Erik Mandaville Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 The increasingly famous Peach arrived clad in very sturdy shipping armor the day before yesterday, and I finally had time this evening to carefully unpack it, install tubes, and warm the system up for maybe half of a CD's worth of listening before bed. School is getting pretty crazy so close to the end of the semester, and so tomorrow (Friday!) we'll get to spend some more time with it. I was immediately very impressed by not just the overall preamp itself, but also with the effort Mark has put into the sharing of this linestage preamp with others. The layout of the power supply and preamp sections is outstanding. Even while still cold, the Peach was truly dead-silent with the transcendent SE OTL; the only rival of which I have seen being the Trascendent Grounded Grid. In terms of residual noise, the two are very similar. I think both preamps are examples of what great quality can be found in products such as this -- largely PCB based circuitry -- by individuals with extensive design and engineering experience. The entirely point-to-point wiring of the DIY AE-1 I built this past summer comes close as far as background noise, but tends to need a little bit of warm up time to get to that point. The Peach has a more hefty power supply than the Grounded Grid, as does my own preamp. The difference with the Peach being its vacuum tube high voltage rectifer. I detect what appears to be a DC filament supply, which also has substantial ripple filtering (I haven't read the entire description, and am going to what I've seen in the chassis). In any event, just on its vanishingly low noise floor alone, a great match in that respect for hugely efficient horn speakers. The AC filter in the IEC connector is in my opinion a great feature, and is not something I've seen in virtually all the equipment I have worked on or built. I think I'm going to follow Mark's lead with that and install them on my own amps and preamp. So. It's really an extremely versatile preamp, with L and R level controls, plus volume control. This is the same feature I included on a Transcendent preamp I built for another forum member, and was a really time consuming modification due to the accuracy in measuring and machining of the faceplate. This feature is already available on the stock Peach. More importantly, one has the option of choosing between both high and low output Z, which could be useful for those with long interconnects or amplfiers with lower input impedances. .....I'm blabbing about stuff most of you already know. I think for my own very personal aesthetic preference I would like to see an all metal, stainless steel or aluminum chassis, but Marie very much liked the warmth and less sterile appearance of the wooden chassis cover. The overall effect was sort of 'retro-tech.' It retains much of the feel and flavor of vintage equipment found on Scott, Pilot, etc., but with contemporary looking controls. An interesting combination that could very well grow on me. It seems to be an extraordinarily flexible preamp with a host of features. Time for some listening! We also received the Lexicon from Shawn this afternoon, and that's something for which I've needed to do some reading. I also need to get an SPL meter from radio shack for channel balancing, and that is planned for this weekend, as well. I am setting both of the components up on a common rack where it will be easy to switch from one to the other. Listening to music changed for us with the inclusion of a third center channel, and I am very, very eager to hear what the Lexicon will bring to that speaker arrangement. I must thank Dee for assisting me with this Peach audition, as well as Shawn for the sharing of the Lexicon digital processer. Erik edit - Peach Cosmetics: I am just used to more utilitarian looking preamps, and am sure part of what I mentioned above simply has to do with getting used to a 'look' I haven't really had in my system. It does seem to have an 'approachable' or somehow more friendly appearance than my own or some other preamps I've had, and if that is a characterisic that encourages listening to music over tweaking and changing, IMO it's for the better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudret Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Hi Erik, Which Lexicon did you get? Are you working on a HT setup (sorry if I missed it in another thread)? I have a DC2 and like it very much. Kudret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Nice post Erik. I think The Peach is very cool looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Kudret, "Which Lexicon did you get? " A Dolby Digital DC-1 with v4 software. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Erik, Glad it got there OK. If you have questions on its setup or tweaking don't hesitate to ask. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 Shawn: I'm sure I will need a hint or two about getting things just right. I'm going to stop off at Radio Shack to pick up the SPL meter on my way home today. Hi, Kudret: Shawn gave you the specifics about the actual model. I have been curious about experimenting with Paul Klipsch's derived center channel arrangement, but not really for HT. The little 'minibox,' as it's called, which is used to combine and attenuate the L/R signal for the mono amplifier and speaker used in the third channel, is quick to build, and I made one just for fun to see how it would sound. There is a rather long thread on my impressions of the sound a page or two back. To sum all of that up, everyone who has heard the result preferred it by a fair margin to two channels alone. I know I did, which is something I didn't in the least expect. I just did it for fun, to try something different, and was just kind of captivated by what I heard. Shawn has kindly loaned me his Lexicon, which as you know provides a more up-to-date and comprehensive way of going about a multi-channel approach to listening. The reading of the theory and application alone has been interesting! I'm really looking very forward to learning how to use it, as well as of course to what it will do for the music. Like the Transcendent Grounded Grid, it just sort of gets out of the way