For Decware source gear
3 Likes
Well before reviewers like the Audiophyliac, (Steve G), Andrew Robinson, Thomas & Stereo and 1 or 2 others got a hold of todayâs Decware amplifiers I would once in while mention that they were a pretty good value for their price. US made, lifetime transferable warranty, relatively easy to service and that the company was easy to work with. The founder of Decware, Steve Deckert would make himself available when need be for questions and he put on a yearly event at his workshop/home to showcase his products and let people get âhands onâ in an organized manner. Iâve been told that you could also schedule showroom time if you were building a system and wanted to demo his equipment at your own convenience. Mr. Deckert has also managed his own web-page and forum along w/ selling many DIY plans for both speakers and audio equipment for many years, about 25 I believe. His equipment, ideas, style and business had a small but dedicated and loyal following. People used to bitch about the 4-6 month wait to have their equipment built, sometimes a bit longer for speakers. Steve would make an update to a product and then your order might get delayed as he threw in the upgrades for free or charged a modest fee to folks that were already in que.
Folks had a nice little niche community to themselves and basically this was the closest you could get to having your own personal semi-custom audio manufacturer where feedback was direct, work done was all by âhands onâ master craftsmen, craftsmanship was old world, pride of ownership all around.
It was mid 2017 when i started following this companies products and probably 2018 when i finally managed to get my hands on a used CSP2 Pre/HP amp. Those were the âgood old daysâ, itâs a shame i wasnât prepared at the time to drop more cash nor was i more aware of my own likes and preferences.
I would like to say a hearty FUCK YOU Steve Guttenberg, Andrew Robinson, Thomas, Jay and every other asshole reviewer who has touched or plans to touch another Decware product, FUCK-OFF assholes you messed up a good thing I/we hadâ:rage: 
âŠ. Now the unwashed masses have descended, prices have gone up, Steveâs head has blown up like a hot air balloon and getting through to folks on the phone and even email is a pain in the ass because so many fools fell for all those bullshit reviews. Fuck-offâŠMacintosh, and just about every and any other company is better, go get your shit from them, this stuff is trash you fuckers go spend your money elswhere! Seriously, there is much better shit elsewhere for your money fuck-off.
Ok, I feel better nowâŠHere is some shit, from this bullshit company, i managed to get my hands on, that through sheer stubborn willpower i have managed to power up and make some music go. The other 2 companies represented are LTA and Line Magnetic, both small unique boutique companies in their own little corners of the audio world.
This combo of equipment is being showcased tonight because it is both a Headphone enthusiasts joy and also a pleasure for the lover of 2 channel systems.
I want to write more about it all but I am eagerly awaiting a second opinion from a friend of the community who promised to visit soon and whose ears i will force to listen to the cacophony of sounds produced by this and another combo or 2 of gear. If he too finds the qualities agreeable I will then go into further details. Somedays i question my own tastes and second guess the value of more budget friendly pieces. I too like really expensive stuff so talking about how good i think the cheaper products out there are is hard for me, especially when they are not very mainstream. (Although i think my current view of âcheapâ, âmid-pricedâ, âtop-tierâ, âTOTLâ, âplatinum plusâ and âholy shitâ may be skewed somewhat at this point 
đ«Ł
Decware, Rachael, 341.5 amplifier
LTA MZ3 + LPS
Line Magnetic LM32 DAC
Decware Tube-Tot stand-mount
10 Likes
Iâm on a role tonight so I might as well continue, this Steve Deckert guy of Decware audio, well he has a weird saying, âIf the first watt sucks, why continue?â He then goes on to build a company around a tiny (by amplifier standards) 2 watt per channel tube based amplifier and he keeps the design going for 25 years! 
