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Cable help for my AtmaSphere S-30 OTL Amp - Please

Hello fellow audiophiles,

I am in desperate search of good advice from fellow Audiophiles and I thought someone might be able to help me with cable suggestions.
I was using a 845 SE amp and recently switched to an AtmaSphere S30 OTL amp.
This amp has tons of detail but it sounds fatiquing compared to the warm lush sound of the 845 tube amp.
I tried a Shunyata power cord and it made the highs even worse and I went back to the stock .69 cent cord. When I try some of my other interconnects, they add more high-end detail and speed but no more sound-stage depth or width.
I called a couple of dealers and here is a big surprise.....they are suggesting power cords, interconnects and speaker cables that are each thousands of dollars!
I am now thinking a made a huge mistake.
This amp ws $3800 and it sounds like harsh transistor sound compared to my 845.

My other equipment: Quad ESL63 Speakers, Eastern Minimax II Tube DAC, Space-Tech Labs Balanced Tube Preamp (Definitely NOT bright sounding), Aural Symphonics Speaker Cables, Silnote Audio Poseidon silver usb cable, Silnote Audio Morpheus Ref II cardas rca 24k gold/silver (DAC to Preamp), Black mountain cable Pinnacle Cables 1m gold xlr (Preamp to Amp).
I even changed the 12AU7 tube in the DAC to a Mullard and the dynamics and tone are better but still not correct.
What interconnect will bring out the mid-range and not emphasize the highs?
I still want holographic sound-staging but I want the amp to sound musical and not analytic!

Can you help?
Thanks very much,
Mike
rodagon
nightfall
224 posts
 
Ralph at Atma-Sphere personally recommends the Mogami Gold balanced cables for his amplifiers which will cost you very little. I got mine from Guitar Center. There is no reason to spend more.

I also own an S-30 and listen to the advice above about tubes. Buy the right NOS tubes for the 6SN7's, and the amplifier becomes an entirely different beast. You will not experience the fatigue you mention, and everything will be enhanced.
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
When I had my M-60 amps I used XLO Reference Series. The Atma-Sphere amps have no coloration, they "sound" very straight, the XLO were a good match, they have an excellent high frequency area, that combination was really good.
When you want to save money, I also had some cables from "SignalCable" at that time. Excellent performance for their price, available in copper or silver. When you go for these, order them with Eichmann Bullet Plugs, excellent signal transfer based on their grip and contact area.
nick_sr
263 posts
 
My guess is that it is related to speaker cables.

It is unclear on the exact model and length that you are using. But I would suggest shorter cables.

Example if you are using the aural symphonic purples these will likely have high capacitance due to the twisted and braided design. This could cause the amp to be bright.

Also, in the Atmasphere manual it states that speaker cables can have a "rather dramatic effect"

FWIW.
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