Playback Designs SPA-8 Stereo Amplifier – Quick Impression
Review organized by Marc Loubeau / Prestige Audio Diffusion
Review sample supplied by Playback Designs
Retail price in France & Monaco + Benelux including VAT: 94.990 euro
Due to my highly positive experiences with Playback Designs’ digital components, I immediately agreed when my French contact, Marc Loubeau of Prestige Audio Diffusion, asked me to review the Playback Designs SPA-8 stereo power amplifier. During the phone call, he mentioned that this was a very large and heavy amplifier, but clearly, I did not think it through at that time, as its true heft did not fully register until I saw it in person later.
Measuring 73 cm wide, 86 cm deep, and 34 cm tall, and weighing 137 kg, the Playback Designs SPA-8 stereo power amplifier can truly be described as an absolute beast. I mean, this amp is 73 cm wide! Even very large amplifiers are rarely more than 73 cm deep. As one can imagine, the crate in which this amplifier is shipped is even more massive, and as it turned out, it’s impossible to get it into my apartment unless it is fully unpacked. However, at 137 kg and requiring four persons to carry it, we decided it was best to take an alternative approach for this review.
Although I included myself in the photo above as a size reference, I still think the amplifier appears much smaller than it actually is.
An alternative review approach
Instead of conducting a comprehensive review using my reference system, I will evaluate the SPA-8 amplifier at the Aequo Audio showroom and their new Ensium loudspeakers on two separate occasions.
In this Quick Impression article, I will share my initial experience listening to the amplifier with Aequo Audio Ensium loudspeakers. These speakers are brand-new, and I have not yet had the opportunity to hear them before, hence the Quick Impression article rather than a full-fledged in-depth review. Nevertheless, I will conduct A-B comparisons in this same setup using WestminsterLab amplifiers that I have reviewed and am familiar with.
Following this Quick Impression article, I will perform an in-depth review of the Ensium loudspeakers in my listening room. With a solid understanding of the speakers’ capabilities, I will then return to the Aequo Audio showroom to re-evaluate the SPA-8 amplifier.
Playback Designs SPA-8
The SPA-8 was introduced and demonstrated for the first time at the 2019 Munich High End Show. This amplifier was designed to showcase Playback Designs’ capabilities in amplification, with the goal of creating a state-of-the-art product that would be the ideal companion for the brand’s Dream Series digital sources. Although the amplifier is included in the product catalog, it is available only by special order and with a lead time. This beast of an amplifier is intended for customers who seek the very best that the brand has to offer—regardless of weight, size, or cost.
The SPA-8 is an extremely potent amplifier, and one of the few in existence that doubles its output from 800 Watts into 8 Ohms to 1,600 Watts into 4 Ohms, and doubles again to 3,200 Watts into 2 Ohms. As a Playback Designs audio component, I would expect this amplifier to be not only very potent but also highly musical.
SPA-8 is built with a discrete and complementary Class A input stage and a Class AB output stage using 20 200-Watt BJ transistors per channel. Two toroidal transformers with a capacity of 1,800 Watts and a filter capacitance of 294,000 μF provide plenty of energy. The total harmonic distortion is an extremely low 0.00054 percent at 1 kilohertz and 400 Watts of output power into an 8-ohm load.
The amplifier is controlled and protected by a dual microprocessor (one per channel). The front panel display features various modes of operation and can display either a discreet dot, the musical dynamics, volume level, or the words “Playback Designs”. Naturally, the display brightness is also adjustable.
System Context
The Aequo Audio demo system consists of the following components: the Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server, connected via USB to the Playback Designs MPT-8, which was connected via PLINK to the MPD-8, which was connected to the WestminsterLab Quest preamp. This preamp then feeds either the matching Rei mono power amplifiers or the Playback Designs SPA-8 stereo power amplifier. The system uses Aequo Audio cables throughout.
