Would this be an upgrade?

I owned the Pro Basic IIIa for a few years. When I was deciding on which level of Theta I wanted I auditioned all of their products. IMHO the Pro Basic IIIa was clearly superior to the Pro Prime IIa. If the Pro Prime IIa is a 6, then the Pro Basic IIIa is an 8. I was a very happy customer and appreciated the 'drive' and 'pace' that came out of the Theta products. I drove mine however with the Theta transport and do not know anything about the Sony as a transport.

Jim,

I have owned the balanced version of the Theta Miles and the Sony DVP-S9000ES. I agree that the Theta was far superior to the Sony for redbook playback. I also used the Sony with a very good DAC and Digital cable (Birdland Odeon Lite, Nordost Silver Shadow) and I feel the Theta was still better.

The Sony is a nice unit, but it is not up to the level of the Theta or my current CD player (Cary CD-308). Even as a transport, I preferred my Theta vs the Sony.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

TIC

Jim, I had both the Prime IIa and Basic IIIa as my main Dacs running off a Data Basic II transport. The sonic difference is most noticeable where runs of notes are played closely together. For example, on the song Glad from Traffic's John Barleycorn, over the IIIa the recurring piano riff takes on added dimension. The riff sounds more cascading than before, the individual notes more identifiable, its musical identity more evident. The IIIa also lets you hear more deeply into densely layered mixes. For example, on the Beatles Abbey Road version of Here Comes the Sun, it's easier to latch on to the electronic keyboard part. It's not that it sounds louder in the mix but the increased clarity allows you to follow this sometimes buried melody all the way through. When I first heard it through the IIIa it was exciting, like a new discovery.

One could say the Basic IIIa dissembles the performance more, making each part more distinguishable from another. By comparison, because it doesn't call attention to these fine details, the Prime IIa sounds more relaxed. Which one is more "correct" is anybody's guess. Bottom line and maybe most importantly, the move to the Basic IIIa ended my search for something better than the IIa. If you go that way, let's hear how the IIIa mates using the Sony as a transport.

SONY DVP 9000ES even as SACD player is inferior to 7 years old ARCAM CD player (long time ago I have tried this CD Player Arcam Alpha 6 with some Theta DAC - do not recall which one, and it was far beyond reach of SONY) not surprising if Arcam alone was better/equal then SACD, more details you can read here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1046465483&read&3&4&

SONY S9000ES is pretty sensitive to power cable (& therefore power conditioning). You may try different cables with it. Did not own THETA, many think they are good tranports. As a CD player, S9000ES can't compete with those top rated ones. As a SACD player, Only better SACD players or >6K range CD players can beat it.
I will not count one or two specific CD/SACD to do comparison for hi-fi gears. You need to live with them for a few months, rotating enough CD's or LP's on them. During that time, you might find easy tweak to improve them for fair comparison. So my trying period is usually two months at least. For example, ARC DAC5 did not impress me in the beginning. Then, I found canare digital cable with BNC connector feeding to DAC5's input(also BNC), that improve sound significantly and BNC/RCA adaptor is the cause of sound degradation. Another example, I leveled Accuphase transport and add isolation foot after first month, which greatly improve the sound. I have been living with S9000ES for >1 year now. Try other transport/DAC from ML, ARC, Accuphase, P1/P3... (either bought or borrow). For redbook, of course S9000ES is not as good as others. But compare SACD with CD playback. I would say those redbook gears are getting close but not better. Never hear ARCAM, can't comment. If it is that good, why it did not kill all the giants 7 years ago.