I have a Nova and a Touch but not the speakers mentioned. I think very highly of the Nova. The DAC is very good (not as good as my own DIY ones, but very good). The preamp section is actually quite good. The tube is not just window dressing, it actually sounds quite a bit better with it running. The Tube is only on the variable outs, thus the variable outs with the tube on sound a lot better than the fixed outputs.
The power amp section is good but not great. Its not going to blow away $5k amps. I've put it up against some lower cost amps and its about on par with other well done $500 amps. I'm listening to a Nova driven by a Touch as I type this and the results are really quite good. Its interesting to compare the DAC in the Touch and the Nova, they are very close. I can put both analog outs and digital out from the Touch to the Nova and switch between them and only hear a slight difference. The digital into the Nova is very slightly better, but only after they have been on for several hours. Before things have warmed up I can't hear any difference. BTW the digital out from the Touch to the Nova is quite a bit better than the digital out from the SB3. Thats interesting since the Sabre DAC is supposed to be immune to external jitter, but thats not what I hear. BTW Peachtree says they have improved the performance of the power amp over the version I have, but I have not heard this. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=76284 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
