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Atma Sphere S30 amp

I got my S30 amp yesterday and got in 12 hrs. of listening time with it.

Having started off on this audio journey with tubes I got lost somewhere down the road with SS amps. A friend of mine sent me a demo AA PX25 to try out with my Zu speakers and I was in shock on how organic sounding this little 6W amp sounded and I soon realized ( in 5 min.) I screwed up big time. My amps sounded plastic/fake and after reading a review about the AS S30 being a better all around amp than the PX25 and with more power I bought the amp new.

Even with stock 6sn7 tubes this amp is a keeper for me. I could have had listening to a OTL all this time and feel I wasted alot of $$$ and time on my SS amps. You never know until you buy and try.

This amp is not for everyone but for Zu owners I would encourage you to try this guy out.

Thanks to all you OTL owners who have posted here in the forms and for Pubul57 whose knowledge of these amps made my purchase an easy decision.

Hiphiphorray I am back with tubes and loving it.



128x128glory
curriemt11
220 posts
 
Glory, congratulations on your S-30 purchase. It's a great amp. I suspect that if a lot of the flea power owners had the opportunity to try it in their systems, they would never look back.

Like Clio09, I own Audiokinesis speakers (Planetarium Betas), which Duke voiced with the S-30. These replaced far more expensive gear (SoundLabs and Ayre MX-Rs), yet I've never been happier with my system.

Bottom line - if you have relatively efficient speakers with a benign impedance load, the S-30 deserves serious consideration.
franks
151 posts
 
Welcome aboard. I'm an S30 owner going back to early 2000, just a few months after it's introduction at the sterophile show in Chicago.

I just had mine upgraded to 3.1 status from mk2 and it's a "wow". If your an Atmasphere owner I highly reccomend the upgrade(in fact, it's kind of a no brainer). When time allows I'll post further.

Glory, you may want to contact Shawn at Zu. We were discussing the Essence and apparently they are capable of producing a main driver with an even higher impedence from 16-24 ohms for OTL owners. That would be ideal for the S30. I have no idea if it's available/retrofitable for the Presense but it's certinly worth a phone call.
Enjoy
weebeesdad's avatar
weebeesdad
140 posts
 
Any firsthand experience using the s-30 with the Zeros?? As the recommended minimum impedance is 8 ohm, I would assume that this would preclude a great many speakers being used. The Zeros would solved the impedance issue, however do they in any way impart a deleterious effect on the sound?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 
Weebeesdad, how that seems to work is that if the amp does not work with the speaker due to impedance, its a moot point as to the effect the ZERO has, and in practice it does quite well.

The gray area is in dealing with speakers that are right on the fence impedance-wise. Sometimes you are better off without.
audiokinesis
2,741 posts
 
Weebeesdad, in my opinion if the impedance stays above 7 ohms or so and is smooth (no big impedance peaks above the bass region), the S-30 is often still a strong contender. The S-30 will deliver increased power into an impedance peak, which is why you don't want such a peak in the midrange region. Now if a speaker does have a single impedance peak in the midrange but is otherwise a good candidate for the S-30 (no nasty impedance dips and decent efficiency), it some cases it is possible to design a circuit that equalizes that impedance peak. I did that for someone with upper-80's efficient monitors that stay above 6 ohms and he was pretty happy with the result. Contact me if you'd like a link to some online comments he posted.

Duke
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