Theta Digitalís Casablanca Surround Processor Focus Is Good Sound By Gary Reber
During a visit to the Theta Digital Corporation in Agoura Hills, California I was shown the impressive manufacturing operations of this small company dedicated to building no-compromise quality components for music and home theatre. During my visit I was taken through the build process of Thetaís new Casa Novaô Music and Cinema Controller, unquestionably one of the finest surround processors on the market. The Casa Novaís ""open architecture"" design is unique among music reproduction and home theatre processing equipment, making personal optimization as easy as ""plug and play."" Theta provides a long list of options for maximum flexibility and upgradability that allow its customers to tailor their system to individual requirements. Each unit comes with a build-specific report tracked by serial number, which becomes a permanent record of the customerís options and upgrades. The attention to detail and build quality is impressive. Some of the extra-cost options that can be ordered with the base unit ($1,500) are 6-channel single-ended D/A cards with input and output boards, combined Dolby Digital/DTS Digital Surround processor board, Dolby Digital processor board, DTS processor board, Circle Surround/Spatializer processor board, digital output cards, video switching board and others. In addition to the very complete options list offering, Thetaís build structure can accommodate future system enhancements such as DVD-Audio, MLP, SACD, Surround EX, etc. Thetaís flagship Casablanca (base price $3,495) offers even more options, ultra premium parts and a level of audiophile performance that is state-of-the-art. We will be reviewing in a future issue of Widescreen Review the Casa Nova along with Thetaís new flexible multichannel power amplifier, the Dreadnaught, and the Voyager, Thetaís premium performance universal digital transport, which will accommodate DVD-Audio. For more information, phone Mary Cardas at 818 597 9195 or visit Theta Digital on the Web at www.thetadigital.com or e-mail thetadig@aol.com.