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2010 Golden Ear Awards
Stereo : Multichannel Audio : Music
The Absolute Sound |
Peachtree Audio iDecco $999 : Chris Martens |
| The first component to which I'll give TAS Golden Ear Award is Peachtree Audio's remakeble iDecco hybrid integrated amplifier / DAC / iPod dock. In a nutshell, what makes the IDecco noteworthy is that it not only plays is a lot of roles, but plays each of them amazingly well, For just a tick under a grand, the iDecco is the veritable all-purposs player of high-end audio, serving as a high-quality preamplifier with a user-selectable solid-state or tube-powered output stage; a Class A tube-powered headphone amplifier; a digital-not analog-iPod dock; a 96/24-capable DAC, based in the sophisticated ESS Sabre DAC, with switch-selectable USB, S/PDIF, TosLink, and iPod inputs; and a hybrid 40Wpc integrated amplifier. Frankly. the iDecco is so good at what it does that you'd pay its asking price for any one of its functions. But the great news is that you get them all for $999, which almost defies belief. In the 1970s, NAD's affordable 3020 amplifier showed many of us the musical possibilities of the high end. For the 21st Century, that torch has been passed to Peachtree's iDecco. (Reviewed on AVguide.com |
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