@mbmi Have you heard the Atma-Sphere GaN amp?
Atma-Sphere Class D… Amazing
Today I picked up my Atma-Sphere Class D Amps. These aren’t broken in yet. And they are simply amazing. I’ve listen to a lot of High End Class D. Some that cost many times what Atma-Sphere Class D costs. I wasn’t a fan of any of them. But these amps are amazing. I really expected to hate them. So my expectations were low. The Details are of what I’ve never heard from any other amps. They are extremely neutral. To say the realism is is extremely good is a gross understatement. They are so transparent it’s scary. These amps just grab you and suck you into the music. After I live with them some and get them broken in. And do some comparisons to some other high end Amps Solid State, Tubes and Class D’s, also in other systems I’ll do a more comprehensive review. But for now, these are simply amazing amps.. Congrats to Ralph and his team. You guys nailed on these.
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@ddafoe Which Pass amp do you have and how does it compare to the GaN amp? |
@pstores, congratulations on your purchase! I've had my pair for ~ 2.5 months now, and leave them on 24/7; it is amazing how cool they run (like barely warm at all, unlike my other amp which is a Class A Pass). I might have 300 hrs of play time on them at most and think they likely have improved some over that time. I'm feeding them with a Meitner MA3 and Sim 740P, and they are most certainly not out of place. |
I can’t wait for your precise and articulate tribute. In full knowledge that you may only change one variable between comparisons, all other things being held constant. This will invariably involve comparing components that are not technically equivalent. |
@pstores, You're fine. Nice post on a very interesting piece of gear. |
I haven't heard the Atma MA1's but do have 97db speakers and the Atma M-60's are better than my 300b amp in my system. I used the Allnic 300b amp for years before getting the Atma-sphere. The 300b is great, but not as good in my system. I also have had Bel Canto Ref 1000, and Merril Audio Veritas in my system, Although the Bel Canto was with Joseph Audio speakers. I am not a huge class D fan, although if you change your system to them, you can make it work well. What convinced me to try them was Ralph saying he uses them in his system. That caught my attention. Then when discussing with Duke Lejeune, he said he was planning on getting them for his system, although he said the bass would be different from the M-60's, not necessarily better, and making the statement that the M-60's were a hard act to follow. That did it. |
I would be open minded enough to try Ralph's Class D amps. They would never release an amp that didn't sound great in my opinion. Why bother? $5400 is not out of line for.a great pair of amps . Sure it's a lot of money, but you will spend that much for a really good 300b or more , unless you build it. |
Nice write up OP and I completely understand your upfront nagging concern of what they will sound like. It comes from your past experiences and that is completely reasonable. I am most interested in these amplifiers and will also have to allow my trust in Ralph to win over some of my up front Class D assumptions. Ralph is truly one of the very best designers and gentleman in the business. |
@ghdprentice +1 ON HIS BS OF EXPECTING TO HATE THEM |
Spkrplus, I believe they outperform the M-60. I’ve had s-30, M-60 and my MA-1. I am not sure I’d say they are Tube like. But they aren’t harsh and bright like many SS Amps. Elangley01, No the just didn’t add some distortion and create some amps. This is a complete departure as to the way all other Class D Amps have been designed in the past. Hence how Atma-Sphere got a new Patent in the Circuit Design. I doubt the NC400 would be close to having the sonic character as these do. I’ve listened to many high end Class D. Some costing more. And these are better defiantly better. On Monday I’ll have another more expensive Class D to run side by side in my system. Just to see how much bettter the Atma-Sphere really is.
