Singxer SA-1 / Balanced Amplifier Fully Discrete Class A - beyond THX 888 ?!

[Chibs]

Exactly, those are both similar range of quality, same type dac. RME more features. Some people might notice a difference with a fast A/B switching. Some people might not notice any difference without that switch, and still would claim they are a world apart and they noticed. bias.

If you have a big house in the center of manhattan like the guy of the video, a 10 million euros house, or more, buy the bartok. Otherwise buy the Ares 2. You would certainly pick a bartok, it's a different type, if you have a revealing speakers of headphones of a certain quality. HD6xx or better you will tell the difference.

Ares 2 keeps coming up all over the place. Will have to somehow demo one at some point and see if I can hear a deference.
The Rme is a well built dac that looks great and has so many features I never use. It's pretty much wasted on me.

 

[Dopaminer]

Would the SA-1 be an upgrade to my Audio-gd NFB-1AMP? Has anyone made a comparison? Thanks in advance

This.
I was originally planning to get the 1AMP but it's discontinued. I am super happy with the SA-1 but would love to compare them side by side.
The 1AMP weighs 3x the SA-1 LOL

 

[Lolito]

Mine arrived finally. Had to remove the feet to fit it under the desk. Feet bolt thread is done in a hole of the botyom plate, so the thread is part of the plate, no loose nut, nothing to loose. Testing it fully single ended. First impression is the noise floor very high, very dirty sound when in silent parts, compared to a well used jds labs atom. A bit sibilant too, or lush. More lush than sibilant. Has to break in and i have to get used to it, at this moment 99$ jds sounds better.

 

[Lolito]

The included knob measures exactly 32mm, not 30mm as someone else wrote. Bass is very round, is full, it is not recessed, it might have been recesed before, with jds, or when outputting directly from the dac. It certainly sounds better than straight from the dac, not so much broken glass, edges smoothed out. Bass has body.

 

[Jay_vs]

Give it some time. I've got an Atom amp, as good as it is, the SA-1 beats it in every way.

 

[arar]

I've always been skeptical of burn-in in general and I haven't even heard of it being a thing with amps at all, so it's a bit surprising to hear how all over the place the sound seems to be for the first days for some of you. What's there in an amplifier that could change so drastically with a bit of use?

 

[Muataz]

Mine arrived finally. Had to remove the feet to fit it under the desk. Feet bolt thread is done in a hole of the botyom plate, so the thread is part of the plate, no loose nut, nothing to loose. Testing it fully single ended. First impression is the noise floor very high, very dirty sound when in silent parts, compared to a well used jds labs atom. A bit sibilant too, or lush. More lush than sibilant. Has to break in and i have to get used to it, at this moment 99$ jds sounds better.

SE output is 32 times noisier than balance.

 

[Jay_vs]

I've always been skeptical of burn-in in general and I haven't even heard of it being a thing with amps at all, so it's a bit surprising to hear how all over the place the sound seems to be for the first days for some of you. What's there in an amplifier that could change so drastically with a bit of use?

No idea what it is, but for me personally I've experienced it with loads of different equipment, like My Kuro plasma and now OLED TV, AV receivers/amps, headphones. Maybe it's all in my head, but I'm convinced it's not.

 

[Lolito]

The included knob measures exactly 32mm, not 30mm as someone else wrote. Bass is very round, is full, it is not recessed, it might have been recesed before, with jds, or when outputting directly from the dac. It certainly sounds better than straight from the dac, not so much broken glass, edges smoothed out. Bass has body.

Actually it was an eq preset with bass tilted that I like to use and didn't noticed it was activated, bass is like with the atom, sounds the same really.

 

[joseG86]

I've always been skeptical of burn-in in general and I haven't even heard of it being a thing with amps at all, so it's a bit surprising to hear how all over the place the sound seems to be for the first days for some of you. What's there in an amplifier that could change so drastically with a bit of use?

I let the SA-1 4-5 days straight 24/7 and needed to go 3:30 o'clock in Arya while Jot 2 only 12 o'clock at same level. It suddenly became "louder" and now I just need 12 o'clock for the same volume, the SA-1 improves everyday

Mine arrived finally. Had to remove the feet to fit it under the desk. Feet bolt thread is done in a hole of the botyom plate, so the thread is part of the plate, no loose nut, nothing to loose. Testing it fully single ended. First impression is the noise floor very high, very dirty sound when in silent parts, compared to a well used jds labs atom. A bit sibilant too, or lush. More lush than sibilant. Has to break in and i have to get used to it, at this moment 99$ jds sounds better.

Looks amazing!

 

[nekky]

I let the SA-1 4-5 days straight 24/7 and needed to go 3:30 o'clock in Arya while Jot 2 only 12 o'clock at same level. It suddenly became "louder" and now I just need 12 o'clock for the same volume, the SA-1 improves everyday

Same. Also a big difference going to the new DAC as well - can someone tell me if this would have to do with the X26pro outputting 5V via XLR as opposed to 4V on the X16?

 

[Jay_vs]

Same. Also a big difference going to the new DAC as well - can someone tell me if this would have to do with the X26pro outputting 5V via XLR as opposed to 4V on the X16?

I would hope the improvement isn't just down to the increased input voltage. Have you volume match them and can you hear differences then?

 

[nekky]

I would hope the improvement isn't just down to the increased input voltage. Have you volume match them and can you hear differences then?

No, the difference is not volume only, I swear lol

 

[Jay_vs]

How does the volume knob come off? Non of my Alan keys work

 

[Chibs]

How does the volume knob come off? Non of my Alan keys work

Don't force it, you may need the correct size. My alan key was metric and off by a mm or less and had the same problem. I ordered an imperial set and it came out easily.