Atma-Sphere MA-1 amps

I agree completely with Sbank's description of the Atma-Sphere amps. With reasonable care matching speakers, the MA-1 amps are magic.

Jimjoyce25, I own Atma-Sphere MA-2 amps that were very early production MkII amps (mid-90's production). I sent them to Ralph to be updated to MkIII status with the new regulated power supply, new power supply filter capacitors, re-wiring of the output tubes, and a few other changes to bring them to current specifications. The updates should be similar to the update that would apply to your MA-1s. The result of the upgrade was absolutely astonishing in all parameters. Overall resolution improved, tonal purity improved, distortion lowered, bass impact increased materially, and there was a greater sense of "ease" across the spectrum coupled with greater dynamics. My wife and I were extremely pleased with the update; a very very significant upgrade in sound for an amp that we were already extremely pleased with. If you can afford the updates, I recommend you go for it.
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The MA-1s are teh best amps I have heard in my system. I did listen to many amps for a time. The next closest amplifier I have heard was the Pass Labs Aleph3. In may ways they share a lot in common - very highly resolving, musical without artifical euphony. Compared to the Pass, the MA-1s have a more natural midrange. I did get a couple upgrades. There were some resistors that were added to the output tubes on all new production amps that weren't in mine. I also had them make the Caddock Resistor upgrade at the same time. The result was the removal of a bit of midrange harshness that i had been aware of before the upgrade in cpomparison to the Pass, which was gone after the upgrade. They work well with my Talon Hawks without autoformers, even though the Hawks are nominally 6ohm speakers. The S30 with autoformer and M60swithout autoformer didn't do well on these speakers at all. The M60s with autoformers were OK, but not great.
Also don't overlook the physical beauty o fhte MA1s. They look stunning with their polished stainless chassis, and rows of big 6AS7G tubes. The tubes are especially nice with their finned anode plates. If only the filamnets could glow white instead of orange. Oh, well. Oh, and you cna change the color of the indicator lights on the front panel with different lenses you can buy from Fender guitar amp dealers (Musicianh's friend)

Interesting. Some questions for the newer owners:

1. Can you adjust the bias yourself? Or is it pre-set at the factory and does not provide for manual adjustment? (Mine have a manual bias adjustment. The sound improves significantly as you push the bias toward the recommended setting, but tubes blow more frequently at that point.)

2. Is there a built-in bias-meter? Does the bias remain steady? I have a digital multi-meter to measure bias, and there is a fair amount of variation in the bias reading before it eventually settles down.

3. How frequently do tubes blow? Is there a simple way to tell which ones have blown? (My eyes are no longer good enough to see the very thin wires in the tubes that indicate whether they are good or not.)

4. Do you use upgraded power cables? Was there a material difference when you first installed them? In what respects?

5. How much of a warm-up does it take to bring the tubes to the prime listening point? I found that it took 24-48 hours to get to that point, so I eventually would leave the amps on for days at a time. Sound was improved, heat was not good, tube life was not good.

I think you should talk with Ralph directly; you will get straight answers and he will not jam his gear down your throat; you will also gain a perspective of his goals and objectives that he is trying to acheive thru his designs;I have had this experience directly;well worth the call.

Rleff offers good advice about calling Ralph. He's easy to talk with and will give you straight answers. But, just so there's some response in the thread to your questions...

1. The newest production amps (MkIII) have an automatic self-biasing circuit for the output tubes, so manual bias adjustment is no longer required.

2. A meter is still on the amp, but is now used just for DC offset adjustment, not bias adjustment since that is now automated. (With the manual bias adjustment which I retained on my MA2s, the bias remains dead steady once the tubes have settled in. I check it once a month or so since it's easy to do with the built in meter, but I rarely have to make any adjustment. With the automatic bias adjustment now in the current production amps, this is not an issue.)

3. Changes to the wiring of the output tubes have reduced stress on the tubes making it less likely that a tube will blow it's fuse. (For those not familiar, the AS7G has a built in fuse that simply breaks in lieu of any spectacular display or sound. Thus the need to visually examine the tube for that "small wire" to which Jimjoyce refers.) Ralph continues to recommend a 48 hour burn-in on stand-by of the output tubes for longest life.

It's been three years since I've replaced an output tube, and the majority of my output tubes have been running for more than seven years. One still has to inspect them visually to find a failed tube. I've started using a large magnifying glass to take a look.

4. I use an upgraded power cord, but still find the stock Belkin cords to work pretty well. With the Silent Source power cords I use, I hear more solidity in the bass and a bit cleaner sound through the midrange. But, it's fairly subtle and I could live with the stock cords.

5. With the MA-2 MkIII amps, warm-up is finished in about 45 minutes, about the time it takes for my cartridge to start sounding it's best. I always shut the amps down when I'm finished listening for the evening (and I place them in stand-by when I make an interim stop of 15 minutes or more).