[Muataz]

Enjoying reading the impressions of the SA-1. I currently have the Jot1 and this would be a nice upgrade. The only thing that bothers me about this amp is the gain switches on the very bottom. I wish they would have just put the low and high gain right on the front next to the low z/high z switch. If I am switching from my HD650 (300ohm) on high gain down to say my AKG371 (32ohms) to low gain it would be a major pain. Lifting up my stack (AMP, DAC, Streamer) everytime I switch from an easy to drive to a hard to drive headphone would get old really quick. My Jot1 is larger than my DAC and Streamer so I would most likely have the SA-1 on the very bottom of the stack. If you are going to use the SA-1 with a larger assortment of headphones it would benefit from sitting on the top of your stack so you could easily pick it up and switch it.

Or can you power most headphones including the 650s and ZMFs strictly on the low gain setting? What about the Fostex T50-RP MKIII's on low gain? I have an SMSL SU8 v2 balanced DAC so I can get a higher voltage output via balanced.

Maybe I'll just have to be patient and wait until they release the SA-2 or just upgrade to the Jot2.

I think low gain may drive hd650 to very loud level ? Does it ?

 

[TheRealDz]

You confirmed exactly what I was afraid of. I love that the SA-1 is mostly Class A, but it will get old really fast having to pickup my stack everytime I have to switch from low to high gain. I tried low gain on my Jot1 with my HD650s and it sounds underwhelming. Poor dynamics and bass response. I have to turn the volume knob all the way to 2 o' clock to get the right listening level and even then it sounds sounds like the amp is straining.

The other amps in this range available right now are the A90 and Jot2, but I am not sure how much of an audible upgrade these would be. I have Roon running with parametric EQ and the Jot1 has enough juice to power all of my headphones. It sounds really good to me. Plus it's easy to switch from low to high gain. I can even deal with the power switch being on the back of the unit. At least it's not underneath!

I appreciate the info. I think I am going to be patient for now and wait for something else to come along. The Burson Soloist 3x looks like a very nice option, but it's nearly twice the price at $1100 and the form factor might be too deep for my narriow desk. The Jots or SA-1 will fit perfectly.

I owned the A90 for about 2 months, but hated it. I got sucked into the hype, and then wanted to give it time to burn in. It never did, so I sold it.

I then bought a Jot2 and had it for about 6 months. I honestly had no complaints - it is a solid unit and sounds light years better than the A90 (regardless of what the measurements say).

I recently bought an SA-1 and sold my Jot2. It took about 300 hours of use to settle in. But now it sounds spectacular.

I use it in low gain. I prefer its softer sound, compared to high gain, which I believe has an edge. I run it balanced (input and output), and it goes beyond loud. Ie, louder than I could ever come close to being able to stand for more than a second.

Fwiw, I use an Ether CX, which draws a lot of power. I have also tried my HD650. While it may take up to 2 or 3 o'clock on the SA-1's dial, it never runs out of power.

TL;DR: You would be missing out on a spectacular sounding unit out of what I believe are ungrounded fears.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I owned the A90 for about 2 months, but hated it. I got sucked into the hype, and then wanted to give it time to burn in. It never did, so I sold it.

I then bought a Jot2 and had it for about 6 months. I honestly had no complaints - it is a solid unit and sounds light years better than the A90 (regardless of what the measurements say).

I recently bought an SA-1 and sold my Jot2. It took about 300 hours of use to settle in. But now it sounds spectacular.

I use it in low gain. I prefer its softer sound, compared to high gain, which I believe has an edge. I run it balanced (input and output), and it goes beyond loud. Ie, louder than I could ever come close to being able to stand for more than a second.

Fwiw, I use an Ether CX, which draws a lot of power. I have also tried my HD650. While it may take up to 2 or 3 o'clock on the SA-1's dial, it never runs out of power.

TL;DR: You would be missing out on a spectacular sounding unit out of what I believe are ungrounded fears.

Agreed. It drives my 300 ohm Verite to very loud levels on low gain. I never use high gain, and also think it sounds better on low.

 

[Roland68]

The only thing that bothers me about this amp is the gain switches on the very bottom. I wish they would have just put the low and high gain right on the front next to the low z/high z switch.

Each manufacturer has to decide in the development phase whether he or she is to base the design (both comfort and circuit board layout) on good sound reproduction or on simple operation.
Singxer has clearly opted for the best sound solution for the SA-1. The signal is fed from the inputs directly through the coupling capacitors, potentiometer and then immediately into the first discrete amplifier stage. This is one of the most consistent layouts I've seen so far.
The switches for low / high gain are located directly in the first amplifier stage. The signal paths in this area should be kept as short as possible. To route these signals through half the device at very low levels, ideally through the power supply to the other switches, would be more than idiotic.
I suspect that the developer did not expect to switch them all the time, otherwise the whole thing could have been controlled via relays. But also again more complex and expensive.

