Peachtree Audio - Page 44

That said, now that I've gotten my speaker placement worked out, I'm thoroughly pleased with my Decco2/Dyn X12 setup. My room is a 17'x11'x8 rectangle, and the D2 is pleanty enough to fill that room. Admittedly, I've a Velodyne sub connected to the pre-out too which really helps a lot at 80hz and below.

Thanks for posting. Glad to see someone else equally interested in this subject.
May I ask for you to please elaborate a little about what you mean by "idle", please?
Amp ON with 0% volume, perhaps? And if so, how much if volume at 25 or 50%?

Fully agree with your post. A class D amp would be VERY appealing.

been a bit busy with work and listening in stereo but thanks for the responses terrya and david. i had the cable box reset by the provider and it seems to be fine now.

Hi Silva,
At standby both are 1w, idle and about 30w. Max consumption is about 140w for Decco/iDecco and 250w w Nova.
This will scale up or down depending on how loud you play and impedance of speakers. Rarely will most get close to max...but here are the numbers anyway.
Hope this helps,
David

I'm basing this on seeing 0.3 Amp current draw increase at 123 V when I turn it on with no sound to amplify. That is 37 W, but with error bars up to 10 W, since my surge protector only reads tenths of an amp. So 30W sounds consistent with my observation, and I have absolutely no reason to doubt Peachtree. I've not seen it go higher than about 70W when playing it, but there is probably some time-averaging going on. My kids watching TV chews up a lot more electricity.

Seeing you are talking power consumption now, I have a question. In my opinion the biggest inconvenience of the iDecco is the fact that it doesn't charge the iPod when in standby. If you don't want to set autolock for the iPhone/Ipod Touch (to be able to view artwork while playing), after you switch the Decco off, with the screen being lit all night, it almost completely drains the phone off. Just in time to take your discharged phone with you when leaving.
Is this an oversight, or an intentional attempt to please the " zero net electrical consumption" people?

CE requires a piece in our electrical class to be no more than 1w in standby mode to pass. Charging would use more and we would not pass. We really never intended our i Product to be chargers when powered off although I can certainly see and agree w the convenience of your point. It's just not very energy efficient to charge the iPods w a 240v transformer @ 40w power consumption.
(as a note to those who may not know: we do charge when unit is on)
Best wishes,
David

So...what do iNova owners think?! I'm looking to pull the trigger on either a Nova or iNova soon. Will be driving a pair of Majik 140s. There's not much out there in terms of reviews yet, but it seems like I would definitely appreciate the extra $600 in the iNova, but would love to hear impressions?

Edit: unfortunately I don't live within two hours of a dealer so have no way to demo, just going to trust the many reviews/good rep of the Nova out there. My eventual plan is to get a Majik DS-i, but I'm holding off for awhile until the new version comes out, and I think the Nova/iNova will give me *much* better results than my Marantz AVR fed by a PS3. Heck, I even hear a big difference when using an old Rotel CD player via analog to the Marantz

Also, to throw my unsolicited thoughts into future models/considerations

1) Cat5/802.11. I really think this is the most elegant (and possibly best) way to get the 0s and 1s to the DAC. I'm not saying get rid of usb/spdif, but maybe decrease to 1 coax and 1 optical, and use the cost savings to add in a cat5 on the back. If people rly want to go wireless they can by an external adapter.

2) Phono pre-amp. I haven't read thru *every* discussion here, but I don't see many people talking about it. I think on the 'flagship' audiophile model (i.e. iNova or whatever else you guys have in store for the future) should be a truly all-in-one solution.

3) Get rid of video out. It's either adding to cost or taking away from improving the audio portion. I'm assuming you guys looked at some numbers, but I feel like very few people are watching a ton of video on ipods/iphones, and even if they are, they probably aren't using it much thru the iNova (maybe better left for musicbox etc?). At least throw in HDMI on the next model.

+1 on the Class D amp in future models!

i'm thinking of adding some Class D monoblocks from d-sonic to my Nova when i upgrade my speakers. would be nice to have these built into a Peachtree unit.

Thank you! Why can't every manufacturer feel this way? Why isn't all video, audio, peripherals, etc, bridged by CAT5? It's cheap, simple, and abundant. USB would also be an option in my book.

I just don't understand why there are so many different standards when one standard could be used for all applications.

