The official "Theta" thread - Page 113

I sometimes make good guesses. But this time I will just wait for whenever Theta actually makes a press release. I am confident the specs will be significantly better.

Hey,
Happy to see you were able to make arrangements and everything is underway, although, sorry to hear of the rough start.

I had to have mine tracked down last year when it didn't show up on Theta's doorstep on time, but all's well that ends well.

BD, you will all be pleased with the new DAC choices and their resolutions. As VGI said 6 channels per, and top notch and up to date. As I reported at CES all new upgrades will be dealer installable. Per Jeff Hipps, "We don't want them back again."
BD, dealers can do Gen VIII ser 2 to ser 3, but not ser 1 to 2 or 3. Hence why your Gen VIII is at Theta being done as I write this. Enjoy it, Norm

Lucky for me, I live 30 miles from Theta. Just got home about 3 hours ago as a matter of fact. Picked up my upgraded CB3 and my 7 Channel Dreadnaught. Everything was PERFECT. Quick turnaround, easy drop off and pick up.

Did everything thru Craig at Theatermax, a COMPLETE pleasure to deal with. Great prices, great service, great advice..and ALWAYS available.

That was a great way for you to save a few extra bucks on the upgrade, good deal!

Did you get the CB-IIIHD reinstalled already? If so, what do you think?

I did get it (semi) installed...I only have my fronts, center and sub right now so I'm without REARS and SIDE SURROUNDS, but so far IT ROCKS!!!

Will post more details as I get it up and completely running, but so far, I AM IMPRESSED. MUCH MUCH better sound, especially the bass, than running 5.1 thru my six shooter (now GONE.....)

First impression: REALLY REALLY impressed.
2'nd impression: Why did I wait so long???

Thanks Norn. It was clear immediately that you were a for real high-end dealer. I don't get to talk many "real," dealers anymore with an actual showroom with a bonafide high-end set-up. Guys like you with so much high-end experience are still irreplaceable. When you get Theta's new monoblocks, I know I can call you up and get a useful assessment of them, including a comparison/contrast with other amps. I am looking forward getting my Gen VIII series 3 back after I return from my family vacation. Thanks for both a good deal and service.

I got an answer. YES! It will include a microphone with calibration curve,usb preamp, small floor stand and case.

I sure hope you don't "leave it at that". Your system plans sound intriguing. At the risk of going OT, please expand.

you keep talking like that and we won't be able to beat up on him anymore

Hi,

I don't know if it will be possible, since the IIIHD is in play, but I'm curious if you have any thoughts on your old Dreadnaught vs the new one.

Thanks, Dave

Well, I don't know too many people who would take my call on their personal phone at MIDNIGHT, and patiently walk me thru a minor set-up glitch.....
Among other things he did to make this an easy, and FUN upgrade.

I'm very imppressed with the Dreadnaught III so far. It's a much richer, fuller sound, MUCH more 'open', better sound stage, more punch/better bass (altho that could be attributable to the DAC upgrade in the CB3).

The main reason I upgraded is I needed a 7 channel amp, and my Dread I was only 5. I'm REALLY happy I did.

any idea of how the Dread III compares to a TAS? - especially with a IIIHD and Gen VIII?

While surfing around the internet, I found this in Wikipedia:

Burr-Brown Corporation

The Burr-Brown Corporation was a United States technology company in Tucson, Arizona, which designed, manufactured, and marketed a broad line of proprietary, standard, high-performance, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) used in electronic signal processing. The company's products were used in a wide range of applications: industrial process and control, telecommunications, test and measurement, medical and scientific instrumentation, medical imaging, digital audio and video, personal computing and multimedia.

In September 2000, Texas Instruments acquired the company for $7.6 billion.
History

The company was incorporated in Tucson, Arizona in 1956 by founders Page Burr and Thomas R. Brown, Jr. (BS MIT 1949, MBA Harvard 1952) to commercialize semiconductor transistors; in 1959, the company posted its first profit. [1] Brown eventually bought out Burr's share of the company [1].

In 1983, the company reincorporated in Delaware, and went public with stock trading on NASDAQ under the symbol BBRC.
The company employed over 1,300 people worldwide with manufacturing and technical facilities located in Tucson, Arizona; Atsugi, Japan; and Livingston, Scotland. Company headquarters was located in Tucson.
Burr-Brown was one of the principal suppliers of precision analog and data acquisition products to the electronic industry. The company pioneered many analog semiconductor products and techniques, such as active laser-trimming.

To mark Burr-Brown's history, a monument was erected in the main courtyard in Tucson, Arizona with the following text:

Quote:

From its humble beginnings in Tom Brown's garage, Burr-Brown Corporation grew into one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of high-performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Robert Page Burr and Thomas R. Brown, Jr., co-founded the company in 1956 and gave their names to the new enterprise. Mr. Burr left in 1958 to form another company, while Mr. Brown continued to lead Burr-Brown for 44 years. The company developed the first commercial solid-state operational amplifier and led the world in high-precision data conversion technology. This monument honors Burr-Brown's founders and their pioneering spirit; its gifted and dedicated employees; and its rich history of technological achievements. In the words of its stated Corporate Purpose, Burr-Brown truly did provide something of value to mankind. On the occasion of becoming one company, this marker is hereby dedicated with deepest respect by Texas Instruments Incorporated to the people of Burr-Brown. August 30, 2000

Thank you for your feedback---I am surprised that there are not many (online) reviews/feedback of Dread3.

regards,
Kishore

Hello ,

I bought a Casablanca 3 hd , i've very happy with it ! One xtreme and 2 premium cards .

