Peachtree Nova 125SE & 220SE

[Leeps]

Just wondering if anybody's heard either of these DAC/amps?

They look very interesting bits of kit: plenty of power (125wpc & 220wpc respectively), enough inputs (USB, 2 optical, 1 coax and helpfully 1 analogue), a tube buffer selectable on the fly and a high-spec headphone amp to boot. They do look nicely elegant and are very sensibly priced compared with its competition, or indeed 2-box equivalents (£1149/£1495). The Nova 220 received a very positive review in Hifi+ recently.

I notice Peachtree is among the Exhibitors at the Bristol show in February, so as these are their latest products I would imagine there would be an opportunity to listen to them there.

The only downside is finding a local dealer that stocks them, but I'm of the view that if you're shelling out that sort of money it's worth spending £30 on fuel.

 

[Romulus]

I am too interested in the Peachtree Nova 220SE amplifier/dac together with the Hegel H80 amplifier/dac. From the many reviews of both amps, both amps appear to be well built, both can control and drive many speakers (Peachtree Amp due to its power output and Hegel Amp due to having more than 1000 Damping Factor), both appear to posses atleast a good sound quality and have a slice of high end audio for reasonable cost, both are under £1,500.00 and both unfortunately have limited dealers in the UK. Like Leeks above I think its worth paying extra for fuel to listen to them atleast. Has any one heard these amps ?

 

[Romulus]

I am too interested in the Peachtree Nova 220SE amplifier/dac together with the Hegel H80 amplifier/dac. From the many reviews of both amps, both amps appear to be well built, both can control and drive many speakers (Peachtree Amp due to its power output and Hegel Amp due to having more than 1000 Damping Factor), both appear to posses atleast a good sound quality and have a slice of high end audio for reasonable cost, both are under £1,500.00 and both unfortunately have limited dealers in the UK. Like Leeks above I think its worth paying extra for fuel to listen to them atleast. Has any one heard these amps ?

 

[davedotco]

I have an aquaintance who uses a Decco, he bought it partly for looks, partly for sound quality as he found his (all digital) system sounded a little 'shrill'. I have had a brief play and think it rather engaging and for some listeners it will 'take the edge off' digital media.

Not the last word in resolution, the price comparable Creek is better, but it does have a 'quality' about it that puts it apart from most other amps, a kind of 'holistic' rightness about it compared to the more 'explicit' competition.

Given it's excellent feature set and sound quality, I place it alongside the Creek and the Croft as my favourite sub £1000 amplifiers, it would be my amplifier of choice were I using a wired computer as my primary source.

 

[gowiththeflow]

I have an aquaintance who uses a Decco..... .....I have had a brief play and think it rather engaging and for some listeners it will 'take the edge off' digital media.

Not the last word in resolution......

Peachtree have continued to develop and improve their amps and DAC's, with each iteration.

The cheaper Decco is only available as part of a system now, but in their most recent form, the superior Nova SE models are said to be much improved in resolution and detail.

Like others posting here, I'm also interested in the Nova 220SE, or possibly the Nova 125SE for use in a smaller room. They've had some very good reviews, so I'm contemplating a day out to drive to a dealer some 90 odd miles away, for a listen.

.

 

[dap33]

keeps us posted gowiththeflow if you go and testdrive the amp, i too am keen on the peachtree *biggrin*

 

[davedotco]

I have an aquaintance who uses a Decco..... .....I have had a brief play and think it rather engaging and for some listeners it will 'take the edge off' digital media.

Not the last word in resolution......

Peachtree have continued to develop and improve their amps and DAC's, with each iteration.

The cheaper Decco is only available as part of a system now, but in their most recent form, the superior Nova SE models are said to be much improved in resolution and detail.

Like others posting here, I'm also interested in the Nova 220SE, or possibly the Nova 125SE for use in a smaller room. They've had some very good reviews, so I'm contemplating a day out to drive to a dealer some 90 odd miles away, for a listen.

Interesting. However I am only commenting on what I have had hands on with myself, if the new models are even better then that's all good. They would be near the top of my list ere i looking for ampliers of that type.

As for reviews, well given my experiences over the years, I think they are useless for anything other than light entertainment.

 

[Leeps]

Thanks for your inputs chaps. DDC'c comment about the Creek as an alternative is valid: particularly the 100A. The Creek along with the Peachtree do very well in the looks department.

