Indulge yourself with a high-end desktop audio system

Is the market's roller-coaster ride freaking you out? Need a little diversion? Indulge yourself with a dose of high-end audio bliss from Peachtree Audio.

Check out the Decco--a stereo vacuum tube amplifier with a built-in digital-to-analog converter with USB, Toslink, and coaxial digital connectivity. And since some music lovers are still listening to analog sources they gave the Decco a pair of old school stereo inputs to accommodate a cassette deck and maybe an AM/FM radio.

Peachtree Audio's Decco

(Credit: Peachtree Audio)

I listened to the Decco with a pair of compact Era Design 4 Satellite speakers. Hook up chores via USB were dead simple, and I had iTunes up and running in just a few minutes.

I love the look of the Decco's curvy cabinet and satin-finished aluminum front panel, decked out as it is with a row of five input buttons and a silky feeling volume control. Trust me, you won't ever need to consult the owners manual to play the Decco; you select a source, say, USB, and adjust the volume to your liking, that's it. Oh, and sitting behind the little "window" next to the volume control you can't miss the vacuum tube. Its golden glow is a welcoming beacon to audiophiles, a visual conformation that the Decco means business.

The tube handles preamplification duties while the built-in solid-state power amplifier pumps out 50 watts per channel. The rounded casework is distinctive and Peachtree's build standards are comparable to high-end components selling for more than double the Decco's MSRP of $799; the speakers run $599 a pair.

Era's D4 speakers

(Credit: Peachtree Audio)

The Decco/Era system produced a remarkably spacious, yet nicely focused soundstage behind my iMac. That's what first caught my ear, but then while listening to folk singer Teddy Thompson's meditation on fame, "Shine So Bright," the sound was disarmingly natural. Thompson's soaring vocals and sumptuous string arrangements erased any thoughts of evaluating the sound as mere computer audio. No, this is high-end audio, albeit shrunk down to fit on my desktop.

You can read my full review on the Home Entertainment magazine site.

[alegr]

Oh goodness! Another vibrator for an audiofetishist! With tubies! What? It's got USB INPUT?
Next they will add (frowning in dusgust) iPod dock!

[professionaladventurer]

Why would you spend cash when the auido quality of mp3's suck? I go for the $35 dollar wal-mart special for my 17 macbook pro. I also just send the music over to the home theater if I want if LOUD.

[aladfar]

As I can't afford most of the gear reviewed here, I did a bit of research and settled on the Decco and a pair of Era speakers - I'm absolutely thrilled with the results! While it's perfectly capable of playing MP3 audio, the USB port allows for much, much more. The Decco truly shines with lossless formats - a perfect companion to digital music files.

The space in the back of the unit, though intended for the Sonos jukebox or simlar streaming device, is a great spot for a phono preamp. I've stashed mine in there and am using one of the two aux imports (which bypass the D/A) for my turntable. The result is the best vinyl reproduction I've ever experienced (admittedly, my experience is limited).

While the Decco may not always be the center of my listening, I'm quite certain it'll be on my desk for years to come.

[tbcass]

I would never invest in something that has vacuum tubes. They are fragile and expensive to replace. The idea that they somehow "improve" the sound of a stereo is a scam, a lie and is actually believed by"audiophiles" who psychosomaticly hear the difference. Double blind tests prove it's "all in your head". The only place where tubes are desirable is in guitar amplifiers where they can be overdriven to produce pleasant sounding harmonic distortion. Solid state sounds harsh and unpleasant when over driven. Personally I have a self powered Logitech 2.1 speaker system that sounds surprisingly good and cost me less than $50 (far better than anything you can get at Wal-Mart for $35). They actually rival a set of Klipsch's that I paid hundreds for and are better than anything Bose offers for the computer. They also sound better than the Bose radio/CD player I have in my kitchen.

