Vista Audio Spark II Review (Amplifer)

[Ismapics]

As to those individuals, I don't place much faith in their interpretations, even other reviewers online I may listen but I have tried to read inbetween the lines.

The absolute best ones which are not just reviewers but to me are philosophers in the audio world are Thomas & Stereo and A British Audiophile. You can learn alot from them. Can add in The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel and ASR for the technical aspects. For just POV/opinion reviews, I like Soundnews and iiWi Reviews the best. The rest range from sometimes useful to entertaining...to just plain wrong.

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Hope I am interpreting what you are saying correctly. Here goes: I disagree.

Most of these "philosophers" are pawns of the Audio Industry Complex. They build credibility on adjectives. Their business models are built out of the samples, perks and money the industry sends their way. This same industry at one point had media to invest their ad budgets, but with the internet - and the everybody is an expert YouTube - those old mediums have disappeared.

Now comes this cadre of so called experts that only spout adjectives, believe that expensive cables and USB decrapifiers are actually a thing. Since there was no one to dispute them, sites like C-Net gave them an audience, youTube gives them followers, and they have reign. But now the slowly growing the ASR community is opening eyes everywhere. Now we see them for what they are, just reporters / commentary living off the brands. Isn't a coincidence that every time they have to buy a sample. they make sure every one knows it. As to shame the brands into sending them more stuff.

Finally, there are no bad guys here, it's a business model. However, every new ASR follower is one less for them. Its another dollar saved, accountability to the brands and better listening for us. Cheers all.

 

[rschoss]

Amir's Conclusions :
This amp has too little power to drive most speakers and has a lot of noise and distortion as well. There must be some mystique about it that I don't understand.
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This Amp. is the single ended version of classD amplifiers

 

[NJC]

What a bunch of misleading clowns; I think they will be better off working at a bakery store than reviewing audio equipment.

The great eclair reviews...let the challenge commence!

 

[NJC]

----------
Hope I am interpreting what you are saying correctly. Here goes: I disagree.

Most of these "philosophers" are pawns of the Audio Industry Complex. They build credibility on adjectives. Their business models are built out of the samples, perks and money the industry sends their way. This same industry at one point had media to invest their ad budgets, but with the internet - and the everybody is an expert YouTube - those old mediums have disappeared.

Now comes this cadre of so called experts that only spout adjectives, believe that expensive cables and USB decrapifiers are actually a thing. Since there was no one to dispute them, sites like C-Net gave them an audience, youTube gives them followers, and they have reign. But now the slowly growing the ASR community is opening eyes everywhere. Now we see them for what they are, just reporters / commentary living off the brands. Isn't a coincidence that every time they have to buy a sample. they make sure every one knows it. As to shame the brands into sending them more stuff.

Finally, there are no bad guys here, it's a business model. However, every new ASR follower is one less for them. Its another dollar saved, accountability to the brands and better listening for us. Cheers all.

Have you listened to them? Particularly the ones I mentioned?

 

[sarumbear]

As I don't know much about Serbia I dug deeper to find more about the manufacturer. Their website only has their US distributors address, in NY. The website footer has a link to an engineering company, called ENG Vista Inc. They are an OEM manufacturer but their website doesn't mention this amplifier, nor any other audio device. Their contact page shows the same NY address. Google doesn't know anything about either company either other than those two websites.

@amirm Who told you that this is a Serbian amplifier or where did you see the origin info?

Edit: I did an address search and this came up. Google Street View shows a house!

ENG Vista
USA based company that is primarily an electronic engineering service offering prototyping, PCB design, safety evaluations and so on in addition to making transformers, and other power related parts. As a side-line manufactures phonographic pre-amplifiers under the Vista Audio brand. Company founded in year 2000 and from ca. 2006 to early 2013 the company also made a number of valve based integrated amplifiers, distributed audio products in North America and offered audio kits, primarily valve amps under the ENG Vista name.
Distribution: In Canada by AudioLimits Canada
Homepage: http://engineeringvista.com -- Vista Audio homepage.
ENG Vista Inc., 77-21 86th St., Ridgewood, NY 11385, USA.
E-Mail: info at vista-audio.com or audio at engineeringvista.com
Source: http://audiotools.com/en_links_en.html

 

[maverickronin]

@amirm Who told you that this is a Serbian amplifier or where did you see the origin info?

It says "Made in Serbia" right on the back...

