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Peachtree Nova 150 or Hegel H-100

Looking to downsize my system from separates. 

Is Peachtree integrated amps considered as audiophile product or upper end mid-fi??

Considering the Peachtree Novo 150 and the Hegel H-100 ( possibly H-160)  Has anyone either owned one or both or compared them  .All comments and advice appreciated .

Like to have at least 100-150 RMS. Not interested in streaming, so the less of  such ancillary features the better

Will plug in an Ayre CD player and a budget turntable.


Thank you,

sunnyjim.


sunnyjim
yyzsantabarbara
4,748 posts
 
i have the Peachtree Nova 150. I listen to it about 8 hours a day M-F. It is rather good but not a very high end product. The DAC in it is average sounding. The amp is non-fatiguing and a little soft on the top end. I am running it in a small room with KEF LS50’s. So it it good and satisfying overall but nothing extraordinary.

Something I owned liked a lot more in the same system was the Benchmark DAC3 (included analog inputs and volume) + AHB2 amp. It was so clear and quiet. The DAC was better too.

I have heard a few Hegel’s at demos, not the model you referred too. The lowest model I heard was the Rost,

https://www.hegel.com/products/integrated/rost

and I thought it was better than the Peachtree I owned. If you can, I would do some research on the new Hegel 390 integrated, it is supposed to be close in ability to the Hegel 590 integrated. I have heard the older Hegel 360 (likely cheap now used) and it was better than the Rost.
kineticaudio
24 posts
 
I own the Peachtree Nova 220 se and the Hegel 360 . Both on the warm side of neutral. Used 360 ain't cheap , I paid $3600 last year.
sunnyjim OP
927 posts
 

Thank you to the two members who responded to my thread. The information is very helpful.

S.J.

big_greg
6,622 posts
 
I have a Peachtree Nova 300 and have owned the Peachtree  Grand Integrated X-1 Amplifier.  

They are both very nice pieces and sound great.  With the right pair of speakers, the Nova 300 can dig out a lot of detail and music sounds natural.  The best speakers I've matched it with are my Klipsch Heresy I and Focal 1008 BE.  If your speakers are more on the "warm" or "neutral" side, it might sound a little "flat" or "boring".  It sounds good with "detailed" speakers.

I use the DAC for streaming and it is actually very good, so if you do decide to send it digital files, it'll work great for that.  Better than my Wyred 4 Sound external DAC.  It has a decent headphone amplifier and a phono stage.  I haven't tried the phono stage, so can't comment on that. 

The power ratings seem over-inflated, at least in comparison to solid state and tube amps that I've owned.  It will play loud and clean, but the "300 watts" of the Nova 300 do not compare favorably to the 180 watts of my tube monoblocks.  It's more like the 50 watts of my ARC VSI55 integrated.  The 440 watts of the Grand Integrated also seemed over-inflated.  If you have power hungry speakers, the Nova 150 might not have the grunt to do them justice.

I have no experience with the Hegel units, so can't provide a comparison and I'm not sure how you classify "audiophile" vs "upper end mid-fi", so can't comment on that either.  
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