Thought on OTL tube amps

With my speakers, Merlin VSMs, the Atma-sphere M60s have proven to be the best all around amps for my taste, up against a few amps I have had in rotation in my system, the best of them being the CAT JL2, Pass XA30.5, First Watt Aleph J, Music Reference RM Special Edition, and Quicksilver V4s - that is, for me the OTLs produce the best sound up against some of the very best tube and SS amps made - though the Music Reference is right up there, and have no doubt that with more difficult speakers might edge out the OTLs, but with proper matching (not hard to do) OTLs are pretty tought to beat. I would put the Joule OTLs right up there with the Atma-sphere, you cannot go wrong with either IMHO.

Yes, let's not get into the issue of whether or not Bernings are or not OTL technically, they do seem to be in that camp to most users, and very fine sounding amps to boot.

Sounds like the Spectron approach would lead to broadbase good and the Atma-sphere to a narrower range of as good as it gets - certainly a market for both approaches. With my speakers its the OTLs I would go with, with Thiels or B&W, perhaps the Spectron approach would make more sense.

Granntring, that is how I hear it. We must own one of the several dozens.

My feeling too in upgrading to M60 3.1. The M60s replaced my beloved CAT JL2s which is a great amp, but with my speakers, which are very easy to drive, I prefered the Atma-sphere - my thought being that OTLs by Atma-sphere and Joule are pretty tough to beat with the right speakers.