Atmasphere amps trustable?

Nah, I'm just another casual dude who wants to listen to music and not play with toys.

Both times I have heard Atmasphere amps at shows, they were used with very large, very expensive high efficiency speakers from Classic Audio Reproductions.

First time in a small hotel room where the whole system was just a lot of overkill, more recently in a larger hotel ballroom where the gear had a chance to truly show what it can do and did it well.

I would like to hear the Atmasphere amps used with smaller high quality speakers that would tend to fit and work better in most peoples homes.

I have no doubt the results would also be quite top notch but the thing I wonder is if the results would be as "special" compared to others. I think of the Atmasphere products as very unique and special, not "weird", though they may look it to some.

IMHO, you have to really be a tube lover for whatever reason to live with any larger tube power amp with many tubes. TCO will be high due to power consumption and maintenance of tubes to keep things in peak operating order compared to other options ie SS.

High quality modern Class D amps of recent years are game changers IMHO. Not that they sound like many tube amps, but they do share some sonic qualities, are much smaller, have low maintenance and likely lower overall TCO (total cost of ownership) due to high efficiency, low power consumption, and no tube maintenance.

I use a tube pre-amp with 6 tubes with a Class D amp. I find this to deliver the kind of sound many tube amp lovers might enjoy with minimal use of tubes. Tube pre-amps are much more easily managed than high power tube power amps. I’d like to have no tubes eventually and am working towards that. My second system uses a true digital Class D integrated amp. The sound is quite excellent I think but will not be every tube amp lovers cup of tea for sure. I find this amp makes good quality dynamic box speakers sound like electrostats along the line of ML or Quad, but with better dynamics. I am using it currently with a pair of Dynaudio Contour monitors. Its a very interesting phenomena to hear how radically different the Dynaudios can sound in two different systems.

Also on my bucket list is to put together a third system built around a small tube integrated amp and high efficiency speakers. I enjoy putting together good sound in different ways, and on a small scale, tube gear is much easier to live with.

Absolutely untrustworthy!  I came home and found my girlfriend alone with them having a glass of wine with the lights down low!!!

But I will say, match them with the proper speakers and they make wonderful music. ;^)

Back in my earlier and more adventurous days I bought a pair of Fourier Systems Panthere monoblocks, those with 8 of the Russian military triode 6C33CB tubes in each chassis.  They were based on the original Futterman design and were different than anything I tried previously or since.  They powered my Wilson Audio Sophias with an enormous soundstage and unmatched transparency, but did not have that lean, hyperdetailed, small-image sound that most other amps have.  I would characterize the images as "diffuse".  Using a pair of autoformers helped also.  However, in addition to doubling as space heaters, drawing 5 amps at idle, they were absolutely unreliable.  Sometimes one channel would go down, popping out a little male-shaped red circuit breaker in the back, while on other occasions they sounded less authorative and a check of tube fuses would show several were blown.  After investing in Buss fuse company stock I contacted Ralph Karstens and he offered to refurbish the amps but graciously suggested I clean and re-tension all of the tube sockets as they are tempered by the prodigious heat thrown off by the amp.  So I had a backyard project with the amps disassembled and parts all over my patio furniture, not to mention an exasperated spouse.  I then took it to Brooks Berdan and their technician replaced some diodes and other things I don't understand, and the amps then did become reliable.  However, the damage was done and I no longer trusted them and sold them to get something much more reliable.  I have never heard nor seen in person any Atma-Sphere equipment, but I did look into these and understand they use a different circuit called a Circlotron which is apparently more reliable, but almost certainly sounds different.  I have thought about matching these with my single-driver speakers but reluctant to do so based on previous experience.