[Sonnova]

On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 08:11:42 -0700, ST wrote
(in article ):

3 days ago I decided to hook up my old Theta DS Pro Gen III DAC to my
Marantz SA11s2 just for the fun of it. To my surprise it sounded
better (more to my liking) then SA11s2. Theta used Motorola 56001s,
30.0000mhz Rubidium clock, PCM63K and AD841 Op-Amp. So my question is
how could an old DAC out perform a new reasonably well designed
Marantz?

Is it possible CD format technology already matured long time ago and
there's nothing new can really improve the sound?

ST

Well, it's a question of the details. I have a 9-year old Sonic Frontiers DAC
2.6. I've upgraded the OP-Amp in it and added a 96 KHz up-converter and it
sounds better than most CD players, it certainly sounds better than my Otari
professional DAT recorder's built-in DAC, but it's much more carefully made
with better quality parts than those used in most stand-alone players.

Now your Theta, IIRC was a very expensive piece of kit. The Marantz, is also
expensive (My 2009 Music Direct catalog has it priced at $3500) and probably
up-converts standard Redbook CDs to DSD before decoding them (my Sony XA777ES
SACD deck does this too) and should sound very good, so the difference
between the two is probably a matter of taste on your end. Had you tried
comparing the Theta with all of the SA11s2's switchable noise shaping digital
filters? You may find one that's more to your liking. I did this with my Sony
and it's the only digital component I have that doesn't play through my
DAC2.6 (I even play my Apple Lossless Compression files out of my Apple TV
box through the DAC2.6).