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PS Audio Sprout vs Denon PMA 50 vs TEAC A1-301

Tin Bird

Tin Bird

Active Member
Thoughts on the PS Audio Sprout? How does it compares to the Denon PMA 50 or TEAC A1-301? Curious how that little guy might mate w the B6's? Also, if anyone thought that the Sprout (or Denon PMA 50 or TEAC A1-301) would be upgrades over my Pioneer Elite A20?
 
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Are you planning on using a turntable and if so, which one? Phono pre-amp?

The Sprout is a great little amp for bookshelf speakers but not full range speakers because of the bass peak and roll-off. ELAC B6s are fine.

Is DSD processing important to you?

There is nothing wrong with the Elite A20 that the other amps would address.

Bluetooth aptX HD is coming soon and will outperform regular aptX.
 
No, would just use it for coaxial CD player connection. DSD not important to me neither is bluetooth...was just looking for a little device to run my CD player through digitally. Elacs will prob be my main speaker for a while to come.... isn't the digital connect a more accurate/full sound?
 
Depends upon the dac in the cdp vs the one in the integrated. I've had an a20, teac ah01 (ice), and nad d3020 (ucd) among other integrateds. I doubt you will see any improvement going from an a20 + cdp to one of these devices. Their dacs are average at best. Also, most of them produce less power than the a20 which is underrated by pioneer.
 
Huh. OK. Well cool, thanks for the advice. I have not been unhappy w the A20 at all. I think it sounds pretty good. I guess I'll stick w it for now then. Thanks for saving me some $. :-)
 
Best to not throw money away. If you're really curious about improving the sound of CDs you might look into an out board DAC, but it really just depends upon how good the CDP is start with. A good one won't really get any benefit.
 
Right...I use the Onkyo C -7030...so ultra budget all the way. It puts out pretty good sound. It has a Wolfson 192 kHz/24-bit DAC which i think is decent. Perhaps a step up in CD player would be the way to improve?
 
That one is pretty good actually, cheap or not. I happen to own one of those as well and none of the external dacs I have used were significantly better to my ears (XDA2, various Fiios, Beresford, DacMagic). Most modern digital stuff, regardless of price, is exponentially better than digital gear from 10 to 20 years ago. If your CDP was from the 80s or 90s then adding a modern dac could add value.

As it sits today you're best holding tight. Now that I see your sig you'd have to spend quite a bit more to reap noticeable improvements in your gear and to do so speakers would be where to start; nothing wrong with the ones you have BTW. Speakers are just typically where the most gain can had money wise.
 
Thanks for your thoughts. I'm as entry level as they come, but happy w my little set up (for now) ;-)
 
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