External DAC and Theta Casablanca II

Hi Scott,

I have not been following this tread and did not realised you asked me a question. Yes, I thought that all analog signals sent into a casablanca were converted to digital. That was what I was told when looking to buy one. Carl is their technical rep and if he says it can be bypassed in Analog Direct then it must be so. I bought a Meridian 568.2 instead and know all analog signals are converted to digital for processing in this unit.

I went a different route by installing a tube preamp in my system which sounds better for volume control than the meridian processor. Even routing the L & R channels out of the meridian and into the preamp sound better for music than using the meridian straight to the amp. To get the best sound I set the volume in the meridian close to the max and control the volume thru the preamp (obviously this is only for stereo). This was a recommendation from Richard Hardesty on line magazine "Audio Perfectionist". As in his opinion he thought the Casablanca II while being an excellent Processor was not as good at volume control as a modestly priced preamp.

Doug

Analog Direct... Holy Crud... Didn't even know there was such a thing! Question... Do you have to have an Analog Out Card to run the Analog Direct Mode?

I've got a II with Extreme DAC's and until I read the above I was under the misguided impression that I was by-passing the DAC's for 2 channel Stereo by running my Amalog outs from my Compli CD / DVD to the Analog In Card on the Casablanca II. Prompted by the above I took another look at the Imput Processing Sections of the manual and sure enought there it is... clear as mud.

I set mine up to play 2 channel Stereo from both the Analog In Card and the Digital In Card and IMHO the Analog In Card is much better.

Raks,

Have you tried a preamp and bypassing the Casablanca altogether. Maybe you could borrow one from one of your friends and try it out. You would probably be supprised.

Doug

Doug... I haven't tried a plain old preamp to see if I'd like it better than my Casablanca. I've thought about that, but with DAC's being are all the rage right now, considering the fact that my Casablanca has the Extreme DAC's, I have the same question that Scott asked being "how far I'd have to go to hear an improvement". Sometime I think Theta owners have the best of both worlds with DAC's built in to everything from the Casanova on up the Theta ladder, and other times I want to dump it all and go straight 2 channel.

I really think I'd be better served to find someone who actually knows their way around the Theta Casablanca's and pay that person to fine tune that monster. Whenever I pick up the manual, my IQ automatically drops to 5.

Hey Raks,

If you set your Casablanca to Analog Direct you will not be using the Dacs in the Casablanca. The only controls the casablanca will do in this mode will be volume control and speaker levels. Nothing else. Stereo mode will kick in your Dacs, levels, delays, crossovers, and pink noise generator. Analog Matrix will turn off the Dacs for the L/R but will provide Dacs and all the other controls for the remaining channels.
I own a Casablanca 3 and Gen 8 Dac . I've got many yrs of experience with fine tuning these. Feel free to ask me any questions or PM me.