The other system that offers many similar features is the Box Design by Pro-ject RS series. I quite like the look of the Pre-Box RS Digital / RS Stereo Power amp combo.

The Pro-ject & Peachtree designs both allegedly pay more than the usual attention to their headphone amps which is a handy feature to me and they both feature selectable tube stages. Although the Pro-ject has an astoundingly decent array of inputs for a unit so small.

The Projects could be handy if you were looking to hide a system away easily (except the speakers of course). It'd be an interesting exercise to team up the two tiny Pro-ject boxes with a pair of Neat Iota's and just watch your friends' reactions as they try to figure out where all that sound is coming from!

 

[true audio]

Hey fellow music enthusiasts !

I'm sorry dealers are hard to find in your area. I'm a little short on time rightnow but I have to say that I'm very happy with the 220se. Before I purchased it I read every review I could find and spoke directly to Johnathan Derda at peachtree. He assured me that I would be thrilled with everything it had to offer. Before I had it, I used a pioneer VSX-94 receiver (my home theater amp) and ran it through a Peachtree DAC-x. My music source of at this time is a PC, through Jriver and listen to HD tracks, sound acoustics music files and stream (Tidal). I have the Definitive Tech Mythos ST-L's as my L-R speakers.I Thought, wow this sounds Great ! right. I have to say that when I hooked up the Nova and it started to play everything changed.The sound stage,clairity,bass, power,everything opened up. Now I had something to say WOW about. I can't wait to get home everynight to listen. I've been a musician,vocalist,bass player recording artist for a number of years and consider myself to have a good ear. I can't see spending $20,000-30,000 for a two channel set up. For the money each one of you would be very happy with this Dac-Amp combo. Good luck & keep on listening !

 

[Romulus]

Hey fellow music enthusiasts !

I'm sorry dealers are hard to find in your area. I'm a little short on time rightnow but I have to say that I'm very happy with the 220se. Before I purchased it I read every review I could find and spoke directly to Johnathan Derda at peachtree. He assured me that I would be thrilled with everything it had to offer. Before I had it, I used a pioneer VSX-94 receiver (my home theater amp) and ran it through a Peachtree DAC-x. My music source of at this time is a PC, through Jriver and listen to HD tracks, sound acoustics music files and stream (Tidal). I have the Definitive Tech Mythos ST-L's as my L-R speakers.I Thought, wow this sounds Great ! right. I have to say that when I hooked up the Nova and it started to play everything changed.The sound stage,clairity,bass, power,everything opened up. Now I had something to say WOW about. I can't wait to get home everynight to listen. I've been a musician,vocalist,bass player recording artist for a number of years and consider myself to have a good ear. I can't see spending $20,000-30,000 for a two channel set up. For the money each one of you would be very happy with this Dac-Amp combo. Good luck & keep on listening !

When you listen listen to your system using the Peachtree Nova 220SE amplifier, do you have the valve buffer stage option on or off? Or does it depend on which music you put on to listen to? I am very interested to learn wether the valve buffer stage option really works or is it just a cosmetic feature to entice proposed buyers for the amp? I hope it is the former...!

 

[Romulus]

Hey fellow music enthusiasts !

I'm sorry dealers are hard to find in your area. I'm a little short on time rightnow but I have to say that I'm very happy with the 220se. Before I purchased it I read every review I could find and spoke directly to Johnathan Derda at peachtree. He assured me that I would be thrilled with everything it had to offer. Before I had it, I used a pioneer VSX-94 receiver (my home theater amp) and ran it through a Peachtree DAC-x. My music source of at this time is a PC, through Jriver and listen to HD tracks, sound acoustics music files and stream (Tidal). I have the Definitive Tech Mythos ST-L's as my L-R speakers.I Thought, wow this sounds Great ! right. I have to say that when I hooked up the Nova and it started to play everything changed.The sound stage,clairity,bass, power,everything opened up. Now I had something to say WOW about. I can't wait to get home everynight to listen. I've been a musician,vocalist,bass player recording artist for a number of years and consider myself to have a good ear. I can't see spending $20,000-30,000 for a two channel set up. For the money each one of you would be very happy with this Dac-Amp combo. Good luck & keep on listening !

When you listen listen to your system using the Peachtree Nova 220SE amplifier, do you have the valve buffer stage option on or off? Or does it depend on which music you put on to listen to? I am very interested to learn wether the valve buffer stage option really works or is it just a cosmetic feature to entice proposed buyers for the amp? I hope it is the former...!