Starke Sound AD4.320 Review (Multichannel Amplifier)

[Katji]

Man, who hurt you.

The frequency response are on the website. Not sure where you guys are looking lol

He had explained thoroughly, in detail.

 

[RichB]

He said the *power ratings* don't include the frequency at which they were tested. Amplifier power frequently goes down at the extremes of frequency range. What you listed is just frequency response which has nothing to do with this objection. So don't LOL stuff if you can't understand the argument.

ATI still uses FTC as well as 1 kHz EIA measurements.
Here are the specs for the AT6000 series amplifiers:

The FTC specifications are 20 Hz to 20 kHz 0.05 THD and noise.

This is a more complete specification than just power at 1 kHz.

- Rich

 

[nstzya]

Hey what's up guys, I currently have this unit in for review and I had a friend of mine measure it using a Dscope Series 3 which obviously isn't as luxury as some of the other review companies out there but at 8 ohms the unit hit its mark at 1thd at 140 watts. Not bad at all. We had a nice listening session and it performed really nicely. I'm not a huge fan boy for Class D amps but this one is a good unit. I read all about the AD4 debacle and it seems they took care of people for, what I assume was a bad batch. So all good here. Looking forward to sharing the full review soon.

Great, that should be interesting. Do you mind sharing your qualifications/experience? And do you have a website - or perhaps a you-tube channel where we could see some of your other reviews? Always nice to have expert and qualified opinions. There are so many trolls, and “reviews” for hire, it’s sometimes hard to separate legitimate experts from shills sent by the companies to spread subjectivism and disinformation...

 

[Katji]

 

[archerious]

He seems to like this amp, despite it's poor measurements for the cost.

 

[JRaab]

I did not say you or ASR as an organization is accusing anybody of fraud. But someone did make that accusation and invoke ASR in a comment made on the HomeTheaterHifi review linked to in Post #344. Obviously it is that individual who is responsible for that specific claim. I just think it's bad form and that it puts ASR in a bad light.

I am not suggesting that the manufacturer gets a free pass. I've said that repeatedly. And they already don't in that your measurements show that their product doesn't meet the stated specs. On top the manufacturer handled it poorly when you brought this up with them. The end. I don't see a need to pile further onto that. I would like to think that people can be allowed to recover from their mistakes. Their more recent product does appear to meet the stated specs, so maybe they got the message.

I don't understand where the absolutist thinking comes from. Either the manufacturer gets a free pass or we all clamour until they're out of business. And if I suggest we clamour less and watch how they recover from this, suddenly I'm giving them a free pass? I just don't understand that. I see the world in more nuanced terms than that.

Tom

Hey Tom,

So I used the word fraud in several of my posts and it fits to this situation regardless of court of law. Fraud isn't singularly defined through legal action.

The definition of fraudulent is "a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities". So they claimed a certain power level and distortion with their amp, neither were true, therefore by very definition they made fraudulent claims. Courts are only used when attempting to receive recompense for the losses. Through this sites outrage and the bad publicity they were getting Starke finally decide, after several months btw, to do the right thing and offer a refund. However, had this not happened, then yes there would have been a lawsuit to recover the losses. This expectation needs to be the case when companies do business, otherwise untrustworthy companies will do whatever they like.

Remember, a definition of a word doesn't rely on the court system to be appropriate.

Edit: for clarity sake I should also note that I don't speak for or have any connection to ASR other than being a member of the forum.

 

[fpitas]

Great, that should be interesting. Do you mind sharing your qualifications/experience? And do you have a website - or perhaps a you-tube channel where we could see some of your other reviews? Always nice to have expert and qualified opinions. There are so many trolls, and “reviews” for hire, it’s sometimes hard to separate legitimate experts from shills sent by the companies to spread subjectivism and disinformation...

Good heavens. Disingenuous posters? On my internet?

 

[The Great]

I think Starke is the module Eversolo uses for their power amps

 

[Purité Audio]

It was ( and still might be) but…
Keith

 

[Scrivs]

My theory is Starke had some garden variety TPA3255 modules manufactured, and decided to use TI’s 53V 10% absolute maximum rating (300WPC IIRC) to market the amp. IMHO, it was not done in good faith, and Starke was banking on its average performance (within limits) to be enough for most of his tech-naive customers. Maybe the “Extra Bass” folks were hearing when bridging the unit was simply the amp being able to handle transients better, as that toroidal had half as many channels to dump its current into. Apologies for eviscerating an expired equine.
Given the 21 pages of comments I just read, it’s clear to me from the moment he used the “wrong transformer” lie (esp given the selector) that whoever/whatever Starke is has zero moral compass. The type of creature that sleeps like a baby regardless.
Gross. I’m glad he/they got called out. It was laughably obvious the whole time what he was trying to pull.

 

[Bhu108]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Starke Sound AD4.320 four channel amplifier. It was kindly purchased by a member new and drop shipped to me. It costs US $1,499 but they have had sales with prices as low as US $900.

