Help a new guy get started

Allen, the only thing you will lose out on if you were to go with say, that DacMagic and an integrated of some kind, is the dac in the Decco. Those dacs that are inside that amp are supposedly worth the price of the entire amp alone, at retail. Not to mention the sound of the dac is outstanding and you'll save on interconnects.

I would just say get the Decco and then when you are comfortable enough with its sound characteristics and you know that amp inside and out and what kind of options you have with it, then you can easily go out and start picking up other amps and try customizing the sound. You may find you like the Decco as it is.

But since you really are starting out, I'd certainly keep it simple. And it'll give you a nice starting reference point with which to grow. Either way, in due time you'll start expanding on it and you might not appreciate spending $4-7K on a starting stereo when you could have had the sound you wanted for $2K.

Regards

Just to add another possible direction, at the risk of angering the townspeople, what about sinking your budget into the best active monitors your money will buy? Since you're going out and auditioning, tuck your source under your arm and plug it into a few monitor systems. What have you got to lose? If you want a discrete system later, the monitors will easily come in handy in another room.

Thanks for the idea Poprhetor,
I spent some time really looking at the Swans active monitors because, as is stated earlier in the posts, I plan to use my laptop for lots of the content. I decided against it because I didn't want to have to have my laptop tethered to them. I'd also have to get DAC as well. If I worked in an office I'd really pursue that idea.

Any advice on speakers to go with them? I'll have about $500 tops after purchasing the Decco 2.

hi, your room isn,t too big so possibly a used pr of bookshelf speakers by a good manufacturer would get you into something that would really sound great. the decco origonally had a 5db boost button to roll the bass up at low listening levels. if you like loud music i would look at effecient speakers. my decco has nasty clipping when over driven. but with 4 ohm mb quart towers it plays plenty loud.

Hotmailjbc,
I was looking at the PSB B6s (6 ohm) or Polk Rti6s (8 ohm) to match with the Decco 2. I was shying away from the PSBs because of the 6 ohm rating. Are you saying that even though the amp isn't very powerful, it is stable enough to 4 ohm quarts?

Allen