Decco² is a versatile integrated amplifier with a built-in ESS Sabre DAC. It's designed for those who use any digital source for music: Computers, Sonos, Airport Express, Apple TV etc.
It's a big improvement over the original, as we learned much and wanted to further improve the experience. The Decco² now has class A outputs for preamp, headphone out and fixed line outs.
The Decco² is four products in one...
1. 40 watt per channel integrated Amplifier
2. Class A Tube Preamplifier
3. Stand-Alone Multi-Input DAC
4. Class A Headphone Amplifier
Digital to Analog converter: The heart of the Decco² is our over performing ESS Sabre D/A converter. This complete DAC is the result of 2 years in development and many hours of critical listening. We use the ESS 9006 Sabre DAC for digital processing. Our design uses a mutli-layer DAC board with over 450 components and 11 regulated power supplies.
The ESS Sabre DAC's patented jitter reduction circuit re-clocks the digital signal before passing it through a high-resolution 24/96 upsampling processor. This is perfect for computers and most streaming or hard-drive based music servers because most of them have high levels of jitter. Jitter, simply put, is digital timing error between the source and the DAC. The lower the jitter, the better the DAC sounds. Our DAC takes the re-clocked signal and upsamples it to achieve 24/96 resolution. This transforms your iPod or just about any digital source to the performance of a high-end CD player. Even cheap transports and high jitter sources like Sonos, computers and iPods now sound great because the iDecco thinks they're all high-end digital transports! The iDecco can deliver an astounding 118 dB signal to noise ratio, greatly extending dynamic range and your overall music experience with virtually all digital sources.
Each digital input is transformer-coupled so noise associated with ground problems and switching power supplies from computers is eliminated. The USB connection is galvanically isolated, eliminating noise generated by your computer's switching power supply and greatly improving sound quality.
The Decco² is a great stand-alone D/A converter and will drastically improve most any digital source you have including your old CD player. The Decco² has a fixed Class A line out so it can be used as a “remote switchable D/A converter” that can be added to any current system, or even your whole-house audio system, to handle and improve any digital source. If you’re thinking about adding a PC or Mac, Apple TV, Sonos or any other music server to your system, the iDecco serves as the perfect upscale D/A converter.
The preamp section employs a Class A tube buffer with a 30-ohm output impedance, so if 40 watts per channel isn't quite enough power, you can hook up a separate, more powerful amplifier. The preamp maintains a high level of detail while also taming harsh compressed digital music and allowing exceptional reproduction when listening to high resolution files. The Decco² has a USB input for your computer, 1 coax, and 1 optical input for other digital sources like Squeezebox, Apple TV or Airport Express, Sonos, and XM or Sirius tuners. It also has 2 analog inputs for a tape deck or phono preamp. We tried to think of everything you could possibly need on a piece like this. The Decco² should have you covered!
For the headphone user the Decco² has a "Class A tube" headphone section that rivals some of the best headphone amps available today. Many hours were spent on the headphone section and no detail regarding quality was left to chance. The signal passes through the DAC, preamp and then the tube buffer giving you an extended yet addictive sound.
When headphones are plugged in, your speakers are muted so you can rock on when quiet is a necessity. Headphones have never sounded better than through the iDecco!
