I wish i could have bought the Theta Gen. V when it first came out, as it rivaled the best Krell and Levinson DACs at a fraction of the price, but the Theta V(at 5-6 grand) was still more than I could afford. I demo many times, and I really thought the sound was realitic and as good as it could get or needs to be. IMO, the TOP DACs from the 90's still hold up well sonically to the run-of-the-mill DACs made now. (Im shure some of the price no object DACs are much better now, but the parabolic price increase is another story.)
IIRC, Theta was doing D-A conversion with custom software with a generalised DSP chip set and not going with the typical Burr-Brown, Crystal, or Analoge Devices chip sets that were favored by most of the "me-too" digital designers.
I've been looking for a used BALANCED VERSION Gen V ever since and they are hard to get. They have a stong demand in the used market. I think most sysems would benefit from one.
IIRC, Theta was doing D-A conversion with custom software with a generalised DSP chip set and not going with the typical Burr-Brown, Crystal, or Analoge Devices chip sets that were favored by most of the "me-too" digital designers.
I've been looking for a used BALANCED VERSION Gen V ever since and they are hard to get. They have a stong demand in the used market. I think most sysems would benefit from one.