A2.640

The genesis of the A2 Amplifier...

Originally, Starke Sound had never considered manufacturing an amplifier. Until…

Starke Sound was founded by a small team of engineers and audio enthusiasts on a clear mission — to design and manufacture loudspeakers that faithfully reproduce both music and cinema sound using patented technology.

Once accomplished, we recognized that even the best speakers in the world couldn’t realize their full potential when driven by the existing amplifiers available at that time. From monoblocks to multi-channel, they either lacked the required sound quality or were insanely expensive, “high-end” audiophile amps. We wanted our speaker owners to enjoy a great sound experience, but without breaking the bank…

So our team was forced to cross the line from speakers to electronics, uniting the best electronic engineers with our speaker designers to develop a state-of-the-art, affordable, multi-channel amplifier, the A7, now in its second generation for surround sound and home theater applications. Its performance and value has been recognized worldwide by a string of prestigious awards from audiophile and integrator trade groups.

Yet there was still no plan for a stereo amplifier...

In December of 2015 we received an email from Gianluca Vignini, our Italian dealer in Ancona, Italy. He expressed the need for a high end 2-channel amplifier with the same superb sound quality as the A7 7-channel amplifier. In the attached photo you can see the audiophile’s pair of “flagship” speakers are connected to our A7. His customer resisted at first to the idea but with Gianluca’s persistence, they decided to audition it together. They soon discovered it to be the perfect amplifier for getting the ultimate sound quality from his lavish stereo system. He immediately ditched his high-end 2-channel amp for the A7, unwilling to go back once he’d experienced its improved performance. His only concern was regarding the faint noise produced by the A7’s cooling fan which is required for its enormous power output and unique method of Class A operation.

Gianluca emphasized the importance of finding a solution that would eliminate the fan noise. Dan Wiggins, Starke Sound’s chief technical officer and A7 designer knew this would be a difficult challenge but nonetheless it was a challenge he was happy to take on. And after two years of passionate development and unrelenting design changes, the fan was eliminated.

The result is the new A2 - a top-level, fully-balanced design that will be released this spring. It maintains the Class A amplification principle by coupling it with the application of a high-tech heat-dissipation material graphene. The design is a combination of both traditional and radical—a perfect expression of the Starke Sound ideal that Bold is Beautiful. The output chips have two levels, 10 pairs of op-amp, more than 600 watts of RMS power per channel, with a peak output of 2100 watts per channel. A veritable monster amplifier! The Starke Sound team will continue to bring leading-edge ideas, technologies and materials into the music and sound reproduction industry, combining the essence of tradition with the latest breakthroughs to create beautiful results.

Technical Specifications