I have not heard the Decware but had a Eastern Electric in my system for a few years and had the opportunity to compare it with quiet a few other phono stages. I loved the EE and would highly recommend it, for medium output moving coil only. It did a fine job with higher output carts such as your Maestro but the real magic of the EE is when you use the MC transformers. With the output of your cart you would not be getting the biggest benefit of the EE, from my experience. With a lower output cart, ( 0.4-0.8 ) and tube rolling you need to go way up the list to equal it.
Decware or Eastern Electric Phono Stage?
I'm looking for a relatively affordable phono stage to use in a rig consisting of Theta Gen VIII DAC/Pre, AtmaSphere MA1 amps and Ascendo ZF3 speakers. I have an AR turnable, Souther arm and Clearaudio Maestro cartridge. Digital is my primary source, but I still want descent analog playback for my modest sized record collection. Decware and EE seem to be often mentioned as giant killers, but I haven't heard either. Any thoughts from anyone, especially if you've heard both?
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