Totally agree - I think cat5 + NAS is the most elegant solution by far. That being said i don't understand if there's some sort of advantage for using usb vs. spdif vs. cat5. I do think setting up cat5 + NAS can be a bit daunting for most people. I haven't even done mine yet and just from research there are tons of options out there, and it is probably overwhelming for a non-techie.

I think one thing Peachtree could do is to put out a fantastic resource on how to do computer audio in every major configuration. They do have something on their website, but mostly links to computer audiophile, which could be made simpler for your 'average joe'.

I recently bought a Nova and should be getting it in a few days. I have a couple questions about install...

Its replaceing a Rotel RX-1050 stereo receiver that was used as my everyday system. I had it hooked up to my Pioneer PDP-5020 and TiVo system. The gret thing is that I would be able to turn on the Pioneer and Rotel at the same time with the TiVo remote. I think they're on the same IR signal or something as I've never been able to do that with any other receiver I've had. My question is, can I use the Remote out and hook it up to my Pioneer so it triggers it to turn on?

Digital amps do not play well with all loudspeakers.

Congrats on your nice system props!

I'm attempting to become an audiophile, or at least I can say I really enjoy listening to music. As such, all of my CD's are ripped via Apple lossless into iTunes, and then streamed to my ATV2 before the optical out sends the digital signal to my PA Decco2 --> Dynaudio X12's (I reeeaally love this setup).

Anyway, the ATV2 offers me (at least) two methods of listening to my music:

1) Using homesharing - my ATV2 picks up the music when I select "Computers" and choose my homeshared iTunes library and I navigate my song list through my iPhone when I select the ATV2 using "Remote", or
2) Using Airtunes - directly from my iMac and select my ATV2 as the destination source, and I can still navigate my song list with my iPhone, but I have to select my iTunes playlist as opposed to my ATV2 on the "Remote" app.

Interestingly enough, I hear a real difference between the two methods, as method #2 will create a significant distortion in many songs, but method #1 will not, regardless the music format (lossless, 128kbps, 256kbps, etc).

Why would this be? Is there a technical difference between method #1 and #2 above between what iTunes sends and ATV2 receives/decodes?

In other words, does one of the above methods stream the music files at a compressed rate? Does one method ensure that I am indeed getting the "lossless" file to my ATV2-->Decco2?

Granted this may well be more of an Apple question than a PA Decco2 question, but I thought the PA guys (or someone else) may know the answer.

Thanks.

I am currently struggling with the exact same issue as mightyprops so I am very eagerly looking for an answer.

Actually, I think I solved the iTunes mystery. Earlier in the day I'd discovered the "enhance sound" feature in iTunes, and turned it off as it was really up high. I then listened to my trouble songs on homeshare and they sounded fine, quite fine actually.

In reading the Apple community boards, I found that this "sound enhance" feature is basically just a gain switch, and then it's processed on top of the equilizer. Processed music on top of processed music.

I've now turned both the Eq and "sound enhance" to 'off', and let the Decco2 and speakers do all the processing (I think!???).

All to say, the sound is much better now, both with homeshare and airplay. Word of advice, turn off "sound enhance" and the EQ, and let the DAC do it's job!!!!

I just received a idecco as a gift. I have a few questions. I am using this system in my bedroom which is about 20x25. I would also like to connect this to my plasma tv.

1. What speakers would anyone suggest? I went to magnolia and the salesman recommended b&w cm5 with a subwoofer or cm8 or definitive technology 8020st. I have no idea which to get. Can someone shed some light on this for me please. I am desperate for help.

That's a pretty open ended question! What's you're price range? What's your listening preference? I've got my Decco2 hooked up to some Dynaudio X12's and I really like that combo, but my room is smaller than yours (11x17) and I hooked up a subwoofer. They're also $1,200.

Additionally, the X12's are an inefficient speaker (which means the need a lot of power to produce a reasonable volume). As such, the 40 wpc rating of my Decco2 is at the lower limit of power availability I'd recommend fir those speakers.

Generally speaking, a nice pair of Klipsh speakers should do well in a room your size as all Klipsh speakers are very efficient, meaning it takes only a little power to drive a set of speakers to a reasonable volume. You can get some good Klipsh bookshelf speakers for ~$500-$800 depending on your budget.

For speakers I would also look at Monitor Audio - they are known for efficient speakers that can really fill a room but have a nice smooth sound and good bass. Depending on your budget, you can look at the RX6 (or older RS6) or even the GS20 (or older GR20). I believe the iDecco can power these speakers no problem as I used to power RS6 with a 50 WPC Arcam Alpha 6 amp built in 1993 and it was plenty.

