This is a review and detailed measurements of the Argon SA1 integrated amplifier with phono input and Bluetooth. It is on kind from a European member and costs €369.
I have a soft spot for white audio electronics and the SA1 goes right after that! Quite elegant. What I didn't like is the lack of indication on the file LEDs which indicate inputs. The volume control is digital (also controlled via an included remote). Pushing it selects the input. The LEDs also blink for other reasons I did not try to figure out. Here is the back panel:
It was odd to see just a type A USB that is indicated as USB power. There should be proper USB input in this day and age. There is pre-out but in my testing, I found that the volume control did not adjust it when using digital input but did with phono. Maybe this was operator error, I don't know as only a single half-sheet of instructions is provided with the unit.
The unit as shipped is for 50 Hz/250 volt so I used my lab AC generator to power it. Specifications say "40 watts" of power so thought my 300 VA lab supply is enough. As it turns out, it was not. See the measurement section.
FYI, there is a very clos cousin of this unit from NAD in the form of AMP1. I could not find either for sale in US. The AMP1 lacks Bluetooth I believe but has Chromecast built in (?). It is not clear who built this unit. Likely it is an OEM for both.
Argon SA1 DAC Measurements
I fed the unit Toslink and measured from the pre-out. The output was severely clipped. So I brought the input level down -12 dB to our nominal 2 volts and no clipping:
This lands the unit in the middle of our "fair" category:
I like to see a SINAD of over 100 dB for this class product and we are good few dBs short here. Here is the response sweep of digital input levels:
Our dynamic range is just "OK:"
At this point, the picture of the DAC performance is clear so I thought I cut to the chase and measure the amplifier.
Argon SA1 Amplifier Measurements
With amplifiers that have both analog input and digital, I start by testing both to see which is more transparent and run with that. Here is analog input:
This is not a happy picture with rising low frequency noise and distortion that is just below -80 dB. Let's try Toslink input:
Ah, that is much better. The combination of noise and distortion is well above average now:
So let's continue with Toslink input starting with our SNR:
We are a few dBs short of my 96 dB requirement for 5 watts but 88 dB is not so bad. I expected crosstalk to be better given the digital input:
Frequency response shows some load dependency in this Class D amplifier but better than many with this problem:
Let's see how much power we have starting with 4 ohm load:
Multitone performance is good:
I could not get to clipping range as my AC lab supply would shut down. So likely there is more power to be had as you can see in this dynamic test:
I did have enough juice to run the 8 ohm test:
In both cases the SA1 beats the ARCAM AVR10 in noise which is good.
Argon SA1 Phono Measurements
There was tremendous amount of mains interference in the phono stage dashboard. I am not going to show that as it may be due to use of my lab supply. But here is the all important RIAA equalization:
It seems to be a little heavy handed in upper bass with a rumble filter built-in. Not bad but not perfect either.
Conclusions
I really like the way the SA1 looks. But looks can't get me over "checklist" DAC performance of around 16 bits. The analog input on the amp doesn't perform well but digital does. Overall I have mixed feelings on the unit so not going to pass judgement one way or the other. I let you all do that by answering the poll.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I have a soft spot for white audio electronics and the SA1 goes right after that! Quite elegant. What I didn't like is the lack of indication on the file LEDs which indicate inputs. The volume control is digital (also controlled via an included remote). Pushing it selects the input. The LEDs also blink for other reasons I did not try to figure out. Here is the back panel:
It was odd to see just a type A USB that is indicated as USB power. There should be proper USB input in this day and age. There is pre-out but in my testing, I found that the volume control did not adjust it when using digital input but did with phono. Maybe this was operator error, I don't know as only a single half-sheet of instructions is provided with the unit.
The unit as shipped is for 50 Hz/250 volt so I used my lab AC generator to power it. Specifications say "40 watts" of power so thought my 300 VA lab supply is enough. As it turns out, it was not. See the measurement section.
FYI, there is a very clos cousin of this unit from NAD in the form of AMP1. I could not find either for sale in US. The AMP1 lacks Bluetooth I believe but has Chromecast built in (?). It is not clear who built this unit. Likely it is an OEM for both.
Argon SA1 DAC Measurements
I fed the unit Toslink and measured from the pre-out. The output was severely clipped. So I brought the input level down -12 dB to our nominal 2 volts and no clipping:
This lands the unit in the middle of our "fair" category:
I like to see a SINAD of over 100 dB for this class product and we are good few dBs short here. Here is the response sweep of digital input levels:
Our dynamic range is just "OK:"
At this point, the picture of the DAC performance is clear so I thought I cut to the chase and measure the amplifier.
Argon SA1 Amplifier Measurements
With amplifiers that have both analog input and digital, I start by testing both to see which is more transparent and run with that. Here is analog input:
This is not a happy picture with rising low frequency noise and distortion that is just below -80 dB. Let's try Toslink input:
Ah, that is much better. The combination of noise and distortion is well above average now:
So let's continue with Toslink input starting with our SNR:
We are a few dBs short of my 96 dB requirement for 5 watts but 88 dB is not so bad. I expected crosstalk to be better given the digital input:
Frequency response shows some load dependency in this Class D amplifier but better than many with this problem:
Let's see how much power we have starting with 4 ohm load:
Multitone performance is good:
I could not get to clipping range as my AC lab supply would shut down. So likely there is more power to be had as you can see in this dynamic test:
I did have enough juice to run the 8 ohm test:
In both cases the SA1 beats the ARCAM AVR10 in noise which is good.
Argon SA1 Phono Measurements
There was tremendous amount of mains interference in the phono stage dashboard. I am not going to show that as it may be due to use of my lab supply. But here is the all important RIAA equalization:
It seems to be a little heavy handed in upper bass with a rumble filter built-in. Not bad but not perfect either.
Conclusions
I really like the way the SA1 looks. But looks can't get me over "checklist" DAC performance of around 16 bits. The analog input on the amp doesn't perform well but digital does. Overall I have mixed feelings on the unit so not going to pass judgement one way or the other. I let you all do that by answering the poll.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/