Have you tried the ART SLA-1 amp yet?

While a lot of people seem to have an opinion of Mr. Nance's marketing approach, there seem to be only 2 or 3 people that have actually listened to the amp. Has anyone compared it to the Samson Servo amp that has generated a few favorable comments at audioasylum? Has anyone heard the Samson? How about comparing the ART to a budget tube amp? I could use a small cheap amp as a spare to give my tubes a rest during the summer so this has attracted some interest. However, since I am one of the few who was disappointed by the ART DIO, I am reluctant to just throw money at this to see what I get.

That amp has a fan in it ,I will pass ,doesnt look too exiting ,Antique Sound Lab Waves would be the better deal.

I have spent quite a bit of time listening to the SLA-1 for the past week or so, and have more or less arrived at the following conclusions. First, it is an unbelievable value, and I like the idea of having it in a second system and as a backup amp for my main system. I cannot really improve on the impressions of Dlshifi in his excellent review--I agree with everything he said. The amp is dynamic and clean, with precise placement of instruments in the soundtage, but can sound hard or lean at times and does not quite have the extension/dimension or musicality of reference quality amps costing thousands of dollars more. At first, I was so impressed by the sound coming out of this little booger that I wasn't quite coming to terms with the fact that I was missing something I had with my Plinius SA-102.

So, was it a close competition? Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the SLA-1 exceeded my expectations and amazed me with its performance for <$200. It is a credible performer even in audiophile systems. If I ever fall on hard times, I could easily "settle" for the SLA-1 and be fine. But the Plinius is just more musical. As my girlfriend said, "It just gets down in your ears more." Simple, but true.

I'm still impressed by how good the SLA-1 is, but I also know that I would choose the Plinius 10 times out of 10.

How can one tell when Mr. Nance is being disingenuous, dishonest, and duplicitous?
His lips are moving or his fingers are typing.

“My unit uses an Airpax breaker switch which I have found to be far superior sonically to the breaker I was once going to use.”

I’m quite pleased that your mod page no longer specifies those ludicrous 20amp breakers, but simply breakers.
http://www.dn-audio.com/id11.html
Respected folks such as Bob Crump have long advocated the use of breakers to replace the switch and fuse. I hope that your new ‘discovery’ of that better sounding breaker is also properly specified so as to not only provide an improvement of subjective audio qualities in addition to preserving the safety function, which is there to protect life and property. Whether this enhancement was facilitated by my comments or is simply an example of the synchronicity of the universe is not germane.

“I think this character thinks he can bait me into telling him about my circuit. He even attempted on Audiocircle to get me to send him my schematic (so that, according to him he could help me). I didn't ask for your help, I don't need your help, I don't want your help.”

There you go again, misinterpreting what was said, and not giving a link to what was actually said. So I will provide the link –
http://www.audiocircle.com./circles/viewtopic.php?t=2982&sid=9dab4c4df79b07e07ed2bad5a854dea0

I had thought it was clear that my response to Donny’s testosterone fueled adolescent challenge to a mod-off, was that before considering such, I would need either a schematic of the stock SLA-1 or a stock unit from which I would derive the schematic. In addition to Mr. Nance’s fine qualities he so amply demonstrates, we can add poor reading comprehension. Mr. Nance’s proclivities are amply demonstrated in another thread –
http://www.audiocircle.com./circles/viewtopic.php?t=2984&sid=9dab4c4df79b07e07ed2bad5a854dea0

“This is the last I am going to comment concerning this character.”

Amen. I will do likewise, assuming you keep your word.

Nice summary. Did you figure out how to use spades with the ART connectors ? I have found that amplifier is transparent to the upsteam source. The lean nature of the amp dissappeared when I tried the "skip track access" of Todd Krieger/Jerome Lang. Have you tried it on your digital playback...very significant improvement?

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=digital&n=67210
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/273637.html