# ART SLA-2 power amp



## jackfish (Dec 27, 2006)

I was wondering if anyone has experience with this seemingly affordable and good performing amp. It is hard to get the full story on the specs, but if the industry convention is followed in the literature it seems to be a good value for a 200 watt per channel amp. $290!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ART-SLA2-Studio-Power-Amplifier?sku=484022


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

I hesitated to reply to this one because I figured someone else would...

Frankly, I find the power specs highly suspect. It’s a real red flag that they don’t go by standard power-rating protocol, either the FTC or EIA method.

Aside from that, I was in the market for a one-space amp for my bass rack several years ago, and it was really hard to find one that put out more than 50-75 watts per channel into 8 ohms. So, 200 watts at 8 looks pretty suspicious to me. If it can really to that, that SmartFan must really make a tremendous difference.

There are some other “flags” in the specs as well, like the stereo 8-ohm / 4-ohm specs, compared to the bridged mono specs. I always thought that for an amp to be guaranteed any kind of stability at 4-ohms bridged mono it had to be able to nearly double its power at 2-ohms vs. its 4-ohm rating. This amp can’t even come close to doubling between 8- and 4-ohms and doesn’t even carry a 2-ohm stereo rating, or a 4-ohm bridged rating, but it’s supposed to be stable with loads like that?

In addition, the S/N rating (given as “Hum and Noise”) doesn’t follow the accepted protocol that qualifies the rating with measurement bandwidth, weighting filters and reference signal level. “100 dB below clipping” – what the **** does that mean?

All in all, I smell a rat.

Regards,
Wayne


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## jackfish (Dec 27, 2006)

Wayne, how can they get away with that? I thought the whole idea of the FTC spec requirement was so that the consumer would have a spec standard they could use for reasonable comparisons.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Yes, that was the idea behind the FTC rating. However, the rating was originally intended for consumer, not professional products. I Googled “History of FTC power ratings” and turned up these articles. The first one is especially enlightening, explaining why and how the standard came about, that manufacturers of certain types of amplifiers don’t like the standard, etc.

http://www.soundandcommunications.com/audio/2006_06_audio.htm
http://www.polkaudio.com/education/article.php?id=4

Regards,
Wayne


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## a1161979 (Aug 26, 2007)

If you are after a simply two channel power amplifier than consider a Behringer A500, apparently you can get them in the states for around $200. They are a great little amp which produce a claimed 160 RMS into a 8ohm load, it was however tested to be 120 RMS. Another great option is to buy one and if you like it and the speakers you are powering are 8ohm you can bridge it and run it as a mono block for 500 RMS at 8ohm, simply buy another (I assume its for you mains) Great amp for the money, forget which forum but some guys are using 6 of these run bridged for 6.1 set ups :coocoo:


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## sfdoddsy (Oct 18, 2007)

For what it is worth, the ART amps are being offered as packaged amps for the new Emerald Physics dipoles which have been getting rave reviews.

http://www.emeraldphysics.com/intro.htm


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