Hi Charles 1 dad,
I too find both the Atmasphere and Berning to be somewhat on the lean side, but, I like the liveliness of the sound they deliver. While I did not make any sort of direct comparison of the Joules with either OTL, I did hear the Joules against another OTL (custom-made, non-commercial amps) and the Joules were slightly warmer sounding, but, also not quite as dynamic and lively; so, at least in this case, there was some tradeoff involved. I think one can get quite lively sound from other tube topologies, like SET amps, but, the big limitation there is that the best sounding SET amps have a very limited output and only work well with a few speakers; OTLs can be made to work with a wider range of speakers.
The BIG Joule OTL I heard also had a problem which caused it to intermittently put out a HUGE, window rattling pop. This turned out to be caused by bad tube sockets which had to be replaced. That is a very BIG job on amps with that many tubes. I know a few people who had, in my view, a bit more reliability issues with their OTLs than I would be comfortable with having in my own system. I have had zero reliability issues with my Audio Note Kageki or my pushpull Western Electric 133 amp, but, I just might be lucky (so far).
I too find both the Atmasphere and Berning to be somewhat on the lean side, but, I like the liveliness of the sound they deliver. While I did not make any sort of direct comparison of the Joules with either OTL, I did hear the Joules against another OTL (custom-made, non-commercial amps) and the Joules were slightly warmer sounding, but, also not quite as dynamic and lively; so, at least in this case, there was some tradeoff involved. I think one can get quite lively sound from other tube topologies, like SET amps, but, the big limitation there is that the best sounding SET amps have a very limited output and only work well with a few speakers; OTLs can be made to work with a wider range of speakers.
The BIG Joule OTL I heard also had a problem which caused it to intermittently put out a HUGE, window rattling pop. This turned out to be caused by bad tube sockets which had to be replaced. That is a very BIG job on amps with that many tubes. I know a few people who had, in my view, a bit more reliability issues with their OTLs than I would be comfortable with having in my own system. I have had zero reliability issues with my Audio Note Kageki or my pushpull Western Electric 133 amp, but, I just might be lucky (so far).