 

[Sound_freq]

I don't get the impression that Sean from ZF has any motivation to promote anything he doesn't like. ZF's channel is more of a hobby for him than a business. He's said in the past if he doesn't like the sound of a product or it is going to get an unfavorable review, he'll simply let the manufacturer know and send it back. Is there an outside chance that the unit sent to Amir has a unique issue that's different from the units the other reviewers heard ? Perhaps Sean and other reviewers hearing is flawed ? Is it possible some peoples hearing could find some of these technical flaws and distortion pleasing to the ear in a way similar to the way many find harmonic distortion in tubes , analog tape and even the imperfections inherent in vinyl soothing to hear ?

 

[HiFidFan]

What's funny and possibly ironic is that Steve Guttenberg thinks that the Vista Spark pairs well with the Klipsch RP 600M which also earned a headless panther.

Perhaps two headless panthers equals audio nirvana

 

[sarumbear]

It says "Made in Serbia" right on the back...

One expects a Serbian Hi-Fi manufacturer whose products are distributed in the USA show themselves proudly. They use “we” a lot but the only information we have is of a distributor operating from a small residential building. Strange...

 

[krott5333]

One expects a Serbian Hi-Fi manufacturer whose products are distributed in the USA show themselves proudly. They use “we” a lot but the only information we have is of a distributor operating from a small residential building. Strange...

My Vista Spark really was shipped from Serbia because the US distributor I purchased from (Audio Art Cable) was out of stock so they had it shipped directly to me.

 

[Helicopter]

This must be some kitchen table stuff. Maybe 'designed' morphed into 'engineered' in translation.

In any case, Zastava and Prvi make nice guns and great ammo if you have a 'Serbian made' void to fill.

 

[sam_adams]

Boy, that is a lot of power supply noise. Playing with grounding reduced the spikes at 60 Hz a bit but did nothing to the harmonics which are caused by the internal power supply. Even if that was low, the distortion spikes are not.

The layout of this amp is pretty poor—to say the least. Some of the 60Hz and harmonics might be reduced if the the xfr was rotated so the AC input leads were further away from the board. Relocating the outputs away from the AC power connector would probably help as-well-as twisting the output leads together. Maybe in version 2 these issue will be resolved.

 

[krott5333]

The layout of this amp is pretty poor—to say the least. Some of the 60Hz and harmonics might be reduced if the the xfr was rotated so the AC input leads were further away from the board. Relocating the outputs away from the AC power connector would probably help as-well-as twisting the output leads together. Maybe in version 2 these issue will be resolved.

This one is version 2. Version 3 perhaps.

 

[amirm]

He's said in the past if he doesn't like the sound of a product or it is going to get an unfavorable review, he'll simply let the manufacturer know and send it back.

I am sure he perceived what he says. Problem is that perception when it comes to audio electronics can be so wrong.

Is there an outside chance that the unit sent to Amir has a unique issue that's different from the units the other reviewers heard ?

Odds are extremely low due to both channels doing the same. If the company has made measurements of its own that show different results, we could start to think that. Otherwise if it was not measured like this, then these problems are most probably inherent in the design.

 

[ousi]

There exists a previous thread https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ne-familiar-with-the-vista-audio-spark.15770/

Metronoam on that thread nailed it. Quoted: "While smooth it ultimately lacks dynamically, both macro large swings as well as micro dynamic detail goes missing. It’s almost like the sound of an inefficient polycone speaker of the 80’s marketed as ‘smooth’ sounding."

 

[NoSnakeOil2]

...a lot of YT review is very fine with it...

I wouldn't listen to him. He is of the "the more expensive it is, the better it is" crowd.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I wouldn't listen to him. He is of the "the more expensive it is, the better it is" crowd.

Or more likely: this thing is unbelievable for its price point, it performs like others costing X times more...
... Still you won't get the performance of the product reviewed last month, which costs just a bit more. But it makes sense: it's more expensive.

 

[pma]

The layout of this amp is pretty poor—to say the least. Some of the 60Hz and harmonics might be reduced if the the xfr was rotated so the AC input leads were further away from the board. Relocating the outputs away from the AC power connector would probably help as-well-as twisting the output leads together. Maybe in version 2 these issue will be resolved.

I do not believe that small changes would help much. There is an inherent nonlinerity (= very bad distortion profile) and very low output power that would not be affected by a negligible improvement in mains related buzz lines.

 

[Ismapics]

...a lot of YT review is very fine with it...

You could say it "had Zero Fidelity"

 

[Zensō]

Lesson #372 in Hifi:

Avoid products with calligraphy font.

Hahaha! At least it wasn’t Papyrus.