Atma-Sphere S30 MKII

Hi Johnny
You may be looking at the last amp you will buy in a long time, at least thats how I feel.
I have my S30 paired with Reference 3a Decapos at the moment. Prior, I had Soliloquy 5.3s. Both very compatible with the S30. You may also consider Coincidents & Meadowlarks.
The S30 has proven itself to be very reliable with an occasional tube replacement. 6AS7s are relatively cheap ($13) & plentiful.
Read the many reviews of the MK60 at the Atmasphere website.
All the accolades can be applied to the S30 as well.

Hi, Johnny7. Feel free to go to ASOG but it appears ASOG is coming to you (Hello, Emil). I'm currently using an S30 with the alon lotus SE with the 14 ohm woofer. The amp is exceptional and while not cheap is, IMHO, one of audio's great bargains for what you get. My path to the S30 was anything but a straight one. My original plan was to buy the lotus's and pair them with a SET amp. I auditioned the cary 300 SE monoblocks but were underwhelmed especially for the price($6000). I had seen the S30 at the stereophile show in Chicago(1999) and figured I try them since they where offered with a 30 day trial and cost half what their SET competition was going for. The S30 replaced an excellent Audio Research classic 60. The S30 has incredible speed(the first thing you'll notice) as well as the expected excellent imaging , transparency and midrange. What will also surprise you is the quality of the bass. Even though it has half the rated power of the classic 60 the bass was actually better. If paired with a speaker like the coincident total eclipse(10 ohm impedence, flat to 25 hz) the bass can be phenomenal. If I had'nt found the S30 I'd probably gone for the VAC 30/30($7000).

AS for what speakers work well with the S30, anything that works well with SET's will do fine with the S30, >6 0hms impedence, 90db sensitivity or greater as a guide.

The S30 has inputs for both single ended rcas'a and balanced
XLR's. Currently, my preamp is an Atmasphere MP3, another under promoted gem. (well, what did you expect me to do with all that money I saved with the S30?). I'm using balanced goertz TQ-2's. Prior to the MP3 I had an AI mod3 and used an old pair of audioquest emerald's single ended rca's with excellent results.

This has turned out to be a little more of a love letter than I had planned(it is valentine's day,you know) so for the cynical out their, I am not a dealer for nor do I have any relationship with Atmasphere, just a happy owner.

I have M60s with Merlin VSMs (tube friendly impedance, 89db), and reason to beleive the S30 might work as well or better becuase it is "simpler"?

The signal paths of the two amps are the same. The Merlins appreciate the extra power though.

BTW the ASOG site got shut down in October of 2004. A good portion of it is archived on the OTL Asylum at audioasylum.com

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/otl/bbs.html

What is the proper method for removing output tubes to lower the power? Any downside to doing this? Rising output impedance?