any reasons NOT to buy a peachtree nova?

Bass is sounding fine now. I think it was the speakers it was driving.

My friend took the unit "out shopping" for a pair of speakers. We listened to it with Rega RS-3's, a $2k pair of Avalon floor standers, Vandersteen 1's (all new) and used Triangle Celius and Audio Physic Yara floor standers. It had problems driving the Regas and the Avalons - which was a bit surprising, I thought the Regas would have been a great match. Sounded pretty nice with all the other three. The Triangles were punchy, dynamic, but slightly sybalent. The Audio Physics had a really nice tuneful bass, not as midrange forward or quite as dynamic as the Triangles, but did a nice job dissappearing. He ultimately chose the Audio Physics, and I think that was a good decision.

Using the unit as only a DAC and preamp, I felt bass improved substantially after only 20 hours. Sorry to hear you had so many issues with yours.

Repaste from another thread;

After reading many stellar reviews, I purchased a Peachtree Nova to hook up to my Zu Druid when my other amp broke.

As others have experienced, it sounds pretty good in the mid and treble, but bass is lacking depth and control.

The unit I received had many functional problems;

It would revert to the first coax input when trying to switch to any analogue input, including HT bypass. No opportunity to try them out.

Loud pop changing sources, regardless of volume level.

Volume control produced a lot of static through the speakers when adjusting.

The headphone jack did not work. Plugging in headphones would disable the speaker output but no sound through the headphones. I did try several pairs.

I have seen it brought up as a good option for the Zu Druid, but even if I had one without defect I would not recommend it due to the poor bass from the built in amp.

Unfortunately I didn't get to try it as a standalone dac.

I returned it after a week. I guess it wasn't broken in but it didn't sound like it needed breaking in. Bass aside, the mid and treble was good with no brightness or fatigue. Pairing with speakers with limited bass extension would probably be a better match.
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I too returned it to Crutchfield, excellent service, and I got to keep the sheet of cable labels!

Buy from Crutchfield, thy have 30 days no question asked return policy.

I had one and thought it sounded pretty good. I bought it for the bedroom system and it had more than enough power to get things moving. My main issues (only issue really) was the volume contol. It is very touchy (moves fast!) and did not balance right and left until about 11:00-12:00 on the dial.
I returned te unit. If I were to keep it I would need to have the gain lowered.

I know have a benchmark DAC1-HDR and a cheap Rotel 1072 ( class d) amp that I got off eBay new for $500.

At the end of the day I would say the current set up over the Nova sounds about the same but with a little more bass punch. But the Benchmark is built MUCH better. All in all it is prett good for the money but I could not really live with it long term. Again buy it from Crutchfield, they even paid shipping both ways. My total bill was only $7.00 when all was said and done!

PS, I forgot to mention I was using B&W 703s with the Nova.

They will be releasing a Pre/DAC version of the Nova. It should be out in 2010 sometime. I do not know the exact date. But maybe they will be at CES?

I heard Peachtree was working on a DAC/Pre-Amp sans amplifier. Emailed them to ask if it was true but they didn't get back to me.

well, i do have an external amp already, i'll just be buying it for the dac/pre.. would it better to go w/ separates?

s,

How many hrs. do you have on the unit?

I'm curious, those who have purchased Novas... did they have a notable break in period. I just acquired one and it seems very bass shy out of the box. Midrange, treble and imaging are all good (phase is wired correctly). Just wondering what people's experience is.

only if you cannot get a loaner unit to see how it sounds in your rig.

If you're definitely going to be adding an external amp then you might want to explore tube-based preamps in the $1000 & under range. Will you be using it in conjunction with a computer via the the usb input? I heard them both and they do sound great but I bet there are some $800 preamp/$200 usb dac combos that would be superior.

Don't have any experience with the Nova but I'm using the Decco as a preamp and DAC with a tube amp and it's a very sweet combination.

There are a couple of options for adding a sub. You can use a Y-adapter like this to go to both the power amp and the low-level inputs on the sub. If your sub has speaker-level inputs you can connect cables from your amp speaker terminals to both your main speakers and the sub.

Heard it @ RMAF. Killer unit for sure.

$950.00 =8^)