0.9mm ability). The Sound: This of course is subjective and based on listening at night of acoustic jazz at low levels. Incredible bass with both detail and depth, totally separated and below the rest of music. Excellent stereo and pin point imaging. Fine top end. On the negative side I have found it a bit pedestrian on speed of attack and will have to listen to it at higher volumes during the day to either confirm it or disprove it (but had no time till now). The Sale: Strongly prefer local sale so that I do not have to pack it, send it or risking any damage to it (but will do if no local interest is shown). Local buyer will - as always - enjoy a return to base 3 to 12 months Warranty (length depended on sale price). I do not really want to deliver it any sooner than in a week's time. Having a lot of ironing to do which I accumulated waiting for a great player as this, I simply want to enjoy it for a bit longer. ;-) The Video at the bottom: This is a second video about this player after the service and repair was finished, where I show some of the features of the player. It lets you see what is inside of it and how clean it is. My first video shows the player mid-service after the Transport function was restored and I posted it on my uTube channel for it shows that the player's laser is only about 7.5% used up with 92% or so of its life still remaining. With all the excitement then, I made an error there, stating it is only 1.4% used but it was a miscalculation and simply not true. It is available by clicking HERE but there is a lot of repetition with the one embedded below, so that is why it is only linked. There is a third video which I will upload for the purchaser and it shows that the unit can read purposely faulty test disc, but because it has a lot of 1kHz tones in it, I do not think there would be much interest in it for others. Videos are from my hear-net-au uTube channel. HEAR stand for High End Audio Restoration (which I do in ma garage) Sorry if this is too much information. Photos: Edited October 17, 2020 by rockeater 9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane F Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 A legendary CD player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MAXXX Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 Nice work, Roman...GLWTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lansche plasma guy Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 What a great for sale ad Roman, my hat off to you! Super detailed post, fastidious repair work and highlighting the strengths and tiny negative of the sound (Nothings perfect but this would be closer than most). If you don't want to go for state of the art separates this single box unit looks beautiful, is built like a tank, should keep or increase in value over time and will create beautiful music every time you listen to it. A wonderful heirloom player for someone. LPG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockeater Posted October 17, 2020 Author Share Posted October 17, 2020 (edited) Thanks guys for your kind words. Edited October 17, 2020 by rockeater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockeater Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 (edited) I now have a kind offer of $3500 from Sydney and a local one with a Esoteric player as a trade in (which I have to fix first ), so things are looking reasonably good. Even though it involves packing and posting, and it is on par with currently the lowest World price for Wadia 16, a cash from Sydney is preferred for obvious reasons :-) Also, It is better to send it to Sydney than to the other side of the globe to some unknown eBay buyer with feedback of 3... Edited October 19, 2020 by rockeater 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockeater Posted October 23, 2020 Author Share Posted October 23, 2020 Now going to be posted at eBay at a higher price. Having listened to it some more, I grew to like it more and decided that I want to keep it for some time. Additionally I came to realise that there is no rule anywhere which states that my prices have to be the lowest, particularly having spent almost a week full time on first troubleshooting and repairing it and then tweaking the transport to instantaneously read anything (any CD or CD-R). I will let this ad expire waiting for any possible local interest at the original price. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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