Atmasphere amps trustable?

If by "weird" what the OP means is different, then I would say that’s a fair assessment in that my understanding is the high output impedance of an OTL amp (with no negative feedback employed either by design in the case of Atmasphere amps as I understand it) means one is best advised to match speakers with it that also have higher impedance ratings than many, 8OHMs nominal impedance or higher.

Ralph Karsten who is Atmasphere is very knowledgeable and posts here regularly as many here know. He talks about a different "paradigm" than the norm that his products fit into which is an accurate assessment IMHO.

Also worth noting I’ve heard the Atmasphere amps set up well with appropriate nicely matched gear at shows and the sound quality is always top tier. Also that the company and products have been around for awhile and seem to have a quite sterling reputation which bodes well in regards to the "trust’ factor.

stevecham,
the OP’s post is derogatory, clearly he’s not done any research on this matter, doesn’t know that Atma-sphere is most helpful in these forums & that his amps are in production for the last 40 yrs, are very reliable & yet we should pander to such a troll post? You take the cake Stevecham. Keep doing this & Audiogon will not be a place to hang out anymore. Your sort of response will only encourage others to create similar posts....
Yes, I could have written it better but my frustration lay in the fact that the obvious research was not done by the OP. He just damned the Atma-sphere brand without seemingly knowing anything about it.
I believe that what he needs to be told is to search the archives & learn about OTLs & then have a more intelligent discussion with the forum.
Plus, this topic (of Atma-sphere amp reliability) has been discussed here many times. here’s just one such thread:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/thought-on-otl-tube-amps/post?highlight=atma%2Bsphere%2Bamp%2Breliability&postid=825877#825877

the least he could have done was to read-up before casting doubt on a brand. I believe it’s a troll post...

"Retro" would be a much more apt term for the look of Ralph’s amplifiers than "weird." And they are intentionally designed with a retro appearance, partly as a matter of aesthetics, and partly (as I recall Ralph stating here in a past thread) because it keeps the costs of the amps lower than they would be with other approaches to their physical design.

As others have alluded to his designs are highly regarded world-class performers, when paired with appropriate speakers. They can also be used with speakers having impedance characteristics that are low or otherwise difficult by using a "Zero autoformer" at their outputs. (Which contrary to misconceptions that are sometimes expressed is not likely to negate much if any of the benefit provided by their output transformerless design, IMO).

As others have alluded to above Ralph is a regular contributor here, and is a completely class act.

Wolfie, as is often the case your post provided the best laugh of the day :-)

Regards,
-- Al

There are many "retro" looking tube amplifiers out there these days. I believe Atmasphere has been around longer than most and is a trend setter in that regard. Few still are OTLs though it seems. OTL tube amps are definitely a rarer breed but have a lot of unique potential benefits to tout, much like SET and even radically different and newer Class D amps.