Decco from Preachtree audio


Anyone out there have any experience with the Decco? Its a 50 wpc tube hybrid integrated amp with a built in DAC (usb, coax, and optical) It can be used as a dac/pre as well. Very versatile. It looks like its geared toward the ipod generation. Not necessarily a bad thing. . . I'm wondering if it belongs in a high end two channel system. Or could it be a big bang for the buck at $799?
kenmknoxdc
Siriosys,

It has done very well so far but have honestly been spending a lot of time breaking in the whole system and waiting on my new tube before I get super critical with difficult passages but at this point I am very happy. I would guess much of that is going to depend on the speaker efficency of your speakers and how hard you are driving them. Low level resolution is good. I have to be careful to keep things in perspective as I am used to power cables costing more than the whole dog gone thing:) I am being totally honest when I tell you that I would have paid much more for the unit. By the way, it is drop dead beatiful. My wife love it. Huge kudos there
I have noticed with the current tube it can get a little congested at louder volumes with rock but with jazz is very good. This may be a function of the difficult load it is seeing. I am still optimistic the tube may clean a bit of that up as well. My guess is that if you used it with a reasonably high efficency speaker it would rock out.
Hi Jcaudio,

Awesome info! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so much......you're now making very very anxious to get my hands on one!! Hopefully my 87dB speakers will work reasonably well with the unit. Tell me, is your one black and silver or with a woodgrain finish? i've seen photos of a few woodgrain finishes and they look just gorgeous....you're so right with looks being a very important issue for WAF....then again, I'm a bit partial to the odd bit of Audio PrOn.

I'll be very interested to hear your comments once your new tube arrives. Listening volumes will be pretty low I would think, however nice to get it cranking a little every now and then. Do you use the nasty '5dB booster' switch at all? if so, was the sound improved with it, or just muddied with the bass being boosted.

Sorry to ask so many questions, but there seems to be very little info out there and the Peachtree website is pretty vague too. Will be interesting to see what 6moons makes of it as I see it's in the pipeline for them to review.

Cheers

Rob
I have the black case as my office is very monochrome. I do not use the booster as I hate "loudness controls" and infact use the pre out's to a sub anyway.
Well, after much debating, I purchased the Decco. I had high hopes, but it was not to be. When I opened the box, all seemed well. But after removing the unit and unpacking it, the first thing I noticed was that the bottom lip that protrudes out from the faceplate had something that looked like dirt on it. I tried to wipe it off carefully with my shirt, but it wouldnt come off. It just did not seem right, the rest of the case is pristine, yet this one area is all dirty, and in an obvious place. I did not let that deter me though. I plugged it in, and hooked up my playstation one cd player through the analog inputs. When I tried to turn the volume knob, it was frozen! It then loosened up a BIT, but was still really tight, and I tried to use the remote at this point: it would only advance the knob to around 9 o clock. When I turned the volume control with my hand past 9 o' clock and tried to adjust the volume down the knob remained stuck, and wouldnt do anything. The worst part: no music. Nothing. So today I packed it up and took it back, got my money back. I was going to swap it out for a different unit but after thinking it over, just couldnt endorse a company with such bad quality control. Never again made in China for me. I dont care how it is designed in the United States. The fact is that there was no quality control check on the unit I got. How could they pack it up in the condition I received it in? Don't they check them to make sure they work? Unreal.