As
@FooFighter asked me about it, here are some more thoughts on the Peacock in comparison to the D9200, which might be of interest for some other people, too:
-Imaging and staging - Peacock. Extremely good positioning of instruments, excellent (tube-like) layers. The Peacock's imaging has a lot more height. Depth is pretty much the same as with the D9200.
- Peacock is more laid back but on the other hand has better macrodynamics (more of difference between loud and less loud parts of a track) which imo are the only clear weakness of the D9200.
- better bass quality on D9200 as far as punch and texture are concerned, Peacock mid bass has more weight. Still clearly a win for the D9200.
- Vocals, especially female ones, are clearly better on Peacock, however with slight shimmering in the upper frequencies. Not sibilant, but sometimes close to it.
- Resolution: really hard to say, the D9200 seems to be more obviously highly resolving, but the mellowed tuning of the Peacock makes a comparison difficult. However, i'd still say the D9200 has the upper hand here.
- D9200 is imo pretty much unbeatable as far as timbre is concerned, but the Peacock is very close.
Other aspects: In the end, at this point i personally clearly prefer the Peacock, but the most important reason is its OTL-tube like intoxicating musicality. If the typical OTL tube sound (warmth, layering, lushness...) is not your thing, you might want to give these a pass. If it however is, you are really in for a treat.