The Ad4.320 looks a bit industrial and is quite heavy for a class D amplifier:

View attachment 156014

The reason for heavy weight is dual linear transformers and power supply on the right side. Usually class D amplifiers use switching power supplies which keeps the unit light. My own switching amplifier also uses a linear power supply with its weight and size penalty.

I was pleased to see balanced inputs and triggers for remote on and off:

View attachment 156015

As you can see, you can bridge two channels together and get double the power. Unlike other amps that require funky connections, you have two dedicated terminals with a slide switch to select the mode (which need to be activated when power is off). When I powered on the unit, I could not get output out of one channel. I switched the bridge mode left and right (when off) and it got both working. For bulk of my testing I tested channels 1 and 2.

Starke Sound AD4.320 Measurements
We start with our usual dashboard of 1 kHz tone with a load of 4 ohm with power of 5 watts:


View attachment 156016

Gain is atypically low at 21 dB (usually it is in 28 to 32 dB). Not a problem with our dedicated DACs as they can easily provide the voltage the unit needs.

Sadly we have high 2nd and 3rd harmonics that cause SINAD to droop down to 73 dB. This is well below average of all amplifiers tested:

View attachment 156017

We are talking chip-amp performance level here not anything that would come at this price range.

Signal to noise ratio is better but not exciting:

View attachment 156018

Multitone test shows rapid rise in distortion with frequency:

View attachment 156019

The class D amplifier filter is not inside the feedback loop so shows high sensitivity to load:

View attachment 156020

This means the tonality you get may depend on the actual impedance of the speaker you use.

Crosstalk between channels 1 and 2 is very good:

View attachment 156021

Key performance metric for any amplifier is powered and I was very surprised to see far less power than specified:

View attachment 156022

We are not even in the same planet with 104 watts vs spec of 320! I switched channel 2 to 3 just in case there is a power supply limit but it almost made no difference. We are still way short of the company specs:

View attachment 156026

Story repeated with 8 ohm load:

View attachment 156023

Forgetting about lack of power, we also have very early rise in distortion and rising before clipping.

I thought maybe they had used peak power to rate the amplifier but that is not in the same vicinity either:

View attachment 156024

We do see the benefit of the linear amplifier in the way it allows higher burst power than tightly regulated switching power supplies.

Sweeping the frequency and measuring power and THD+N, shows smooth lines which is good but they are quite elevated at higher frequencies:

View attachment 156025

Conclusions
The AD4.320 underperforms in so many categories. You can argue about audibility of this and that measurements but not the lack of power. That, you will hear. Is the unit broken? Could be but it doesn't perform like it is broken. I thought maybe it is set to 240 volts but it is clearly marked as being a 120 volt unit (see the back panel picture). And at any rate, if they shipped the amp this way to a US customer, then that is what they are going to get.

I can't recommend the Starke Audio AD4.320. Getting four channels with so much power would have been a good value if they had delivered. But when they don't, there is no reason to buy it.

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[Bhu108]

Boy I own this amp and your review leaves me and 6 members of my local audio club (all with much "better systems", great ears, and a few are brutally honest with no social filters) scratching our heads and thinking WTF? I have heard at least 6 amps in my system from: 180 WPC tube amp by Mesa Engineering ( similar to the Mesa Baron that inspired Bob Carver), Krell, Plinius, SAE, WFS class D stereo amp, CIA ( 600WPC Channel Island Audio monoblocks) I wonder if you could have had a bad sample because our listening experience was/and is, very good to excellent, the amp has great power, control, low distortion etc. My only issue was a ground hum which was reluctantly solved with a cheater groundless plug adapter. The amp is very quiet but not the quietest amp have heard.

 

[levimax]

Boy I own this amp and your review leaves me and 6 members of my local audio club (all with much "better systems", great ears, and a few are brutally honest with no social filters) scratching our heads and thinking WTF? I have heard at least 6 amps in my system from: 180 WPC tube amp by Mesa Engineering ( similar to the Mesa Baron that inspired Bob Carver), Krell, Plinius, SAE, WFS class D stereo amp, CIA ( 600WPC Channel Island Audio monoblocks) I wonder if you could have had a bad sample because our listening experience was/and is, very good to excellent, the amp has great power, control, low distortion etc. My only issue was a ground hum which was reluctantly solved with a cheater groundless plug adapter. The amp is very quiet but not the quietest amp have heard.

While the amp has relatively high distortion compared to many modern amps and less power than advertised the audibility of these shortcomings is not going to be apparent listening to music in most cases. For music most people can't hear 5% (-26 dB) THD so there is no way -70 dB is going to be audible. The difference between 104 watts and 320 watts is only ~5 dB so depending on speaker efficiency and listening level this again is not going to be audible.

 

[Dennis_FL]

While the amp has relatively high distortion compared to many modern amps and less power than advertised the audibility of these shortcomings is not going to be apparent listening to music in most cases. For music most people can't hear 5% (-26 dB) THD so there is no way -70 dB is going to be audible. The difference between 104 watts and 320 watts is only ~5 dB so depending on speaker efficiency and listening level this again is not going to be audible.

Agreed. I once did a side-by-side with two amps and the weaker amp (75 watts/ch) clipping was obvious.