If the amp is good then I would take a DC1 over a 2805 every day of the week. But you are not comapring like with like to be fair. You need to look at the prices, a DC1 for say £400 needs an amp, somthing like a Parasound 1205 for maybe £600 bring the total to £1000.
I had in my system a Denon A1 and a DC1 (20bit) with a Parasound 855 (85wpc) and this was definitely better than the £2500 Denon, which has got to tell you something.
I then used a 2205 amp and this was a hell of a jump. Then changed to a Meridian 568.2 processor and the difference was startling, I was very cautious about going from a processor that was going to give me £600 back to one costing me £2600, it was one of those buys where I was a little nervous whilst plugging it in, would I hear any differnce? Had I just wasted the best part of £2000? Was I going to get that sinking sick feeling when you know it isn't what you expected?
I had heard the Meridian vs the Tag vs Arcam vs MC1 and thought it was without doubt the best, but that was in a store, not living with it in my room, with my kit etc.
The moment I plugged it in I was amazed, the detail was unreal, the dynamics where nothing short of scary, and teh soundstage was like nothing I had heard before in multichannel. I would have happily paid the full £4300 for it, and still would if I had to replace it.
Then I bought a Cinepro 3K6 to replace the Parasound power amp, again I had the same doubts, I sold the 2205 for £900 and the Cinepro was costing me a lot more than that. But I had heard one before and loved it with music, so bought it without listening to it in my system.
WOW!!! That was without a doubt the single best upgrade I have ever made, for the first time with music I really knew what people meant when they say you get a sense of air with the recording, the soundstage was unreal, I stopped using trifield mode for music and went back to straight stereo, the detail within the recording was doubled but the whole thing was so, so much smoother, although it had more attack and pace to it.
And for films? Well the Cinepro was/is widescreen reviews reference amp, Dolby use it for their demonstrations this is taken from am SMR forum report a couple of years ago which pretty much sums up the Cinepro for movies, now if only they could get some design ideas for the casing from Tag or Chord or similar....
Dolby and Monitor Audio where showing off the 3k6Se II in impressive displays at the CES .Dolby told me at the booth that , they are extremely impressed and consider the 3k6Se II the top in amplification resolution . They use Cinepro for all their displays and for reference testing including the new Cedia regional DVD audio displays which they will be doing around the country starting soon .The term used when I asked what they thought of the amps was " Its our Reference product " . Dolby will use The New Cinepro Forcefield system to show off DVD audio at the CEDIA Regionals this year .
Monitor Audio had Krell amps powering their display but when Cinepro gave them a 3k6Se II and a PowerPro20 they returned the Krells back . It was funny because Cinepro ,Krell ,Monitor Audio where all close to each other .
I would not swap my 3k6Se for anything I have heard regardless of the money .If you are serious about audio try one of these amps because they are in a class of their own .
I would look at buying a processor and power amp as a starting block, you can build on it, I sold my 20bit DC1 2 years ago for £600 and I bet he could get £500 back for it now, I paid £500 for my power amp and just seen one go for more, my mate bought a Denon 3802 at the same time for £800 and has just sold it for £130!
Which was the sensible buy?
Jookster, I would buy knowing you can sell on for little or no loss as when the time for upgrading arises, just go for it mate.
Although I would buy Meridian 565/561 over a DC1