[mdavis]

Greetings:


I did bring the Theta Miles CD Player home today...We nailed the sound qualities -- see the reviews on the Theta homepage http://www.thetadigital.com. I'm surprised differences were heard so easily with my current set of horrible cables (waiting for Harmonic Technology cables to arrive).


1. Bass -- the bass on the CD player is amazing. We heard harmonics that were no existant in my other CD player + Lexicon combo.


2. Soundstaging -- Front/back soundstage was exceptional for the cables I was using...The HT cables drastically impact the soundstage and I hope to hear more differences with them -- the side/side soundstage was expanded, but not significantly.


3. Full sounding midrange -- very smooth vocals


4. Somewhat of a warm soound -- very tame in the highs, but not rolled off or lacking detail.


So, overall, I highly recommend this player. It incorporates parts from each of the following:


Stand-alone Theta DAC: $1495 as seen in the Pro Prime-a DAC

Transport: Theta Pearl $1295

Theta proprietary filters: Theta DS Pro Basic III-a DAC $2695

Analog volume control: Theta Casablanca ($4500ish)


I'm sold on this one -- I'll use the balanced mode as well!!



Does anyone have any experiences with this unit?


I'm going to use it as a dedicated 2-channel (maybe 3-channel w/Aerial sub) system -- direct Theta Miles -> Amp connection w/XLRs. Analog volume on Miles -- beautiful, clean, musical.


Review system: Aerial Acoustics 10Ts, Classe CA-200, Transparent (for the time being) XLRs direct connect from Miles to amp.


compared to:


Lexicon + Sony CDPC715 + Classe + Aerial. RCAs.


PS. Also compared both configs with the same RCAs and noticed the same issues.



Regards, Mark

 

[rjason]

hello mdavis,

I have been using the Miles for awile now. It is a fine CD player for the price. I suspect that most of the differences you are hearing are due to the fact that you are able to eliminate the Lexicon from the mix and go straight to your amp. If I have any gripe at all with the unit it is the lack of fine control over the volume. But, that would be really nit picking.

Since you are going directly into the amp does that mean that you are using it in a different room from your HT?

 

[mdavis]

Thanks for ther response.


Same room. I just wanted to bypass the D/A on the Lexicon and associated digital cables from transport to Lex, in favor of a cleaner path from CD to amp -- and the ability to use the awesome Theta DACs, custom filter, analog volume control, transport mechanism, etc...The CD player gives me a high quality transport and the abiity to have two systems in one -- the Lexicon path for HT and multi-channel music (using the coax digital output of the Miles) and the direct XLR path from Miles to preamp for seriously hard-core 2-channel (with Aerial subwoofer).


My current CD player, an old sony from 1991, has a toslink output, a horrible transport mech., and other undesirables.



Best Regards, Mark