Tube vs. Solid State Amplifiers

twoleftears, it’s good to see that linear tube audio is in Takoma Park. It would be worthwhile to visit them in person.

certainly would like to own an Atmasphere valve amp. Understanding the options better would help in deciding which one.

In the smaller amps there are three options- copper foil Teflon V-Caps for coupling capacitors in the amps, additional filter capacitance in the output section (useful for keeping IMD down at higher power levels) and the Caddock resistor option. In all cases these options are available so you don't have to open up the amp to 'tweak' it. We've seen audiophiles do this sort of thing for decades and most of the time (not all) they actually do more harm than good. So we offer the most effective tweaks in advance. The larger amps like the MA-1 have some of the options as standard; the MA-2 and MA-3 have all of them as standard.

@goofyfoot wrote: "atmasphere, certainly would like to own an Atmasphere valve amp. Understanding the options better would help in deciding which one. "

I’m one of Ralph’s dealers and also a speaker manufacturer. If by "the options" you mean "speakers that work well with Ralph’s lower-powered amps", that depends in large part on the specifics of the speaker’s impedance curve. Sometimes it is possible to tweak the impedance curve a bit without otherwise affecting the speaker. The Zero Autoformer from Paul Speltz is one way of doing so, and there are other ways which are also benign.

If you have a particular speaker in mind, shoot me an e-mail or a message and maybe I can offer some thoughts.

Eight ohm speakers can work very well with Ralph’s smaller amps if they have compatible characteristics, so you are not limited to 16-ohm speakers.

Duke

Sorry Duke, I'm not currently in the market for a new amp but maybe in the future.

@goofyfoot , even if you were in the market it's extremely unlikely I'd be involved in any transactions, as for one thing your use of the term "valves" makes me think you're in Europe, and I'm in Texas.   But if I can ever potentially help with speaker matching questions, feel free to ask.  

Duke