Let’s build a system with stunningly exquisite resolution and dynamics- that will also deliver the tight and IMPACTFUL bass of acoustic instruments.

The detail of guitar, piano and voices will be right there with some of the most expensive gear on the market. You’ll have bass impact and volume capability that will please all but the most bangadelic listeners.

All the gear is from France- NOT CHINA. And the prices are affordable.

Atoll CD-80 CD Player, $1975

I’m starting with my favorite source- a great CD player. You start with a digital file in your hand, a CD, drop it in and hit play. More on this in a minute.

The Atoll has ten power supplies, big filter caps and is voiced with Burr Brown DACs and a symmetrically designed discrete line stage. The Atoll also has digital INPUTS. You can run other sources into the disc player and take advantage of the sound of the Atoll DAC/LINE STAGE for your streamer, TV etc.

Most of you have only heard garden variety Sony and Denon level CD players. They sound thin instead of warm. That’s because they’re boxes comprised of flimsy power supplies and a pile of chips. Atoll makes no such compromises. Atoll muscles up on important components and will yield a big, rich sound.

Building as Atoll does makes all the difference. CDs can sound a lot better than you’ve heard. Many an audiophile has a kilo-buck system with a cheapy Chinese CD player- and wonders why his CDs sound thin. They don’t have to!

Back to the CD, that digital file in your hand… When you drop it in an Atoll and hit play, you’re playing it in a local, CLOSED system. It’s the best way to get the cleanest sound because there is no outside world interference.

When you listen to music through a streamer, that same file is on a public computer half way around the globe. It has to be stored- and then transmitted to you. It is transmitted through zillions of miles of wire, connectors, amps, buffers and a partridge in a pear tree. That transmission costs you performance. Now, I’m fine streaming. We all do it. But for the music you really love and will listen to over and over… I gotta have CDs. By the way, if you just wanna buy an entry level Wiim streamer, you can improve the sound A LOT by running it digital into your CD-80 and unlocking more treasures in the process.

Let’s go a little deeper. For you vinyl fans- you realize vinyl isn’t synonymous with analog- right?! Almost all LPs are cut from the same digital file that you get on a CD. Recognizing that this is the case, please just play the CD.

When the file is transmitted across the world, you lose quality. When the file goes through a hundred steps to become vinyl, you lose fidelity and add noise. Even the BEST LPs in the world, the Mo-Fi One Steps, are pressed from digital files!

Atoll IN80, $1950 (80×2)

The Atoll IN80 is one of the best amplifier values in our business! It starts with Atoll’s massive 340VA toroidal transformer. Toroids harness the magnetic field within the shielded steel enclosure instead of spraying RFI around the chassis. Atoll designed this transformer. It is build in Spain to spec for them. This is not an off the shelf part that “the other guys” can buy and plug into their gear.

Atoll uses big filter caps and an array of MATCHED MOSFET transistors. Atoll has a 3 year warranty.

IN80 sounds more full and DYNAMIC- 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 Ecore 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. Yup, the tuning forks are grouped into like ranges and used together.

You have to spend a lot more money than Atoll to find someone else who will go to this expense for you. IN80 is a prodigious performer- wielding a big bass and kick to your music- along with the smoothness garnered from its output transistor configuration.

Atohm Sirocco 2.24 Speakers, $4250 Per Pair

These Atohm towers 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 2.24s have sparkling detail. They sound as clean as expensive pans or stats- and cast an impressively large sound-stage while doing so. It’s uncanny to hear a system with 2.24’s creating such a massive image because you SEE only two diminutive towers.

Every designer has to decide, how much bass do I produce? You need enough to make the music sound realistic, but not so much as to make it boomy and obfuscate detail. Sirocco 2.24 reflects the astute judgment of designer Thierry Comte. He creates enough impact to impress almost everybody- while never smearing the music.

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.

You’ll be thrilled with the large image and fulsome sound of these speakers in your listening room. I promise (!) that your wife will like them more than huge thunder boomers that don’t sound nearly as clear. It’s a win win situation.