The Yggy is slated for Q1 2015. If we are lucky.

Ygg at Q1 2015? Very optimistic.

With this and the Yggy (as I would expect), the DAC journey pretty much ends for me and I'll be closing out that HF DAC thread with a new class E (Excellent), throw three DACs (two vintage, one new) in that category, and leave it be.

Very optimistic here, too.

Joking aside, thank you for the impression. It's really hard to see any recent impressions for vintage DACs.

The Gen V/a was a goodie. Do you know what the output voltage is? That's the only concern with some Theta stuff, the normally sky high output voltage. Makes them perfectly suited for passive pres though. Prices are now pretty reasonable particularly compared to the big dog Levinson DACs, but they seem to have gotten more scarce lately. The other issue is that Theta will no longer service them, or upgrade you from a V to Va.

"The analog section of the Generation V A contains 52 transistors. Through a laborious process, six matched octal sets (totaling 48 transistors) plus the remaining four uncritical transistors are now installed in every analog board. This matching process includes testing tens of thousands of devices and then hand selecting the ones that meet stringent criteria. The result of this work is a sweeter, more detailed presentation and less listener fatigue.

"In-depth research into analog filters has also wrought surprising improvements. In a digital-to-analog converter, it is imperative to filter out the sampling and higher frequencies from the analog output. Our previous designs have implemented inductors to achieve this effect. Recently, we found that the elimination of the inductors improved sonics as long as the filtering was properly performed. New filter topologies that are just as effective at eliminating the sampling frequency yet do not utilise inductors were created. Wima capacitors were found to be complementary to the new filter topology. The sonic improvements are not subtle. Less sibilance, tighter image focus and better tonal quality are immediately apparent.

"Theta Digital has always been at the forefront of jitter-reduction technology, the first implementation of which occurred in the original DS Pre. From that time on, we have continued our research into the effects of jitter and the meaning of lower jitter specifications to reproduced sound. A PLL works by continuously comparing an input signal (in this case the word clock which has been extracted from the SPDIF data stream) to a controllable oscillator's output and then producing an error signal which corrects the oscillator's frequency to precisely match the incoming signal. Some of the timing errors (jitter) present in the incoming data stream are always 'passed through' the correction part of the circuit and, as a result, adversely effect the oscillators output. The trick in PLL design is to minimize these jitter effects while allowing the correction part of the circuit to perform properly. A result of our more recent research into this area is the third part of the 'A' improvement. A more seamless sound, along with more detail are the most obvious improvements that come with the new PLL.

"The final part of the 'A' version of the Generation V is a new algorithm. Approximately two years ago our algorithm designer proposed the idea of adding dither to the program run in the Gen V. This, he proposed, would make the D/A converters operate in a more linear fashion at lower levels. Since that time, continuous listening tests based on dither variations have been conducted. The product of those tests is the new algorithm. Better low level resolution and better decay are clearly evident with the new program."

I swear there was one of these on Ebay a couple of days ago... now all I can find is a Prime II.  I don't know enough (read: anything) about the old Theta stuff  to know if it's a good deal or not.

I have a Ragnarok on the way (I think... haven't head anything in 2 weeks), but the only DAC I have at the moment is an OptiModi.  Plan is to wait for Yggdrasil, but Q1 is a long way away.  I also can't find a Gungnir to save my fucking life... Should I just get this Prime II?

Gah.

 

Nice write up, again!

Did any of you guys listen to the Mark Levinson No. 36(S) and 360(S)?
Those can be had for $2,200 - $3,000 and I wonder how they would fare against the other vintage DACs of the mid-90s?

The original 36 IIRC was actually on the warm side, but also a little dull. I can't recall if it was PCM63 or UA based. Not really worth it unless you can find one at an extreme bargain and you just want to play with it.

The 360 switched to quad PCM1704s, and is one of my favorite DACs. The flavor is different from a Gen V, but it's still a very nice, balanced and enjoyable sounding DAC with drive and punch that was missing in the 36. The main issue is price. Some folks are still trying to get $3500+ for a 360 which is just too much. $2500 is more like it. $3K will get you a Spectral SDR-2000 which will beat up a 360 easily. The Spectral can take on Levinson's big gun 30.5 and 30.6 which cost twice as much on the used market.

Love it.  Vintage DACs FTW!  I keep a pcm63p-k, pcm1702, pcm1704, and UA2000 DAC in my possession at all times. 

I saw a Theta Gen Va go for crazy money on ebay over the weekend, it was in need of repairs even so I hope whomever bought it must know what they're getting into.

What the heck happened to the SFD-1?? Makes me worried as the SFD-2 is en-route to me from pcx as we speak.

Also FWIW, I have never heard a Theta Gen Va but in my experiences so far with the vintage DAC game there is no necessarily "this one destroys all" for me yet.  For an example, the Assemblage DAC 3.0 sounds absolutely killer in my bedside dynamic rig while it sounds like ass in my Stax rig.  In that Stax rig I have to run the dac-2000 because it is the least offensive to my ears striking a very good balance of tonality but rolling off some detail.  I'm hoping the SFD-2 can take the qualities I like to a new level while getting back some detail.