At only $699.00 USD, the Audeze Decard is one Class-A amplifier. Not only that, but it's one swifty DAC. Good looks don't come cheap, and one can be expected to forgo balanced connection (that you would see on a Sennheiser HDVD-800) plus DSD - that you would see on a Oppo HA-1, and commonly.
In terms of aesthetics, it looks like Audze has take a page out of the Burson Audio repetoire (Soloist, Conductor, etc.) and added some lines from FiiO as well. Over-all construction looks solid, if a little rigid and home-made on the side-panel, we'd say. There's a slightly cheap knob, but the input and the switches are solid and good.
This is a $699 product, keep in mind, and it certainly blows Rotel out of the water, when it comes to build.
Speaking of which, we encountered a lovely website, lately, LuisAviasRoma, which has just a fantastic mid-to-low-priced fashion selection.Here's a lovely model wearing a great native print (modern interpretation using North American native colour with the feather motif) for only € 176.00 EUR. Not even Silvio Berlusconi would get such a price. Feature wise, would would love a rounder face, and a larger breast, but look at the lovely wine decanter line into the groin region. Neat!
We'd, rather than "going Decard", choose a nice David Yurman cuff, in gold preferably, but silver with black diamonds is available. $950.00 USD, Feather Wrap Cuff Bracelet with Black Diamonds. ($950.00 USD). One for each wrist, preferably. Plate in gold to bring out the skin tone with this model.
Why are we saying this?
Well the Audeze Decard is a great low-priced introduction in the headphone amplifier arena. ($699.00 USD).
You'd expect to pay much more.
The THD+N (noise) is fantastic: 0.00045%. The frequency response is just fine. (-0.03dB at 20Hz/-0.07dB at 20kHz).
The power is rather low: 795mW at 33ohms, 465mW at 300ohms, 235mW at 600ohms, but we'll expect it will work rather well enough with the LCD-3 (Audeze LCD-2) headphones, given even an Audioquest Dragonfly 1.0 gets' them going! As for SNR, we're a bit let-down: 106dB.
Should you be shopping for this model, you may wish to consider the Audeze EL-8 Collection. $699.00 USD. Open Back for this particular bathing suit. Closed back for more competitive swim-wear (re: laps).
We'll try to bring you more interesting headphone fashion regardless!
In addition to Saks Fifth Avenue and Neinman Marcus, you now happily have an Italian choice, outside of the brands, themselves.
JP 2015/02/05
www.hifiart.ca
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