[makinson11]

Really!?! I've owned a VLT Manley power amp for about 25 years. Around 20 years ago I retubed it with Groove Tube 6500's and some RCA 5751's. Somehow I have managed to never break a tube. Every 5 years or so I test them with a Sencore tube tester. Still waitin for them to go off the numbers. Maybe this is why virtually every mastering studio that puts the finishing touch on a CD before it goes to the CD pressing plant uses Manley, McIntosh, or Audio Reserch valve amplifiers. Maybe that's why Sennheiser uses their own vacuum tube amp to R&D thier high end headphones. Maybe that's why the "To Die For" microphones in a recorsing studio are either Telephunken or Neumann vacuum tube condenser mics.

[pubmat]

Wow...this is coming from a guy that extolls the virtues of a $35 speaker system! Do tell! Tell me how much better they are than my 1,000 monitors, amp, and pre/pro.

[soundman45]

I think products targeting audiophile reproduction from compressed digital sources is kind of nuts. Although you are probably going to squeeze a little more resolution out of these files, improving fidelity. It's a hefty price to pay for little return.

[soundman45]

To pay $799.00 to squeeze a little more fidelity out of compressed audio formats seems nuts to me. any product combining the term Audiophile with desktop audio is kind of any oxy moron. I'm sure the amp sounds really good, but I think its just a high price to pay for little in return. Now using it to play high resolution audio files that are 24 bit or DSD is another story.

[pubmat]

soundman45....who said they were compressed? It doesn't say it anywhere in the blog that they are...my ipod is 100% lossless, and its limited to only what the speakers and amplification can do. dsd sounds great too, but lossless works just fine.

[nite41]

hey pubmat! how did you get lossless songs on your ipod bro? i buy songs from itunes store. the maximum they have is the 256kbps aac from itunes plus. i want to listen to lossless format songs. for me, there are only 2 orgasms: the natural one and the audio orgasm! plz do tell me how to get lossless format? thanks!

[paskunyak]

I don't understand this article. If you want high end sound from your PC, why not just use a cable to plug it into your home system? This assumes you are not playing MP3's, but lossless. I use an okay pair of cans Senns HD 280 for my computer listening, or run it through my home system for higher quality. To buy a good system in addition to your home unit just for your computer is a gigantic waste of money.

[Vesicant]

> the sound was disarmingly natural.

Uh huh. And how would or could you possibly know what "natural" sounded like, unless you were in the studio when the recording took place, or you were Tron-like in the audio software when the mixdown was made? What you mean is that you liked the way it sounded. Why can't "audiophiles" just say simple things like that instead of trying to beat wine critics at their game? Or would you like to expound on the dusty blueberries, black pepper, pickling spice, zingy pineapples, tannic underbody, and mineral palate, too?

>soundman45....who said they were compressed? It doesn't say it anywhere in the blog that they are.

Um, pubmat, MP3s *by definition" are compressed and lossy. They might have higher or lower bit rates, but that's it.

[pubmat]

um vesicant, not necessarily. I cant speak for mp3s, but ipod files can be made LOSSLESS. Same info, same sound. If you want to get technical, (and I dont know the exact technology) they are downsized for storage, but they are played back as a bit for bit analog (lol) copy of the original.

[Vesicant]

Good point, pubmat, and my apologies. Guttenberg's OP doesn't actually say mp3, and it could have been Apple lossless. However, that's still at least twice the file size of a 320 KB mp3, so I suspect most people use mp3 -- even those willing to shell out $1400 for a glorified shelf system. For $300 less but no 'golden glow,' I could get a pair of Magnepan MMGs and a NAD C715. And would.

Oh yeah, Mr. Guttenberg neglected to mention that Peachtree and Era are both products of the same company, Signal Path International. He makes it sound like a serendipitous pairing; sounds more like ad placement to me.

[pubmat]

I completely agree with you vesicant. I was never a big fan of tubes, or even that "tube sound" that older audiophiles love. Its really just a higher noise floor that adds that warm sound, plus the power output is vastly inferior to solid state, and they're maintenance intensive to boot. (no offense intended to any "mature" audiophiles out there.)