Have you tried the ART SLA-1 amp yet?

Personally, I've always been interested in value oriented audio products such as the modified ART DI/O. For those of us with an interest in this hobby and limited discretionary income, used or modified equipment that delivers great sound are some of the few options.

Can't say if posting about a product one has financial interest is right or wrong, but I think everyone benefits of information about new products. I for one will be looking forward to seeing A-B comparisons with the modified ART SLA-1 and other amplifiers. Since I have signed up for one of Don's mods, I'll be posting my impressions at Audio Asylum and Audio Circle, so as not to hurt anyone's feelings here at Audiogon.

Since I was already in the market for a modestly priced amp for my office system when the controversial and now-deleted first thread on the ART popped up, I decided to take a chance on the ART SLA-1 and see what it would sound like in my system before moving it along to system B or selling it. It arrived today--without any mods--and I have had it playing for three or four hours now. Although it is much too soon to make any kind of judgment, I can give you my honest first impression, for whatever it is worth.

To these ears, the ART is a very clean sounding and powerful little devil. Whether it is as good as D911 claims remains to be seen, but it appears to be holding its own in my system. I will withhold further comment until I've lived with it for a few days and had a chance to get better acquainted. Based on what I've heard so far, I am looking forward to it.

Associated gear: Supratek Syrah preamp, Piega P10 speakers and Piega speaker cables, EMC 24/192 CDP, Nottingham Spacedeck/OL Silver/Shelter 501, Jena Labs Symphony ICs, Virtual Dynamics Power 2 and Audition ACs.

I have no affiliation whatsoever with D911 and no financial stake in the amp's sales. Just a curious cat and a bargain shopper.

Fool's gold? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. I will be interested in others' impressions.

OK, as long as people are looking at buying budget amps, I will say that Norh, a company I had not heard of until someone mentioned them on Audiogon about two weeks ago is bringing out its new LeAmpII. This unit has a switching power supply and does about 200 watts into 8 and 400 onto 4. These monoblocks are looking really nice for $200 plus about $50 for shipping per mono. Take a look at the prototype at this link at the bottom or so. http://www.norh.com/news.html The only reason I am posting this is to let people know there are other budgets out there.

I feel the need to make a public apology to Audiogon and explain my actions. This also goes to those people that may have seen another thread that i posted to and was pretty much "instantly deleted" or those that i contacted via email.

As many of you know, the original thread that D911 posted was recently deleted. Someone started another thread that touched on this subject the other day and i responded to it. I posted that i had thought that this was VERY wrong on the part of Audiogon and that Audiogon basically needed to do some explaining on the subject. Audiogon deleted the second follow-up thread as my post was the first and only reply at that time. Needless to say, i was pissed and went off the deep end. You can take it from there...

As it turns out, i was the one that was VERY wrong. As far as i'm concerned, D911 was out "shilling for business" in a very direct manner. I was not aware that he had business affiliations with the product that he was promoting. The fact that he started the thread and then later chimed in to support a product that he profits from working with appears to be a pre-planned move and what the thread was started for to begin with. As such, the truth was revealed as to D911's true motivations and i was not aware of this when i "stuck up" for the previous ART based threads and wondered why they had been deleted.

Quite honestly, i owe Audiogon an apology. I not only attacked them publicly in the second thread that was deleted, but approached a select group of others that i correspond with publicly and privately to make them aware of my thoughts on the thread deletion policy. Needless to say, i jumped to conclusions based on less than full understanding whereas Audiogon knew exactly what they were doing and why. As such, i should not have questioned the motives of Audiogon but been smart enough to see the motives behind D911's public manipulation of a thread for his own benefit.

To Arnie and all of the Audiogon crew, i say "I'm sorry and THANK YOU for doing your homework / protecting the users of this forum from unsolicited advertising. I hope that you continue to watch over these forums and disregard the outbursts from children like me that fly off the handle. Once again, i apologize for my less than adult behavior and admire your persistence in keeping these forums a "troll / commercial free zone".

