This is a review and detailed measurements of the Vista Audio Spark II stereo integrated amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $389 from the company direct.
The Spark comes in a deep but otherwise small case:
Nice to have dual inputs and volume control. The rear of the amp is a bit unusual in placing the mains input between the connectors:
Would have thought to put the IEC jack all the way to the left and speaker to the right. Doesn't matter if the performance is good anyway.
Is this the first audio product we have tested from Serbia?
Vista Audio Spark Measurements
I had to crank the volume all the way up to get close to my nominal 29 dB gain (per THX spec):
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. As a result, the amplifier rates quite low in our overall ranking:
Signal to noise ratio is better than what we saw in the dashboard indicating the noise floor rises with power:
I was surprised to see a bass roll off in this day and age where just about every amplifier is dc-coupled:
Multitone shows a messy response with the lows polluted by the power supply and highs due to inadequate feedback:
Crosstalk is below average:
The amplifier is rated at only 20 watts but I was not able to get that:
It did better actually with 8 ohm load indicating current delivery is its issue:
Back to 4 ohm, if you allow more distortion or buRst the input, you do get a bit more power:
Finally, there is fair bit of variability when we sweep frequencies:
Conclusions
Sometimes I really wonder what appeal such amplifiers have that attract buyers. 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.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the Vista Audio Spark II amplifier. I hope the designer sees these measurements and at least works to sharply reduce the power supply noise as that can't be anything good no matter what school you are from.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The Spark comes in a deep but otherwise small case:
Nice to have dual inputs and volume control. The rear of the amp is a bit unusual in placing the mains input between the connectors:
Would have thought to put the IEC jack all the way to the left and speaker to the right. Doesn't matter if the performance is good anyway.
Is this the first audio product we have tested from Serbia?
Vista Audio Spark Measurements
I had to crank the volume all the way up to get close to my nominal 29 dB gain (per THX spec):
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. As a result, the amplifier rates quite low in our overall ranking:
Signal to noise ratio is better than what we saw in the dashboard indicating the noise floor rises with power:
I was surprised to see a bass roll off in this day and age where just about every amplifier is dc-coupled:
Multitone shows a messy response with the lows polluted by the power supply and highs due to inadequate feedback:
Crosstalk is below average:
The amplifier is rated at only 20 watts but I was not able to get that:
It did better actually with 8 ohm load indicating current delivery is its issue:
Back to 4 ohm, if you allow more distortion or buRst the input, you do get a bit more power:
Finally, there is fair bit of variability when we sweep frequencies:
Conclusions
Sometimes I really wonder what appeal such amplifiers have that attract buyers. 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.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the Vista Audio Spark II amplifier. I hope the designer sees these measurements and at least works to sharply reduce the power supply noise as that can't be anything good no matter what school you are from.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/