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PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS: (Read 5337 times)
DBC
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PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:
12/12/14 at 01:33:13
 
PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:

Since the PEACHTREE 220SE TEST DRIVE thread got off to such a bumpy start (trying to get a fully functional unit) I thought I would start a new Thread, a clean slate to describe my listening impressions so far. I have a lot of thoughts but will start with a few here and follow up with more as time permits.

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.

Well recorded material sounds Wonderful. Daft Punk Alive 2007 was the biggest & cleanest sound field I have heard in a home setting. Closed my eyes and I was outside with the crowd in Paris. There was no sense I was sitting in a 16' X 21' room. The illusion was complete. The power is effortless, no sense of strain, no edge. If an amp is at all edgy, cold or brittle my Klipsch RF-7's are ruthless. This was just full, open & smooth. Not smooth in a laid back way.

Perhaps most surprising to me was #1: that this level of musical detail actually resides on a CD. #2: that my Oppo player is capable of retrieving this level of detail and #3: that my Klipsch RF-7's are capable of reproducing such detail, nuance and dynamics to complete the illusion.

The 220se actually makes less than stellar recordings sound better, specifically those that tend to be a bit muddy on the bottom end. Kiss Alive 1975 (I can sense the audiophiles grimacing) has always had a bottom end where the Bass Guitar, Kick Drum & Rhythm Guitar all tend to bleed together into a muddy diffuse Bass Line. The 220se actually resolves and pulls these apart into separate entities to make the recording a lot of fun to listen to.

The 220se is Dead Quiet and my twin Mid Bass Modules & twin Subs are Dead Quiet when connected to it via Speaker Level connections. This amp has amazing control over the speaker drivers. It's as though the amp can do 0 to 160 and back to 0 in a nano second.

Often we talk about getting that last 1 or 2 percent out of a system. I'm so impressed I'd have to say I feel like I have experienced a 10% increase in overall performance. More to follow.
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Main System: Oppo BDP-105D, SE84UFO amp, Omega Super Alnico Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 15's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
Room #2: Oppo BDP-83SE, SE84CS amp, Omega Super 3i Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 12's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
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Re: PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:
Reply #1 - 12/12/14 at 02:53:58
 
Wow, that's awesome. So different from my experience with the Decco integrated which in no way surpassed the Torii Mk II or Mk III in any way. Peachtree apparently has a winner on their hands. Cool!
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Re: PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:
Reply #2 - 12/12/14 at 02:55:54
 

That's pretty awesome to read. I'm glad you're heading in the right directions, even if it isn't with Decware gear. It's also nice to hear that some new gear out there is finally starting to catch up and sound good at a "reasonable" price.
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Re: PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:
Reply #3 - 12/12/14 at 22:27:23
 
I got curious about the 220se after seeing a couple Youtube videos with this Amp and Zu speakers (similar high efficiency to mine). With generous online product return policies these days it was kind of a No-Brainer to bring it in-house for a listen.

I am not looking to replace my Decware gear rather just something that might have a different flavor to rotate back and forth from time to time. My hope was to find an affordable amp with more power that might provide 95% of the Decware clarity & transparency without the typical solid state edge. It was a shocker to find so much performance at this price point.

This is my first experience with a Class D Stereo Amplifier. The earlier Peachtree models like the Decco had Class A/B amps. Peachtree has really done something special with this Amp/Pre-Amp combo. If someone were looking for a second amp with basically No Holds Barred Power I can Highly Recommend this unit.

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Main System: Oppo BDP-105D, SE84UFO amp, Omega Super Alnico Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 15's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
Room #2: Oppo BDP-83SE, SE84CS amp, Omega Super 3i Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 12's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
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Re: PEACHTREE 220SE LISTENING IMPRESSIONS:
Reply #4 - 02/09/15 at 17:40:22
 
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.
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Main System: Oppo BDP-105D, SE84UFO amp, Omega Super Alnico Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 15's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
Room #2: Oppo BDP-83SE, SE84CS amp, Omega Super 3i Monitors, Twin Custom SLAB 12's (Low Frequency Open Baffle).
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