I tear open every issue excited to read about new gear. Almost every month my interest is quickly deflated because all they want to write about are things I don’t care about.

They love to write about speakers and amps that “nobody” can afford. OR, they are impressed with some streaming box of chips from China, made by some outfit that primarily makes cable TV boxes

This month, I have to give the boys credit! On p 134 is a review of an Atoll preamp and power amp that is downright pedestrian pricing by their standards. The preamp is $7000 and the amp is $4200.

The writer actually does capture the ethos of these pieces very well. I’ll let you read the fine print. But basically, he says the performance is fabulous for the money. He has the ubiquitous qualifier at the end, saying that price no object electronics might be a whisker better. The truth is, once you’re at this level, unless you have state of the art speakers for $50k on up, the electronics are so close in performance that you wouldn’t be sure which is which. $100k vs $11k. The $100k would certainly LOOK more like jewelry anyway.

I’d make one additional comment for this review. The writer wrote about the new PR400 preamp, $7k. It’s super, for sure.

Yet I need to point out that Atoll also makes the PR300 preamp, which sells for $3800. The fact is, PR300 is an absolute giant killer! You could run PR300 instead of PR400 with any speakers under $20k per pair and not hear the difference. The subtle advantages the PR400 has can only be unlocked by tip of the spear speakers running $20k on up.

If I was setting up the audition, I would have sent PR300 and AM300, so he could review the incredible COMBO for only $8k. THAT… is very much the point of diminishing returns.