Have you tried the ART SLA-1 amp yet?

Guys, I'll admit I am in a bit of a quandary, and I am probably not the only one. The right place at the right time might well turn out to be the wrong place at the wrong time. Be that as it may, I am now owner of this amp and am letting it break in a few days before doing a head to head with my reference.

Now here is the quandary. I think it is clear by now that D911, at minimum, made some poor choices in bringing this amp and his mod business to our attention. I cannot disagree nor am I inclined to disagree with any of the negative remarks made about his tactics, and I plead guilty not only to a certain amount of gullibility, but to perpetuating his advertising with this post. Guilty as charged.

However, there is another issue: the amp. Is it any good or not? Is it a real bargain? How does it stack up to the big boys? How can one evaluate it fairly and post results for the benefit of others without helping D911's cause, unless it turns out to be a real turkey? The worthiness of the amp, it seems to me, is a separate issue from D911's credibility. The real question is whether any objective discussion can ever take place about its relative merits, now that the well has been poisoned. Anything positive anyone has to say will have stink all over it. We've already been branded as fools for buying it. Imagine what would happen if we liked it. And liking it, of course, would promote D911's business further.

D911, you sure have made a mess of things, haven't you?

Politics aside, there are very positive initial comments being made over at www.audiocircle.com on the stock unit before break in.
I ordered one today, and may order two more[stock units] for HT and apoligise to no one for it.

Waltersalas
I do not think you are a fool for buying it,though you have to judge weather or not having it modded might be worth it.For $200 there is not more out there as an alternative.A used B&K ST-140, Outlaws new Monoblocks($600?) or the LeAmpII's($400).For me the latter was what I was looking for.

I try to look for value and it might be totally or more than worth $200.bottomline is are you happy?

Dan might have handled things differently.

Bare with me for a moment. I want to take a moment to flat out APOLOGIZE. I have behaved badly to say the least. Though zealous, I could have and should have presented myself in a more forthcoming manner. I accept the responsibility of my action and I throw myself on the mercy of the "forum tribunal", all kidding aside, I really do apologize to the audio community at large.

Best regards,
d911

PS> I will be posting this apology on all sites affected.

Walter & Ears: I apologize for coming across so strongly. I hope that you are happy with your purchases AND take the time to do some in-depth listening with them. Having someone that is willing to give them a chance to strut their stuff side by side against other gear will be interesting to say the least. I'm sure that others beside myself would love to see what you think of these after some break-in time.

As to my above comments earlier in this thread, i don't doubt that they will be at least "reasonable" sounding amps. It's not hard to make a "decent" sounding amp nowadays. My main concern is how they do when driven hard and / or with speakers that are of low impedance and / or highly reactive. The lack of power supply and / or current capacity of the output section is what has me most concerned. That's why i suggested losing a channel and dedicating the entire power supply to just one channel per chassis. While i'm not familiar with the design, this could only help in the long run. As i said earlier, this doubles the cost, but the amp(s) should become far more consistent when dealing with various loads thrown at it. If i didn't already have too many amps around here, i'd buy a set just to play with. They are surely cheap enough to do that with. Sean
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PS... Who has the best price on these units "just in case" ?