David versus Goliath:
The Peachtree Carina Gan and the Hegel 400
Phil Abrami
Victoria, British Columbia
The Peachtree Carina Gan and the Hegel 400
Phil Abrami
Victoria, British Columbia
There are plentiful, glowing reviews of the Hegel 400 integrated amplifier (Hegel). It won the EISA best product award for 2024-25. There are not so many reviews of the Peachtree Carina Gan integrated amplifier (Peachtree), perhaps because the company relies mostly on direct sales to consumers. I’ll try to address this imbalance with my own comparison of these two integrated amps.
Having owned a Peachtree since April 2024, I wondered whether it would be bested in my system by the Hegel. A local Victoria, BC high-end audio shop and a Canadian company representative allowed me to take home a Hegel for an extensive four-day comparison listening test. I very much appreciated this gesture.
In The United States, the Peachtree retail for $2799; the Hegel retails for $7700. That’s more than double the price for the Hegel. There should be no comparison, right? I wondered…
The Hegel is a Class A/B integrated amplifier that pumps out 250 wpc into 8 ohms; it weighs a hefty 44.1 pounds. Rumor has it that KEF often uses the Hegel for its own demos. The Peachtree is a Class D integrated amplifier that delivers 200 wpc into 8 ohms and comes in at a featherweight 14.5 pounds.
My listening room is small at 15 feet wide by 11 feet long by 7 feet tall. The room is treated with acoustical panels; in addition, two, small windows are covered by acoustical foam and sound deadening drapes. There is carpeting on the floor. My speakers sit out in the room along the long wall and are slightly toed-in, creating a triangle with a single leather recliner set away from the back wall. My speakers are bi-wired KEF Reference 1s with silica filled KEF stands and a KEF KC62 Class D powered subwoofer.
I no longer have a turntable and don’t listen to vinyl records. I stream music using TIDAL HD (and remastered tracks) via Audirvana. I also use DIRAC LIVE to fine tune the room acoustics. I’ve done this for the Peachtree and did a separate tuning for the Hegel. But before that tuning I used the Hegel without Dirac correction.
Without Dirac correction, I was immediately struck by the lush and powerful bass response of the Hegel, reminiscent of the better tube amps I’ve owned. But it was overpowering, even with the KEF subwoofer turned off. And there was an annoying low-level hum from the Hegel discernable at no or low volumes. Apparently, this is a common problem because “The noise you hear is the vibrations in the windings of the toroidal transformers.” One remedy is to use a DC filter/blocker or to ignore it as I did for the test. My main listening was done with Dirac room correction applied to the signal path. This proved to be a noticeable improvement.
My tastes are fairly eclectic and I tried a range of music from classical, to folk and country, to jazz, and rock. I focused especially on recordings where voices were prominent. I believe most listeners detect anomalies in vocals better than any instrument, natural or electronic.
The test tracks included: Temptation (Diana Krall); Come Away with Me (Norah Jones): Helplessly Hoping (Crosby, Stills & Nash); Light Flight (Pentangle); Follow (Richie Havens); What Was I Made For? (Billie Eilish); The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Peter, Paul, and Mary); Girl From the North Country (Bob Dylan); Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra); Wimoweh (The Weavers); Make it Holy (The Staves); A Case of You (Joni Mitchell); Blue Bayou (Linda Ronstadt); Oh Darling (The Persuasions); Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez); Bird on a Wire (Jennifer Warnes); Old Man (Neil Young); The Shadow of Your Smile (Tony Bennett); Hallelujah (K.D. Lang); Angel (Sarah McLaughlin); Misty (Sarah Vaughan); Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield).; and Come Rain or Come Shine (Ray Charles).
Rock selections included: LA Woman (The Doors); Hotel California (The Eagles); Dreams (Fleetwood Mac); Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits); Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen); Baba O’Riley (The Who); Papa Was a Rolling Stone (The Temptations); Long Train Running (The Doobie Brothers); I Wish (Stevie Wonder); Fire (Ohio Players) and Under the Boardwalk (Rickie Lee Jones).
Finally, there’s one track of special merit that is a classical recording extraordinaire: Louis Lane conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with recording by Telarc of Fanfare for the Common Man. This piece is written for the following instruments: four French horns; three trumpets; three trombones; tuba; timpani; bass drum and tam-tam. From the haunting opening call of the brass instruments to the thunderous reply of the percussion instruments, there is nothing that places greater demands on a music system--and rewards the special system --than this recording. Turn it up if you dare but turn it up you must.
The Hegel has a lush and seductive low end especially noticeable with electric and non-electric bass and drums. Playback on Fanfare was awesome. But the bass response was too much at most times, and along with a slightly hissy or sibilant top end that proved to be fatiguing to listen to for long periods. As one might suspect, the strong bass response tended to mute vocal performances. Vocalists were less present in space and not forward. The Hegel sound stage was wide but slightly less wide than the Peachtree. Overall, was there a room size effect? Maybe.
The Peachtree, by comparison, was just more musical and satisfying to listen to. Played back at high volumes, Fanfare drums shook the room without distortion. Wow! Vocalists were forward in the sound stage without any hint of harshness. Very listenable with lots of detail. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of GAN-FET technology that makes the background so quiet.
The soundstage was well outside the edges of the speakers towards the boundaries of the room, making the speakers disappear. With the volume set correctly, there was enough air around instruments and vocalists to imagine you were part of a live performance. When listening to a vocal ensemble—Peter, Paul and Mary, The Persuasions, The Weavers, Crosby, Stills and Nash—you can hear each vocalist in their own area of the stage. Very seductive and enjoyable. There was no listening fatigue with the Peachtree whatsoever.
After listening to the bass-heavy Hegel, I wondered if the lack of bass was a problem with the Peachtree. Not so. The full bass response was there just not overly dominant. Tell me that Rickie Lee Jones Under the Boardwalk doesn’t knock your socks off.
True soundstage depth is often elusive especially, I think, with many studio recordings. But on the Peachtree, there was the magic realism of the concert hall. Just give a listen to the Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall or B.B. King Live at the Regal.
The Peachtree is engaging, listenable, and accurate. It drove my KEFs with apparent ease, nowhere near full volume. I’ve sat for hours listening raptly, in the dark, to music of all types.
David has slain Goliath.
And now the Peachtree Stack is becoming available. How much better can it be?
