Rather sad reading this post .. reminiscent of a older Stereonet Supratek post focusing on the evil birdnest and not the sound quality. Seems you either luv’ them or hate them, few in between.
Me I like my hifi to sound good and haven’t worried about the wiring birdsnest, unless its proven to be unsafe. I have built a Guitar valve amp under supervision and my wiring looks similar 😁 I also understand the shortest path to reduce noise on some components, but are no expert, one of my best Guitar amps, a Two Rock Opal has some rather messy wiring topology, including low curly cables which a local map builder explained as having a design reason, and its brilliant as John Mayer will attest, I am sure he doesn’t worry about the messy wiring topology. I had to open mine up to re-seat one of the capacitors that had come loose in the loooong road/rail journey from Perth to Sydney (LA to NYC equiv), and found no safety issues visible.
I have never heard an Atma-sphere so cannot comment, however i have a range of Pre amps in my house that my Supratek has replaced, Parasound, AR LS15, Mac C22 and a very nice Ayon Auris. Mine is an older 2nd hand Cabernet DHT and i luv’ the ability to tube roll, I mainly use NOS 2A3 and 45’s. Each tube option has subtle sound changes and at times suit different music pieces. Mine sits in front of a Accuphase A70 and before that my Bryston 4bsst, its also had a short run on my Mc MC75 monos. Sounded good on all of them, I prefer it on my SS amps.
After listening to mine an hifi acquaintance ordered a Cortese LCR last year, he had some noise issues to start with which Mick sorted for him fairly quickly, Mick paid the freight cost plus he installed another new set of interesting valves. The Cortese replaced some very nice pre’s he has, and above my pay grade and is now is top pre.
If it was me, patience, wait until it arrives, I think the sound is wonderful but each to their own. Note that different valves can change the sound to fine tune matching your other components, I found it a learning curve, give it time, play with different valves and see where the journey takes you.