To D911, all i can say is that what you did was wrong in my eyes and i'm sure that it was wrong in the eyes of many others. Some will not see anything wrong with what you did. Some may see these people as "bargain hunters" ( aren't we all ??? ) but i see them as gullible fools that have played right into your hands via your "master plan". If such is the case, they would be willing to be manipulated at their own expense. So be it.

I hope that they realize that they may end up sinking three to four times the money that they originally spent for a $200 product that is under-designed to begin with. I also hope that they realize that, should this product NOT live up to the hype, they'll have what is now a near $1000 product that offers very little resale value on the used market.

While we all make our own decisions and have to live with them, this does not seem like a very wise move to me. Then again, my flying off the handle in the previously deleted thread probably didn't seem very wise to others and they would be right. As such, that would be a mistake that i regret making. The main mistake that i made was in trying to support a thread that was directly posted as nothing more than shill by D911 and challenging the integrity of Audiogon.

Having said that, i am NEVER against someone mentioning products that offer good bang for the buck. That is, so long as they aren't out "shilling for business". In fact, that is why i got mad i.e. i thought that Audiogon had deleted these threads because they did not support the "high profit margin" of a dealer. My thoughts were that some of their dealers had leaned on them to remove these threads as the word of this "super bargain" could hurt brand new sales of other products they might carry. Once again though, i had jumped to conclusions.

With that in mind, i can see that if one were to buy TWO SLA-1's and have them modified in a very specific manner, it might overcome the majority of flaws that i previously mentioned. By using what is a shared power supply for two channels and converting the supply to feed only one channel per chassis, you would have in effect doubled the current capacity of the power supply. You would end up with what "should" be a pair of "relatively sturdy" mono-blocks for an appr $400 investment. One should keep in mind that i have no idea as to if the output stage of this amplifier can pass enough current to take advantage of the increased power supply capacity and reserve. As such, this could be an exercise in futility, but i sincerely doubt it based on past experiences with other under-designed "budget" type amplifiers. This would not alleviate the problems that come along with the use of other "low grade" passive parts that one is required to use when building a product built to this low ( phenomenally low ) price point. For someone that was "handy" and could do their own modifications / buy their own parts, the ART SLA-1 "might" be the basis for a very interesting and potentially highly worthwhile project though. Sean
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No trouble, Sean. Don't even give it a second thought!

We have all been in the position of having to apologize here on Audiogon. I've been there, and not just once. That's what makes our group so special - WE ARE REAL PEOPLE.

Anyway, fault isn't making a mistake, it's not owning up to it. To me, a man is someone who can stand up and admit he was wrong.

As you can tell from my posts in these ART threads, I am taking a wait and see attitude about the worthiness of the product. However, having just said that I admire one for standing up and coming clean(even in situations where it may not be necessary), I am wondering when Don will do the same.

In my above post, I mention his initial entry into the threads did not come with the disclosure of being the person doing the mods. One week later we again get all this chatter with Don again not admitting from the get go that he has a financial interest in this venture.

Free advertising is more than offensive to me. I am sure I am not alone in this feeling.

At this point, I must state that despite my belief in products that offer great value, and have heard a certain $200 Kenwood modified to produce very good(NOT THIS BEST I HAVE EVER HEARD BS) sound, I will not consider doing business with Don unless the way he seems to do things changes radically.

Am I closing my ears to perhaps having the best sound I could ever achieve for sake of principle? Maybe, although I doubt it in this case. However, there was recently a very interesting thread which asked the question of whether we go for best sound or other things. While I seemed to feel strongly both ways, factoring in sound and the company, I now feel as if things are more clear to me.

The people you deal with are a bigger factor than I figured. Good sound can be had in lots of places. Investing in product from people you respect definitely increases the value one has received for his money.

The converse is also true.

And, while I mean no offense to Ericthered, speaking from the perspective of being a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan, it's always one heck of a lot more dangerous when they start jumping off the bandwagon than when they were trying to climb on. You would never believe the amount of broken ankles. Make sure you stay healthy, because the emergency rooms spill over.