Atoll AM200 Power Amp, $2200, 120×2

Atoll power amplifiers are simply remarkable. They mate big power with class busting warmth. Whether you’re a fan of Tchaikovsky or Led Zeppelin, there’s an Atoll power amp with your name on it.

Despite being in the audio biz since the early 70s, I’ve never seen this stellar combination of talents at these price points. It’s due to Atoll’s efficient design & build structure. There’s nothing like it in our biz. Atoll uses the same chassis and array of buttons/jacks/posts, for all its amps. As you go up the totem pole you’re getting more IN the box, instead of useless gingerbread.

We’ve had many a customer who was dying for a Bryston or Mac power amp who landed on Atoll due to price. To a man they’ve come back with smiles and thanks.

While all three Atoll power amps are magnificent, AM200 is the model that hits the sweet spot for most buyers. It sounds heavier and more impactful than AM100 ($1500, 100×2). To beat it, you have to almost double the price to AM300 ($3900, 150×2).

Wattage doesn’t begin to tell the story with Atoll. Build quality does. Like Bryston, Atoll power amps are dual mono designs. They are based around twin transformers & a generous allotment of power supply caps. They run 15-20% class A to provide mellow sound. You can read about the nuts and bolts at Dave’s faves. Let me wax on about THE SOUND here.

The first thing you notice about all Atoll integrateds and power amps is that they aren’t harsh. Given the generous power supplies and MATCHED MOSFET output transistors, the Atolls sound muscular and smooth.

I mentioned Tchaikovsky above because his Symphony #6, movement #4, has the most beautiful massed strings ever written. If you run your speakers with an Atoll amp you’ll hear warmth you didn’t know your speakers were capable of. The Chinese competitors sound grainy and irritating in comparison. If you love singers and acoustic instruments, Atoll stands out from its similarly priced competitors. Competitors like Bryston & Mac run triple the price.

AM200 runs eight of its output transistors, four per side. AM100 runs half that count. Consider AM200 an eight cylinder muscle car, while AM100 is a high performing four cylinder alternative. Maybe four will be enough. But AM200 isn’t prohibitively more to deliver a bigger dynamic kick and higher horse power.

Atoll impressed me right out of the batter’s box. When we got them in I wanted to see if AM100 could drive the hungry Maggies well. Happily, AM100 had no trouble producing the volume I was looking for. More importantly, AM100 delivered markedly deeper bass with the Pans than the NADs we’ve respected for years. After AM100 convinced me with its power, I decided to face the music- literally. Would Atoll, at its reasonable price points, be quiet enough for high SPL speakers like Klipsch?

I ran AM100 into the Cornwalls. The result was a synergy.

First, AM100 was quiet into the 102dB Cornwalls, which is quite the accomplishment. Almost every reasonably priced amp running speakers of high SPL will be spraying hiss all over your room. You can try to ignore it if you’re into kidding yourself. I’m not pretending. Being quiet into Cornwalls is a great start.

Next, the Cornwalls go down to about 35Hz. You might be tempted to run them with a low powered sissy amp, because they’re so efficient. But if you do that you’ll have little bass. Cornwalls are capable of much more. AM100 allowed Cornwalls to deliver substantial bass. And it did so with a warm top end. Hence my comment about a synergy.

I moved up to AM200. While AM200 is only 20×2 more power than AM100, the sonic improvement is impressive. The filter cap and output transistor count of AM200 is roughly double that of its little brother. The improvement in driving revealing and powerful speakers like Cornwalls easily justifies the extra money. AM200 didn’t just play solid bass- it had the testosterone to throw medicine balls around the room. The top end had the same smooth character as AM100, but did so with superior attack and transient response.

It would be fair to say, if you never heard AM200, you would be thrilled with AM100 at $1500. If 15 bills is your price range I can’t encourage AM100 strongly enough. However, if the extra 7 bills isn’t a problem, whether with demanding speakers like Pans or highly sensitive speakers like Ks, the AM200 is worth the modest extra investment.

Before picking up Atoll, over the years we’ve sold some good mid priced amps from NAD and Emotiva. Yet Atoll’s refinement and much superior bass response puts it on another plateau. The bass is more robust and has stronger impact. More importantly to me is that Atoll has a smooth middle and top end that leaves SMPS designs sounding thin & grainy.

Atoll amps have a clean face of black or silver. There is a master on/off switch on the rear, yet typical power activation is via a trigger cable from your preamp or receiver.

To summarize, the only way Atoll can hit these modest price points is to build with its formulaic architecture. Their construction process is so smart and well thought out that I now have to ask, why hasn’t anyone come up with this formula before? There’s nothing else quite like it in our rewarding musical hobby.