Jump to content

Peachtree/Parasound/Rotel.


Recommended Posts



On 05/02/2017 at 11:31 AM, Cafad said:

Well I won't say never but I don't usually go back to a model/series or even a company unless they impressed me quite a bit.  

Edit:  From what thathifiguy says above it seems that Peachtree are doing  something right.  Maybe I'll get a chance to hear one later in the year.

 

From what I understand, the Nova 150 & 300 are completely new designs and architecture, the only thing that survives from the older Novas is the casework style. I had a Nova 125 and imaging and top end were too woolly for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/5/2017 at 11:26 AM, thathifiguy said:

I've spent some time listening to the Nova 150 recently and I really like it. Huge scale, clean, smooth sound and really well featured.
 

 

Any chance you could expand on this Tarkan? I'm looking to buy an amp and dac for my new (to me) Dynaudio Focus 160's, so this could be a good option but I've only heard from reviewers like Darko. 

 

What speakers was it driving, size of room, did it still sound good at low levels, etc, etc?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest thathifiguy
8 minutes ago, Topman_Chief said:

Any chance you could expand on this Tarkan? I'm looking to buy an amp and dac for my new (to me) Dynaudio Focus 160's, so this could be a good option but I've only heard from reviewers like Darko. 

 

What speakers was it driving, size of room, did it still sound good at low levels, etc, etc?

 

It was driving a pair of ELAC FS267s which are a 4 ohm nominal (min around 3) impedance. Room was around 6m x 8m. 

 

Low levels are almost always going to be problematic, especially for bookshelf speakers and I didn't actually hear them at low level anyway.

 

Sounded really nice, not at all harsh. Smooth yet detailed. And it had drive in the low frequencies too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • 3 weeks later...

Well I finally got to listen to a Peachtree Nova 150 which was matched to a set of VA Mozart Grands. It was compared to a Yamaha AS3000 and just to get a reference point a Yamaha 3060 which is what I have at home and what I had hoped to use with the VA's. The Peachtree just as thathifiguy mentioned sounded really nice and clean, compared to the other amps it really complimented the VA's best of the three by a long shot and actually, to my ears anyway the 150 gave a lot of depth as well as excellent mid range and top end.

 

Sorry I can't better explain the characteristics of how the Peachtree sounded but I can say the AS3000 sounded harsh and clinical in comparison and the 3060 sounded pretty good until the volume was turned up then it got murky and confused.

 

To add complexity to my decision on what 2channel amp to get I am testing at home a set of VA Beethoven Concert Grands compared to the Baby Grands and the Concert Grands just sound lovely in our room, even with the 3060 driving them. 

 

So it looks like I have settled on speakers as I will trade in the Baby Grands on the Concert Grands but my search for a nice and reasonably powerful amp to compliment them goes on, at least until I can road test the Nova 300 anyway.

 

cheers Terry.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, TerryO said:

The Peachtree just as thathifiguy mentioned sounded really nice and clean

Sounds very promising, nothing like some real world views! I think the 150 is a no brainer for me, start saving now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Demoed the Nova 150 back to back with a Parasound Halo A21 Pre and power amp today driving a set of VA Mozart speakers. Have never heard the Mozarts sound so good. I know these amps are not exactly in the same league but what it proved is they are not in the same league. For now it's time to eat humble pie when it comes to how good the Peachtree is, the Halo was really damn good. Possibly the Nova 300 might save the day.

 

cheers Terry

Edited by TerryO
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Demoed the Nova 150 back to back with a Parasound Halo A21 Pre and power amp today driving a set of VA Mozart speakers. Have never heard the Mozarts sound so good. I know these amps are not exactly in the same league but what it proved is they are not in the same league. For now it's time to eat humble pie when it comes to how good the Peachtree is, the Halo was really damn good. Possibly the Nova 300 might save the day.
 
cheers Terry


Are there huge differences in the quality of parts through the nova range (of it's series ie 150,220,300) or is it just more power?

Sent from my JAZZ using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No doubting the Halo has more power, but that was not all, with the Parasound I could hear in some segments of the music instruments clearly that were not that distinguishable when listening to the Nova at a similar volume.

 

I had previously read repeatedly on a European forum that the Halo was a favourite of many VA owners. I guess I now know why it was so strongly recommended. I basically went in there today to haggle a deal and buy the Peachtree, I didn't expect to be going home without it. For now anyway back to the drawing board.

 

cheers Terry

Edited by TerryO
Link to comment
Share on other sites



c20587c6ca78e52de237aa7f8891e64f.jpg

Glad to hear it was outclassed. I am not opposed to class d at all and I own halcro and quite like many other class d designs but there are so many good options.

Sent from my JAZZ using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, TerryO said:

No doubting the Halo has more power, but that was not all, with the Parasound I could hear in some segments of the music instruments clearly that were not that distinguishable when listening to the Nova at a similar volume.

 

Was it a P5 pre? Isn't RRP on the P5 + A21 over $7k? Vs. $2,600 for the Nova150? If so I'd hope the Parasound would sound better. 

 

Tempting but always dangerous to try the pricier stuff as it is tough to step back down. This does confuse things a little though, as a second hand P5 + A23 was previously at the top of my shopping list (then add another A23 down the track if desired). Or maybe I should look at this positively...now I have more options!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually my bad, I rang the shop this morning and asked a few more questions about the Parasound. Obviously at the time I didn't pay enough attention when he was setting it up, in fact it wasn't the A21 it was the smaller 125w A23 that I listened to along with the P5 preamp. Which makes the difference even more impressive when compared to the larger Peachtree Nova 150.

 

My preference good or bad is that I'm after a good integrated amp and that in part is why I was going down the Peachtree path along with its pricing. While at the time I didn't listen to the Halo integrated 200w amp because of time constraints the salesman rates it very highly and reckons it will do a better job than the A21 with our 4 ohm VA Concert Grands.

While I intend to go back and try it out when I can this is something I can't do easily as we live hours away from the shop. 

 

So does anyone here have the Halo Integrated amp? Any feedback about this amp and or what are its main competitors in that price range would be appreciated.

 

cheers Terry

 

 

Edited by TerryO
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest rogerthat
2 hours ago, TerryO said:

Actually my bad, I rang the shop this morning and asked a few more questions about the Parasound. Obviously at the time I didn't pay enough attention when he was setting it up, in fact it wasn't the A21 it was the smaller 125w A23 that I listened to along with the P5 preamp. Which makes the difference even more impressive when compared to the larger Peachtree Nova 150.

 

My preference good or bad is that I'm after a good integrated amp and that in part is why I was going down the Peachtree path along with its pricing. While at the time I didn't listen to the Halo integrated 200w amp because of time constraints the salesman rates it very highly and reckons it will do a better job than the A21 with our 4 ohm VA Concert Grands.

While I intend to go back and try it out when I can this is something I can't do easily as we live hours away from the shop. 

 

So does anyone here have the Halo Integrated amp? Any feedback about this amp and or what are its main competitors in that price range would be appreciated.

 

cheers Terry

 

 

 

Looks by the reviews that the Audia Flight keeps up with the Simaudio 600i. So it would destroy the Peachtree easily. 100 quality watts and a 520VA toroidal transformer. Yum, yum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...
To Top