PS Audio Sprout User manual

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
Instructions for Use
Sprout®

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
One man’s quest for music
Sprout is my vision of a simple, elegant means of playing music at
home. I created it for those of us who want quality sound without the
hassles that sometimes come with it.
I’ve admired the design principles of Dieter Rams, who taught us to
design as little as possible. I fashioned Sprout to honor that ideal. I
wanted Sprout to be a device you and I connect with. Rather than
a display screen and endless menus, Sprout’s user interface is a
direct hand-to-Sprout connection through just two knobs. These
allow intuitive, direct control of Sprout, and provide feedback to the user
through a positive click and immediate response to changes in volume.
Sprout’s ease of use should make it appealing and accessible to those
who would nd most audio gear intimidating; it should also appeal to
those who have “been there, done that” and seek a better, simpler way
to play music in their home.
Sprout is for those of us who care about their home, their music, and
their enjoyment of music in the home.
Sprout is personal and I am honored you connected with it.
Thank you.
Scott McGowan

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
WARNING. TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRICAL
SHOCK, DO NOT EXPOSE THIS APPARATUS TO RAIN OR MOIS-
TURE.
Do not remove or bypass the ground pin on the end of the AC cord unless absolutely
necessary to reduce hum from ground loops of connected equipment. This may cause
RFI (radio frequency interference) to be induced into your playback setup. All PS products
ship with a grounding type plug. If the provided plug does not t into your outlet, consult
an electrician for replacement of the obsolete outlet.
Protect the power cord from being walked on or pinched, particularly at plugs,
convenience receptacles, and the point where they exit from the apparatus. Unplug this
apparatus during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time.
When making connections to this or any other component, make sure all components are
o. Turn o all systems’ power before connecting the PS Audio component to any other
component. Make sure all cable terminations are of the highest quality.
There are no user serviceable fuses inside this product.
THERE ARE NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE ANY PS AUDIO PRODUCT. REFER
ALL SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL.
Please contact your authorized dealer, distributor, or PS Audio if you have any questions
not addressed in this reference manual.
PS Audio® is a registered trademark of PS Audio Inc., and is restricted for use by PS
Audio, Inc., its subsidiaries, and authorized agents.

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
You own Sprout
Nicely done
We hope you read this manual so you can make the most out of Sprout.
Audio equipment can be pretty confusing—but Sprout is simple. Give us
a sec, we’ll make it painless.

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
What else is in the Box?
Accessories
Other than Sprout, you’ve got:
• Power Cable: 6ft
• Power Adaptors: (Only in 230V regions) Schuko, Australian UK
• Headphone Adaptor: 3.5mm to ¼” Jack
• Sprout Decal
• Owner’s manual
Where is your music?
Phone or tablet, Computer or MP3, CDs, TV, tape deck, vinyl records,
you name it.
Sprout has four inputs:
• Vinyl
• Analog
• Digital
• Bluetooth
Depending on how you store your music, you will have to select the
intended input. This is as easy as it sounds.
Let’s get connected
First things rst. Let’s connect Sprout up to your inputs and outputs.
Then we can get started playing music.
Onward!

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
Connect the inputs rst
Sprout has four rear panel inputs you can connect your sources to:
two digital, one analog and one phono for your vinyl. It can connect
wirelessly via Bluetooth
Digital sources
Digital technology is the force behind our land-lines, smart phones,
computers, and the internet itself. It’s also a great way to hang on to
your music. We use digital formats, (like FLAC, ALAC ,WAV, and MP3s)
to store our favorite tunes. Sprout can play these formats using your
computer or smart phone.
Sprout can connect to three digital devices, two from the rear panel
connections and one wirelessly via Bluetooth from your phone,
computer or tablet.
The two digital inputs available on the rear panel are USB and COAX.
USB Connection. USB connects Sprout to your computer. Once
connected, Sprout will become the audio output of your computer,
playing from programs like iTunes or Windows Media Player. Using a

