First of all, I need to explain that that, at the same time as
buying the Dectet, I also bought some after market power cables. So what follows
is actually a review of the Dectet with new power cables, not my system as
before.
A review of the Dectet with better power cables actually makes
more sense because it’s now more revealing of any changes. PS Audio also recommends using an after-market
PC with the Dectet, to get best results.
I have taken two weeks to fully burn (over 200 hours)
in the new PC's and the Dectet. I gave the process lots of time to give
it the best chance of success and to be sure of any differences I could pick up, with
and without the Dectet in play.
At the risk of high jacking my own thread, the change with
the new PC’s (no Dectet) was overwhelming. I can’t believe I had been sceptical
for so long. Easily one of the biggest improvements to SQ I have experienced. I
now understand what a black background means. It’s a very strange concept to
find you can’t hear the noise when it’s there, but you certainly know about it once
it’s gone.
The PC’s I bought
were £40 each, OCC copper, de-oxit treated, gold plated, twisted and dual shielded
with an AudioQuest IEC. I figured these were some pretty good specs for the price
and so bought four of them. The company is called W&M Audio.
Getting back on topic, my system sometimes sounded flat during
the day, it was not engaging and the theory to be tested was whether electrical
noise in the mains was the issue and if the Dectet could remove it.
Ambient back ground noise was also a suggestion and so I did
check the background noise and compared during the day and night. It was the same
at an average of 30db for both.
So I plugged in the Dectet and initially I heard no difference.
The sound then changed quite a bit over the next week (which may have
also been the PC’s burning in some more) and so I just kept it playing 24 hours a day until everything settle
down and the sound stabilised.
What I was left with was really disappointing. The sub-bass became
very strong and the upper bass disappeared. The highs were dry and everything
just sounded wrong. It was either the new (cheap!) PC cables or the Dectet so I took it
out of the chain and plugged everything back directly into the wall. It sounded great. Everything just came back to how it should be and now the system
is much more consistent and, whilst the sound still varies, it’s much less and more enjoyable, regardless of the time of day or night.
So it would seem that some of the issues I was having with a
drop in SQ during the day were due to noise getting into the system via the cheap
power cords.
My experience with the Dectet was not good but there are plenty
of other reviews out there which find the opposite. I have returned the Dectet
to the retailer and who have kindly offered to refund. No downside here as far as I am concerned and a worthwhile process to undertake.
The conclusion here has to be, for anyone thinking of buying
a power conditioner, make sure you upgrade your PC’s first.
