How’d you like an incredible, affordable system with exquisite definition for singers and acoustic instruments? Human voices, after all, are the most unique of all acoustic instruments. Let’s hear them with the utmost of CHARACTER and articulation.

Further, this system also delivers a good amount of bass with no sludge to obfuscate the chops of great drummers, bass or piano players. Just because the speakers aren’t big doesn’t mean they don’t have bass. They just don’t have murky bass.

Atoll IN50, $1350 (50×2)

The Atoll IN50 is absolutely NOT your average bear. IN50 is built by Atoll in its own house in France. It uses a large toroidal transformer, big filter caps and an array of MATCHED MOSFET transistors. Atoll has a 3 year warranty.

IN50 sounds more rich, warm and WEIGHTY- than any of the Chinese box of chips at anywhere near this money. The guys from the far east want to include streaming, Bluetooth, phono, a DAC and HDMI at a cheap price point. How do they do it? They start with a flimsy transformer, caps the size of thimbles and a pile of chips that cost pennies each to do the other tasks.

Atoll delivers great sound the old fashioned way.

*The big toroidal transformer gives the music UMPHHH it simply can’t get with a tiny transformer.

The toroidal T-former harnesses the magnetic field within the transformer instead of whizzing RFI all over the board – to make your sound more hazy.

*Sizable filter caps make the power supply stout. It can support real bass so a drum kit has kick. It’s like a car with good acceleration vs a wimpy engine with no jump.

*MATCHED MOSFET output transistors provide a warm vs tizzy sound. Think of output transistors like tuning forks tuned to middle C. You need at least four to play music.

Plus/minus- left. Plus/minus right.

In manufacturing no two transistors (in this analogy, tuning forks) are exactly the same. Hence if you play any random four out of the box you’ll hear the distortion, or ringing of the differences among them.

Atoll takes the time to MATCH transistors so what you’ll get in your Atoll amp won’t exhibit this harsh edge endemic to mismatched transistors.

You have to spend a lot more money than Atoll to find someone else who will go to this expense for you.

Atohm Sirocco 1.24 Speakers, $2750 Per Pair

These Atohm stand mounts are made in France, as is Atoll. The companies aren’t related, but they are friends and routinely use each other’s gear at trade shows and in R&D evaluation. Atohm has a 7 year warranty.

The 1.24s have sparkling detail. They sound as clean as expensive pans or stats- and cast an impressively large sound-stage while doing so. We’ve sold 1.24s to customers who have monster speakers in their big rig- and need something smaller for a den or office.

They always come back to tell us the Atohms are actually more clear on voices, guitars, etc. And they end up listening to THAT music on the Atohms instead of the big guns- which of course, pound rock n roll harder.

Atohm makes its own drivers. They make them to the highest standard in our biz- within .25dB from the reference point. That means the speakers you get at your house will have precise driver matching. Your music will sound clear and in FOCUS, vs being cloudy.

Many audiophiles have guns a blazing in the living room- but she won’t ever let you use it. You’ll take over “her” house. She prefers TV and is on the phone half the day.

Please consider this smaller system that is in most ways actually better than your $$$$ system in the big room down the hall.

Sources

I’d luv you to round out this system with a great Atoll CD player. It’s my favorite source!

But add a streamer, turntable or whatever else floats your boat. You’ve got great heart and soul to work with here.