Atma-Sphere S-30 MK3 Update.....



Original Post
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http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1220502548

Hello again,

Just wish to post my further impressions after some more days of breaking-in this wonderful amplifier..

Tonality has greatly improved, the hardness and/or glare is almost gone, there's more body or more fullness to the sound and there's also more of the finer musical details across the board. It's definitely going in the right direction. The changes have been drastic albeit over an unusually long period of time.

Since day 1, the S-30 proved to be VERY stable in general and with regards to minor AC fluctuation in particular.

Only one 6AS7 went south in a nice display of fireworks with no damage to the amp or the speaker. Forunately that took just a few seconds as I rushed to kill the B+ switch!

FWIW, here's my set up with the S-30 :

-Dedicated PC Drive

-TrendsAudio UD-10.1 USB->SPDIF Converter

-Assemblage DAC 3.1 Platinum w/D2D-1 Jitter Buster-Upsampler

-BAT VK-3ixSE

-Atmasphere S-30mk3

-Tannoy Edinburgh TW

-SlinkyLinks Balanced Interconnects, SlinkyLinks Bi-Wire Speaker Cables.

-Acoustic Zen El Nino power cords throughout..

Thanks again to all who responded to my first post and to Ralph for always going that extra mile!

Best,

AG
128x128audiograils
Just out of curiosity, have you tried other Atma-sphere amps? How do they compare?

Kublakhan,

Actually this is my first Atmasphere amp AND first OTL experience. I believe Ralph's amps are very similar if not identical, in design, except for their power output capabilities and the available mods. The bigger Atmasphere models might have more edge in the usual sonic parameters due to bigger and beefier output stages. The main sonic strengths are undoubtedly shared within all the range.

AG