Integrated Amp Reviews

Guess what. No more smoke and f-stop shadow! In fact, with the AQ wire, the Sprout's Analog input was now more yang than its Vinyl input.

Continuing my investigations, I inserted AQ's Cinnamon USB link ($79) in the Sprout's USB digital input, and AQ's Big Sur interconnects ($109/pair) between the VPI Traveler turntable ($1500) with Ortofon 2M Black cartridge ($799) and the Sprout's Vinyl input—whereupon all of the Sprout's inputs began to sing in the same voice of April–May sunshine. The digital inputs' detail and soundstage accuracy were dramatically enhanced. Most impressive was the upgrade in the Sprout's already exceptional liveliness.

This newly enhanced liveliness had limitations. Playing a reissue of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Peter Maag conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (CD, Decca/Classic Records CSCD 6001), I began to notice that the Sprout was running out of torque more quickly than I thought it should. This little devil has 50W, I kept thinking; that should be more than enough for any of my speakers. But it wasn't. With both big classical and demanding rock, I began to notice climaxes fading as they approached their peaks. I contacted PSA's marketing maven Bill Leebens and asked, "Is this amplifier really 50W?" He responded by sending me the Sprout's official specs: 50W into 4 ohms, 33W into 8 ohms.

Nevertheless, after the change to AudioQuest cables, I felt that the Sprout was finally performing as the McGowans expected it to, and as I'd hoped it would. Recording after recording, the Sprout now showed its cheerful and highly musical force de vie!

Bluetooth
According to Scott McGowan, the Sprout's Bluetooth circuit (footnote 3) "draws the S/PDIF signal from the Bluetooth dev board into [the] DAC." He claims that this method "[i]mproves the sound quality to levels which qualify for high-end status."

For me, evaluating Bluetooth sound quality is one of the most vexing aspects of wearing my reviewer's hat. I use this wireless convenience only when evaluating audio products equipped with Bluetooth. This is why my listening room contains two separate systems: my main reference system with floorstanding speakers, which I use for reviewing and late-night dreaming; and a second, usually quite-good desktop system featuring wall-mounted Rogers LS3/5A or Totem Model One Signature speakers, a Schiit Asgard headphone amp, a Line Magnetics LM 502 CA DAC (or the DAC du jour), and whatever amplification I've just removed from the main system. For this second system I use a Mac mini as the source and listen primarily to Tidal streaming, my iTunes library, and high-resolution downloads from HDtracks. Many days, this is the only system I listen to.

For this review, I routinely switched between the Bluetoothed Sprout in the floorstanding system and my quality desktop rig, and you know what? I think Scottl McGowan may be right. To my ears, the Sprout's rendition of Bluetooth felt richer, more detailed, less hollow and vapid than any Bluetooth sound I've tried so far. It also seemed to overload less on uncompressed files. The many Eno and Aphex Twin tracks I played via Bluetooth were totally enjoyable.

Headphones
At the beginning of this review process, and again at the end, I used the Sprout in my desktop system, exclusively for headphone listening. At first I thought the Sprout's headphone output sounded more detailed than its speaker output. Listening now again, as I type this, it still sounds detailed but also seems a bit wiry and bass shy, with a tipped-up tonal balance that eliminates almost entirely that sunny playfulness I heard through speakers. Compared to my Schiit Asgard headphone amp, the Sprout sounds dry and lean. That smart, Asian-Brazilian sexiness has mostly vanished from Smokey & Miho.

Conclusions
PS Audio's Sprout does not play tunes as if engineered to perform such audiophile tricks as ersatz detail, bass wallop, or exaggerated soundstaging. The Sprout's strengths can all be measured in more quotidian and human terms. The Sprout seems best suited to my favorite categories of listener: garden-variety music lovers and newly minted record collectors. What the remarkable little Sprout did was play all types of music in a fashion that I found 110% enjoyable. Well . . . maybe only 97%. But for $799, even 97% is amazing.

The Sprout falls partway between the 125Wpc Peachtree Audio nova125 ($1499; Stereophile's "Recommended Components," Class B), which plays with considerably more detail, sparkle, and punch—and the 30Wpc NAD D 3020 ($499; Class C), which was summarized in the October 2013 edition of "Recommended Components" thusly: "The sound from every input was warm, present, and naturally detailed; even low-quality MP3s streamed wirelessly via Bluetooth were engaging, said [Stephen Mejias]." Which is pretty close to how I would describe the Sprout's sound—except that I think it added a few extra intangibles: playfulness, boogie, and what I can call only "the Paul McGowan Factor." Yes, I know the Sprout is Scott's baby, but the senior McGowan has been around more blocks of high-end audio than this humble reporter. Paul must have auditioned the Sprout before it hit the street. If he hadn't thought the Sprout's musical virtues were obvious, or that the marketplace wouldn't easily recognize its exceptional value, I'm certain he would have encouraged his son to go back to the bench and make it better.

I have always felt that real art lays in hiding—in the transitions between contrasts like dark and light, near and far, beginning and end—and with the Sprout, I always enjoyed the way I felt when a song ended and the next one began. I took pleasure in how I would go from smiling satisfaction to eager anticipation. This important, user-friendly intangible eludes traditional audiophile analysis. Most of all, the Sprout specialized in the beguiling reproduction of every kind of music I sent through its four inputs. Recommended to style-conscious, value-seeking human beings of all ages, genders, and heights. You go, little Sprout!

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Footnote 3: From an interview with John H. Darko in Digital Audio Review, June 30, 2014.