Poor_airman, perhaps my experience can lend some helpful input. I was just recently in exactly the same general situation. I'd saved up about $1500 for an upgrade, and my current system pointed strongly towards upgrading the front end. For years I'd been reticent to do because digital technology changes so fast that I'd always been reluctant to pop for anything special fearing that it would be too quickly outdated. Nevertheless, the time had come. I did what I usually do: with a $1500 budget I spent $1750 on a balanced Theta DS Pro Gen Va with 24/96 upgrade and several optional optical inputs. My suggestion is to give a careful listen to DS Pro Gen Va w/24/96 upgrade. For those who want to know why I made my decision, read on. I came to this purchase after a long journey of listening and speculating.
I compared an Assemblage 3.3 to an Accuphase setup at a friend’s, and while the Assemblage was awfully good for the $’s it still wasn’t competitive with the much pricier, and much older, Accuphase. Based on the same logic, I believe that the Theta, which I was never able to compare directly to the Assemblage or other similar high performance mid-highend pieces, was the way to go. I realize the Theta may not deliver the performance of the Accuphase, but in my experience with both I don’t believe it will be too far off the mark if it falls short at all. The used Theta, BTW—even with 24/96 upgrade—is a lot cheaper than a new 3.3. I also included in my decision the speculation that when the 3.3’s successor was available the used retail of the 3.3 would be much lower than that of the Theta (i.e. I believe the Theta is a much better store of financial value). Of course, it’s only the sound that matters. If after a comparison you were to prefer the 3.3 to the Theta, buy the 3.3 and forget about my speculation of its used retail value. I believe I will prefer the Theta, so the resale thing just helps resolve the any remaining cognitive dissonance. Another thing I should make you aware of is that I’ve heard the Theta many times and have always been stunned by its spectacular musicality. This also reveals a “prejudice,” if you will, on my part in that I have always loved the Theta DS Pro Gen X (no pun intended) sound.
The Theta is upgradeable, and its build and parts quality far surpass pieces in the $2 to $3 thousand range. With the 3.3 experience in mind, and after hearing an unmodified S9000 ES, which IMHO was un-involving on Red Book (i.e. my entire present 500+ CD music library), and other single boxes at a similar price point over the preceding year, I was able to unequivocally decide on the Theta. If you ditch the balanced outputs and optional optical inputs a 24/96 DS Pro Gen Va should be had for $1500 or less.
I was reluctant to make the 3.3 comparison, but it was part of my (possibly flawed) decision process. I would like to say that the 3.3 is a truly excellent sounding piece, and maybe in a different system my impressions would have been different. I used it as a benchmark for what I consider to be the new class of over-performers and to that extent I used it as the representative for the whole class/group. I have not heard all in this class, and it’s possible that I would have made a different decision if I had a chance to do so.
