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When I first listened to the Peachtree iDecco—in my room, with my Advent Loudspeakers—it was like finding the Holy Grail, or a 10,000-year-old Macedonian ballet shoe. It was awesome. The sound was much clearer than with headphones. But this . . . there are no words for it: The iDecco had spirit. It almost echoed in my tiny little (no other words for it) black-hole-of-sound bedroom.

Even with the trickiest pieces of music—such as Strauss's Die Fledermaus, from the Twilight soundtrack, or the Cranberries' "Linger"—the iDecco was perfect, accentuating…

Analog Sources: Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntable; EMT 997, Thomas Schick tonearms; Shindo SPU, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, Ortofon 90th Anniversary SPU cartridges.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics QB-9, Wavelength Audio Cosecant, HRT Music Streamer II & II+, Chord Gem USB DACs; Stello U2 USB transceiver; Apple iMac G5 computer running Apple iTunes; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer; Shindo Masseto, Shindo Vosne-Romanee preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Corton-Charlemagne & Lafon GM-…

To perform the measurements on the Peachtree iDecco, I mostly used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer.

Before I did any testing of the iDecco, I ran it at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour, which imposes the maximum heat stress on an amplifier with a class-AB output stage. At the end of that time, the iDecco was hot but not…

Consider this: While Ayre calls its new DX-5 ($10,000) a "universal A/V engine," the disc player doesn't have a coaxial or a TosLink S/PDIF input. That…

The DX-5 as Blu-ray–Audio player
Again, you'll need…

Description: Universal disc player with remote control and asynchronous USB data input. Formats supported: Blu-ray (BD-Video, BD-Audio), DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, AVCHD, SACD, CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD, CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, BD-R/RE. Analog outputs: 1 pair each unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR). Digital outputs: AES/EBU (XLR), HDMI audio, HDMI A/V. Digital inputs: USB, Ethernet LAN. Maximum output levels: 2.0V RMS (single-ended), 4.0V RMS (balanced). DSD: 2.0V RMS (balanced), 1.0V RMS (single-ended). Frequency ranges: DC–20kHz at 44.1kHz, DC–22Hz at 48kHz…

Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn,Cobra, Castellon turntable, tonearm, stand; Graham Engineering Phantom II tonearm; Ortofon A90, Lyra Titan i, Miyajima Premium BE mono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player/DAC, Camelot Roundtable Anagram Technologies DAC, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Benchmark ADC1 A/D converter, Meridian Sooloos music server, Mac mini computer running Pure Music software.
Preamplification: Einstein Audio Turntable's Choice, Esoteric E-03 phono preamplifiers; darTZeel…

I mostly used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system to perform the measurements on the Ayre Acoustics DX-5 (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. I have CDs, DVD-As, and SACDs with test signals, but as of yet I have no Blu-ray test disc. However, it is safe to assume that the Ayre DX-5's performance with 24-bit audio stored on BD-Audio discs will be the same as with 24-bit DVD-As.…

I was interested, but what really charmed me was Garrett’s attitude, his enthusiasm. “The best part has been the interaction with music lovers,” he said. “The passion is great. I just think…