Thinking it is time to make the upgrade from the Sprout100 to the Stellar Strata.
But was hoping those with some experience could give me an idea of what I would hear in difference between these two units.
The Strata would be feeding a pair of Elac UB52 bookshelf speakers with a Cambridge Audio CXC as the source.
The Strata has a much bigger more confident sound with (to my ears) a much deeper and wider soundstage. At least on my KEFs.
Thanks Paul. I do love the Sprout and I have been able to make my front wall disappear with speaker placement. But I am very curious to see just how much farther a unit like the Strata could project that soundstage.
Like you, I am all about soundstage in my listening.
The Strata performance wise is a pretty large step up from the Sprout100. I always think the Sprout is that entry into the hifi sound we all want. The Strata truly gets you to the sparkle and believable sound that gets us addicted to this hobby.
I was wondering whether to replace my £5k pre/mono blocks* with a strata, which would free up enough funds for a PST. I already have a sprout in my office (and very sensitive front speakers in my main hifi.) I might combine the two temporarily to get an inkling of what a strata will sound like… although thinking about it my sprout doesn’t have an input to feed from my cd player. dang.
*Non PS Audio amps
Before Strata, I was thinking of a similar upgrade path: use my Sprout 100 as a preamp to an S300. Then add an Stellar Gain Cell to replace the Sprout. Once the Strata because available, that plan changed as I am a bit spoiled by the all in one solution.