WTF? Who does stuff like that ( Nelson Pass does) Anyway, this crazy guy builds this amp during a time period when bigger and better amps are selling strong, the market loves big speakers, loud & dynamic systems, power baby, WATTS! He finds a group of fogies who listen at lower volumes to single driver speakers and friggin makes a go at it. Now donât get me wrong, in his youth Steve liked LOUD, and has designed many a bad ass subwoofer and meg-watt system but WTF man? 2-watts? Well, the 2-watt thing is nothing new, thereâs plenty of dudes building low power amps using some âpremo tubesâ but Steve decides heâs gonna use cheap communist block stuff and buys a ton of it.
Fast forward to today, 25 years and several re-designs later and the model SE84UFO25 Super Zen Triode, 25th anniversary (damned mouthfull) finally gets into my hands. I will admit this was NOT my first choice and i patiently waited in line for his Taboo MKIV until i didnât. I will say this now, Iâm kicking my cheap ass self in the ass for not having him build me a mated pair to use as mono-blocks, (damned me Iâm so cheap/frugal at timesđĄ).
Long story, real short. I use my smallest amplifier to power my biggest speakers. Ainât that some crazy shit? The world of audiophylia has wacky folks doing wild and crazy antics to listen to music.
Klipsh K-horns being fed by 2 watts w/ no complaints. FYI, the Decware amplifier has the lowest MSRP on the rack. 
12 Likes
Lampizator at full mast
3 Likes
Hahahahahaâ:rofl: 
we are such techno/audio geeks. Thatâs so funny!
3 Likes
Fuck those bandwagon fuckers!
3 Likes
Way back I believe M0N suggested for me to look at them since i like the BHC so much and Dec is more along those lines. I am happy i didnt go and splurge as I wouldnt of appreciated what i have now and the steps it takes to get there. But i want to kick myself since prices and availability trended the way they did, and every reviewer âfoundâ them.
They really seem to be exactly what I would want in an amp. And your pictures prove how gorgeous they are. Nothing too fancy with the wood work but that marine blue grey chassis and red padauk is so tasteful. The gauges serve a purpose but dont detract and mend well with the tubeâs glow. Its really needs its own desk/stand that has enough âweightâ to match the dec.
2 Likes
Very interesting, will be really curious to hear this amp if I get the chance, Iâm sure it will be great
8 Likes
Wouldnât the Taboo have been better because of the famous El34 tubes instead of the 6922 that the Csp3 has?
What is a Cooper Bypass mod that he offers at extra cost?
Shipping costs to Germany for $400 also seem a bit high to me.
But otherwise I find both amps very chic and ingenious in terms of looks.
Iâd be interested to hear how it sounds.
1 Like
The Taboo is actually a speaker amplifier that he later added HP outputs to and then updated to be more HP centric. The Taboo was at one point used to voice Audeze HPâs by the company, that was years ago though. I have not had a chance to listen to the Taboo, I had one on order for months then changed my mind at the last minute for a different speaker amplifier. The CSP was modeled originally as his base unit line level and HP amplifier. It has gain adjustment built in, that is a really useful feature along with individual volume knobs. Personally i would pay to add dual volume knobs to all my amps, they allow for such fine adjustment that once you hve tried them on a nice system you realize their value. Yes, iâm curious myself how/why the choices were made. Well beyond my technical knowledge nd know-how. 
4 Likes
Taboo is transformer coupled and more geared toward planar where the csp is otl and more for higher impedance dynamics, from my experience I did find the taboo mkiv to be technically superior to the csp3 but the csp was more flavorful and fun imo. Although Iâve not heard one of the more heavily upgraded csp3 which could be more in line from a technical perspective, and itâs all going to come down to the headphone of course.
I think it makes more sense for them to do an OTL collaboration, thereâs not as many higher end otl out there compared to transformer coupled so itâs a more unique product, and ZMF didnât have their own custom otl either for them. The headphones themselves work excellently off otl so I think it makes more sense that itâs more like a csp rather than taboo
Iâm personally excited since I think OTL tend to provide more value if the headphones allow since you arenât having to buy/make an expensive transformer and can either put that money elsewhere or cut costs down, hopefully pretty great value there. Although most all decware stuff Iâve heard Iâd consider good value
6 Likes
Ah okay good to know and thanks for the input to both of you,
.