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
standard USB cable, connect Sprout to your computer’s USB port.
If you are running a Mac computer, the driver for Sprout is built in. If
you are instead on a Windows computer, you will need to download
and install the USB driver onto your computer. To download the USB
driver go to PS Audio’s website: www.psaudio.com. Go to Support-
>Downloads and download the USB driver.
It will be necessary to unzip the le and install it on your computer. This
will connect your Windows computer to Sprout. You must then select
“PS Audio USB 2.0 Audio Out” (on a Mac) as your output device or, “PS
Audio Sprout” on Windows.
COAX Connection. If you have a CD player, transport, Apple TV 1,
Sonos or any digital audio device with a coaxial digital output, use a
standard RCA interconnect cable to connect the digital output of your
device to Sprout’s COAXIAL input as shown in the back panel diagram.
Wireless Bluetooth Connection. Sprout’s wireless Bluetooth antenna
is built into the back panel as shown on the rear panel diagram. It is
unnecessary to connect anything for this to operate. See operating
instructions to understand its use.
Vinyl Turntable Connection. Do you listen to records? We do too. To
use Sprout for vinyl, the phono inputs must be connected only to a
turntable. Connecting a standard analog source that is not a turntable
into these inputs is going to sound pretty strange. Some turntables are
already amplied, do not plug this into Sprout. Sprout will connect to a
standard Moving Magnet cartridge turntable without any problems.
Plug the left and right cables from your turntable into Sprout’s input
labeled Vinyl. The red vinyl input is right, the white is left.
Sprout plays both grounded and ungrounded turntables. Most
turntables have a ground wire, in addition to the RCA output cables.
This ground wire lowers the chance for hum. Connect the turntable

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
ground wire to the rear panel ground binding post located directly
above the analog in and out connections.
Analog inputs and outputs. Sweet! Facing Sprout’s rear panel there
are two small connectors labeled Analog, Out, In.
Analog Output. The connector labeled “Out” located above “Analog”
on the rear panel is a buered stereo line output. This is the full audio
output directly from Sprout’s volume control. Whatever you are listening
to on Sprout will be available on this output. Connect this output to a
separate power amplier or subwoofer.
Connecting a subwoofer. Many small speaker pairs benet from the
addition of a subwoofer to augment the low bass of the little speakers,
giving a much richer, full range musical sound. Use the Analog Output
of Sprout to feed a subwoofer. Most subwoofers have RCA input
connections. Sprout’s output is a smaller 3.5mm connector. Use a
3.5mm to RCA adapter to connect the two devices.
Analog Input. The connector labeled “In” located above “Analog” on
the rear panel is a stereo line input. Use this input to connect the output
of a mobile device, television, tape deck or any source with an analog
output. The connector is a 3.5mm stereo jack. It may be necessary to
use a 3.5mm to RCA adapter to connect some devices to Sprout.
Connecting a television or cable box. Sprout can easily be connected
to a television or cable TV box through its analog inputs. Most modern
TVs and cable set top boxes have an analog (line) audio output
available. Many use Sprout’s 3.5mm connector, while others use the
larger RCA connections. It may be necessary to use a 3.5mm to RCA
adapter if the outputs and input connectors don’t line up.
It is also possible to connect a television or cable box digital output to
Sprout. Using the analog inputs is preferred because this arrangement
uses the television volume control with the device’s remote control.

® Owner’s Reference Sprout
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 . PH: 720.406.8946 . www.psaudio.com
©2014 PS Audio Inc. All rights reserved.
Speaker Connections
Sprout’s power amplier provides enough wattage to power just
about any loudspeaker pair. However, we recommend only one pair of
loudspeakers be connected at a time.
Loudspeaker Connections. It is important to make sure you match
colors and channels from Sprout to your loudspeakers correctly. Red
should go to red, black to black. Failure to do so will produce some
funky sounds, lack of bass and won’t give you what Sprout’s capable of.
Facing Sprout’s rear panel, the right loudspeaker pair is on the left, the
left loudspeaker pair is on the right. This might seem backwards but
viewed from the front panel, it is correct.
Connect red (+) of the right speaker to Sprout’s red (+) right speaker
output. Connect the black (-) of the right speaker to Sprout’s (-) right
speaker output directly below it. Follow the same convention for the left.
Make sure none of the wires touch each other or Sprout will not play.