Pretty sure these could drive a cutting lathe and produce great sound!
http://www.atma-sphere.com/Products/#MA-3
Enough Tubes For You?
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
- Start date
Pretty sure these could drive a cutting lathe and produce great sound!
http://www.atma-sphere.com/Products/#MA-3
I hear Atmasphere is amazing...in a rarified space amongst the world's great amps. That said, seeing this picture...i believe this is their 500-watt/channel behemoth...i am sooo very glad i have SS Class A amplification. A handful of tubes is good for me.
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You would have to be into whips and chains to have that many tubes in your system.
Happily the Sound Lab high voltage bias source only needs a few watts power. Otherwise you could damage your power board!
Never listened (or even looked) at the MA-3, but if I scale the sound difference between the MA-1 and MA- 2 to the MA2 - MA3 it should sound divine in Sound Labs!
Happily the Sound Lab high voltage bias source only needs a few watts power. Otherwise you could damage your power board!
Never listened (or even looked) at the MA-3, but if I scale the sound difference between the MA-1 and MA- 2 to the MA2 - MA3 it should sound divine in Sound Labs!
Guess the new SL are better because remember the old models clipping 700 wpc Melos amps!
The new PX models have increased efficiency headroom compared to older versions, but they will clip in the very low bass at very high powers - they are no box speakers with big woofers. For me they play loud enough to listen to Shostakovitch symphonies with the VTL750's, no problem!
While for anyone that would purchase, acquiring the necessary tubes is unlikely to be a problem but how easy (or not) is it to bias them and how long those last? That's a lot of tubes, what's the BTU rating? AC with such an amp cannot be approached casually...
Anyone who says that tube stereo gear isn’t a pain in the ass to own has never owned tube gear. As the number of output tubes increases, the pain in the ass factor increases exponentially. The most reliable tube amp I ever owned was my ARC D-76. One pair of GE 6550s per channel with bias ‘easy’ to set by using a DVM with a ¼ phone jack and care exercised not to burn your fingers as you plugged in the jack between the hot output tubes. Once you start doubling the amount of output tubes, reliability doesn’t increase I can assure you.
Tube preamps are another joy unto themselves. You are always fighting noise and microphonics. Quiet today and noisy tomorrow is the mantra or nightmare of tube preamps.
Tube preamps are another joy unto themselves. You are always fighting noise and microphonics. Quiet today and noisy tomorrow is the mantra or nightmare of tube preamps.
Frantz,
The 6AS7 tube is very cheap and reliable. Modern Atmasphere amps are auto-bias. From my experience with the MA2 (half the tubes of the MA3) you just have to replace them after 5000 hours. 84 6AS7 tubes will costs less than 16 KT120 and last twice longer. At around 1600W operating power each amplifier (I am assuming the double of the MA2) it should not be a problem for many audiophiles having 10-20 kVA power systems ...
BTW, the series of 1 1/2" holes at the side front of my room are not mouse holes - they were dimensioned for the speaker, balanced and power cables of the MA2's, that stayed in an adjacent garage.
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