Lexicon DC-1 or Theta Casa Nova

McIntosh amplification.....hehehehehehe?? What happend SFbaydude? your SFbaygerbils get out again when you were writing and you couldn't finish? Tell everyone what is wrong with Mac amps if you would and lock the cage before you do.

iam in the same place as you.i wish for a better stereo .i have the mc-1 with aragon amps to hales revelation speakers.i have arrived to the conclusion that separate sistems will give me the best.so i have decided to get a stereo pre-amp(i am between a used mark levinson or a sonic frontiers.)i would leave the dvd to the lexicon and the cd player to the pre-amp.then only change the interconects depending on what is to be used.for the future if the aragon is to be upgraded it can be left in the ht rig and then change the speaker cables.it is a pain but if you want the best.does anybody have a better solution.please let me know

AGA: We're in the same place, but I've got a DC-1. I assume you have Aragon Palladiums for the left and right channels which have only one input, either single ended or balanced, but not both. If you have an 8008BB the simple solution is to run two interconnects to it: one from the line pre-amp to the balanced inputs, and the other from MC-1 to the single ended one. I've never tried it, but I'm told this will work (obviously only running one preamp at a time). If you have Palladiums across the front (which I do), try a high quality stereo pre-amp for your CD or analog source, and run the L/R outputs from the MC-1 to one of the inputs on the stereo pre-amp. Someone referenced this earlier in this thread. Since the L/R from the home theater source will go through two rounds of preamplification, you'll need to carefully match the L/R levels to the rest of the HT system (via the volume control on stereo line pre-amp). You have also implicitly answered one of my questions, which is whether to invest in an MC-1 as an upgrade to the DC-1, if one of my goals is better 2 channel results. Sounds like you're still wrestling with the same dilemma, even with an MC-1. By the way, if you 2 channel source is purely digital, the MC-1 DACs are damn good, and there's not much signal processing (other than crossovers) which happens in the digital domain for 2 channel sound in the Lexicon. I'm not sure you'd do any better with a very good quality outboard DAC, and a high quality stereo line preamp, than you are doing with the MC-1 (unless you try something like the Wadia 270/27i combo, which includes it's own processor/volume control, etc). What would you propose to run as a DAC (or what preamp with a built-in DAC would you use) to improve on the MC-1 2 channel DAC?

Jdtuner: For interesting Lexicon chat you get to the SMR forum (#3) via . Other forums are useful too. Kgb540: Welcome to hi end audio. We don't need to flame each other. Mac amps are fine if you like the sound of them. Most of us are here to share experience, knowledge, guesses, whatever. The gerbil comment was really unwarranted. I've grown rather bored of those outside the sf bay area that think everyone here is gay. It expresses tremendous ignorance.

Aga's on the right path. I had a dealer that wanted to sell me an MC1 and a SimAudio pre that had the HT passthrough. Here's a post from another board explaining connections: Posted by Michael on November 05, 1999 at 07:45:21: In Reply to: Re: Need Help:How can I connect a pre to Theta Casanova posted by Joly on November 04, 1999 at 22:11:12: Joly, Are you attempting to add a dedicated 2 channel preamp where you would use the that unit for music and the CasaNova for HT? If that is the case, then it is not really not that hard to accomplish. You can do this in several different ways. One of the easiest ways is to purchase a 2 channel preamp that has a unity gain feature. A unity gain is essentially a pass through where the incoming signal is passed directly through without being affected by the gain of the preamp. Take the front L&R preamp outputs, from the CasaNova, and connect them to an input on the 2 channel preamp. Connect the preamp L&R outputs, from the 2 channel preamp, to your amp as usual. If the 2 channel preamp does not have a unity gain feature, then you could use the tape monitor capability and if all else fails, simply use any available input on the 2 channel preamp. In the last case, you will have to set the 2 channel preamp volume knob to a known position, which should be as high as possible, whenever you want to use the CasaNova, for HT. Also, keep in mind to calibrate the front L&R speaker levels, through the CasaNova, noting the volume knob position on the 2 channel preamp. I hope this helps. The url I posted for the smr forums didn't come through the message. I'll try again: http://www.smr-home-theatre.org