Which to buy Peachtree Decco 2 or DacMagic?

The Decco I auditioned would have smoked my Dacmagic left right and centre.  The built in headamp will also smoke quite a few 500 dollar headamps quite easily.  The Peachtree should be a lot more popular than it is at head-fi.  Its a perfectly thought out product.

I once had the opportunity to have dialog with Jim Spainhour of PeachTree audio....great guy.  I think their products are just slightly too different looking and are slightly less understood in terms of functionality.

I went to a Brick-n-Mortar shop here in Atlanta that sold Peachtree products.  The product was in the corner not even plugged in, being used as decoration.  The dealer seemed totally uninterested being still hooked-on-hometheater.

This was my advise to Jim;

"FYI, The Peachtree name is already established...think low cost volume, remember the average Joe is happy with MP3's. Developing your brand image does not have to mean you cater only to the "Audiophile" market."

This was to say, create a scaled back product to cater to NuForce Icon group...ie low cost, something anyone can afford.  This will open up more doors to their higher priced products when the average Joe buys the lower priced product, and studies the whole product line.  Its a proven sales technique, 99cent burgers are just to get you in the store they know you will buy more and if you like the product next time you will buy the bigger burger.

The Decco 2 is a no brainer at $400. 

I'll buy it if you don't want it.

Where did you find the Decco2 for $400

I can't believe you could get the decco2 for 400? thats half the retail and all the places I contacted told me they never sell under retail (like Apple)... but anyways I owned the Music Hall and now the decco2.. Gotta say Peachtree Audio sounds much better.. The Music Hall, like the Nufore HDP made me beautiful sounding Denon D7000s become analytical, cold, bass-less... I was really disappointed in the sound for the price.

The decco2 though more expensive really sounds much better (warmer, richer, and more musical) and I think looks better too. Some people say the tube pre-amp helps the peachtree audio lineup sound warmer, but I can't tell any difference between when the tube preamp is on or off when listening to my headphones, I've read a lot of other people claiming they cannot discern any difference either and it may be more gimmick than practical. Even so, its a great buy and really compliments Ultrasones and Denon headphones.

I was looking at the Decco2 to use primarily as a DAC for my Gilmore Lite, I wonder how the DAC stands up to others in the $500 price range?

Quote:

Originally Posted by markkr 

I was looking at the Decco2 to use primarily as a DAC for my Gilmore Lite, I wonder how the DAC stands up to others in the $500 price range?

The DAC is its strong suit... I actually may get a Woo Audio 6 tube amp in the future. Compared to the Nuforce and Music Halls that I owned (in the 500 price range) this sounds much much better, though this is in the 900 price range.. so its a pretty big jump but its well worth it. I haven't owned any stand alone DACs but from my research the Sabre DAC used in the Peachtree Audio lineup is also used by DAC manufacturers in the 1000+ category. 6 Moons has a really good review of the iDecco (which uses the same DAC as the decco2), heres the link.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/idecco/idecco.html

The Decco 2 is a great DAC for the money.  I've used it for a couple of months and really like it.