Dear Folk,
My CSP2 is here and it's already in three plus days proven itself to be a nobrainer purchase for any Decware owner wishing to buy a preamp. . . . I followed every instruction in the booklet for initial installation and did the delicate installation into my system (with all the Triplepoint feet from Mapleshade, etc.) . . . Well. . . Either it came with a dead fuse, or it blew the fuse the instant I turned it on (I never saw even a flash!) but it was soon in place and running. I'm going to need to get a new spare fuse.
It's in no way"bloomed" yet, but I can tell it's going to be a great preamp. It's so nice to be able to watch the tv through the system. And even my wife doesn't mind it (at least so far) and she would generally prefer to just listen to the compressed sound of the tv (she has a hard time with voices when the tv is coming through on most stereo systems). So I'm able to use the tuner on my dvd recorder (a Sony with pretty decent sound) and also my TARA Labs cables, old friends for about eleven years that have been languishing in a second system til now) and the cables liven up the sound, sound from the tv is pretty darned nice.
And cds and dvds through the DEC685 sound pretty darned good. I'm sure they will sound better. They don't blow me away yet, and I seem to be in a "fuzzy" stage of breakin. But I'm glad I have the darned thing at last. Even if just for the tv thing. With my wife I watch so much tv that I might as well get the benefit of using the system. . . and now I do.
I'm going to be hard pressed to tell anyone if this is a decided improvement over the CSP. I just don't know, I've never heard the CSP! I will say this: my first impression is that it is sonically similar to the DSR II cables in that it doesn't seem to highlight any frequency range, it's very open and the highs are clear and not at all glaring. Sound-staging is shifting a bit as I listen and tweak the system so I'm not sure what the final version will be. I do too much tweaking and I'm mostly playing new music that has come in . . . I can't predict through the breakin stage as well as Randy can. I haven't reached demigod status yet.
I had thought to try to have one channel "ZBox free" and one with the ZBox in place, so I had the tv running from the dvd recorder straight into the CSP2, and the DEC685 going to the ZBox and then into the CSP2. Sort of like having a two channel tube guitar amp with a "clean" channel and one with effects. 8-) That was interesting. I've today put the ZBox behind the CSP2 so that both channels of the CSP2 go to the ZBox then to the amps. Honestly. . .I don't hear a tremendous difference. The CSP2 is that good at making signals sound great. There's a little more "fullness" with the ZBox I'd say.
So, in the interest of honesty and clear speaking. . .and eschewing hyperbole. . . Well, I certainly don't like it as much as Randy does yet. . . . But I do really like it. I'm not getting quite the "bass transformation" that Randy seems to, and that disappoints me a little. My system has always just needed a little bit more bass, and from all the talk from Randy and Bob I was expecting some. Maybe it's the room or the house and maybe it's the set up. I'm still tweaking a bit on how it's place in the system. Lots of factors to play with. And I'm beginning to think I need to continue playing with gain into the amps to find just the right compromise. I've been doing that this afternoon, and moving interconnects around.
It's definitely fun to listen to. Just to be able to watch tv through the system is a joy. And lets me use the system more. And I think I'm getting a bit more dynamic response from the cds than ever before. Though I've lost a "mellowness" that was so very endearing in the earlier pre-CSP2 setup. I'm hoping very hard that when the breakin period is over that mellowness will be there.
More impressions as the days go by.
After this, at some point, I'm going to send my monoblocks in for a power supply upgrade. Steve has a choked power supply he wants to incorporate into mine and I might as well let him. But I hate the thought of boxing them up and being without them for weeks is chilling! I could survive. . . a brief separation. But more than a few weeks. . . ! I'd be a puddle on the floor! :)