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Bel Canto DAC3 vs Theta Gen Viii

The transport is Bel Canto CD2, so the easiest guess might be using the same company's DAC3 which seems to be very well regarded. I am even thinking of the Underwood-modified DAC3 for further improvement.

Then the Theta Gen Viii which shows up on the audiogon once in a while. Yes, it's more expensive but it can also eliminate the preamp. And I am happy to reduce the number of equipments.

The Underwood site claims their modifed DAC3 can compete with $10,000-range DACs, and the Theta is really a $10,000 product...:)

Anyone heard both? How do they compare? I'll welcome other suggestions too. I'm interested in the overall sound quality but my priority is in the decent reproduction of big orchestral music.

Thank you.
jhyang

Showing 3 responses by honest1

honest1
586 posts
 
Cytocycle - what else have you compared your Theta to? Anything from Wadia? How did they all fare?
honest1
586 posts
 
Thanks for the info, Cytocycle. One of the things I was hoping to improve over my current GNSC modified Wadia 850 (and was hoping the Theta might be the one to do it) was in the sense of airiness and spaciousness. I had heard a Simaudio player that had a sense of airiness and breathing that is hard to describe that was better than the Wadia, but it was not as good as the Wadia in other ways. I attriuted htis to better very high frequency performance of the Simaudio. It sounds like the Theta might not be the improvement I'm looking for, though, as it sounds like you're saying the Wadia has a better top end than the Theta, although the Theta is better across the rest of the frequency band. Am I reading you correctly? Thanks for the info.
honest1
586 posts
 
How much of a difference do people hear when switching between Jitter Jail and Reclocking on the GenVIII?
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