Atma-sphere S-30 with Reference 3A?

Marty, thanks for posting your observation. I would guess that the gentle, fairly broad increase in energy in the 2 kHz region psychoacoustically more than offsets the fairly narrowband increase in energy in the upper bass region. I hadn't thought of that.

Duke

If Sean wanted to stick with Atma-sphere would a Speltz transformer to raise the impedance be adviseable, or the S-30 just less than ideal for the DeCapo?

07-29-08: Pubul57
If Sean wanted to stick with Atma-sphere would a Speltz transformer to raise the impedance be adviseable?

Raising the impedance will also reduce the amplifier's power output, which may be a concern with a 30wpc amp.

I've never used the Speltz autoformers and can't speak to their effect on output power with impedance changes.

However the previous statement "Raising the impedance will also reduce the amplifier's power output" is incorrect with Atma-Sphere amps.

In fact just the opposite is true. The S-30 outputs 45WPC into a 16 ohm load and 60WPC into a 30 ohm load.

Looks like I really screwed up that one. Good that Audiofeil corrected my mistake.

As he said earlier, though, if the 3A's impedance curve isn't flat, the Atma is likely not the best choice.