Peachtree iDecco - Conclusion |
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CONCLUSION
PEACHTREE AUDIO iDECCO £999.99
FOR - direct digital iPod dock MEASURED PERFORMANCE The iDecco produced 45 Watts into 8 Ohms and 64 Watts into 4 Ohms, enough power to drive reasonably sensitive loudspeakers, like 87dB large standmounters, loud. Small shelf mounters of 84dB will go loud, but not very loud. The output stage had an unusual negative damping factor, where output voltage goes up instead of down when faced with a lower load, not unknown but never felt to be especially beneficial. Unfortunately, output conditions were not too well controlled; at very high frequencies response varied until slew rate limiting set in, not ideal. The open loop gain has not been curtailed at high frequencies in the chip amp used, as it needs to be. The amp was trying to work at 300kHz. Sensitivity via the Aux input is very low at 750mV, good enough for CD players and tuners, but not most Phono stages. The input DAC performed very well. It was unusually linear, so distortion was low, measuring just 0.14% at -60dB, a fine result. Frequency response was flat except with the filter engaged, and then it reached 17kHz our analysis shows, a well judged facility that will take the edge of much digital. Jitter injected via the optical input barely appeared on the amplifier’s output, whether the Jitter filter was switched in or out, so re-clocking looks solid. FREQUENCY RESPONSE
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iPod dock, plus several other audiophile friendly facilities like a decent headphone section, and it makes a very convincing case for itself. Instead of an attractive style system that’s a little light on audiophile engineering, think of this more as a serious grown up DAC and integrated amplifier that’s been magically shrunk into a lifestyle box. As such, it gets the Hi-Fi World thumbs aloft!
