Theta Digital's Carmen II DVD player and Casablanca II Extreme processor

In almost every product ever produced, performance is compromised. The few creations that dare to grasp for perfection—cost, and sometimes day-to-day functionality, be damned—are often derided by skeptics and cheapskates. Others, though, consider them inspired exercises in engineering indulgence, and will settle for nothing less.

The Carmen II has unusual buttons that tailor its video processing to your program material. (Click image to enlarge)

Do you fall into the second group? We hope so. And so does Theta Digital, which has clearly built its top-of-the-line home theater products with the uncompromising customer in mind. The company’s new DVD player, the Carmen II, features improvements in areas that mass-market manufacturers have, perhaps too hastily, declared perfected. Theta’s Casablanca II surround-sound preamp/processor, available in various forms for several years, has been upgraded with the Extreme package, which echoes the over-the-top engineering and performance that made mid-’90s Theta products such a hit with audiophiles.

Carmen II DVD/CD player
Theta’s new Carmen II is almost a complete revision of its previous well-regarded Carmen DVD/CD transport, using a new DVD board and drive, a new power supply and new audio and video circuits to upgrade what had already been a fairly formidable tool for video and audio enthusiasts.

Unlike more mundane DVD players, the Carmen II features separate lasers for DVD and CD, picking the proper laser depending on what kind of media you insert. The Carmen II incorporates numerous improvements intended to enhance picture and sound. These include mechanical tweaks to the drive itself, a special analytical circuit to overcome smudges, dust and scratches on your discs, a much larger and better-shielded power supply to minimize interference, and a reclocking circuit that ensures the timing of digital audio data coming out of the Carmen II is absolutely perfect. The reclocking circuit cannot improve the sound quality of Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks on DVDs, but it does have the potential to improve CD sound.

Click here for a review of Theta's Dreadnaught II amplifier.

Theta includes Faroudja Labs’ DCDi deinterlacing chip, which provides a 480-line progressive-scan output. Most decent DVD players these days have progressive-scan output, but with the Faroudja chip, the quality of that output is visibly, and obviously, improved.

The Casablanca IIs remote, while simple, is far from elegant. (Click image to enlarge)

Pick up this 23-pound unit, available in black or silver, and you know this is no electronics superstore DVD player. It looks just as sturdy as it feels, with minimalist round buttons, some of which control unusual functions such as Motion, Film and Animation (these optimize the Faroudja processing for different types of program material). This player carries no frills; everything seems designed for performance. The outputs include a few high-end options at the expense of lesser ports. Audio outputs are digital-only. Video outputs include all the normal types plus five-wire BNC RGB and 15-pin D connector RGB, both of which make it easier to interface the Carmen II with a video projector. Theta offers an optional SDI port, which will allow you to input directly an uncompressed digital video stream into a digital display. Most people will control this unit with a Crestron touchscreen or like device, so it seems silly to quibble about the nothing-special remote.

As we begin testing the Carmen II’s video, a few things become immediately clear. As in sharper, that is. Compared to a normal, mass-market DVD player, the Carmen II immediately displays less noise and more picture detail. The difference is evident on a resolution chart, but more importantly, it is evident when we watch movies. With the Animation setting activated, Monsters Inc. has a warmer look, but detail pops off the screen. In Film mode, we see good color fidelity and extra detail. Even without using the external scaler we normally employ, running the Carmen II’s signal directly to the DreamVision projector reviewed elsewhere in this issue via an RGB cable, the difference is evident. Most people will prefer to use an external scaler to enhance picture quality, but the Carmen II does a heck of a job in generating a clean 480-lineprogressive picture on its own.

The Carmen II comes with a generic, throwaway remote control, but most owners will provide a more capable and presentable touchscreen remote. (Click image to enlarge)

If anything, the audible improvements are even more obvious. Whether we listen to Vivaldi, Queen’s classic A Night At The Opera or Good Charlotte’s pop-punk The Young and Hopeless, the soundstage, detail and clarity were all vastly improved compared to playing CDs in a run-of-the-mill DVD player.

Casablanca II Extreme Preamp/Processor

The Casablanca II must be the most option-laden preamp/processor extant. It is constructed much like a PC, with various cards that swap in and out to provide the desired functionality.

The basic model is designed for “standard” sound quality, Theta’s “standard” being better than many manufacturers’ “best.” The next step up is fully balanced output, which doubles up the output circuitry so that both the positive and negative parts of the signal get their own processing and amplification. Fully balanced output is rare even in high-end professional audio gear. However, Theta offers yet a third option—Extreme, which of course is what we requested for review. Extreme is an improved version of the balanced configuration, with even better components and construction. Your installer can specify a combination of standard, balanced and Extreme, so you can optimize the sound in the channels you consider most important. You can also get any number of channels from two to eight, with up to four subwoofer channels.

Similarly, the Casablanca II’s video switching capability is configured exactly as youdesire. Depending on the cards installed, it handles any combination of composite, S-video and component or RGB video signals. Boards are also available to accept any conceivable type of digital audio signal.

