Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
My toxic trait: I hate pandering except when it’s aimed at me. So much so that I sometimes see pandering where there obviously isn’t any. Case in point: I’ve written a lot here lately about solved problems in hi-fi and how I think audio manufacturers should stop trying to reinvent the wheel when the wheel works just fine, but rather focus their R&D dollars on ergonomics, styling, and technologies that still have plenty of room for improvement. So I can’t help looking at a company like Peachtree Audio—and a product like its new Carina 300 integrated amplifier ($1999, all prices USD)—and think that somebody there is listening.
The truth of the matter is, my delusions evaporate the moment you recognize that Peachtree already had a solved-problem approach to audio by the time I reviewed my first piece of its gear, the nova220SE, almost exactly ten years ago. Hell, it may have been that integrated amp that planted the seeds in my head. Who knows?
The nova220SE relied on bridged ICEpower modules in a dual-mono configuration at a time when class D was shunned by a lot of the audiophile community. But one look at the thing made it clear that the company wasn’t merely shoving off-the-shelf components into a boring chassis and calling it a day. The nova220E oozed charisma, in large part (but not wholly) due to its beautiful design and elegant operation. (Well, that and the glow of the triode in its selectable tube buffer stage.)
That personality persists to this day. Despite the fact that the company’s chassis designs are more compact, the curves have gotten curvier, the controls have been streamlined, and there’s now a handy display, the Carina 300 is the undeniable descendent of Peachtree’s earliest efforts. But the biggest consistent factor is that the company still relies on solved-problem solutions, this time in the form of the Hypex Ncore class-D modules at the heart of so many great amplifiers these days.
As its name implies, the Carina 300 is specified to deliver a staggering 300Wpc into 8 ohms or 580Wpc into 4 ohms, and it is rated to drive loads down to a ravenous 2.5 ohms. It differs from its other Carina siblings in that the Carina 150 ($1499) predictably delivers 150Wpc into 8 ohms from its Hypex Ncore modules, while the Carina GaN ($2999) cranks out 200Wpc of load-invariant output from its GaN-FET (gallium nitride field-effect transistor) circuitry, imported from the company’s highly lauded GaN 1.
All three of the products in Peachtree’s self-described Phase 2 Carina lineup depart from the original Carina in their inclusion of a stereo analog RCA input that can be converted to a phono stage (MM) with the flip of a switch. The USB-B DAC connection has also been upgraded to USB-C (a trend that I’m loving as of late). The I2S input has been sunset. But otherwise, the connectivity remains the same as the original Carina, with the same coaxial and optical digital inputs (two of the former, one of the latter), the same 12V trigger port, the same preamp output (stereo RCA), the same beefy five-way binding posts, and the same Bluetooth antenna that could serve as a glass-breaking baton if you should ever find yourself in a sinking car with the windows rolled up and you just happen to have your hi-fi system with you.
As with the original, you can also order the Phase 2 Carinas with a gorgeous gloss mocha cabinet instead of the standard piano black for an extra $100, but either way, you get not one but two front-panel headphone jacks: one ¼″ unbalanced and one 4.4mm balanced Pentaconn.
The Carina 300 also features full MQA decoding and support for PCM up to 768kHz, native DSD up to 512x, and up to DoP256 via USB. The optical and digital inputs can handle PCM up to 192kHz, along with DoP64.
Setting up and dialing in the Carina 300
Getting back to the whole solved-problem approach, one of the most surprising aspects of the Carina 300, if you’re not familiar with the way Peachtree Audio rolls, is that it’s designed to integrate seamlessly with BluOS multiroom wireless music systems. And no, Peachtree is not a Lenbrook company. But rather than reinventing a perfectly fine wheel, Peachtree has partnered with Lenbrook to offer features like BluOS control on the Carina 300’s included remote control, along with 12V trigger functionality that means as soon as you fire up and start playing music from something like a Bluesound Node, the integrated amplifier automatically comes out of standby and switches to the appropriate input.
