1/28/2024 0 Comments Ps audio sproutIt contains a 50Wpc, class-D amplifier, a moving-magnet phono stage with passive RIAA, an asynchronous USB input with a 24-bit/192kHz Wolfson WM8524 DAC chip, a Bluetooth receiver (footnote 2), and a discrete headphone amplifier. The Sprout was designed and engineered in Boulder, CO but is manufactured in China. It's easy on the mind and easy on the eyes. It looks as if PS Audio has done exactly that with the Sprout. Why should Ior my girlfriendneed a breeder's guide and a master's degree in Integrated Digital Media just to hook up a DAC? All you high-end dealers who say you want to lure young iPod users into your showrooms need to offer products that are as easy to use and as sanely attractive as the iPods you mock. I see no reason why the myriad inventions of our digital era can't make even the highest-quality music playback easier to use and more affordable. The notion that high-quality music reproduction and user-friendliness are mutually exclusive was specious even when it first appeared. Scott McGowan seems to share my belief that high-end audio would be better served and more widely received if it focused more of its design energies on the audio newcomer. I knew they offered their own version of extraordinary value, while sounding more open, relaxed, and sophisticated than the Haflers' musical but fairly hard, transistory sound. Back then, I built Hafler's DH200 power amp and DH101 preamp from kits, but aspired to the slightly more expensive PS Audio separates. To my young ears, they played music as well as the bigger, more expensive amps from SAE, Mark Levinson, and Phase Linear. PS Audio didn't get my full attention until around 1980, when they introduced their unique, shoebox-shaped, Model 2 amplifiers. Today, these engineering strategies are common 40 years ago, they signaled "serious hi-fi." These models were followed by another development à la Marantz's Consolette: a preamp whose mains transformer and power supply were housed separately, to isolate them from the more delicate signal-path components. This popular, low-priced modelwhich, not unlike the Sprout and the Consolette, came in an attractive case of wood and aluminumwas followed by an equally innovative line-level preamp, which could be switched between active (with 0dB gain) and passive operation, where the only device in the signal path was the volume-control potentiometer. Like Saul Marantz, whose first product was the legendary Model 1 Consolette preamp (1952), Paul McGowan and Stan Warren's first product was a phono-only preamp. PSA has always reminded me of such legendary corporations as Dynaco and Haflerestimable companies that built their brands by making high-end products even a starving artist could afford. Paul McGowan and Stan Warren founded PS Audio in 1974. ![]() It's small but feels hefty, and has "modern home" written all over its walnut-topped case of machined aluminum.Īnd that's only a teeny bit of the story. This pint-sized, budget-priced integrated amplifier measures only 6" wide by 1.75" high by 8" deep and costs just $799 (footnote 1). The Sprout plays the devil out of the blues, it keeps the beat like my dog's tail, and, like those diminutive young'uns, it doesn't need fashion advice or lifestyle consultants. This one was crowdfunded by Kickstarter and developed by Scott McGowan, PS Audio's sales director and son of founder Paul McGowan. Their bright faces and excited voices make me think, You go, little sprouts! These miniature humans' special beauty is that they still possess their full force de vie.īut perhaps you haven't heardanother beguiling little Sprout is bouncing about. Whenever we see one of these cheerful, bouncing young'uns coming toward us on the sidewalk, I smile and my dog's tail wags. I like three-footers toosprightly three-year-old girls who dress better than their moms and never need a lifestyle consultation. My favorites are the two-footersthose little two-year-old boys with a kind of wobbly, bent-kneed stride that dips like a blues song every fourth step as they stagger ahead of their watchful parents. ![]() I find small humans more beguiling than big people.
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