The Bluetooth, is it aptX streaming - or is the Bluetooth there for remote control only?
It looks great! Congrats. Looking forward to hearing one.
There are many times in my past when this would have been my go-to solution.
Now I am thinking - where could I use one of these??
It has me wondering…since the old man has gone hybrid with the input stage on the new amp, where are the tubes in the Sprout?? 
Frode said The Bluetooth, is it aptX streaming - or is the Bluetooth there for remote control only?It is aptX streaming of music. And, of course, while in Bluetooth you can control the volume, start, stop etc. remotely.
barronius said I would love to see a version in black rather than just the silver!Will this be manufactured in Boulder?
At the moment it’s silver only. It’s designed in Boulder but it will not be manufactured here. To get this pricing and quality we’re having to go overseas and find the appropriate vendor.
x838nwy said Hello Scott and Paul,Just want to say congratulations on a new product. It’d be awesome to have the technology and knowhow from PS Audio in a more affordable package so in that light, the Sprout is very welcome!
If I could make a suggestion, would it be possible to have a connection that works straight from an iDevice? I know bluetooth will be the medium in that regard, but I’ve always found bt connections to be less than ideal for music. (Not excluding Android devices here, but afaik, they’re not so picky.) Plus, if I have the system in my bedroom I can have it charge my phone and play music at the same time
And to be really, really, anal about it all, I wonder if the shiny silver finish on the knob will clash with the casing which has a more blu-ish tone…
Anyhow, it’s awesome. Let me know when the project goes on Kickstarter, you have one backer ready!
p.s. Scott, the jack is a 1/4" as in “one quarter inch” jack, rather than a 1-1/4" which is a “one and a quarter inch” jack. A 1-1/4" TRS jack would look like something one finds in shops selling things of a more adult nature than hi-fi.
Thanks x838nwy, I’ll get this verbiage down pat before you know it. Don’t let me off the hook! For the iDevice of course 3.5mm would work but if you don’t want to use the iDevice’s DAC, I think an outboard dock like those from TEAC could draw the digital off and then you could go COAX into Sprout, but as of now we do not have a solution here. We were going to go with a #4 line grain for the finish but went with bead blasted aluminum because it was so consistent and…has this beautiful champagne effect in real life. More pictures to come.
PerkyEars said I'm in the 60 something crowd. Would have loved this piece when part of the 20-30 something crowd. When it's available it would be perfect for my now almost 20 something son. He's just now beginning to appreciate detail and depth that is part of great sound. Thanks Scott! Thanks, too, Paul for pointing to Scott's efforts.Thanks PerkyEars! Definitely Sprout tends to lean towards 20-30 somethings, but I've leaned so heavily on Paul and our engineers for sound quality, performance, reliability at every turn, we are steadfast in our determination to appeal to our "die-hards" as well. Possibly, sure, for their secondary systems or bedroom systems only. Also consider our goal of bringing our better halves into the fold. My fiance loves the lack of power cables & interconnects everywhere, the ease of use, and the fact that we can wear headphones in our small apartment. We'd love to hear what you and your son think!
I like it. Simple, elegant, functional, and reasonably priced. Looks like a great value. I already have too many different audio systems, but could definitely see myself purchasing one of these. Good luck with the product launch.
I like it! Unfortunately, I set my son up with a Peachtree based system last year… but I have two sons.
Be sure to let us know when the Kickstarter campaign gets going.
Hi Scott/Paul, this is Igor from Hi-Fi Centre in Vancouver, Canada. We’re one of the top hifi shops in the country and we would be delighted to sell the Sprout when it becomes available. You can use this post as an official pre-order. We’ll discuss particulars in private but publicly I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations for an incredibly well thought out product.
Best of luck in Munich and please do get in touch with me when you’re ready to receive a purchase order.