And that’s just scratching the surface of some of the Carina 300’s customization capabilities. For such a seemingly straightforward product, there’s a lot to dial in here if you so choose—and I do mean dial in, as the setup menu isn’t accessible via the remote; you have to boop the source-select knob, twist and turn it to select options, and then twist the volume knob to make adjustments.
Firstly, you have your choice between three different PCM reconstruction filters: Linear Fast (objectively the best choice), Hybrid Fast (still a sharp roll-off, but one that’s a hybrid of minimum phase and linear phase), and Minimum Slow, which makes an audible difference with CD-resolution audio, but it doesn’t do anything stupid the way some slow roll-off filters do. It adds some warmth and smoothness, which I like even if it’s not my top preference.
You can also put the Carina 300 in non-oversampling (NOS) mode if you’d like to turn off oversampling entirely and rely on, say, Roon for software-based oversampling. And interestingly, you have your choice of how volume control is handled: a Digital setting that’s self-explanatory and a Hybrid setting that employs a high-quality analog resistor ladder in conjunction with digital attenuation. In sighted testing, it sounded to my ears like the Hybrid setting resulted in slightly more dynamic audio at lower listening levels, but switching between the settings takes a little fiddling and I couldn’t figure out a good way to reliably do it blind, even with my wife’s help. Beyond that, there are also settings for the things you’d expect, like display brightness and volume presets, as well as input renaming.
This is my first integrated amplifier review since adding vinyl playback to my system, so I was eager to hear how the Carina 300’s MM phono stage compared with that of my reference NAD C 3050, as well as the Pluto 2 phono pre built into my U-Turn Orbit Theory. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to put it to a thorough test. As soon as the turntable was connected and the integrated amp was turned on and switched to the Analog input, I was hit with strong electrical interference and phwomping rumble from my ceiling fan as well as the LED light over my gear rack.
It’s worth noting that the U-Turn doesn’t have a grounding post, instead being internally grounded via the left RCA channel. That’s uncommon, to say the least, so I’m not ready to chalk this one up to a shortcoming of the Carina 300. Just a word of warning: if you’re going to use the amp with a turntable, you’d likely be better off with one that includes a grounding post.
Flipping the switch on the analog in from Phono to Aux and engaging the Theory’s built-in preamp pretty much ameliorated the problem, but that meant I wasn’t able to say anything meaningful about the Carina 300’s phono stage.
Speakers for the duration of this review were my reference Paradigm Studio 100 v.5 towers, connected via a pair of Elac Sensible speaker cables. My main source for this review was a Bluesound Node loaned to me by Peachtree Audio. I connected it via one of the coaxial inputs and set the 12V trigger to automatically fire up the amp and turn it to that input when I sent a stream to the Node.
10/10, would do again. The switching is nigh instantaneous, and it makes it operate as if the Carina 300 has BluOS built in. There’s really no functional indication that the music is coming from an external source. I was immediately hooked.
The only other setup consideration worth mentioning here is the Bluetooth range. As I pointed out above, the BT antenna is ginormous—the biggest I’ve ever seen. Even bigger than the high-gain antenna of the iFi Audio Zen Blue V2 I keep around as the reference pick for my Wirecutter guide to BT receivers. Turns out, the Carina 300’s Bluetooth range isn’t quite as ridiculous as that of the Zen Blue V2. But it’s not far off, either! It’s only the second BT receiver I’ve tested that can maintain a clean signal all the way into my backyard, reaching right around the midpoint between my porch and back fence, whereas the iFi will reach all the way to the fence.
Do you need that much BT range? Likely not. Does it give the connection a lot of extra resistance to things like microwave ovens and my signal-killing Samsung smart refrigerator? Absolutely. Here you can see a general map of the best-testing Bluetooth receivers I’ve evaluated in recent years, with a star marking the spot where they start to glitch or drop out. All in all, relying on the BT connection from my iPhone 12 Pro Max, the Carina 300’s antenna has a range of just over 70 feet (right at 21.5 meters) through three interior walls and one exterior brick wall.
I do wish Peachtree gave any indication of what BT codecs are supported—either in the manual, on the web, or via the front panel. The product listing simply states, “Bluetooth 5.0 input with HD audio decoding,” which I assume means there’s some form of aptX support. But beyond that, it’s a mystery.