Hi guys. Pretty new here with a "kindergarten" understanding of how an audio system really works. Having said that, I have a Nova and some PSB Imagine T towers. Sounds great with my MacBook via USB.

So I just bought a decent new Thorens turntable. Trying to work out some kinks. It's running through a $100 phono preamp into Aux 3. When I have the "HT Bypass" off, the volume or power level is greatly reduced. When I engage the HT Bypass, the level comes up considerably to a nice level, and seems to sound good. In this mode, the Nova volume control no longer works, and I have to control volume level with the "gain" knob on the preamp. So I can't use my Nova remote. Maybe it's normal for a gain control, but it won't allow me to turn the volume all the way off either. Not ideal at all.

I also hear a hum or buzz when the HT Bypass is on. I've checked the ground wire, and I don't think that's the problem. It's certainly not a high end preamp, but I trust the guy who sold it to me. He's a turntable legend (George Merrill).

Any thoughts on the best way to set this up? Is that just simply the way it works with an external preamp that it has to bypass the Nova, and subsequently lose the ability to control the volume through the Nova?

I'm also curious if there's any way to benefit from the tube preamp in the Nova. Is that possible?

Hope my questions make sense. Thanks!

Do you want to treat it like any other input or not? If you set it to Aux 3 input instead of the home theater bypass you would get volume control. I don't have a Nova, so I may be wrong, but there is a button on the back which selects which mode you want for Aux3.

I would like to have it be like any other input for sure. My problem is, when I turn off the bypass and treat it like a regular input, I lose significant volume level. It just doesn't sound right. As soon as I push that button on the back, it sounds great, but that's when I lose the volume control on the Nova. I'm probably not understanding some basic knowledge that would explain it.

The guys at Peachtree have always been nice. I should probably just call them. Thought I'd try here first. Thanks.

Hey, just saw your post.
My first thought is the preamp doesn't have enough gain for the cart you're using.
The direct amp input has a good bit higher gain than the aux channels so no doubt will be louder.
W/o being there, this is as close as I can come.
Hope this helps,
David Solomon

Thanks David. I do want to clarify though. I'm quite clueless, and my questions will prove it!

When you say cart, are you referring to the turntable cartridge? And what do you mean by "direct amp input"?

George Merrill, a world class turntable designer, sold me the turntable and preamp. He said they should work great together. I just figured I hook it up and I'd be cookin.

I'm not talking about a slight difference in loudness. It's significant. And ideally, I'd rather by using Aux Input 1 or 2, as I may add a home theater receiver in the future.

Sorry if my questions are silly. Thanks again.

Sorry, Yes, I mean cartridge. They all have different gain and the phono pre amp should match the input and output desired. You may just need one w/more gain based on the input of the Nova. So at that point, aux 1 or 2 should be fine. Hope this helps, but it does sound like a compatibility issue.
David

I have n idecco and yamaha ysp-2200 sound bar and apple tv. All components are connected to the sound bar via hdmi. Then there is one hdmi cable that goes to the tv. How do I get the idecco connected so that when I stream music from the apple tv it will go through the idecco first. The only connection left on the apple tv is a optical. Please help me out.

Is there any way of changing the balance of the volume of the inova for the speakers as well as headphone use? I have a hearing loss more in one ear. I read somewhere of a suggestion that stated that one can do this using one's computer software balance control. Is this true? If not any other suggestions?

Run the optical out from the Apple TV to the iDecco. Run the fixed line out to an input on your sound bar.
Switch the iDecco to the optical input and switch the sound bar to the input where the fixed line from the iDecco and turn volume up on the sound bar.
That should do it.

I just bought a Peachtree Nova and hooked it up in my a/v system. The system consists of a Cambridge Audio cd player, Samsung blu ray player and a Samsun Plasma t.v.. Both players work fine, but when I play the t.v. through the Nova's #1 optical imput I don't get any sound, just a clicking sound that gets louder as the volume is turned up. The blu ray player is hooked up to the #2 optical imput and works fine, I swapped the t.v. to the #2 imput and the noise followed over, this ruled out the Nova. I then hooked up the old NAD a/v reciever I was using and the t.v. played fine, this ruled out the cable.

Has anyone had any compatibilty issues with Peachtree Nova's and Samsung plasma t.v.s? If so can you help with any solutions?