Cannga says : 'BTW per Dave Reich, it's ok to assign same channels, say L-R-Center-Sub, to 2 different cards '.

What do i have to do to assign this same channels ? It's because i want to make bi amp with my L-R front channels .

Sorry for my bad english , have a nice day !

Hi congrats on your very excellent decision as you've found out. This is a tremendous sounding processor, even for me - a difficult to please audiophile LOL.

I understood you fine. Yes it could be done - and it's been a while but that's how I did the "shoot-out" between the Extreme and the Premium Card. I made both of them output main Left and Right and compare them (it was a quick "kill" in favor of Extreme).

A little busy now but I will look later and post - it's very simple to do. IIRC Steve has even posted a file of how to access the factory menu. It's somewhere on this huge thread. Anyone knows the key word to search for Steve's file?

While I PM'd taz116 with these details yesterday, I think the message is worth repeating in public. John Baloff, Theta's head of technical support, should be everyone's go-to-guy with these questions. He can be reached at: support at ati-amp dot com.

Jeff

Hello ,

I PM'd John Baloff and he answered me 20 minutes after !

Thanks Theta .

I didn't realise that the Casablanca could be configured this way. I have a similar bi-amped set-up but I use y-split cables to achieve it.

Which is a lot cheaper ....

You have a PM with this info!

If you put in the subject line of the email that "I know Steve Bruzonsky"
John Baloff will get back to you 20 minutes faster than otherwise!!@@

I put that in, they just shipped my 2 Citadels 1.5 and tossed in Gen VIII to boot

Late last year, I had my Casablanca III upgraded to HD. Unfortunately, my unit's upgrade contained a faulty new chip and so last month it went back to Theta/ATI where it was repaired, retested and returned to me.

I use an OPPO 93 as my HDMI source, as well as a high-end Audioquest HDMI cable from the HDMI audio output of the OPPO to the HDMI1 input of the CB3.

When I set the audio output of the OPPO to "auto", the CB3 does not lock on the signal but rather remains in "matrix" and no sound is heard. By reseting that audio output to "bitstream", I do get audio, but I am unsure as to precisely what I am hearing. Let me explain.

If I play a DTS Master Audio-encoded disc, the CB3 display reads "DTS+NEO6CIN"; if I play a Dolby TrueHD-encoded disc, that display reads "DOLBYDIGITAL+PL2MV".

Am I actually decoding and playing back Master Audio and TrueHD, or am I instead hearing simply the latest versions of the standard algorithms of each?
Moreover, if it is the latter, what can be suggested to address and solve this problem?

Thank you!

The latter. It appears that you are decoding the compatible lossy portions of the bitstreams, not the lossless parts, and each is then post-processed by a surround decoder, suggesting that you have a setup with at least one rear speaker. If you have two rear speakers (Lb/Rb) then you might want to change the default mode for DTS sources to also use PLIIx so you can enjoy a stereo effect from the rears instead of mono.

But that's not why you called.


For some reason the BD player does not know the true capabilities of the Theta. That could be one of two things:

1) There is a miscommunication in the HDMI, as in the EDID for example.

2) The Theta is driving a TV whose EDID is passed back to the BDP-93. Some AVRs have a switch to change HDMI mode to let the AVR control the EDID. But I doubt this is what's afoot in your case, because a) Theta probably has no HDMI mode switch, and b) no TVs eat DTS so that would not even appear as it did in your case.

Sorry, no definitive answer.

You don't happen to ave the S/PDIF connected as well, do you?

If you have the AIX test disc that shipped with the BDP-83 (or can borrow it), it has a nifty way to prove what you are hearing. Play a DTS HDMA track. If it plays really quietly, it is playing the lossy track instead. If you play a TrueHD track, I think the lossy track has someone saying "you are not hearing the lossless audio" or something.

Like Roger said disconnect a SPDIF cable if you have one selected. The CB should ignore it if you have HDMI selected as source but this will remove any possible confusion.

Try a different HDMI cable just in case it's not all going through. Even good cables can go bad.

Check the Oppo setup just in case.

If the CB is getting a lossless input from BD it will display something to the effect of DTS HD MA or Dolby True HD. What you're seeing indicates its converting 2 ch to multi by your selected default.

You're playing the primary language track on the BD right? I've seen BD with the alternate tracks in 2 channel or lossy formats.

I had some funky issues like that at times with an Oppo 95 and even some with a Marantz UD9004.

But with the Theta Compli Blu, no issues like that at all!

However, i have learned something recently. A number of Lumagen Radiance XE owners were having funky things happen in their setups. Patrick Harkins of Lumagen recommended going to at minimum 6' HDMI cables, stating the digital reflections were a problem with shorter cables. Recently I've gone to at minimum 6' bluejeans HDMI cables. Although the Compli Blu worked, at times other things would happen, like my projector would lose the video input, or need to turn SSP or Lumagen off or on to get picture back - no more problems with at minimum 6' HDMI cables. And other folks on the Radiance thread here at the AVS video processor forum report their hassles went away, too.

Oh - hate to say this, but the bluejeans HDMI looks and sounds as good or better than any other HDMI cable I've used, including the PS Audo silver HDMI cable.

Stacy11, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I have a CBIII (Non-HD) driving Dyanaudio Confidence C2s driven by Balanced Audio Technology. I'm considering the upgrade myself when finances permit. Which speakers are u using?
On a different subject, I went Webster Jr. High. Are u familiar with the area?