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The_Lecht_Rocks
I was looking for something completely different in my drafts and stumbled across this which I wrote ages ago and thought it might be useful as it was my thoughts at the time .... I think someone DM'd me asking what I thought about the Atoll and it was the reply I sent.
The only one thing I'd possibly change the comment about now is the width of Soundstage, I'm not totally convinced now it's due to being dual mono as when I tried a Chord Qutest (albeit 6 months later so not an immediate comparison but it stood out enough) - it did the exact same thing with the Soundstage so may have more to do with the DAC onboard the Atoll.
I managed to get one on a home demo and I have to say overall I think it's a brilliant amp and as there's so little information on them out there thought I'd do an amateurs review in case other people are trying to find out more about them.
My motivation, I have an Arcam SA30 and whilst I appreciate no system performs well at really low volumes, as that’s the level of a lot of my listening, wanted to see if I could better the SA30’s ability.
To the IN300 vs the Arcam I was using an amp switch and 2 X's WiiM Pros in a multiroom config with coax out from each using the amps onboard Dacs feeding a pair of ProAc D20R's.
I used my ears to set various different listening levels from quiet to loud so I could easily adjust from one to another and then went back over them with a test tone and decibel app on my tablet and adjusted if needed.
Firstly just to cover this it didn't actually improve the low level listening at all, if anything I wonder if the Arcam would possibly come out on top BUT any difference would be so minimal and potentially down to other factors which I'll try and cover below.
I'll also highlight my "correct wording" may not be the best, whilst I've been a musician from a young age and have always had "reasonable" quality systems it was only about 1 1/2 yrs ago I became what I'd call an audio enthusiast (partially because I hate the term audiophile) ..... combined with me wanting a great system is to enjoy the music at it's best rather than being obsessed with the equipment ... although the two tend to go hand in hand to a degree.
Whilst I've always had a good ear and my own words to describe, I had to google the meaning of common terminology such as soundstage and imaging so I could use the right words with what I was trying to say and others would understand ... taking that into consideration I'll try and describe as best I can.
The very 1st thing I noticed was how “tight” absolutely everything was, if I was to take just the bass as an example, the Arcam would appear to have greater bass weight on 1st impressions but you very quickly realise it’s not that the Atoll has less but it’s just more controlled and exact and this follows through to the mids / vocals and highs as well.
This may be where I say the Arcam possibly “appeared” to sound better at low volume as there’s bleed / overlap from the mid bass to the vocals which at very low volumes possibly seemed to create a “fuller” overall sound but the Atoll gave greater individual imaging at these levels.
As you increase the volume you start to really hear the “richness” and warmth / body of every note the Atoll has to offer, if I’d ever read some using those words as descriptives, I’d immediately think it sounded muddy but this couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s a tone you just become memorised by but with absolutely no loss of separation / detail … it’s like a big hug of musicality that’s hard to describe and as you got up to considerably higher volumes I hate to way it but it’s where it left the Arcam in it’s wake.
The 2nd thing you notice is how much wider the soundstage is, not that I’ve ever heard a pair of mono blocks before but from everything I’ve read and youtube reviews I’ve seen is a specific characteristic they have with very strong separation between the left / right and detail of each channel and certainly the Atoll with it’s twin power supplies did exactly that.
Now for my room …. This didn’t work quite so well for me as unfortunately it’s a family room so others have to be taken into consideration and my speakers are incredibly wide apart, I’ve spent ages toeing them to suit the Arcam, if I had a longer trial I’d have changed the toe in / out and I’m sure this would have resolved it, even better would be the option to place them closer together, as the 300 has more detail I also wonder of this may have resolved the lower listening aspect as well
Had my neighbour who’s a much greater audio buff than me, his equipment is Meridian amp / CD and speakers that I believe What HiFi used as their benchmark for many, many years (he commented on putting the speakers closer together and I said the wife won’t be able to see the TV …. His response was …. AND??
🤣🤣
I think in an overall comparison, it has made me realise that the Arcam was an incredible amp at it’s price point but I can’t help but feel they did themselves an injustice (shot themselves in the foot) by not being all over the software issues much sooner.
Even taking that into consideration I can’t help but feel if I was in a demo room and A / B ’d them, despite the price difference would have felt it was a one horse race and gone home with the Atoll as the richness and warmth without any muddiness and is hard to describe, just draws you in.
Before choosing amps to put up against the Arcam I spent ages researching, more in forums than reviews several amps around the same price point / more and there seemed to be “great” comments mixed with negatives that characterised so many of the main brands that made me steer clear ….
Naim … seems to be the marmite, people love or hate but a lot of comments about being too bright
Hegel … generally popular but a lot of comments about being dry
Rega … probably the only other I was really tempted to try, seems a lot of love for their musicality and a big fanbase, a lot of them maybe vinyl bias but comments about too revealing of bad recordings and don’t match with “bright” speakers tended to put me off.
Anybody out and auditioning amps in this price bracket, I’d highly recommend you put this very high on the audition list as I think you’ll find it hard to beat without spending considerably more
Hopefully that's pf some help to you.
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