Your most disappointing purchase or audition?

Tubes,

If I've followed this correctly, you purchased your amps new. So I'm curious:

Which dealer did you buy your amps from?

Is it possible that your dealer took back a mint appearing pair of amps that had been unknowingly (or knowingly, I suppose) modified by a customer and subsequently re-sold them to you as new?

The reason that I ask is because someone, somewhere in the timeline is simply not being truthful. Maybe (hopefully?) it was a third party to this thread.

Ralph has a boatload of credibility around here with many folks, including me. I intend in no way to disparage you with these comments (there's absolutely no basis for that, either), but it's hard to reconcile your story with Ralph's response.

From my own experience with an early production SA-1, I can tell you that Atmasphere was straight up with me regarding product limitations and shortfall in expectations. IIRC, there was an early factory mod that Atmasphere implemented to improve the flexibility of mating that model with trickier loads. Ralph extended that offer to me even though the problem was in my loudspeaker matching decision rather than any inherent problem with the product, itself. Your account is so sharply at odds with my own experience with Atmasphere that I'm left scratching my head.

However, if your starting point was different than Ralph expected (because the amps had been modified), I suppose that it's possible the discrepancies in these two narratives could be reconciled. Ralph's repair/installation advice could have been misguided if the circuit that he was working on was different than he thought it was (i.e., modified). That still leaves some potentially imprecise work when the units were returned for repair, but that kind of thing (unfortunately) happens from time to time, even when all involved are well inentioned.

Beyond that, I will say that this is one of the oddest episodes that I've ever encountered in these forums.

Lse, I guess you have never read Stereophile and Sam Tellig's love affair with Triangle Loudspeakers? Tellig has spent vacation time at the factory in France. He would make a great poster child for Triangle,he loves them that much.

I'm not dissing Triangle but your comment is a bit ironic considering your speaker preference,it had me LOL.

Oh,and a very good thread Zavato.

Of course, no product is going to suit everyone when it comes to sound and/or system compatibility, so I make no claims that way. However, one thing that I do feel is true is the reliability and support that Atma Sphere provides in their product.

Two things to potentially consider in regard to the issue at hand:
1) Atma Sphere used to offer their amps in kit form. Obviously, once someone undertakes their own build, all bets are off. At that point, the final result reflects the builder as much or more than the actual product or company providing said product.

However, as that time was both very long ago and very recent, I would guess this pair of amps didn't come via the kit route

2) A lot of people over the years have modified their Atma Sphere amplifiers. Again, using the kit rationale, at that point, what comes out of that now more aligns with the person performing the upgrade, as opposed to what they started with, or the company who manufactured the product.

I'm not saying one of these two scenarios explains what happened, but they are two possible explanations to add into the mix.

I know that Atmasphere isn't a large corporation, but wouldn't they keep records of things like this, or isn't there a serial number that Tubes108 could provide that would clarify age etc?
At this point, Tubes108 seems to have bowed out of the conversation, and I guess I don't blame him.

All I am going to say is that I have followed this discussion from the beginning. I now have two more names to add to my list of people I won't buy from or sell to, and their names aren't Ralph or Charles.