How does the Peachtree Audio Carina 300 integrated amplifier perform?
So what goes through my brain when I sit down to properly evaluate an integrated amp like the Carina 300? Well, first things first, there’s the obvious: there simply isn’t a room in my home nor a speaker in my collection that requires 300 watts of power per channel. But just because you don’t need something doesn’t mean you don’t want it. And it doesn’t mean there are no benefits. The first song where I really felt like I heard the advantages of having so much overhead was “Samba de Orfeu” from the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus Deluxe Expanded Edition (24-bit/192kHz FLAC, Craft Recordings / Qobuz).
For the most part, when listening at a comfortable-to-comfortably-loud level, I would guess the average output of the Carina 300 was coasting along in the low double digits in terms of output. But what stood out to me is just how tactile the transients sounded—how palpable and precise. How, despite the fact that this delicious old analog recording is more hissy than a plague of locusts, there was an undeniable reality to every drum hit, every staccato left-hand piano chord.
And sure, Monte Budwig’s double bass doesn’t benefit much from all of the above. There just aren’t a lot of sharp transients in that super-smooth groove. Granted, I couldn’t help noticing that no matter how high I cranked the volume, the Carina 300 never struggled to deliver enough current to power through my Paradigms’ lowest impedance dips. But that’s not terribly surprising given the amp modules employed therein.
A better test of that, I felt, was “The Dripping Tap” from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s Omnium Gatherum (24/48 FLAC, KGLW / Qobuz), especially the big, thrashy jam between the first verse and chorus. The thing is, there’s a ton of bass here, as drummer Michael Cavanagh (aka Cavs) and bassist Lucas Harwood go absolutely HAM to keep up with the meedly-meedling guitars being trashed half to death by Cook Craig, Joey Walker, and Stu Mackenzie. But the thrashing ends up being so piercing that the bass teeters right on the very edge of being just barely enough bottom end.
The long and short of it is, this epic jam—despite being an outright banger—can sound a weensy bit bright if you’re driving big towers with amps that are merely sufficient and you try to really rock out. With the volume cranked to concert levels, I could feel the bass slamming me in the chest every bit as much as I could hear it anchoring the jam, though. So, yeah, occasionally one does have reason to want more amp than one actually needs. It might not always result in audible differences, but in extreme corner cases, it can be nice to know that reserve tank is there.
As adept as the Carina 300 is with iconic jazz and genre-bending rock, it also sounds just as sweet with the modern pop. Listening through Aurora’s latest album, What Happened to the Heart? (24/44.1 FLAC, Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC / Qobuz), I found that the track “The Essence” grabbed my attention and would not let me go. It’s a delicate piece, especially compared with much of the album, although that delicate nature is somewhat balanced by the complexity of the mixing of the multitracked vocals, which are overlaid and overlaid and overlaid to the point of creating a fabulous tapestry constructed merely from Aurora’s vocals and a simple acoustic guitar.
It’s a gorgeous song that I’ve pretty much obsessed over since the album’s release, but it’s one I’ve mostly experienced via my Sonos speakers in and around the house. And, of course, what you miss through such systems is the delicious imaging and soundstage that the Carina 300 preserves so perfectly. The elements of the music—again, mostly vocal overdubs—shine like little pinpricks of starlight in a truly dark sky, and the overall soundstage spreads outward beyond the speakers, forward into the room, and unmistakably upward, even via stereo speakers.
I played through the track a few times, listening at different loudness levels, and try as I might, I simply couldn’t make the music sound anything less than intoxicating. What’s more, as I adjusted the volume via the remote and the front-panel knob, I never once heard the sonic image falter, much less fall apart.
“The Essence” is also one of my new favorite headphone test tracks, as its spatial tapestry is a wholly different experience through cans versus in-room speakers. With my UE Capitol Records Reference IEMs, the mix sounded absolutely scrumptious, intimate, spacious, and super detailed. And at that, my tail was wagging frantically to hear what the amp would do with my voracious Audeze LCD-2 planar magnetic cans. On a positive note, while the Carina 300 doesn’t have what I would describe as proper volume memory of headphones, it does default to a totally safe loudness level of -45 when you plug in cans and when you unplug them again. So nothing is gonna go kerflooey either way.