There is no need to worry about the lifespan of the switches. Such switches are specified with over 50,000 switching cycles, even if they are switched 10 times a day that is enough for 15 years.

 

[NascentAP]

I owned the A90 for about 2 months, but hated it. I got sucked into the hype, and then wanted to give it time to burn in. It never did, so I sold it.

I then bought a Jot2 and had it for about 6 months. I honestly had no complaints - it is a solid unit and sounds light years better than the A90 (regardless of what the measurements say).

I recently bought an SA-1 and sold my Jot2. It took about 300 hours of use to settle in. But now it sounds spectacular.

I use it in low gain. I prefer its softer sound, compared to high gain, which I believe has an edge. I run it balanced (input and output), and it goes beyond loud. Ie, louder than I could ever come close to being able to stand for more than a second.

Fwiw, I use an Ether CX, which draws a lot of power. I have also tried my HD650. While it may take up to 2 or 3 o'clock on the SA-1's dial, it never runs out of power.

TL;DR: You would be missing out on a spectacular sounding unit out of what I believe are ungrounded fears.

This has been my experience as well - even down to the preference for low gain - except I skipped Jot2 and went straight to the SA-1 from A90.

Prior to A90, my only exposure to amplifiers was L30, Liquid Spark (which I really like a lot for the $80 I paid), and BasX-a100 and despite waddling only in entry level gear, I was never impressed by the A90. Using primarily Arya and Elex, I gave A90 time to burn, got a new DAC (Ares II), and switched to all balanced connection but I could not get over the flat sound that lacked contours. When I first plugged in the SA-1, it sounded like how I imagined the A90 to sound.

Fed by Ares II via balanced, SA-1 is powerful enough, even for my HE6SE V2. With the Arya, it usually stays between 2-3pm on low gain. It gets plenty loud and dynamic at this volume. HE6 is around 5pm and maxing out the SA-1 (~5:30pm) on low gain gets to "too loud but not painful". Like you, I didn't really like the sound on high gain but didn't realize why.

 

[Stompy]

You confirmed exactly what I was afraid of. I love that the SA-1 is mostly Class A, but it will get old really fast having to pickup my stack everytime I have to switch from low to high gain. I tried low gain on my Jot1 with my HD650s and it sounds underwhelming. Poor dynamics and bass response. I have to turn the volume knob all the way to 2 o' clock to get the right listening level and even then it sounds sounds like the amp is straining.

The other amps in this range available right now are the A90 and Jot2, but I am not sure how much of an audible upgrade these would be. I have Roon running with parametric EQ and the Jot1 has enough juice to power all of my headphones. It sounds really good to me. Plus it's easy to switch from low to high gain. I can even deal with the power switch being on the back of the unit. At least it's not underneath!

I appreciate the info. I think I am going to be patient for now and wait for something else to come along. The Burson Soloist 3x looks like a very nice option, but it's nearly twice the price at $1100 and the form factor might be too deep for my narriow desk. The Jots or SA-1 will fit perfectly.

Sounds like a good idea. If my budget increases in the future I too will likely get a Soloist 3x. The rebel amp is another option in the price range, though.

 

[GabrielC]

Hi guys, looking for help/advice.

My Sinxer sa 1 worked fine last evening. When starting it today the led will not turn blue (stays on red). Any idea what may have caused it and how to fix it?
Notes : didn’t do the jumper mod (so warranty is still valid); I live in NL and there are no power outrages .

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[457139]

I owned the A90 for about 2 months, but hated it. I got sucked into the hype, and then wanted to give it time to burn in. It never did, so I sold it.

I then bought a Jot2 and had it for about 6 months. I honestly had no complaints - it is a solid unit and sounds light years better than the A90 (regardless of what the measurements say).

I recently bought an SA-1 and sold my Jot2. It took about 300 hours of use to settle in. But now it sounds spectacular.

I use it in low gain. I prefer its softer sound, compared to high gain, which I believe has an edge. I run it balanced (input and output), and it goes beyond loud. Ie, louder than I could ever come close to being able to stand for more than a second.

Fwiw, I use an Ether CX, which draws a lot of power. I have also tried my HD650. While it may take up to 2 or 3 o'clock on the SA-1's dial, it never runs out of power.

TL;DR: You would be missing out on a spectacular sounding unit out of what I believe are ungrounded fears.

I'm prob approaching something like 60 hours on the SA-1. Looking forward to hearing what it sounds like at 300. Love this amp.

 

[Muataz]

This has been my experience as well - even down to the preference for low gain - except I skipped Jot2 and went straight to the SA-1 from A90.

Prior to A90, my only exposure to amplifiers was L30, Liquid Spark (which I really like a lot for the $80 I paid), and BasX-a100 and despite waddling only in entry level gear, I was never impressed by the A90. Using primarily Arya and Elex, I gave A90 time to burn, got a new DAC (Ares II), and switched to all balanced connection but I could not get over the flat sound that lacked contours. When I first plugged in the SA-1, it sounded like how I imagined the A90 to sound.