of whatever is being played -- but don't ask me which is better, because I can't answer that question! I haven't heard a grounded grid in months, but can say in general that it, too, just provided lots of musical satisfaction without the nagging urge two tweak, rewire, yank out one kind of cap or resistor for another, etc., etc. Peach: The .5 of a CD I wanted to listen to last night before bed turned out to be the entire CD, and I can say that the Peach is a more resolving preamp than the one I recently built. It is superbly quiet and musical and I like it very much! Were I to have one for myself, I can say pretty much without qualification that it would be a preamp I could once and finally leave as-is in order to enjoy listening to music. For those like me who enjoy building, I would love to see a kit version -- one which might possibly include chassis-mount rather than PCB input and output jacks. It appears to be a fairly straight-forward design in terms of parts count and physical layout; and as such is one that I think would/might lend itself to kit building for interested DIYers. The Peach is an incredibly fine product! Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 Hi, Mark: I did receive that email from you, and thanks for such a comprehensive description -- well written, to be sure! I need to clarify something I wrote in my second post on this. I said: "Like the Transcendent Grounded Grid, it just sort of gets out of the way of whatever is being played -- but don't ask me which is better, because I can't answer that question! I haven't heard a grounded grid in months, but can say in general that it, too, just provided lots of musical satisfaction without the nagging urge two tweak, rewire, yank out one kind of cap or resistor for another, etc., etc." In the context of the post, it appeared this was in reference to the Lexicon, which it wasn't. I have not yet installed the Lexicon, which is planned for later tomorrow. I was mentioning above that the Peach gets clearly out of the way of the music. The resolving characteristic I mentioned as being better than my own grounded grid 6SN7 based preamp is really an important difference between the two preamplifiers. What specifically caught my attention was very close listening to the manner in which both preamps reproduced the sound of a particularly well-recorded percussion section on a recent CD we bought. There is a strong marraca section on one of the tracks, which the Peach brought to life in a way I haven't heard it with my own preamp. The Peach reproduced the sound in a way that described what I know to be true about this particular percussion instrument -- in particular its organic hollow quality. I tend to listen to percussion transients, strings, and female voice as important elements in comparing different components, and in all cases the Peach provided very realistic representations. I will admit to thinking in the past that, for me, it was just a bit on the expensive side. We know that deciding whether or not a component costs 'too much' is a very personal, subjective, and relative sort of thing, but I must change my thinking on that. Adding up all of its features, attention to not-so-obvious but important design details, that the Peach can in fact quite accurately be described as two-preamps-in-one -- seemingly without a compromise to either one -- makes it a very reasonably priced product. I will say the performance is not unlike one from another company I have built on two occasions, but I think the Peach may have an advantage because of its flexibility. If this other preamp mentioned above (not my own 6SN7 DIY linestage)had the same number of features, inputs, outputs, quality of potentiometer, coupling capacitors, power supply ruggedness, etc., there is no doubt that the otherwise significantly lower cost would change drastically and quickly. I know we will thoroughly enjoy the rest of our time with the Juicy Music Peach! Would I buy one if I could? I would put the order in tonight, but would miss one thing I really love to do: Having the opportunity and satisfaction of putting it together myself. But that's not something that would stop me from trying to get one if I could afford it! We have Narada Holiday music playing in the background right now, so I'm going to go listen and trim the tree with Marie! I also can't wait to try the multi channel Lexicon this weekend. Just think! we'll get to talk about surround sound via fly-powered amplification again! Erik edit: I have to add this: Yeah, if given the choice I probably prefer chassis mount RCA jacks to PCB versions. But, if one has one's system pretty much 'set' and you don't change source components every other day, the PCB jacks are totally adequate. The Peach also has a little 'patio cover' if I can use that description, which being grounded, will not only provide some physical protection for the jacks, but maybe even a little bit of shielding, as well. However, the bracket I'm referring to really looks like its main function is to provide lateral stress support for the back panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radiohead Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Erik, I have emailed and PM'ed you with a request regarding the Peach. Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted December 7, 2004 Author Share Posted December 7, 2004 Hi, Ryan: I got both of them, and tried to reply with a PM/email by way of the forum. I typed at length, only to find a submit button missing at the bottom of the page, then tried something else to save what I wrote, and got some error message. I should have copied and pasted into a word document, or something. Anyway. No problem. I'm happy to work all of that out. I have an idea that I think will work well! BTW: The Peach is a very nice linestage! Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radiohead Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 Sounds great Erik. I didn't manage to receive either your PM's or email yesterday. Use this email address from now on...it's different than the one I have in my profile here on the forum. smoky_ostrich@yahoo.com Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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