Bel Canto DAC3 vs Theta Gen Viii

Cytocycle - what else have you compared your Theta to? Anything from Wadia? How did they all fare?

I've owned Wadia gear before and last I heard was the 850, which I also like. But Wadia does volume control in the digital domain and so you need to jumper inside the unit to determine the max output level and then you shave bits down as you reduce volume. This is true of all the older gear. I can't speak for the 581 and the new series.

I find the Theta sound is warmer and more filled out in body than the Wadia gear I have heard but the Wadia gear has an amazing delicate top end (not that the theta doesn't) that is thinner but not Levinson thin. I find Wadia to sound more realistic than DCS or any of the other upsampling DACS. But I find that Theta even more pleasing in this respect.

The Theta seems to be a great product, anybody know if you can kick the analogue RCA inputs into a passive mode for HT Bypass operation?

Amnizu: The Theta Gen VIII comes in two version one with fixed volume output to be used with a preamp and one with variable volume output. Because the variable one has a numerical volume number you can calibrate it with your surround system and return to that number when using your surround processor for a HT bypass. You can also program the volume number that the Gen VIII starts up in and make that the same pass through level for ease of use. If you have a Casablanca you can get a control card that digitally connects to the Gen VIII and uses it as an external processor for whatever channels you want. I hope to go that route some day.

Thanks for the info, Cytocycle. One of the things I was hoping to improve over my current GNSC modified Wadia 850 (and was hoping the Theta might be the one to do it) was in the sense of airiness and spaciousness. I had heard a Simaudio player that had a sense of airiness and breathing that is hard to describe that was better than the Wadia, but it was not as good as the Wadia in other ways. I attriuted htis to better very high frequency performance of the Simaudio. It sounds like the Theta might not be the improvement I'm looking for, though, as it sounds like you're saying the Wadia has a better top end than the Theta, although the Theta is better across the rest of the frequency band. Am I reading you correctly? Thanks for the info.