The guys at Peachtree have big, clanky, brassy ones. Seriously. Anyone who routinely puts their prospective customers through a demo that showcases their top of the line $4,499 integrated amplifier into a pair of $23,000 Sonus Faber Elipsas is just asking for trouble. And to top that off by moving successively down-market, to a system that costs almost 1/20th of the first — all the while “marveling at what little you actually lose” — isn’t borderline pathological. It’s crazy. To be fair, they’d probably say something like “crazy — like a fox!”, but well, they’re crazy, and quite frankly, you should expect crazy-talk from crazy folks. Just goes to show.
But … but what if. What if they’re not crazy? What if they’re … witches?
Okay, no, but here’s the thing — it’s true that the Peachtree loudspeakers that were paired with the little ($899) Decco65 sounded different than the great big system (a setup that I really liked, BTW — those speakers are delicious). But here’s the point they make — while it is different and no one is denying it — the differences simply aren’t what your audiophile preconceptions might have led you to expect. Better still, flip the equation around: their entry-level isn’t broken, trash, or a waste of time. You don’t have to spend $35k to get good sound — not by a long shot. And that lesson? That’s one worth repeating — even if it is audio heresy. David Solomon and Jonathan Derda are my heroes — and that’s why it’ll make me sad when the villagers burn them at the stake. Because at their respective price points, Peachtree has quite the magic trick going.
Three systems on display here at the Venetian:
System One: “The 80/20 system, you don’t need a Porsche in between your speakers to drive them.”
- Sonus Faber Elipsa SE in Red Violin finish $23,000
- Grand Integrated X1 $4499
- MacBook Pro running Amarra, iTunes, Spotify feat: OWC SSD, 16GB RAM
- AudioQuest Diamond USB
- Shunyata Research Hydra 2 w/ Black Mamba power cables
- Shunyata Research Python speaker cables
- Solid Steel Rack
- Crane Laptop stand
System Two: “Zone of Audio for music lovers, elevator speakers not allowed”
- Peachtree Nova125 in rosewood $1599*
- Peachtree Design 5 speakers in rosewood $999*
- Sanus Ultimate Foundation Stands 26″
- Sonos Connect network streamer $349
*when purchased as a system … subtract $300 … total package price $2,300
System Three: “I’ve got 12 MILLION songs in my pocket and I can stream them wirelessly…this is so cool”
- Peachtree Decco65 in rosewood $1099**
- Peachtree Design 4 speakers in rosewood $700**
- AppleTV $99
- iPhone/iPad (free b/c everyone has one) running Spotify ($10 p/mo) and YouTube (free) demos
**when purchased as a system … subtract $200 … total price $1,600
..very refreshing. Kudos to Peachtree, Emotiva, GoldenEar…and all the other audio mfrs that can sleep at night (obviously tongue in cheek…I have no doubt that the $10K power cords mfrs sleep like babies after a long day of laughing all the way to the bank)
I heard the peachtree system (x’s 3) @ RMAF, or a similar interaction of it. It was very, very good bordering on the absurd! … the smaller systems! The big one was using Tad’s. I sat there for quite awhile awashed in sonic wonderment!