  |
|||
| R
e v i e w s |
|||
|
Digital
A/V Controllers Power
Amplifiers Transport
& Players |
|||
|
Privacy
Policy | Terms of Use |
|||
|
  |
|
SO DAZZLING WAS THETA'S FIRST AMPLIFIER, THE DREADNAUGHT, THAT I ENDED THE HFN MARCH 2000 REVIEW WITH, "IT'S A ******G MASTERPIECE." But there was a catch, price aside: the Dreadnaught measures an absurd 450x215x610mm deep including the fittings. In my lounge, the amp would jut out into the room, infuriating my wife and endangering my son, who would be bound to trip over it. If, that is, I could fit it under the shelving system I use. And why would that be a 'must'? Because the sucker weighs just over 100lbs...
But a solution has appeared: Theta reduced everything to come up with the sweet little Intrepid, with 5x100W in 8 ohm/200W into 4 ohm, similar in width but height a tad under 150mm, and with a more manageable depth of 485mm. The price? A drop from the five-channel Dreadnaught's £6899 to a more attainable £4298. In every respect, it looks like a scaled down Dreadnaught. All comments about its aesthetics are as per the Dreadnaught, which I thought was one of the most beautiful amplifiers I've ever seen. It's available in silver or black; I'm partial to the former. As with its big brother, even the top panel has been styled to please, its ventilation slots shaped into a pretty pattern in contrast to wire mesh or plain perforations. Intrepid's front panel is a mini-version of the Dreadnaught's curved, satin finish sections. Between them is a flat panel containing two LEDs and a large, soft-touch mains button. AC on/off is via a rocker at the back. One LED goes from red in stand-by to green in 'on' mode; the second, marked 'thermal', switches on should any channel rise above the maximum operating temperature.
Less cluttered at the back than the Dreadnaught (you lose out on the big amp's two-channel bypass 'stereo bus'), the Intrepid's hind section contains only the five vertical rows of connectors - speaker binding posts, single-ended RCA phono inputs and XLR balanced inputs - plus the aforementioned primary AC on/off and an I EC 3-pin mains input. Also fitted are sockets for remote triggering in custom install systems, for use with Theta processors, etc. Slotted straight into my AV system, the Theta drove a pair of Martin Logan Ascents, Theatre centre-channel and a pair of Scenarios at the back. Feeding it was Rotel's RSP-976 AV processor and RDV-1080 DVD-Video/DVD-Audio player: both featured in the November issue, and they thus provided plenty of opportunities to
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
