atmasphere
Responses from atmasphere
| Lifespan of Power amps Electrolytic Capacitors are a fact of life in amplifiers, tube or solid state. They last about 20-25 years, which is a sort of half-life, IOW about half of them will be bad in about 20-25 years. Unlike radioactive isotopes, though, the rest will b... | |
| What happened to my SET amp? There was an **8 Amp** fuse in it??!The fuse was **way** too high a rating. Pack the amp up and send it back for repair. | |
| MC phono stage without transformer? MC stepup transformers introduce distortion based on hysteresis losses inherent in any inductive device. These distortions will mask a certain amount of detail and it is unavoidable.In addition, the transformer, again like any inductive device, ca... | |
| Looking for a good balanced preamp: Atma MP-3? I've had a few emails regarding this thread so I guess I need to chime in: the MP-3 is fully balanced-differential from phono input to main output. The output is patented, is direct-coupled and the preamp is zero feedback throughout. It employs a ... | |
| The SET amp question. SETs get their capabilities from 3 things: Class A, triode, and reduced distortion at low power levels in the output transformer. Push Pull amplifiers actually *increase* distortion as the power level falls to very low levels on account of the som... | |
| Showdown: Your Favorite Cart for Classical? David12, It seems though the higher you go into the high end, the more specialised, the more optimised, for a particular source, genre of music etc, a system becomes.My experience is that it has to do with intention, not cost. IOW if you know what... | |
| Laid Back Speakers amps, players etc Eweedhome, I should clarify that I do not regard a laid back presentation as a coloration, rather it is a lack of artificial coloration such that you can easily listen to it all day and night and you always want to play it some more.Some speakers:... | |
| Tube amp for "difficult" speakers,,, Asa, FWIW any Atma-Sphere product that gets updated to the latest level gets warranty reactivation. In addition, the warranty is transferable. This helps with the resale value on amps like the MA-1, which don't tend to hang on audiogon all that lo... | |
| Help preamp problem: overload? Twoleftears, put on the CD, set the preamp at the same volume, advance to the final bars where this problem occurs, but this time don't have the power amp connected. Does the display act the same way? If not, the power amp may have an input impeda... | |
| Showdown: Your Favorite Cart for Classical? Headsnappin, about the only thing I can come up with to answer that is that classical likely has the widest dynamic range of most recordings. Plus with natural sounds its a bit harder to fool the ear with regard to colorations. So the cartridge sh... | |
| tt surface noise reduce or tolerate? Crem1, what do you mean by 'Lps fail'? I've had LPs for 35 years now but I have yet to see one fail. OTOH I've seen a few CDs failing recently. For me, 'fail' means it won't play or degrades significantly **with proper storage**. LPs IME do not fa... | |
| Transfiguration Orpheus, what step-up The Orpheus has enough output that you shouldn't need a stepup device with it. Transformers will obscure detail and impact from the cartridge; if you can't get it to work with your phono preamp, I would consider a preamp with more gain as the impr... | |
| Showdown: Your Favorite Cart for Classical? Tracking ability and relaxed, transparent presentation without noise are things that are important for a cartridge used for classical music, although really those requirements are important for lots of other music too so I am of the opinion that w... | |
| Laid Back Speakers amps, players etc 'Laid Back' to me refers to a lack of artificial brightness, a lack of added odd-ordered harmonics, IOW the system has no loudness artifacts and will play in an effortless and authoritative way without generating the desire to turn it down. Laid b... | |
| Transistor Preamp that sounds like a Tube Preamp? Saxo, your comment More hum and ground problems than with SS by far.is really not right. Hum and grounding issues have nothing to do with the preamp being tube or solid state. It has to do with other design elements, such as power supply design an... |