Integrated amp for my Sonus Faber Guarneri

Deaf, reading the Stereophile review of the idecco, it appears that you need to use the fixed output option for the idecco. The follow up specs by JA were also interesting. To my mind, reading between the lines, JA seemed to think that the DAC was fairly good, BUT the various i/o options were not. It also seemed to me a luke warm write up by JA, due to various jitter issues and the like, that JA talked about. I got the impression that the idecco was very marginal in several areas.
As I have said before, there are many of these "Swiss Army knife" like audio pieces on the market now, all of the ones that I have heard are barely even mid-fi, IMHO.

Daveyf, yes, as I tried to say before, I only use the fixed DAC output from the iDecco, and not the pre-out or amp. Thanks for looking into that for me, though. I think the DAC portion if the unit is decent. Mine was the first unit sold in Japan (certified), and as such I got it at a special low price that made it very worthwhile. BTW, I notice zero jitter with the Toslink, and hear no difference via USB. I'll trust you and keep it hooked by USB for the rest of this test, though.

Off to the shop now to see whether there is any way to try something by way of another amp, a sub, and/or cables for a reasonable price....

Good morning,

If they're Homages...here is a (very minor but instant) tweak for bass. Make sure to hook up the speaker cables to the BOTTOM connection and run the bridge to the upper midrange/tweeter connections.

ideally, you would have a high quality jumper cable...but that is in the super, super, nit picky ideal situation. nevertheless, i did notice that bass was notably fuller when i hooked up the speaker cables directly to the lower speaker terminals vs the upper ones.

meanwhile, keep us posted this weekend on sub. it really is worth a shot in a hobby that i suspect you are going to stay in for years...trade-ins and new purchases are expensive...but if u have a reasonable path to keep upgrading...because some of your components (like a G) can keep up with upgraded electronics...you will find you are trading in a little less, and certainly making fewer "lateral" changes instead of true upgrades.

...oh and you may wish to try the speakers 1 foot closer to the back wall (ie, 3 feet from back wall) and re-do the toe-in either still directly facing you, or turned out just a little so that you can barely see the insides of each speaker...

..I was very enchanted by your Cellist friends description, also the fact he plays a Guarneri. I am a violinist indeed playing a violin by a maker of that family (there are five of them, believe it or not, the most famous being "del Gesu", the youngest nephew of my Pietro)
I loved mine, but incidentally now use Merlin TSM's
Cannot help you further, feeling you must use speaker for what they are intended; My experience with Accuphase E550 and later Berning ZH270 were outstanding; I personnally could not quite stand the flash character. In difference to a violin, which is a tool, speakers loose that quality, when to glossy. Sorry not much use.
Btw I feel the Yamahas 1000 are fantastic, heard them once at a guys, but he also had a pair of 10000's and they trumped them, thats life.