As far as “Break-in” Ralph said not a lot just a day or two. They share same components like Power Supply, Capacitors and such. Which pretty mush all need some “Break in” time. I’ve always trusted Ralph and his staff to give Honest and Straight answers. I hadn’t heard the finished product. But I know Ralph very proud of this product. As he should be. And he is the Designer. So I thought there maybe some Bias. But I think he down played these to me. These are truely an awesome amplifier. Are they as good as my MA-1’s? In some ways yes. And others ways no. Will I like them better than my MA-1. Probably not. But the MA-1’s are Basically 4 times the cost,also. And they are simply a special amplifier. IMHO… I’ll reserve comments on that for down the road while I get to compare them more. Need to get used to the Class D some. But there is no heat from the Class D. My house is super insulated. So the MA-1 do heat the room some after awhile. The tubes don’t run super hot because they aren’t driven hard. And they last forever it seems. But they do warm the room up. Hence why I got these. |
I have Atma-Sphere Class D and suspect it outperforms every other brand in its price category. I can’t recall if Ralph mentioned anything about break in time, but he did say they have virtually no warm-up time to achieve best performance. I never noticed anything to contradict Ralph’s statement. Idle current is so low that it invites leaving them on 24/7 yet if the amps happen to be cold, they need little to no warm-up to sing. A friend of mine is interested in an A-S class D integrated. He mentioned having read that Ralph’s Class D "sound like a tube amp" in only the best way. I have heard various models of Ralph’s OTL and a lot of great brands of tube amps. I agree with Ralph and others who say his Class D sounds like the M-60 OTL above the bass range, which by any metric is a long-time tube amp gem (having won more awards than maybe any other current production amp.) It seems important to add this caveat: the ideal OTL load is between about 12 and 16-ohm with benign phase angle, which is rare, plus higher than average sensitivity. Class D has no such current limitations and can drive loads below 4-ohm which is verboten for OTL and a ratio of transformer-coupled tube amps. OTL have a unique signature in the bass range, not necessarily worse or better than SS, just different, hence the qualification "above the bass." In the range of bass instrument fundamental tones, Ralph’s Class D sounds like a good typical class D amp: quick, neutral, superb and powerful. Of course, bass harmonics extend well into the midrange and treble where the Class D is very transparent in this category. AFAIK for all Ralph’s prior amps, Ralph included a U-shaped copper shorting pin. Using the RCA input required users to short XLR pins 1 and 3 (1 is neutral/shield, 2 is positive signal, 3 is inverted signal; 3 shorts to ground to shunt the entire inverted section of the balanced input to minimize potential noise.) The RCA input of current production A-S Class D requires NO XLR shorting pin, hence none is included. Ralph said shorting XLR pins 1 and 3 has no effect on noise while using the RCA input. |
Does anybody really think Ralph would’ve potentially undermined his own core business and introduced a Class D amp if he really didn’t believe in the technology and its potential? I consider this to be one of the very, very few components I’d be willing to buy blind and expect to be nothing but thrilled, and I so respect Ralph for embracing new and promising technology due to his objective assessments of its capabilities rather than relying solely on his past considerable success. Most impressive on so many levels and falls solidly in my “holy crap I never saw that coming” category. |
Do Class D amps need "break in"? @atmasphere What do you think? |
I should add I heard the prototypes a few years back at Ralph’s Shop. So I knew at that point they were really good then. But hard to compare till you put it in your own system. The system you are most familiar with. Tonight I got to do that. And is when I how special they really are…. Going to be a great weekend… |
I have Atma-Sphere MA-1’s with all the options. Have an Atma-Sphere MP-3 Vcaps and Caddocks. Both are 3.3 versions so current. Am running Bel Canto Dac and Streamer Dac back to back. Current versions. Running Roon with dedicated server. Classe CDP-202, with Khorns with VCAP ODAM’s in the crossover. Running Cullen Cables for Power, Interconnects, and Speaker cables. Also have a set Gregiteks, Harbeth 40.2 and Magnepan 1.7i for some comparisons. I took Ralph’s word that I would like these amps. I have not heard any Class D I actually liked. Or would compare to a Fully Optioned Atma-Sphere MA-1. And now I have…. I am like I said very surprised. So far in some respects my MA-1’s do things better. And some respects the Class D do some things better. Once broke in I can’t wait to put them against some nice SS Amps. And compare them more to my MA-1’s. It’ll be interesting if I like them better in the end. But this is all subjective opinions… My own…. But my system isn’t a slouch system. And I run all High Rez files. Hope that Answers your questions…. |
