$4500 amp beat out the Tenor OTL in the latest TAS

I have listened to about 6 different in my system. ARC monos being one of the six. I truly think you should think twice before getting ARC or VTL. If you have the opportunity to demo a Atma-sphere amp ma1 even better ma2, I think you will be amazed at the low level detail you will hear and its ability to easily drive 4 ohm loads, these amps do sell on audiogon but if you watch they sell quickly, THEY ARE ONE OF THE BEST. I have the ma2 and the matching preamp mp1, with wilson speakers. You can listen to this system for hours. OTL's are really sweet!

I owned the hurricanes for a short time(purchased
in a package on audiogon). They were modified by
Mr.Blume. I have two other amps to rotate in my
system, the Bat 150se's, and an Audio Matiere with
an Aero Capitole running direct. My Speakers are
the Coincident total Victory's. The Hurricanes had
big bass(200watt). The Bat did most everything else
better in my system. The Audio Matiere is very good
with bass equal to the hurricanes and soundstaging
close to the Bat.My wife(degree in voice) preferred
the Bat to the Audio Matiere and the Matiere to the Hurricanes. With the right tubes, I believe the Hurricanes could excel in rock and classical,but small group sound staging isn't their forte. The gentleman that bought them
is actually going to use them for the bottom of a 3-way system.

Eralff, FWIW, the member I bought my VTL's from went to Atma-Spheres, and last I knew was not convinced about the benefit of his switch. Which is not to denigrate the Atma-Spheres (a product that actually interests me as well), but just to point out that OTL designs (as Rcrump wrote above) will not always work to their full advantage with many speaker designs, so generalizations can be dangerous.

Are the Atma-Spheres powerful enough to drive the 4 ohm Infinity RS 1B's? I was always under the impression that they needed the 100-200-300 wpc to really sing. I will have to check out the Atma's!!

I think that the big Atma-Sphere could drive them fine, but you'd have to have the impedance matching transformer in line with them. Once you do that, then it is no longer an OTL, because you had to put the transformer back into the line to handle the 4 ohm load. Then you have the complexity disadvantages of the OTL and the disadvantages of the output transformer too. Much of the OTL benefits are lost in this transition. I'd use a straight high power push-pull amp for this application.