Air Tight ATM-211 Monoblock Amplifiers
by Josh Ray, Dec 27 '05
What's up with Japan? They're gunning to take over the ultra-expensive esoteric tube amplification market. Shindo, Zanden and Wavac have gotten a lot of press recently and here's Air Tight getting some love from PFO:
Don't be fooled by the 22-watt power rating. Dynamics were excellent into moderately sensitive speakers. If you're used to high-powered tube amps, you'll probably find the ATM-211s are up to the mark. And they'll sweeten the ante with a taste of the magic only SET devices afford.
$13k a pair, the Air Tight ATM-211 monobocks also receive a lot of praise for their looks. Zanden is all about mirrored chrome, Wavac is into industrial gold, Shindo is all about, um, forest green and Air Tight goes with industrial black on black worthy of Darth himself. Check out the PFO review for a lot more details and pics. Also check out Marshall Nack's great comparison of four expensive micro-powered tube amps.
Air Tight ATM-211 Amplifier Review [PFO]
Axiss [US Distributor with sparse info]
Does anyone know if there's is a solid state integrated amp with a DAC and USB input? I want to turn my laptop into an audiophile player but I'm not exactly sure how which way to go.
Posted by: Tom Atto at December 27, 2005 6:58 PM
That's the question of the century. Currently, there really aren't any full audiophile complete USB packages other than the Dared mentioned today.
What you need to get is a USB transport like the Red Wine or Empirical models (search for them). Both are killer sounding and priced around $500. Then there is the Wavelength Brick at around $1200 that includes a DAC. With the Red Wine and Empirical models you need to add a DAC as well.
You can also go with the Squeezebox if you're have a wifi connection. The Red Wine mod of the Squeezebox is said to sound awesome. You just plug the RCA into an int-amp and you're good to go.
For a great little desk system try the Apogee Mini-DAC (I believe that's what it's called) priced around $1000 with some powered PMC monitors. The Apogee includes built-in volume control and the PMCs have Flying Mole amplification -- killer combo.
Otherwise, I'll have a couple preview items tomorrow with exactly what you're looking for. Sadly, there's very little USB gear in the high-end market but expect some interesting products to land at CES.
Posted by: Josh Ray [SonicFlare] at December 27, 2005 9:37 PM
Thanks for your reply and suggestions.
I Have one more question. Does the computer itself affect the sound quality or is it just dependent on the external DAC? Let's say I were using the Brick with my current laptop and then decided to get a new computer, would I get a different sound with the new setup?
Posted by: Tom Atto at December 28, 2005 2:35 PM
Computer hardware doesn't really vary in sound quality but the compression format does. Rip everything on Apple Lossless, Windows Lossless or FLAC but not on MP3, ACC, etc.
You will get a few pauses here and there because of the hard drive loading. If you get a new computer, ones with multiple RAID drives alleviate this problem but, really, it doesn't affect sound quality so much as just a little pause every now and then.
Interestingly, computer audio as a whole does have a distinct sound different than, say, a CD player. In fact, there's a lot of discussion that computers are inherently better than CD players. Here's an interesting article:
http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/computer-audio-takes-aim-at-cds.php
Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions.
Posted by: Josh Ray [SonicFlare] at December 28, 2005 4:21 PM
That was very informative. Thanks again.
Posted by: Tom Atto at December 29, 2005 12:51 AM
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