Decco from Preachtree audio

Hey DJ, Sorry it took me so long to post regarding the amp section. I don't have any recent first hand experience with NAD, Jolida, Creek, Rotel, or Rega.

They all have excellent reputations, though.

So here goes. First, I have to make a correction on my system. My Chario Acedemy 2's are actually 83 to 84 db, not 86. A pretty difficult load to drive.
So, that said, comparing this little over achieving Decco to my $3k Audioprism high current tube amp is not really fair.

At first listen, its very articulate, solid imaging, reasonable power, and a little on the bright side compared with the tube amp.

As I listened for some time, some of its weaknesses were exposed. It just doesn't have the tone of tubes (I am an admittedly biased tube lover as you can tell) or the front to back imagery and sound stage. It also runs out of gas when when the going gets rough. Again, its not a fair match up to put this little guy with an 83 db speaker load. Matched with a more efficient speaker, it should yield much better results.

So I hooked my Audioprism back into the system for good.

I am still loving the decco as a dac/pre! Well worth the $800 price tag alone. I look at it as a bonus that it has an amp if I ever need to service my other amp.

Bottom line, this is a great foundation for an audiophile on a budget.
Hook up your computer and/or dvd player, get some decent speaker cable to your reasonably efficient speakers, and you've got a sweet little system that just about anyone would thoroughly enjoy.

Enjoy the music and don't get too caught up in this crazy disease/hobby! lol.

I'm seriously considering picking one up to compare to my Paradisea Dac/Nuforce processor combo. DAC isn't USB so I could also add in a Trends UD10.1 (or similar) to my current combo as well. I'd be money ahead selling the two and foregoing the Trends by going with the Decco.

I also have low db speakers down in the 80's from Selah Audio. And a Gemstone Blue Diamond amp. These would stay.

Hey Ken... Excellent, thanks for the review. I would be driving some new Paradigm Atoms v5... they are rated 90db I think.

Musicman... I would love that review... that is exactly what I have been wondering. Reason being... I could buy a Paradisea and a nice integrated for about the same price as the decco.

So... I wonder, with regards to performance, if it would be better to have a separate amp / DAC+pre-amp or a separate DAC / integrated amp...

I just picked up a Decco over the weekend. It was a total impulse buy at a local store. I had seen some good things online, and I figured I could use it in my office if it didn't work out at home.

Anyway, I'm really smitten. I've used it with Klipsch Fortes (very sensitive at about 99db) and Totem Arros (87db). It really rocks the Fortes, and it is pretty polite on the Arros.

I'm feeding it with a Cambridge 640A CD player, and I have tried both analog, coax and optical. Connecting Analog with audioquest turquoise and coax with Kimber Digital coax.

I prefer the DA converter in the Cambridge. It is a bit more airy and it really makes a difference with brushes on cymbals. The DA converter in the Decco is OK though, and without doing a bunch of A/B listening for about two hours on various source material, I wouldn't have minded the internal Decco DAC. And it isn't like a couldn't live with the internal DAC, just that I prefer the one in the Cambridge.

The USB DAC sounds very close to identical to the Coax DAC as far as I can tell. I'm using a windows laptop with ASIO drivers. I did some A/B testing from identical CD's, one in the Cambridge through the coax input and also through the USB port. (By the way, the DAC locks to the signal very fast, so there is barely any gap between the two sources.)

Finally, I also used it with my Aragon 4004, and I think I found its real niche. I wouldn't mind using it as a DAC/Pre, mating it with a nice amp. I am really impressed with what's possible for $800, and I'm thinking of it as buying a Pre/DAC and getting a little 50 watt amp for free.

Can anyone chime in on whether or not the Decco can be used strictly as a DAC into my existing preamp?

I JUST bought a preamp, and a new amp for that matter, and have no interest bypassing either one. I am however, in the market for a DAC. I am driven by sound quality, but size and nice design are equally important to me. The Decco appears to be small, and it is definitely one of the nicest, if not the nicest looking unit I've seen.

In a perfect world, Peachtree will release a stripped down dedicated version.