comparison between Theta, Bryston, Krell, Parasound

Personally, I would go with the EAD 8800 Pro paired up with a Theta Dreadnaught II. I own a Theta Intrepid and a pair of Enterprise monoblocks, and I have to agree that the dynamics are by no means a weakpoint. In fact, both amps seemed to equal an Edge NL-10 (which I auditioned in my home) in this regard, and the Edge amps have exceptional dynamics. Please note, though, I do have a dedicated amp line (9AWG Romex).

Here, read it yourself-

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=6528ff09430bd46a47e665d79dcaf3c9&threadid=405527&highlight=shoot+out

I wasn't there, but apprarently the Theta did not have the bottom end of the Plinius or Gemstone, nor did any of the listeners place it in their top 3.

They must like boomy bass the dread will give u tighter quicker bass.

When I talked to the folks at Theta, they claimed that their goal was to reproduce the low end accurately, so that a string bass sound like a string bass, and an electric bass sounds like an electric. They claimed that certain amps with a lot of low end (not naming any names here!) tended to make everything so low end present that it started to make upright bass start to sound like an electric bass. Being a bass player (upright, acoustic, and electric), this was important to me. I have Thiel CS3.6's, and the folks at Thiel stated that they have had very good results with Theta amps driving their speakers, and they felt that their low end reproduction was excellent.

Nevertheless, it is always interesting to hear someone with a different perspective, especially a group of folks such as where Durbin directed us. Thanks for sharing that with us! However, I do feel that perhaps my personal listening preferences don't match up entirely with that particular test group.

Worldcat,

No - the folks in the AVS forum know boomy bass from tight bass.

It's not that the Theta is a poor amp - it does have good
bass performance.

It's just that, modulo the speakers used - the other amps
mentioned will perform better than the Theta.

Dr. Gregory Greenman