The speakers deserve their own review, but in brief, the Aequo Audio Adamantis and Ensium (respectively, fully passive and active bass versions) are the result of ten years of exhaustive research into driver and cabinet technology. The cabinets are constructed from a newly developed proprietary material called Diluvite. When cast in its complex shape, it is twice as stiff as aluminum and offers ten times better damping from 1 to 100,000 Hz.
Like the Aequo Audio Stilla, the Ensium has an active bass section powered by an Ncore amplifier and controlled by fully analog ARPEC (Analogue Room size and Placement Extension Control) electronics. The ARPEC’s two rotary controls enable easy and intuitive adjustments for room and placement. Keeping the signal in the analog domain neatly avoids any phase alignment issues with the other drivers.
The SPA-8 looks stunningly beautiful with its curvaceous enclosure, even though its size becomes more evident in the photo above. Just look at how it makes the WestminsterLab Rei power amplifiers appear to be half their actual 23-cm width. Also, note that the Ensium speakers appear compact, but they actually measure 42 cm in width and 116 cm in height. Now, recall that this amplifier is 73 cm wide!
Next: Listening
Interesting read, thanks. I am wondering: is there a specific reason why Pilium amp have never been on your radar?
There is no specific reason at all. It’s just a matter of who happens to approach me at any given time, and what I come across personally. I think Pilium is an interesting brand, and it would be nice to review a Pilium pre- and power amp but there are no plans for this at the moment.
Hi Christiaan,
if I suppose that the mentioned output of 3200W at 2 Ohm is per channel then a toroid transformer of 1800W is a little bit weak…what do you think?
Best regards
Matt
Hi Matt, That is a question best directed at the manufacturer.
I had the same thought as Matt, 1800watts still equals 1800watts or has that law of physics now been changed, maybe new math or maybe Einstein wasn’t correct when he considered laws for the physical world?
Electronics manufacturers (mainly makers of amps, typically the cheapest ones seem to have been able to do the impossible on a daily basis and never have told us exactly how they achieve those impossible ratings) have been breaking the laws of physics on a regular basis but they’re creative in their explanations, just read up at Lab Gruppen’s site and see if you can figure out how they get 2400w of output with 720w of input (120vac with 6A draw). Their explanations will amuse anyone with a highschool diploma, and it appears that their popularity has followed their unexplainable power quadrupling effect they have invented and not shared with the world yet!
Most likely they figured out how to implement Tesla’s free energy grid and can tap into it with their amps, that’s why they charge so much for low power amps, you’re getting most of the input power for free, but they fail to , mention it in their specs. Maybe it’s a copywrite \ patent or licencing issue that’s stopping them from advertising how they accomplish this impossible task that every other company has been dealing with for so long. It’s weird that companies like Pyle have this technology but their products are all so terrible, you’d think it would be easy to make things that are exponentially better than others who don’t have that technology? Here again, maybe I’m expecting too much from a $100k amp, but how could I?
I do enjoy this site, you have a rare assortment of things I’ll never own but I try to remember the names of things I see here just in case I find myself in a position to choose between rare items in an auction that nobody is bidding on due to lack of immediate info at that second and knowing the name might land me something vastly far more expensive than I paid, I know it’s only a dream, but I have to have a reason for spending my time reading up on these marvelous machines being created for the few who can afford to waste their money on things as outrageous as this!
I commend the creator of this monster and look forward to seeing the 2nd one built to even higher standards, maybe even make it small enough that it will not need to have a door removed to get inside the listening area or making a special room just for the amp. I haven’t read through yet but I’m betting it can act as an entire mansion heating unit as well, connected to home AC duct for winter heat and running the AC to cool it in summer? Just wait till they figure out how to utilize antimatter and power from collapsed stars that have imploded, then we’ll see just how many men it will take to move the micro version of this around, hooks for the crane will look stupid when it’s connected to an amp that’s the size of a deck of cards and the crane is stressing to pick it up 1mm off the ground and no higher in case it should break loose and end up falling directly into the earths molten core, how do you explain that to your neighbors and insurance company after you destroy the earth while moving you’re new amp inside your home?