Quote:DBC wrote:
I've been listening to the 220se for about 5 days now. I had my Decware Super Zen and CSP hooked up when the 220se arrived. Right out of the box I thought WOW. Over the past 5 days I have tried hard to find areas where my Decware Rig outperforms the 220se. This will be hard to believe but quite frankly there are none. The 220se has greater Transparency, Detail, & Focus which combine to create a Huge Soundstage. Most of my listening has been Blues, Blues Rock and Rock.
After listening to the new Peachtree 220se and Oppo BDP-105D for about a month now I decided there was sufficient play time on each to go back and perform an A/B listening session between the Peachtree & Super Zen. My impressions were:
No preamp when using the Super Zen and I had my Hsu Mid Bass Module active with both amps reinforcing the 50hz to 150hz Mid Bass range.
Other than maximum output volume potential, it was a Dead Heat in every other department, including low end Weight & Slam. I stated otherwise in an earlier post (my apologies to Steve Deckert) and will explain why I think it is different second time around.
Although the Super Zen would not go as Loud, it was still plenty loud on the Klipsch RF-7 for my rock & roll taste. I was playing AC/DC Rock Or Bust with Zen volume knob at 12 O'clock and it was Rockin! The Super Zen output is really impressive when doing a direct A/B comparison against the Peachtree's 220 watts. The Super Zen with MBM active was a hands down winner over the Peachtree with MBM inactive.
My earlier listening comments were based on listening with a Decware CSP preamp between the Oppo and Super Zen. This was my prefered configuration with my old Oppo BDP-83se. The Super Zen sounds better to my ear coupled to the new Oppo DBP-105D directly (no pre).
I think I have reached the performance limits of my Klipsch RF-7 mains and this may explain why the two amps were a Dead Heat? Both sounded great, hard as I tried I couldn't pick one over the other. I have a pair of single driver Omega Super Alnico Monitors on order, should be interesting.