Customer Ratings & Reviews

Over the years I've had a lot of vintage equipment come and go. My latest was a Sansui AU-20000, BA-3000 and CA-3000, and a Dynaco ST-150. Everytime I listened to them, I had the same feeling I had when I drove my vintage Porsche 911 a couple of years ago. I found myself waiting for something to break, or wear out. At my age, I don't need the stress. So I sold most of the vintage stuff and ordered a Yamaha A-S701 integrated amplifier to drive my Thiel CS 1.5 speakers. And it was a wonderful amp, vintage look and great performance. But then some Thiel CS 3.5 speakers popped up locally for a very good price, so I bought them and realized my Yamaha didn't have a tape monitor or loop to wire in the included Thiel eq. Fortunately I was within the 2 week purchase period, so I returned it and ordered a Peachtree Nova 150 integrated amplifier. At 250 wpc into 4 ohms and a loop circuit, I figured it would drive the hungry Thiels satisfactorily and enable me to use the eq. It arrived yesterday. Ok, so I unbox it and wire it in. The first thing I notice is one has to turn the volume knob a lot in order for any decibels to kick in. I mean a lot. I play some digital music, bypassing the Bluesound DAC in favor of the well-received built-in DAC of the Nova. It sounded fine, nice and articulate, like I like. I liked the fact that the Nova has a built in loop, so the eq that came with my Thiels is easily (from a remote) turned on and off to compare the sound when the eq is in the path vs. not. (discernible difference when eq is in the loop, btw). My only complaint is the volume knob. My mind is tricked into thinking that the sound is being muffled because it takes so much to turn the thing up. From the remote, a continuous button pushing finally gets it there, but the increments are the opposite from the Yamaha (which was criticized in various reviews for having too large of an incremental increase when using the remote). This morning I wanted to play some vinyl, so I pushed the Aux-2 button to put the phono preamp into the circuit. Nothing happened. I checked the owners manual, it simply says push the button. Tried again. Held my mouth differently, pushed it while unit was off, while unit was powering on, with my left hand. Nothing worked. So then I tried pushing the button in and holding it for what seemed like an eternity and the LED turned green. Success! Note to Peachtree, say something in the owners manual that the button has to be pushed for over 5 seconds to get it to change mode. So now I'm ready to play vinyl, I select Wishbone Ash / Argus album, then changed my mind, trying to get some good karma going by playing a modern album / group on my modern integrated. So I select The Magpie Salute and spin it up. Now, I had been playing digital music before then, at the listening level at the edge of acceptability with the War Department upstairs. I hit play on the SL-1300 tt, my Stanton 681 SSS cart is slowly lowered to the vinyl, and no sound. I quickly check the wires, then fall back on my old nemesis, the volume knob. I turn it. And turn it. And turn it. I start hearing some noise, so I crank it some more and here comes the music, just in time for Marc Ford and Rich Robinson to lay down some greasy rhythm riffs. Well crap, I'm thinking, the signal difference between the Bluesound and the tt are way off. But it appears that when you change mode the volume reverts back to zero. Ok, I understand that, no need in blasting the speakers when changing inputs. But did I mention that I have to turn, and turn, and turn the volume knob to get it to register any sound? I really wish it had some meters to see how much is being pushed out as I perpetually turn the volume knob. So, in summary, here are the things I like: The looks. Beautiful mocha case, really small related to some of the vintage monsters I've had. Tape Loop. Enables me to, with the push of a button, route the signal to the Thiel bass eq and hear the difference it is making. Sound. Once the volume knob has been turned (or button push) for an amount of time measured in hours, not seconds (it seems), the amp really starts to shine. Nice, clean power being delivered to the Thiels. WPC. If my arm didn't tire from turning the volume knob (getting tired of the volume issue yet?), I'm sure it could light up the Thiels. Future compatibility. It has a couple of USB inputs and a future wifi module. Actually none of this really matters as long as I have the Bluesound Vault, but it's nice knowing there are some things I don't need or understand ready to be enabled. Remote. Having a remote is nice. Really nice. And another punch of my man card has been made, a few more and it will be non-existent. Volume resets at change of source. Speaker protection is a nice feature (again, the owners manual says nothing about this, so I'm guessing that is what is going on. Of course, it could be that all modern equipment has this feature, again, I'm a vintage guy). The things I don't like (or will take some getting use to) You guessed it, the incessant turning of the volume knob to get sound out / increase volume. Again, maybe this is my vintage mindset taking over. No tone control. I think this will just take some getting used to, having a loudness button or being able to adjust the treble, mids and bass based on either the recording quality or listening level. I really do think I will get used to that (or I could use the loop to put an full spectrum eq in the signal path, but I doubt I will ever go that route). Owners manual a bit cryptic. Again, maybe it's my vintage mindset, but telling me to simply push a button has me doing just that, not holding it as an egg timer. It will be interesting how it ages with me. The Yamaha I had for about 10 days was like a torrid love affair. It was only when I found out she couldn't provide me with all I wanted that I decided to move on. Maybe the Peachtree will continue to work its way into my heart, assuming my heart will still be receptive after the strain put on it by turning the volume knob....