Nango
Major Contributor
Hopefully the buyer can send it back within the grace period and receive full refund.
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Vista Audio Spark II Review (Amplifer)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Amire wrote: I can't recommend the Vista Audio Spark II amplifier.
Even with EQ?
One more part to be overviewed and it's overlooked, is agronomy. For some reason, the volume control is on the wrong side.
I'm getting the feeling that EQ had become the audio society swiss knife. If it can't fix it, call MacGyver (old TV show).
Since EQ was invented, Audio never sounded better.
Even with EQ?
One more part to be overviewed and it's overlooked, is agronomy. For some reason, the volume control is on the wrong side.
I'm getting the feeling that EQ had become the audio society swiss knife. If it can't fix it, call MacGyver (old TV show).
Since EQ was invented, Audio never sounded better.
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You can't EQ more power, less noise and less distortion.
bidn
Active Member
For me it is pretty clear that these kinds of so -called "reviews" are only paid advertisements (in the form of [ "sponsored" ] reviews). In the best case they consists of nice pictures and video shots, but they usually are filled at length with meaningless jargon (to give a misleading impression of expertise) and unfortunately some factually false statements ( claims of high fidelity...), e.g. for the garbage device Amir has exposed presently.
I guess: the more the pay, the longer and the better the reviews...
I have seen though exceptionally some (shorter than usual) negative reviews by this kind of people, e.g. re. Focal's headphones (though no mention the limits re. subbass at very high loudness), I guess Focal didn't pay the guys, and they might have been paid by a competitor (it might have been a case like Audeze having to defend the awful measurements of the LCD-4 versus the Utopia).
Vini darko
Major Contributor
ASR putting the gushing on youtube into perspective yet again. Thankyou Amir 
silentt29
Member
One of those amps I was possibly considering someday based on Zero Fidelity's love and praise. Yeahhhhhh... no.
So we may well remember that the worse measuring amp here at ASR is the Amp Camp Amp -- yet believe me -- lots of audiophiles love this amp? How can this possibly be?
Versus this Vista Spark, the ACA has less noise which might be a factor, but I'll suggest that a high proportion of audiophiles love the APA because it has extremely high 2nd & 3rd order harmonic distortion. In the vernacular, 2nd & 3rd order distortion caramel-coats the sound, being both pleasant itself and, I think, masking various otherwise nasty sounds.
Versus this Vista Spark, the ACA has less noise which might be a factor, but I'll suggest that a high proportion of audiophiles love the APA because it has extremely high 2nd & 3rd order harmonic distortion. In the vernacular, 2nd & 3rd order distortion caramel-coats the sound, being both pleasant itself and, I think, masking various otherwise nasty sounds.
Thank you! These are useful in determining whose opinions to avoid on Youtube.
Sigh, still waiting on a better replacement for mine. Nothing approaches functionality at that price point (Edit: well Loxjie A30 is pretty close but not enough of a performance jump). I wish SMSL would make a new version, even at a higher price point. I know they're capable of performance now.
I knew this day was coming but I was hoping for better results. I am a very happy Spark II owner. Desktop use with Omega speakers that are 94.5db efficient. My channel balance is good. It's got all the power my speakers need. I find it more musical than my Purifi Eval 1 amp.
I'm also hoping that the members here could come up with fixes for the poor numbers. External power supply maybe, things like that.
The numbers suck but is sounds great in my desktop rig.... I'm keeping mine!
I'm also hoping that the members here could come up with fixes for the poor numbers. External power supply maybe, things like that.
The numbers suck but is sounds great in my desktop rig.... I'm keeping mine!
Vini darko
Major Contributor
I'd say don't worry over it. If you're enjoying the product just keep doing that
. The numbers Amir got are mostly worst case scenario anyway.
Quit being so generous. It's quite a bit worse than that.
Maybe they're marketing it as "having a legacy tube sound" and just figured that noise was noise, so why not? This even makes the ultra-cheap chip amps seem high-end by comparison.
OK, so please see attached the comparison of THD/power plots of this Vista Audio Spark and my measurement of $70 AIYIMA A07. I have manually added Amir's measured values into my THD/power plot of the AIYIMA supplied from 27V SMPS ($40). No words needed to argue or debate.
Vista measured by Amir
HorizonsEdge
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2019
- Messages
- 224
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- 319
I have concluded that a segment of manufacturers subscribe to the the "spaghetti strategy" with a modifier. If it doesn't stick to the wall, use superglue!
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DSJR
Major Contributor
I beg your pardon?
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/crown/d-150a-series-ii.htm
What comes out is what goes in, but louder and it's easy to hear recording and production differences through my early 70's original version! It does 3-D too, but ONLY if its there in the recordings unlike many well dressed audiophool confections which make everything sound the same!
ta240
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2019
- Messages
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Even if they aren't full on paid for advertisements there are so many factors that can affect the opinion on the item.
-Sometimes the youtube personality has some other connection with the company; like doing other paid advertising or corporate videos for them. So clearly they want to keep that company happy.
-They could just really like the people at the company and want their products to succeed, which could easily affect their perceived opinion.
-They could have bought into the hype from the company spokesperson and expectation bias is rearing its ugly head.
-They may just want lots of other manufactures to send them products to 'review' so they can make more videos and more money. When some of them talk about how 'gobsmacked' they are about the latest product we typically see it sell out for months. Manufactures are going to be much more likely to send their stuff to pitchmen that can really move the product.
-They may actually think they like it. Sometimes different, at least for awhile, is better and despite all the lifting of veils some people seem to prefer their sound a bit muddy.
When I read Steve G’s review and he says “the Spark's bass was clearer and better defined. So was everything else, the Spark is a higher resolution amp. More than that the Spark has something harder to pin down, something that had me coming back to listen long after I finished writing this review.” I have to believe that Guttenberg, Fremer and many audiophiles don’t realize how much they like distortion.
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