Atma-Sphere Class D… Amazing
Today I picked up my Atma-Sphere Class D Amps. These aren’t broken in yet. And they are simply amazing. I’ve listen to a lot of High End Class D. Some that cost many times what Atma-Sphere Class D costs. I wasn’t a fan of any of them. But these amps are amazing. I really expected to hate them. So my expectations were low. The Details are of what I’ve never heard from any other amps. They are extremely neutral. To say the realism is is extremely good is a gross understatement. They are so transparent it’s scary. These amps just grab you and suck you into the music. After I live with them some and get them broken in. And do some comparisons to some other high end Amps Solid State, Tubes and Class D’s, also in other systems I’ll do a more comprehensive review. But for now, these are simply amazing amps.. Congrats to Ralph and his team. You guys nailed on these.
Someone, please correct me: I don't believe that the idea is to "want" 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion, but rather our brains use the 2nd and 3rd harmonics that are produced by the musical instruments to perceive certain aspects from the sound. I don't believe any type of harmonic distortion from an amplifier is "desirable". |
I had been confused about it initially, as GoldNote does not clearly specify what’s actually going on with the PA10’s internals. But learned this from a HiFiPig review (as quoted): ‘I’m a massive advocate of Class D technology when it is done well and so I asked Gold Note directly “What Class of amplifier is the PA-10?”. Here is the response I got – “ The PA-10 features quite an interesting design. It is not a Class D amplifier but it leverages a new technology that uses MOSFETs for the output stage, in common with the Class D, featuring an output oscillator (GaN Mosfets with Gallium Nitride), a proprietary design that actually doubles the power of the amplifier when reducing the impedance – exactly as a pure Class A but with extremely high efficiency to deliver great amounts of energy.” So there you have it.‘ So “more like” GaN Fet in output.
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I read Atmasphere’s words as, ‘given the choice between no 2nd/3rd harmonics, then having them allows one to mask the higher order harmonics. So you want them higher than everything at 4th and higher harmonics. Some of this may also bleed into people running tube preamps into SS/Class-D amps. |
@riccitone Yes they are nice and it is really confusing with the reviewers and the OE spec sheets. Just look at this review. Gold Note is making some very nice audio equipment. |
