Atma-sphere 3.0 to 3.1


Has anyone else done the upgrade from 3.0 to 3.1 - I have M60s of very recent vintage with power and vcap upgrades. It does not seem expensive. I do wonder what the changes are internally and how the perfomance changes, improves? with the upgrade.
pubul57
I have not, but I have been listening to passives and they are great with the right amp. I think the Atma-spheres are not ideal for an external passive, but I suspect that with Ralph building it into the unit customized for the specific load and sensitivity of the amp and no ICs that it is great, of course you loose a bit of flexibility compared to an standalone preamp. Would love to A/B a MP1 versus the integrated passive volume control.
Passives work fine as long as you don't have any interconnect cable. Otherwise they tend to limit bass and punch as you turn the volume control down. That's why we offer the option for the M-60s.

The MP-1 is specifically designed to control the interconnect cable, and as a result the cable between the preamp and amp is not critical and you can run really long lengths (+50') too. That allows you to keep the amps right by the speakers and run short speaker cables.
Ralph, does that mean it is best to have a source with lower gain so that you can turn the passive up further (less attentuation) - as long as it plays loud enough? By the way, how much does it cost to "upgrade" a pair of M60s with volume controls? Guess I should have thought of that when I upgrade to 3.1:)
Yes, lower output sources work much better with passives. Its beyond me why so many DAC manufacturers insist on putting so much output voltage in their equipment- my guess is that they have no idea, no clue on how amplifiers work.

The volume control setup is about $1200.00. Its a custom-built part. Of course you can put in cheaper parts and do quite well but they don't seem so sound as good...
That is good input (no pun intended) on output voltage. My CD player puts out 2v or 3.6v with a switch, and of course I can listen at the 12-2 position with the lower gain. Will you ever be demoing the "integrated" at a show (RMAF?).