External DAC and Theta Casablanca II

i emailed theta and got a very prompt response from their technician carl (impressive). he told me to check the manual and search for Analog Direct Mode... so i did precisely that and here's what i found...

"Analog Direct: this mode takes the selected analog input and routes it directly to the main Left/Right outputs via the volume controls. Since there is no surround processing in Analog Direct, the sub woofer, EQ, phantom center channel, and crossover effects are not available. Note: If these effects are desired, use the STEREO mode. The Analog Direct mode will route only an analog signal to the outputs.

Analog Matrix: The signal routing in this mode is the same as Analog Direct, left and right analog input signals routed directly to the main outputs via the volume controls, and at the same time, the input left and right signals are routed through an analog to digital converter in order to derive the other channels, which include left and right surround, sides, center, and center surround. These other channels can have EQ and be crossed over (creating a SUB channel), but the front left and right channels may not have EQ, be crossed over (routed to the sub woofers), or perform phantom center speaker. The Analog Matrix mode processes an analog input signal only."

so, seemingly one can input an analogue signal to the CBII and bypass the internal DACs with some limitations.

You could also buy a digital out card and use it in one of your open slots in the CB. If you don't have an open slot just remove one of your lower quailty dac cards and replace with the digital out card. Then you can plug and external dac via coax or AEU into the card. I use the Gen 8 V2 for my L/R channels and extremes/Super 2 dacs cards for the remaining channels. It's seamless. You would just need to reprogram the channels in the theta.

thanks, Stick70. i've been looking for a digi out card, but no luck so far. running into the analog inputs and using the analogue matrix mode is also a good option.

are there any opinions on the level of external DAC that would be required to exceed the performance of the internal CBII Superior DACS out there?

-Scott

Hey Scott,

Well the Superior II Dacs are a bit dated so most of the current Dacs would probably yield better Sonics. But some may disagree. The digi out card is about $500 retail. I found one here on the gon for less but any Theta dealer would probably give you a discount. If you’re going to keep your CB the digi card is the best way to go. Plus you'll get the added benefit of the better DAC for your HT as well. Again, the CB is the only processor, that I know, that will do this function. There are a bunch of CB's for sale on the gon, just send a message to the seller and see if they'd be willing to sell you digi out card (if one is in that CB). That's what I did and to my surprise the seller was willing to do it. Also, I've seen the Superior 2 cards and extremes card fo sale as well.

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