Decware: a worthwhile option?
On the surface, Decware seems like an amazing company: American made products, lifetime warranty, dedicated fan base—albeit one that doesn’t seem to leave the Decware forums—and beautiful looking gear.
Upon slightly closer inspection, people seem to buy into or have to buy into the Decware ecosystem. Amp doesn’t output enough? Buy our $600 booster. Or our gain stage, EQ stage, Bass restoration stage. Phono stage. How about a preamp? Spend, spend, Etc., etc.
So are Decware amps in the 2W-6W range actually useable in the real world with speakers of, say, 94dB-96dB efficiency and above? Or do you have to buy all kinds of extra gear from them to actually get up and running and boost your input voltages high enough to get the amp to really sing?