External DAC and Theta Casablanca II

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.

stick-hello again...do you know if those features are on the casanova? i hae not seen them so i doubt it but i could have missed them. thanks!

Hey Richard,

Do you mean the Analog Direct, Matrix ect... I'm pretty sure they are but I've never used that piece so you might want to double check. The Casanova was just a step down from the CB but does provide alot of the sa,e functions.

yes, the analog direct, matrix features. correct, it was the entry level version which theta abandoned. i have a love hate with theta as a result. so much for open architecture! i will take a run back through the manual but i thought i had a pretty decent handle on it. hope it does...