The standard binding posts on the amplifier can only take banana plugs and bare wire. Those with spades on attached to their speaker wires are out of luck. I recently updated the plastic shrouding from the existing binding posts with a the corresponding portion a more conventional binding post and can now use spades.
Below is an exerpt from my SLA-1 page after having used the amp for about 5 weeks:
Below is an exerpt from my SLA-1 page after having used the amp for about 5 weeks:
The SLA-1 made a return to Danny's Soundtech/ATC/Kimber/(DI/O)/Marantz system with modified speaker connectors capbable of taking stacked spades. The Kimber 8TC cables are a double run of stiff cables necessitating binding posts capable of solidly connecting the wires...the experience from the first trip(see Day 19 above) used skward adapters that never really worked out. Any thoughts of interchanging hot and neutral to experiment with absolute phase were dashed in the previous evaluation....not this time around...we started with the phase flipped from the last time. The results were a return of dynamics, soundstage, ease and naturalness. Three things had changed:
No akward connectors
Reversed absolute polarity at amp connections to speakers
Addition of Jon Jon Risch twisted pair 89259 with spaced off shield
I had a mild headache resulting from being over some details on a project for most of the day...so my listening acuity and comments that follow reflect mostly what Danny heard. Prior to plugging in the SLA-1, the Soundtech Tube amp with the new JR interconnect was audioned. As Danny put it: "I'm able to listen and hear more information at lower volume levels with greater enjoyment". His conclusion is that the cable and shield have lowered the noise floor and increased the signal to noise ratio. To me the Norah Jones album sounded non sibilant in his system for the first time. In its place was a better integrated mix with certain textures to plucked string that I had not hear before but without any sibilance and all very relaxing. On the Mary Chapin Carpenter album (Come On Come On), I got the best impression of the room size and acoustic that I have heard. You could sense the witdth and depth of the recording venue and almost even sense the height of the room...quite special. Some of my listening preferences are a result of getting used to what is not right...it is that sound associated with "silver" where certain parts of the spectrum are emphasized giving the sense of more information and a larger soundstage. The quieter background of the JR cable seem to have dminished this euphonic colouration. Putting in my next favourite cable, the Van der Hul Thunderline, confirmed this. With the JR cable back in, the SLA-1 was auditioned and comments are made relative to the Soundtech amplifier.
As I have already let the cat out of the bag about the improvements(dynamics, soundstage, ease and naturalness) in performance over the previous audition, there still remained some room for improvement. Cold out of box, it initially sounded lean in the midrange but with a upward tip to the balance (this was alluded to by other reviewers) and a lightness to the bass. It still sounded very analog but very low level detail was missing.
Playing an extremely dynamic recording of a large church choir from Chesky's demonstration disk through his ATC speakers gave a wide and deep soundstage using this wide dynamic range recording. The volume controls were at the 12 o'clock position making the organ hiss very audible....the amp hardened at times on peaks at this volume levels but did not clip audibly and gave a good account of the recording.
With more warmup, some of the warmth and naturalness returned. It seems as if the stock SLA-1 errors on the side of omission did not compliment the JR cable's neurality. Putting in the Thunderline cable confirmed this as seemingly missing detail and balanced seem to have been restored (to me). To Danny, it was brighter and a more outlined presentation (what some call mid-fi) but with less inner detail due to a raised noise floor (Note to myself: Try to figure out this aspect of Danny's called noise floor and its sonic signature). If I assume the signature with the JR cable is the right one, then I I think I can hear that signature that I associate with poorer quality resistors, capcitors, wire and opamps. Eliminating this signature and improving the subtle sonic quality that makes a system listenable for hours at a time is mark of success. In its default form today, I can easily filter these slight flaws and enjoy the music. It is only in comparison to knowing what is possible that will lead to a slow evolution of the SLA-1...hopefully to the level of the Soundtech Poweramp One Tube amplifier