Cary 805s or Atma Sphere M60s?

I think of the Joule warmth can be attributed to their very fine, but warm sounding preamp, did the same (added warmth and color) thing when I paired it with the M60s - a signature sound many love, but hey, I like passive preamps, so not the way for me. Hard to say if one will prefer the 805s or the Atma-sphere, different approaches that will appeal to different types of listeners.

Pubul57 I listened to the Joule with a Cat SL1 pre-amp. My impressions were the same as Honest1, very rich to the point of euphonic but not at all in a negative way. I really loved the upper frequency extension and air presented by the Joule. There seem to be variations in the presentation of the different OTL's. Maybe the output tube along with circuit design is contributing to the differences in sound as the Tenor and Joule use the same output tube. My guess is, although I wouldn't put money on it as I only heard the Tenor once in an unfamiliar system, the Joule and Tenor are probably quite similar and the Atma-sphere might be a bit leaner by comparison, just a hunch.

Honest1,
You`re correct, that why I limited my impressions to the Atmasphere(M-60 and MA-1) as I`m not familiar with the Joule or the Tenor OTL sound.

Pubul57 neatly sums it up, it will just come down to individual preferences.

I think most would agree, the Atma-sphere is generally leaner by comparison to the Joule, or the Joule is plumper, depending on your perspective - I guess that Ying/Yang thing - my ears lean towards a preference of the Atma-sphere soundscape, I also expect that impressions and preferences between the two will vary based on the speakers being used with the respective amps.

I picked up an S30 listed here on Audiogon. I chickened out and kept my 805AE instead of selling to fund an expensive pair of Atmasphere monos. I have a small listening room, and my listening is mostly direct energy from my speakers. My listening triangle is a bit less than seven feet in all directions. I have to say that little S30 is phenomenal! Sound stage is very large, airy, detailed, with precision and three dimensional life size presentation; plus the amp is only a model 2 version, that was well taken care of. Russian power tubes, however a mix of vintage 6SN7 drivers....nothing fancy. I am a believer in the OTL amplifier. In comparison to my humble system, I can't imagine what the rest of you folks enjoy with you wonderfully elaborate systems. By the way, you all may cringe at this, but I am completely Anti-cable equipped including XLR interconnects, speaker cables and autoformers. I am impressed. These new cables have satisfactorily replaced my Nordost Red Dawns and Audio Zen interconnects. Comments?