Audio-gd Sparrow

[chuke]

I picked up one of these on HF for $100. I figured I'd use it in the living room or something. I wonder if I should have just bought $100 worth of beer instead.

How bad can it be for $100?

[Eric5676]

I know nothing about this company up or down but I see TONS of threads for them at Head-Fi. The Dedicated Source Component area is predominated by Audio-Gd talk. I took a look and I have to say some of that looks pretty tantalizing on paper.

So what's the story on them, folks?

[chuke]

i wonder if that is a real Alps.

I hope so...I got the cheapie "b" version w/o usb. I figured that I'd throw an old transport downstairs in the living room and use it when my wife goes to bed early.

[chuke]

I'll rip it open and take some pics when it gets here.

[chuke]

Funny...I never knew what the "gd" stood for -

"Global Delivery"

Lost in translation...

[Nebby]

You know you can edit your posts for a short period of time, no need to make a new post every minute.

[chuke]

uh...thanks.

[Eric5676]

I know nothing about this company up or down but I see TONS of threads for them at Head-Fi. The Dedicated Source Component area is predominated by Audio-Gd talk. I took a look and I have to say some of that looks pretty tantalizing on paper.

So what's the story on them, folks?

I know it's bad form to quote yourself but I just wanted to take one last stab at this since I know the crew around here is going to steer me through any potential overhyped marketing or anything else like that.

Thanks.

[chuke]

It's okay...not even as good as my go-vibe. I expected more - even from this small desktop amp. The volume pot feels pretty cheap and has a light feel. I had the volume at about 2:00 to get as much gain as my Peachtree Decco provides at 8:00 (HD600s). One thing I do like is that it seems to be good for low-volume listening.

This is just my initial opinion after about 15 minutes of use.

[Eric5676]

It's okay...not even as good as my go-vibe. I expected more - even from this small desktop amp. The volume pot feels pretty cheap and has a light feel. I had the volume at about 2:00 to get as much gain as my Peachtree Decco provides at 8:00 (HD600s). One thing I do like is that it seems to be good for low-volume listening.

This is just my initial opinion after about 15 minutes of use.

Not the most awe inspiring early first impressions of a product I've ever seen. Hope it ends up working out for you better than this would seem to indicate.

[Voltron]

Did A.Thorsen become Eric5676?

The Sparrow should be called Guano because it sounds like shit.

[manaox2]

Did A.Thorsen become Eric5676?

The Sparrow should be called Guano because it sounds like shit.

Yeah, saw that. Eric, it might help if you were to put your previous screen name in your sig to help out those who know you here by that.

[spritzer]

Isn't this the trend with all Audio-GD products. Noobs think they are the bees knees but seasoned ears expose them for the subpar crap they really are?

[atothex]

It's the trend with all trends on HF.

[Eric5676]

Yeah, saw that. Eric, it might help if you were to put your previous screen name in your sig to help out those who know you here by that.

Done.

[manaox2]

Done.

Heh, look at your custom title, just noticed it changed about 10 mins ago.

[Eric5676]

Heh, look at your custom title, just noticed it changed about 10 mins ago.

I didn't do that part but I did do the sig.

[Currawong]

It sounds better than the onboard Realtek crap in my PC (but then just about anything does). I don't think it has much advantage over the audio out of my MacBook Pro except more volume. To its credit, it isn't a generic OPA2134-driven thing and it sounds better than those, which are arguably a waste of money anyway unless you've only been using the cheapest and nastiest sound card to begin with.

Anyway, the value is in the higher-end gear. There's a loaner Reference 7 going out tomorrow to various people, so we can see how it stacks up with other high-end sources.

[chuke]

It brightens up the hd600s...if you're into that sort of thing. Maybe it's the dac...

I should just save my money and get something that's going to be a noticeable improvement over my Decco.

[K3cT]

I say the only Audio-gd products worth considering are their high-end DACs. I'm interested on their new ES9018 Sabre32 offering but truthfully I'm so satisfied with my self-built γ2 that I don't see myself changing DAC any time soon.

[Fungi]

What DAC module did you guys hear the Sparrow with?

[rayk]

That's one super tightly packed pcb Considering the "sound" impressions, I wonder how much of that is redundant components.

[chuke]

Update: It sucked. I sold it.

[NwAvGuy]

I want to get my hands on some Audio-Gd gear. As others have said, it is all over HF, and the Audio-Gd posts seem to constantly be bumped near the top. Is all the gushing praise really justified? I'd love to fire up the test bench and find out?

Looking at the 3 dozen or more products they offer, all the variations, and how quickly they add new products, my educated guess is the one guy supposedly designing it all can't possibly spend enough time on each one to do a proper job. He seems more interested in following the latest trend-of-the-month than any consistent design philosophy.

I might be old school, but I think getting the design right, measuring it, listening to it, refining it, getting input from others, etc. is far more important than using a particular op amp, zero NFB, or unobtanium capacitors mounted upside down with silly putty damping. Give a good chef some basic everyday ingredients and he can make something far more tasty than someone just throwing fancy ingredients together and hoping for the best.

Anyone have some Audio-Gd stuff collecting dust you could spare and curious how it would measure up and perform in some blind listening?

Edited March 30, 2011 by NwAvGuy

[deepak]

You're not wrong in your assumptions. Headfi'ers always want some new toy to fiddle around with (ie opamp rolling with easily remembered names like "sun" and "moon" ) and Audio-GD has its fair share of shills. Combine those two and...