But on a somewhat less-positive note, the amp just didn’t have enough oomph to drive the LCD-2 cans to satisfying levels. And when I pushed the volume up above 0dB to try and get some extra sparkle out of the song, I triggered some sort of fault-protection mode that functionally disabled the headphone amp until I power-cycled the Carina 300.
So, if your headphones are particularly thirsty, you’ll probably want to add an external HPA. I wish I could have tried the Audezes with a 4.4mm balanced Pentaconn cable, and I reckon I need to snag one in the unlikely event that I have $80 to spare anytime soon, just so I’m more prepared in situations like this, where the output is available and I feel like its advantages would be audible.
What other integrated amps in this price class should you consider?
If you’re shopping for an integrated amp and you have around $2000 to spend, there are a few really great choices and not a lot of bad ones. Mind you, many of the offerings in this price range do a good job of differentiating themselves, so it really comes down to what features and functionality you consider a more important investment.
I really dig the NAD C 389 BluOS-D at $2099. The little sibling of the C 399 BluOS-D that I reviewed a while back and a close cousin to my reference C 3050, it’s not as aesthetically swanky as the Peachtree, and it’s nowhere near as powerful at 130Wpc into 8 or 4 ohms (by way of Hypex UcD modules). But the BluOS-D version features integrated Bluesound streaming, as well as Dirac Live room correction, and its headphone amp drives my LCD-2 cans like it’s hauling ’shine and on the run from revenuers. It also has an HDMI-eARC, more analog connectivity, and subwoofer outputs with proper bass management. So all in all, very stiff competition, but likely for a different sort of customer.
There’s also the Marantz Model 50 ($1800), which is a wholly different beast. It’s an all-analog class-AB integrated amp specified to deliver 70Wpc into 8 ohms or 100Wpc into 4 ohms, and it’s got a monster of a headphone amp built in. It’s also absolutely gorgeous, although its aesthetic may or may not be your bag.
TL;DR: Should you buy the Peachtree Audio Carina 300 Integrated Amp?
Something occurred to me recently that probably should have occurred to me long ago—and it’s likely a big old “duh” for most of you. Of all the integrated amplifiers I’ve reviewed in the past decade, some stand out in my mind and some have long been erased to make room for more important stuff. The ones that stick around are the special ones, and I’m going to guess that the Peachtree Carina 300 is one that’s going to take up space in my cranium for quite some time.
For one thing, it has something that far too few products in the budget-audio space have: personality. It’s not a commodified black box. It has an undeniable elegance and thoughtfulness that you normally have to pay a lot more for. Its integration with BluOS is also a delightful thing, especially the way the included remote operates BluOS devices. The whole experience is as seamless as you could hope for.
And yes, the headphone output might struggle a little in extreme corner cases. And no, the phono stage doesn’t seem to play nicely with turntables that ground through RCA, like Regas and U-Turns. But those caveats don’t come close to being deal-breakers for me. Of course, it’s not for me to say whether or not they should be for you.
. . . Dennis Burger
dennisb@soundstagenetwork.com
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
Associated Equipment
- Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100 v.5.
- Headphones: Audeze LCD-2.
- Sources: Bluesound Node; Maingear Vybe PC; iPhone 12 Pro Max.
- Turntable: U-Turn Audio Orbit Theory.
- Speaker cables: Elac Sensible.
- Phono interconnects: U-Turn Audio Reference.
- Digital interconnect: Amazon Basics USB-C to USB-A 2.0.
- Power conditioner: SurgeX XR115.
Peachtree Audio Carina 300 Integrated Amplifier
Price: $1999.
Warranty: Two years, parts and labor.
Signal Path International, LLC
13087 Bleinheim Ln.
Matthews, NC 28105
Phone: (704) 391-9337
Website: www.peachtreeaudio.com
