tony esporma
New Member
Well, this is an old thread... I bought one of these from Audio Advisor, as their "demo" for 400 bucks before the Covid days.
I guess Nuforce ( I have some of their switching amps and DACs ) just didn't know how to sell a class AB amp.
At the time I listened to it for a few days and then put it away. It was an impulse buy and I didn't need it.
In the meantime, I've accumulated a lot of other amps... mostly big class A solid state monsters and built more systems in the house. In the last two years I also got into wideband Fostex speakers... so for the last year I've been using some 10wpc VFET, SIT, FET and a few 25wpc units in the small home office system.
Today, for kicks, I took down the STA200 from the shelf and hooked it up, replacing the DIY Pass Sony VFET amp. Speakers are FE103NV2 in their PB1000-BH cabs. Source is a Nitsch DAC. I'm playing Tidal HiFi over a WiiM Ultra over the LAN driving the DAC via USB. Source is a PC. No preamp in this system.
Yowza! The gain is insane. 35db or something like that...
My daughter said they sound crisp. Indeed. The soundstage is shallower than with the Class A amps, but the treble is brought forward, clean and metallic. The piano is very good, very accurate. It lacks the "sugar" that you get from Pass' negative 2nd order harmonic, but it does sound really good.
It trades a deep soundstate with a melodic tune for a very clear presentation across the bandwidth. You trade a super midrange for a very good bass, midrange and treble. This on Fostex 4 inch speakers! The Fostex sound like they've gained an octave deep down.. they don't get shouty as they turn up.
Whereas the class A amps sound a little bit on the dark side... like a nice glass of ruby port... this amp sounds like a Palo Cortado sherry.
I guess Nuforce ( I have some of their switching amps and DACs ) just didn't know how to sell a class AB amp.
At the time I listened to it for a few days and then put it away. It was an impulse buy and I didn't need it.
In the meantime, I've accumulated a lot of other amps... mostly big class A solid state monsters and built more systems in the house. In the last two years I also got into wideband Fostex speakers... so for the last year I've been using some 10wpc VFET, SIT, FET and a few 25wpc units in the small home office system.
Today, for kicks, I took down the STA200 from the shelf and hooked it up, replacing the DIY Pass Sony VFET amp. Speakers are FE103NV2 in their PB1000-BH cabs. Source is a Nitsch DAC. I'm playing Tidal HiFi over a WiiM Ultra over the LAN driving the DAC via USB. Source is a PC. No preamp in this system.
Yowza! The gain is insane. 35db or something like that...
My daughter said they sound crisp. Indeed. The soundstage is shallower than with the Class A amps, but the treble is brought forward, clean and metallic. The piano is very good, very accurate. It lacks the "sugar" that you get from Pass' negative 2nd order harmonic, but it does sound really good.
It trades a deep soundstate with a melodic tune for a very clear presentation across the bandwidth. You trade a super midrange for a very good bass, midrange and treble. This on Fostex 4 inch speakers! The Fostex sound like they've gained an octave deep down.. they don't get shouty as they turn up.
Whereas the class A amps sound a little bit on the dark side... like a nice glass of ruby port... this amp sounds like a Palo Cortado sherry.