Sugith,
That is really too bad. I happened to be in an audition room this week with a Decco using a modest Panasonic BluRay player as the source and connected to Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Baby grand speakers, and again (once set up properly) I was knocked out by the Decco's capability. I am very interested in this unit and am wondering if your bad experiences with quality are unique or common?
Interestingly, the system I auditioned was set up with analog out of the BDP and the bass eq. button engaged on the back of the Decco. The result was a somewhat duller and muddier sound than I had recalled the first few times I had heard the unit. I had the salesman connect the digital out on the BDP to the Decco via a simple coaxial connection and the sound quality improvement was profound. Turning off the bass eq. cleaned the sound up considerably more, and the system sounded even better than I remembered. Jennifer Warnes' version of the "Ballad of a Runaway Horse" sparkled coming out of this system with space and nuance galore.
My conclusion is that the DAC in the Decco is very good and well integrated with the preamp and amplifier sections. I was frankly surprised that the $800 hybrid amp could drive the $2000 speakers to high sound levels without having the sound fall apart or become noticeably compressed in the large listening space. Add a computer or an iPod and some good speakers and for a small to medium listening space you are in business.
One final comment. The dealer who was selling the Decco clearly thinks they have a winner on their hands, displaying it in a prominent place in their shop and pairing it with some very well made and nice sounding speakers. Why they would tie its acoustic hands behind it back with two analogue cables from a cheap source is beyond me? The change from analogue-in to digital-in on the Decco was like going from low fi to hi fi - go figure...
That is really too bad. I happened to be in an audition room this week with a Decco using a modest Panasonic BluRay player as the source and connected to Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Baby grand speakers, and again (once set up properly) I was knocked out by the Decco's capability. I am very interested in this unit and am wondering if your bad experiences with quality are unique or common?
Interestingly, the system I auditioned was set up with analog out of the BDP and the bass eq. button engaged on the back of the Decco. The result was a somewhat duller and muddier sound than I had recalled the first few times I had heard the unit. I had the salesman connect the digital out on the BDP to the Decco via a simple coaxial connection and the sound quality improvement was profound. Turning off the bass eq. cleaned the sound up considerably more, and the system sounded even better than I remembered. Jennifer Warnes' version of the "Ballad of a Runaway Horse" sparkled coming out of this system with space and nuance galore.
My conclusion is that the DAC in the Decco is very good and well integrated with the preamp and amplifier sections. I was frankly surprised that the $800 hybrid amp could drive the $2000 speakers to high sound levels without having the sound fall apart or become noticeably compressed in the large listening space. Add a computer or an iPod and some good speakers and for a small to medium listening space you are in business.
One final comment. The dealer who was selling the Decco clearly thinks they have a winner on their hands, displaying it in a prominent place in their shop and pairing it with some very well made and nice sounding speakers. Why they would tie its acoustic hands behind it back with two analogue cables from a cheap source is beyond me? The change from analogue-in to digital-in on the Decco was like going from low fi to hi fi - go figure...