Theta DS Pro Prime DAC

Here we have a DS Pro Prime D/A Processor, or DAC, as we tend call them, from American specialists Theta Digital. It comes in good fully working condition, with just a few light marks on the fascia of the unit – please see photographs. It will be professionally packaged and comes with our usual 3 month warranty.
Theta Digital Say….
The DS Pro Prime was introduced in May of 1991. One-bit technology was headline news around this time. It was touted by major hi-fi manufacturers as being the next revolution in digital sound. They said multi-bit technology was dead. Theta’s design team tried this new technology in high-performance designs and found it smooth sounding but lacking in aliveness, dynamics, and bass. They envisioned one-bit technology as a palliative for less expensive products. Most inexpensive CD players and outboard D to A converters sounded shrill and harsh. The smoothness of the one-bit D to A could be implemented to reduce “glare” and other irritating characteristics, to bring new musicality to otherwise unacceptable components. It meant Theta had something to offer in a price realm previously thought hopelessly compromised.
The Prime was similar to the Basic in construction, different in circuit design. It had a single circuit board which contained the power supply, digital and analogue sections. The digital section employed a single Motorola 56001 microprocessor running at 30 MHz. It was a 4x-oversampling unit and thus didn’t have the huge amount of information presented in the Basic or the Generation III. Compared to other D to A converters in its price class, however, it was nothing short of a miraculous improvement. Where previously there was only harsh, strident sound, lacking in detail, there was now musicality and enjoyment.
Specifications:
4x-oversampling software-based D/A processor with Bitstream DAC
Digital filter: 4x-oversampling Theta composite filter using one Motorola 56001 DSP chip.
D/A conversion: 64x-oversampling Philips Bitstream DAC
Frequency response: DC–20kHz +0dB, –0.4dB
THD+N: 104dB at 1kHz referenced to full scale
Output impedance: 50 ohms
Dimensions: 483 (W) x 267 (D) x 64 (H) mm
Weight: 6.35 kg

To read a review from US magazine Stereophile please click here