A few obserrvations based on 8 years of ownership of Atmasphere amps (M60s) and preamp (MP-1)
I spent 45 minutes on the phone this morning with Ralph. A friend of mine just bought used MA-1s and wanted to know if they have negative feedback. The answer is none. More importantly, I have never run across a company of any type run by people who are more accessible and available directly on the phone or via internet than the guys in Minnesota. You just about have to hang up on 'em to get rid of 'em! They desperately want you to be satisfied with your purchase and are in it for the long haul.
Heat output. I agonized over this for quite a while but finally pulled the trigger in 2000 and bought my monoblocks. I live just outside of New Orleans and, with the possible exception of Death Valley, nowhere in the contiguous 48 is hotter AND muggier than here. Honestly, it's a non-issue. They do put out heat but it just doesn't seem to affect the comfort level in my listening room summer or winter and I don't note any change in my A/C run time when I'm jamming. My friend with the MA-1s has a much smaller room than I and, unsolicited, made the same observation less than a week ago.
The Atmasphere sound can be characterized as purity incarnate. Purity is the holy grail of audio in my book. Purity is the single word embodiment of a whole slew of other audiophile destinations such as transparency,tone, musicality, dimensionality, etc. It's THE one descriptor to possess, IMHO. It just makes sense that eliminating one massive electronic "processor", if you will, should facilitate a cleaner, more direct connection with the music.
Finally, this all being said, I have nothing but respect for BAT. I have never heard a disparaging word about the company, its people or it's products. I have one friend who just bought a VK 600 to use with his Salk speakers but I've only heard it once and under very suboptimal conditions.
The usual caveat, of course, with the OTL design is that it needs to be partnered with impedance friendly speakers downstream. I'm running AG Duos.
I spent 45 minutes on the phone this morning with Ralph. A friend of mine just bought used MA-1s and wanted to know if they have negative feedback. The answer is none. More importantly, I have never run across a company of any type run by people who are more accessible and available directly on the phone or via internet than the guys in Minnesota. You just about have to hang up on 'em to get rid of 'em! They desperately want you to be satisfied with your purchase and are in it for the long haul.
Heat output. I agonized over this for quite a while but finally pulled the trigger in 2000 and bought my monoblocks. I live just outside of New Orleans and, with the possible exception of Death Valley, nowhere in the contiguous 48 is hotter AND muggier than here. Honestly, it's a non-issue. They do put out heat but it just doesn't seem to affect the comfort level in my listening room summer or winter and I don't note any change in my A/C run time when I'm jamming. My friend with the MA-1s has a much smaller room than I and, unsolicited, made the same observation less than a week ago.
The Atmasphere sound can be characterized as purity incarnate. Purity is the holy grail of audio in my book. Purity is the single word embodiment of a whole slew of other audiophile destinations such as transparency,tone, musicality, dimensionality, etc. It's THE one descriptor to possess, IMHO. It just makes sense that eliminating one massive electronic "processor", if you will, should facilitate a cleaner, more direct connection with the music.
Finally, this all being said, I have nothing but respect for BAT. I have never heard a disparaging word about the company, its people or it's products. I have one friend who just bought a VK 600 to use with his Salk speakers but I've only heard it once and under very suboptimal conditions.
The usual caveat, of course, with the OTL design is that it needs to be partnered with impedance friendly speakers downstream. I'm running AG Duos.