Igor Kivritsky
Hi-Fi Centre
Hello,
This is a stunning product, the decision to go with those tactile controls I think is an excellent one, this is the part you will be ‘handling’ the most, so solidly engineered controls go a long way to giving the message that this is a real quality product. Likewise it looks like you’ve used good quality connectors, another one of those subtle indicators to the user that his is a serious product, even if that user lacks familiarity with PS Audio and it’s heritage.
Now a quick techie question, is the power amp stage a class ‘D’ or ‘T’ digital type stage? I just can’t figure out how you would have installed a conventional class A/B stage in a unit that small without it doubling up as a griddle, which would be bad for the digital electronics this clearly contains.
Will this be sold as the PS Audio Sprout, or will this sell under a different brand name?
Very best wishes,
David
ukaudiophile said Hello,This is a stunning product, the decision to go with those tactile controls I think is an excellent one, this is the part you will be ‘handling’ the most, so solidly engineered controls go a long way to giving the message that this is a real quality product. Likewise it looks like you’ve used good quality connectors, another one of those subtle indicators to the user that his is a serious product, even if that user lacks familiarity with PS Audio and it’s heritage.
Now a quick techie question, is the power amp stage a class ‘D’ or ‘T’ digital type stage? I just can’t figure out how you would have installed a conventional class A/B stage in a unit that small without it doubling up as a griddle, which would be bad for the digital electronics this clearly contains.
Will this be sold as the PS Audio Sprout, or will this sell under a different brand name?
Very best wishes,
David
Thanks David. I am sure Scott will be thrilled to read your comments. It is a class D amplifier designed in Scandinavia. We went through all the likely suspects for class D vendors and Scott liked the sound of this particular design the most and I would have to agree.
While you are accurately perceiving a little independent branding going on, it is 100% a PS Audio product. The logo does actually exist on the unit, but right out front it’s Sprout as we are going to tackle new customers with this product…possibly people who have not yet heard of PS Audio. A newbie might not have bandwidth for more than one brand at a time (or even one syllable for that matter) so we wanted something clean, tangible, memorable, and friendly. The more we can associate it with PS the better though. Thanks and I appreciate “stunning” the last 24-hours of posts have been deeply humbling.
Paul McGowan saidbarronius said I would love to see a version in black rather than just the silver!Will this be manufactured in Boulder?
At the moment it’s silver only. It’s designed in Boulder but it will not be manufactured here. To get this pricing and quality we’re having to go overseas and find the appropriate vendor.
Totally, @barronius consider as an alternative too: different wood panels. The options are endless. I am thinking bamboo would be a knockout. Brazilian rosewood (like the IRS-5’s) would be stellar as well. We could down the road black-anodize Sprout and it would look great…I’m thinking with a light wood like ash.
David said It has me wondering...since the old man has gone hybrid with the input stage on the new amp, where are the tubes in the Sprout??I would take a lot less convincing than my dad (i.e. 40 years less) as I love tube amps. Version II maybe!
Philip said I like it.Given that this product is aimed at the Millenials, wouldn’t a remote be considered mandatory? There aren’t many audio components around today that aren’t remote controlled. I just wonder if Millenials could be turned off by the lack of a remote. Just sayin.
Certainly a huge consideration, one that we grappled with for months. Ultimately, this is a hands-on lifestyle piece that I want to touch. And before I wax rebellious on the remote control, I’ll say that with bluetooth of course start/stop/select and gain control is done at the phone. I use the analog-in for my television, and then disable the TV’s internal speakers and just use the TV’s remote. And for vinyl, well, I have to get up to flip that record anyway.
Did I say I’m rebelling against the remote? Just a little. My bloody air conditioner has a remote control. That was the last straw
Paul McGowan saidukaudiophile said Hello,This is a stunning product, the decision to go with those tactile controls I think is an excellent one, this is the part you will be ‘handling’ the most, so solidly engineered controls go a long way to giving the message that this is a real quality product. Likewise it looks like you’ve used good quality connectors, another one of those subtle indicators to the user that his is a serious product, even if that user lacks familiarity with PS Audio and it’s heritage.