Fed by Ares II via balanced, SA-1 is powerful enough, even for my HE6SE V2. With the Arya, it usually stays between 2-3pm on low gain. It gets plenty loud and dynamic at this volume. HE6 is around 5pm and maxing out the SA-1 (~5:30pm) on low gain gets to "too loud but not painful". Like you, I didn't really like the sound on high gain but didn't realize why.

Even your Ares II output only 4.0V you have enough volume, that is good. SA-1 Can take 4.4v to reach max watt power.

 

[Stompy]

I'm prob approaching something like 60 hours on the SA-1. Looking forward to hearing what it sounds like at 300. Love this amp.

I've been using for every day 10 hours a day since July and I may be remembering incorrectly but I feel like after a few hundred hours they became more natural sounding. I know someone else mentioned it becoming more bassy over time, I think this may actually be the case. I used to feel like I was lacking a lot of bass with my hd580 but now they feel more balanced in terms of roll off. I don't know. This is all very easy to misremember, so don't trust a word i say

 

[Stompy]

Hi guys, looking for help/advice.

My Sinxer sa 1 worked fine last evening. When starting it today the led will not turn blue (stays on red). Any idea what may have caused it and how to fix it?
Notes : didn’t do the jumper mod (so warranty is still valid); I live in NL and there are no power outrages .

Thank you very much in advance.

I really don't know how to help you but since you're from the NL I assume you also bought it from Magnahifi? Just know that if anything goes wrong they're great guys to deal with and will do anythnig they can to help.

 

[LetTheKidsTechno]

I owned the A90 for about 2 months, but hated it. I got sucked into the hype, and then wanted to give it time to burn in. It never did, so I sold it.

I then bought a Jot2 and had it for about 6 months. I honestly had no complaints - it is a solid unit and sounds light years better than the A90 (regardless of what the measurements say).

I recently bought an SA-1 and sold my Jot2. It took about 300 hours of use to settle in. But now it sounds spectacular.

I use it in low gain. I prefer its softer sound, compared to high gain, which I believe has an edge. I run it balanced (input and output), and it goes beyond loud. Ie, louder than I could ever come close to being able to stand for more than a second.

Fwiw, I use an Ether CX, which draws a lot of power. I have also tried my HD650. While it may take up to 2 or 3 o'clock on the SA-1's dial, it never runs out of power.

TL;DR: You would be missing out on a spectacular sounding unit out of what I believe are ungrounded fears.

I'm stuck debating between a Jot2 and the SA-1. Both seem like great amps that are hard to go wrong with. Anything in particular you enjoy more about the SA-1 vs Jot2 that justifies the price difference?

 

[Friskyseal]

I'm stuck debating between a Jot2 and the SA-1. Both seem like great amps that are hard to go wrong with. Anything in particular you enjoy more about the SA-1 vs Jot2 that justifies the price difference?

My SA-1 is arriving Monday so I haven't heard it yet, but I just returned the Jot 2 to buy it instead. The Jot 2 has a fatal flaw for me in that it's usable volume range is so poor. Feeding from the Bifrost 2, I couldn't use the XLR outs at all because I couldn't get past 8:30 on the volume dial. Switching to SE out, I got about a half hour more of range but it still went something like this: 8:00 is too quiet and 9:00 is approaching painfully loud. It was unacceptable to me that I couldn't use the full capabilities of the matching DAC so I returned it. From everything I've read the SA-1 has a much wider range of usable volume, so I'm super excited for it.

It's such a shame because it's a beautiful amp, especially stacked on top of Bifrost.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

The SA-1 combined with the Musician Audio Pegasus is simply a sublime combo. I have never owned an R2R DAC before, but their reputation is warranted. The Singxer already casts a wide and layered soundstage, and the Pegasus adds to that effect. I don’t think I could ever go back to a delta sigma DAC. I will be selling my Modius very soon.

This amp is just fantastic to my ears.

 

[LetTheKidsTechno]

My SA-1 is arriving Monday so I haven't heard it yet, but I just returned the Jot 2 to buy it instead. The Jot 2 has a fatal flaw for me in that it's usable volume range is so poor. Feeding from the Bifrost 2, I couldn't use the XLR outs at all because I couldn't get past 8:30 on the volume dial. Switching to SE out, I got about a half hour more of range but it still went something like this: 8:00 is too quiet and 9:00 is approaching painfully loud. It was unacceptable to me that I couldn't use the full capabilities of the matching DAC so I returned it. From everything I've read the SA-1 has a much wider range of usable volume, so I'm super excited for it.

It's such a shame because it's a beautiful amp, especially stacked on top of Bifrost.

Oh dam, I can see how that would be very frustrating. Thanks for your input. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the SA-1 once you get some time with it.