Have you tried the ART SLA-1 amp yet?

Swapping the speaker posts for some 5.00 ea gold plated 5 way posts is a matter of unbolting the stockers and bolting up the new ones.

No soldering or de-soldering is involved...ie, anyone can do this mod.

As far as the 1/4 inch pro jacks, i simply carefully broke the plastic housing on the interior of the amp, and bolted in the 5.00 ea gold plated replacements and soldered them to the board mounted inputs.
Almost anyone can do the second mod also and you can use your rca's direct without the use of the cheesey 1/4 adapters.

Doing these two mods improves the already amazing sonics of this little amp by letting you use your favorite spaded cables, and alowing a direct connection of high quality rca ic's and my total investement so far is 220.00. It has more detail resolution in the upper mids up than my 4k powerbloc 5 amp.
Nobody could purchase this amp and feel they did not get a lot more than there moneys worth imho.

Hi Ears,

From your posting history, I see you have had Haflers,B&K,Adcom, Classe and Electrocompaniet amplifiers in and out of your sytem driving your Thiel speakers. Now that you've settled on the SLA-1 for the interim...could you describe what aspects of the amp are lacking relative to these amplifiers.

I know longer have the Thiels or any of the above mentioned amps as i have tried to intergrate ht/2 channel in one systym. The Electrocompaniet amp was the best amp of the bunch for driving the Thiels, but i doubt the Sla-1 would work out for lack of current.
I am currently using stand mounted monitors[custom] that consist of Scan Speak drivers with Revelator tweeters and Hovland/Alphacore xovers.
These speakers go down to around 40hz and are used without subs for 2 channel, and are every bit as revealing as the Thiels from 40hz up.

I quit reading the audio rags years ago when Corey G was still writing for S-phile, so if i do not use the standard catch phrases, this would be why.
I consider this a good thing.

Anyway, the previous amps were all on the warm side of things and the electro had the most mid range and upper octave detail of all prior amps.
The Sla-1,is ultra detailed in the midrange and highs without the warmth of previous/current amps and i find the sound addicting.
There is more detail and pinpoint placement of instruments within the soundstage when the Sla-1 is in place.
The micro details whithin the soundstage are more prevalent with the Sla-i in the chain.
I do have Az matrix and Ap oval 9's hooked to it ,but have yet to use a pc that cost more than 50.00.

I find it simply amazing, that a 200.00 amp can sound this good, and it makes everything else i have heard seem far overpriced.

This amp has me wanting to mod my 4k amp, and i eventually will.
I don't no what higher praise could be given to a 200.00 amp with 20.00 worth of mods.

Vade Forrester of "Positive Feedback" magazine tried the ART SLA-1 amp during his review of the Usher X-798 speaker. As much a amp review as a speaker review as the overall sound of the system was evaluated.

PeaK