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What is missing here?

In this months Absolute Sound magazine there is a nice review of an amp that many of us would probably consider based not only on the review but on the topology utilized with the amp. The amp in question is the new Air Tight ATM 300R. This amp utilizes the 300B tube and according to Dick Olsher " The Air tight ATM300-R wowed me with countless hours of listening pleasure. It consistently brought to life the full sonic promise of the 300B". Sounds amazing right??


Except, nowhere ( except in the specs section) does it mention that this amp is limited to 9Watts/Ch!! And at that it is putting out about 10% distortion! So not only is the amp severely limited to which speakers one can match it to, but those speakers had better be ULTRA high efficiency. While most experienced a’philes will expect the extremely severe limitations of this kind of max output, how many casual listeners who read this article will realize the extreme limitations that this amp comes with? Certainly none of that is mentioned in the review, which brings up the question...why not??? How many even somewhat seasoned a’philes have made the mistake of matching a flea powered amp with a less than favorable speaker load? Let’s hear about it....
128x128daveyf
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
For an 87dB speaker, 8 watts will give you 96dB at 1 meter. Pretty loud.
If you're buying a 300B amp, you'd have to have done some research. 
Why attack low-powered amps rather than inefficient speakers? ;-)
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
daveyf:
Except, nowhere ( except in the specs section) does it mention that this amp is limited to 9Watts/Ch!!

I see. So the whole specs section is "nowhere"? And here I was thinking I must be the most derisive of anyone here when it comes to specs. But even I am not going to try and say they don't exist, when there is a whole section devoted to them. A man's got to know his limitations. You win.  

PS- Aren't all amps "limited" to the power they are able to produce?
daveyf's avatar
daveyf OP
2,871 posts
 
@millercarbon  The specs section is not really where most readers are going to look that closely, at least IMO. The information on the output is not highlighted in any way in the spec section. Like I stated, the extremely low output is not mentioned anywhere in the body of the review. 

@noromance  How many times have you utilized a 9 watt amp in your system with 87db speakers? I have heard a number of speakers with 87db efficiency that also drop down to below 2ohms, try driving these with a 9watt/ch amp. 
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
@daveyf I used run a Class D T amp which has about 3 watts! In fairness, it didn't crank well. It is remiss not to include the output in the specs. Maybe they forgot. Perhaps AS assumes anyone who knows their stuff would know the 300B in SE mode only does 8 watts!
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