CSP3 wish list, check 
.
Taboo for planar headphones sounds interesting,but would be a real house number to have such an amp with suitable planar headphones in a positive sense.
I also saw that he also supplies capacitor upgrades also very interesting.
I havenât necessarily read bad things about the Jupiter Beewax.
Except that they will dry out at some point.
I would have been more interested in the new Vcaps that replace the TFTF.
Even there, Iâm still thinking about replacing them in the Feliks Euforia, although the TFTF have contributed enormously.
I am not familiar with the Bybass mod though.
Canât imagine anything about it.
I configured the Csp3 for fun and selected the middle one.
The cost would be just under 2500$ without shipping .
Shipping would have to be clarified whether it really costs $400 - that canât be right.
From a purely sonic point of view, is it an upgrade to the Feliks Euforia or is it the same or even regressive?
The next step for me would be to replace the Dac before adding the Decware.
But letâs see what Zmf will come up with, I guess they want to see around 2500-3000$ for the amp.
And whether it will also be an Otl amplifier.
1 Like
For my personal preferences Iâd much rather have a nicely specd csp3, but then again I really am not a fan of the euforia so not a good person to ask for that lol
I will be very curious of the price point as well
2 Likes
Yes, I know what you mean about the Euforia.
Itâs too neutral because of the standard Mundorf caps that itâs got planted.
And so itâs a little bit away from what you really mean by a tube amp.
It wasnât mine to begin with and the stock tubes affect it even more.
A little more spice definitely wouldnât have hurt.
I was able to change that thanks to Vcaps and it definitely got better because even less good tubes were expressed much better.
The same effect could be similar with the Decware, whereby more attention was paid to the capacitors under the base.
A nice US amplifier would also be great to have in the room, regardless of whether it comes from Decware or Zmf, both would be the same.
Such a US tube amp is certainly something else compared to the Euforia and others that still exist that were perhaps not produced in the US.
If the sound of the Decware amplifier is already going in the direction of Mcintosh, itâs definitely my taste.
1 Like
When I was talking to TotalDac about shipping one of their DACs from France to Chicago (same state as Decware), they quoted me $200, so $400 isnât that far off for a longer distance and (Iâm guessing) heavier package. In fact Iâm pretty sure I paid more than $250 to ship my Nautilus amp from California to Chicago.
1 Like
@Deleeh , you are very technically oriented. Check out the link under papers at the Decware site and spend some time reading. That should give you all the insight you need to make a better informed decision on the Decware equipment.
2 Likes
@NickMimi thank you, I will.
Itâs crazy that shipping costs can be almost a quarter of the price for private individuals.
As if that would help the climate .
Actually, there should be much more Us products on the Eu market and vice versa, but thatâs another topic.
2 Likes
I wanted to ship a small box to Belgium and it was $175 cheapest, $300 average. Maybe 3 lbs 12âx14âx4â. I tried multiple shipping companies. Itâs crazy what it costs. I needed to send my mother an envelope in Greece, it cost me $100 via FedEx! I swear.
2 Likes
Yes, I know.
Itâs really crazy.
I bought 5998 tubes in the US in April through a dealer and they arrived but were lazy.
So we agreed that he would take them back and pay me back.
I wanted to send the package with Dhl and it would have cost 35$ uninsured 50$ insured.
I was able to send it cheaper via Hermes and it is in the 4th week of shipping.
Supposedly it is in quarantine in America for whatever reason.
The dealer hasnât received anything yet and the package isnât even huge 25x25x20 cm maybe with just 2 tubes in it.
Really annoying and then you pay so much money for nothing.
When I order from America, the things arrive in a week with customs clearance.
At Decware 400$ I can understand it a bit because of the insurance costs in relation to the value of goods, it must be like that.
Too much went wrong in the past and still does when I see how parcels are handled.
1 Like
El34âs arenât a good match for OTL designs, 6922âs are.
2 Likes