These are not the same size of amplifier: Peachtree nova300 has roughly 2.3x the power of NAD C 389. That is about 3.6dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Peachtree nova300 has more power - 300W against 130W into 8 ohms. That is about 3.6dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate NAD C 389 the better fit for desk or near-field listening, a small room and a mid-size room, and Peachtree nova300 for a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | B | Peachtree nova300 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 450W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | B | Peachtree nova300 is the quieter design on paper - 105dB against 95dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only Peachtree nova300 handles DSD. |
| Analogue inputs | A | NAD C 389 takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Peachtree nova300 offers a pre-out/main-in loop - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Peachtree nova300 takes up about 24% less shelf area (1289cm² against 1705cm²), and it is 30mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Peachtree nova300 costs less - $1,499 against $1,999 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Peachtree nova300 is the cheaper watt - about $5 per watt against $15. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A NAD C 389 B Peachtree nova300
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Peachtree nova300 is the easier recommendation: it leads on most of the measured areas and costs less. Take NAD C 389 if one of the "depends" rows above describes your system. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Peachtree nova300 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Peachtree nova300 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 130 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 170 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Peachtree nova300 poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.