What the Casablanca does not offer, at least at the time this review is written, is the latest and greatest in surround-sound technology. Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, DTS and Circle Surround (an option) are present, as are a few extra surround-sound modes Theta cooked up, but missing are the more advanced forms of DTS (6.1-channel ES and the new 24/96 DTS) and Dolby (6.1-channel EX and Pro Logic II). Theta promises that existing Casablancas will be able to upgrade to these technologies, and says it is currently working on such a project. Meanwhile, the Casablanca II does offer an optional 6.1-channel mode, using Circle Surround to produce the extra surround channel. The processor also lacks a six-channel input for DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD, although Theta will offer an outboard adapter soon.

The Casablanca IIs Extremes large chassis is not filled with air—it is packed with high-end audio circuitry, including fully balanced digital-to-analog conversion. (Click image to enlarge)

We only occasionally miss having EX and ES, and we can live without DVD-A and SACD for the moment, but we do miss having Dolby Pro Logic II. Pro Logic II gives you 5.1-channel surround sound from stereo CDs, FM, TV broadcasts, VHS tapes, etc. It sounds great with practically any stereo material. Circle Surround is an older technology that does the same thing, but not as well—the surround speakers tend to “flash” on and off suddenly, cymbals in our favorite jazz recordings jump between the two surround speakers, and to our ears, the sound is never quite coherent.

The Casablanca II’s menu system differs so much from other surround processors’ menus that even after a month, we still fumble around when trying to change the Casablanca II’s configuration. Its remote is a bare-bones affair, meant only to transfer its codes to a programmable, touchscreen remote, then retire to a drawer.

Theta makes no pretense of ergonomic appeal; the company states flat out that the Casablanca II requires professional installation. Depending on the talents of your installer, the Casablanca II could turn out to be remarkably easy to use. It has so many capabilities—including an RS-232 interface that can access every single function, and several unique setup options—that it has the potential to work exceptionally smoothly with a Crestron or AMX touchscreen controller.

The Casablanca II’s interesting features fill three pages of our notes, but one stands out: its bass-management system. A bass management system filters the bass out of your small speakers and routes it to your large speakers or your subwoofer. The Casablanca II’s bass management system is vastly more advanced than any other we have seen. Each set of speakers—front left and right, center, surrounds, and subwoofer—can be set with a different crossover frequency, a different crossover slope (how quickly the filter works as the frequency of sound decreases), and a different crossover response (the character of the filter’s effect as the frequency of sound changes). Theta’s manual clearly explains all of this to your installer, but we find it surprisingly easy to play around with the different settings and fine-tune our speaker system’s bass response to a degree impossible with any other surround-sound processor we have tried.

Capable as this processor is, its sound quality makes its feature list seem unimportant. We were unprepared for the improvement we heard when switching from a respected, midpriced pre/pro to the Casablanca II Extreme. Usually, switching to a higher-end product improves one or two aspects of the sound. Switching to the Casablanca II improved nearly every aspect of the sound. Delicate high-frequency sounds—cymbals, strummed acoustic guitars, flutes—took on new life, sounding clearer, more natural and dramatically more lush and three-dimensional. Voices achieved new realism, making us reconsider our previous standards of excellence. Most important, instruments, voices, and movie sound effects seemed more to exist in the room than to emanate from speakers.

Some elite audio/video products are all talk and no action. The Carmen II and Casablanca II Extreme are all action. If we made a short list of the best home theater products on the planet, these would certainly occupy a space near the top.

DESCRIPTION
Carmen II: DVD/CD player. Plays DVD-Video , CD, CD-R and MP3 CD. Casablanca II: Surround-sound preamp/processor. Decodes surround sound, controls volume, routes audio and video from source devices (DVD, VCR, etc.) to TV, amplifier and speakers.

CONNECTIONS
Carmen II: 5-wire BNC and 15-pin D-sub RGB/component video outputs, two S-video outputs, composite video output; coaxial, BNC and AES/EBU digital audio outputs.
Casablanca II: (as configured) Six A/V inputs (all with composite video, coaxial digital audio and analog audio; four with S-video; two with Toslink optical digital audio. Auxiliary digital audio inputs for RF (from laserdisc), AES/EBU, BNC coaxial and Toslink. Two outputs each for S-video, composite video, coaxial digital audio and analog audio. XLR and RCA analog audio outputs for six channels plus three subwoofers. 1/8-inch jacks for remote power control, external remote control signal receiver, and three 12-volt triggers to control lighting, motorized screen, etc. 9-pin D-sub connector and RJ-45 connectors for external RS-232 control.

DIMENSIONS
Carmen II, 4 x 19 x 13 inches; Casablanca II, 7.5 x 19 x 16 inches (h/w/d)

SURROUND MODES
Dolby Digital and Pro Logic, DTS, Circle Surround Movie and Music modes, plus party mode (all speakers on) and Theta matrix mode.

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: Carmen II, $3,850, Casablanca II Extreme, $15,000 as configured.
CONTACT: 818-597-9195
www.thetadigital.com