Now a quick techie question, is the power amp stage a class ‘D’ or ‘T’ digital type stage? I just can’t figure out how you would have installed a conventional class A/B stage in a unit that small without it doubling up as a griddle, which would be bad for the digital electronics this clearly contains.
Will this be sold as the PS Audio Sprout, or will this sell under a different brand name?
Very best wishes,
David
Thanks David. I am sure Scott will be thrilled to read your comments. It is a class D amplifier designed in Scandinavia. We went through all the likely suspects for class D vendors and Scott liked the sound of this particular design the most and I would have to agree.
This one?
Scott McGowan said @alrainbow & @Elk Sprout has a headphone amp with a discrete output stage. Powers my hifiman HE-500 like a dream.Excellent.
(Isn’t the HE-500 and amazing buy? Great yuck/buck value.)
The more I learn, the more appealing this little guy becomes.
Though I am currently migrating my own CEntrance based system towards one centered around PS Audio products, I do still have maximum respect for the quality of the products put forth by both companies. I am bringing up CEntrance as it seems to me that Sprout is very close to the CEntrance DACmini PX in specs and form factor and could aspire to match their Audiophile Desktop product if paired with appropriate speakers. In what important ways does Sprout offer features or performance not met by CEntrance? Certainly PS Audio has always aimed at a higher level of audiophile performance than has CEntrance for their target audience (or so I believe to be the case, the kind and wonderful people at CEntrance might beg to differ; though a contention my own incrementally building experience with my growing PS Audio system would support). Or is perhaps a near equivalent to Sprout already on the market?
Best of luck with a very ambitious and promising looking product,
Larry
Great looking product and the fact that you included a phono preamp is awesome. I am curious about how the USB input would work. I have about 35,000 songs (FLAC &MP3) in 620 folders on a 2TB external HD. Without a way to visualize the folders or songs, how would I be able to select something to play?
I wish you all the success in the world, and thanks for carrying on the great PS Audio tradition.
Jeff
Frode saidPaul McGowan saidukaudiophile said Hello,This is a stunning product, the decision to go with those tactile controls I think is an excellent one, this is the part you will be ‘handling’ the most, so solidly engineered controls go a long way to giving the message that this is a real quality product. Likewise it looks like you’ve used good quality connectors, another one of those subtle indicators to the user that his is a serious product, even if that user lacks familiarity with PS Audio and it’s heritage.
Now a quick techie question, is the power amp stage a class ‘D’ or ‘T’ digital type stage? I just can’t figure out how you would have installed a conventional class A/B stage in a unit that small without it doubling up as a griddle, which would be bad for the digital electronics this clearly contains.
Will this be sold as the PS Audio Sprout, or will this sell under a different brand name?
Very best wishes,
David
Thanks David. I am sure Scott will be thrilled to read your comments. It is a class D amplifier designed in Scandinavia. We went through all the likely suspects for class D vendors and Scott liked the sound of this particular design the most and I would have to agree.
This one?
http://www.profusionplc.com/pro/gex/pcatdtl0?ipartno=ALC0100-2300
Yes, that’s the one. It comes under Anaview or the parent company here Abletec and is designed by a very clever fellow named Patrick, I can’t remember his last name. Very cool stuff going on. We compared to B&O, Hypex, and a few others and while they’re certainly good candidates, this one just knocked it out of the park.
Scott has engineering build three Sprout protos with the top candidates in them and spent time listening to all three without knowing which amp was inside. The only difference being the amps. Time and again this was his choice. He knew it was right. One of the things I so admire about his process is the time he takes. I tend to make rather quick judgments and move on. Scott spends amazing amounts of time, agonizing over every little or big decision there is. I’ll bet he spent a week with these amplifiers before making his choice.
When we did the high pass contours for Sprout Scott locked himself in the music room for hours on end playing all sorts of wild music making sure the bass was just right. This is really a big deal to him and it delights this proud old man to end to watch his dedication to the product.