Atoll absolutely steps away from its similarly priced competition in construction quality. These improvements are choices Atoll makes to attain superior sound and reliability.

Virtually all competitors in Atoll’s price range are pumped out of job houses in China. They don’t use the same level of parts or clean, efficient layout. These Chinese built products don’t sound as good or last as long.

Let’s look at a few specifics of how/why Atoll is better from the inside out.

Atoll Transformers

Atoll transformers are custom built for them in Spain. They are toroidal, using a specific inside shielding and impregnation technique that makes them more quiet than traditional toroids- which are cleaner/quieter than E core designs.

Atoll Power Supply Capacitors

Atoll power supply caps are custom built for them in Japan. Atoll helped design these caps. They feature an exceedingly low ESR of .03 ohms. Atoll went with these caps after blind listening comparisons, without concern of cost. The custom design yields cleaner and more solid sonic results.

Atoll PCB Layout

When you look at Atoll printed circuit boards, you’ll see no spaghetti. They design the boards with through hole components instead of surface mount parts or ICs.

If you open up the other guys, transformers are often so small that it’s hard to recognize them. Filter caps are similarly tiny and ineffective. Further, the other guys build a plethora of boards at stations. Then these boards have to be linked together. You’ll see ribbon wiring and dental floss sized wire doing this work from the Chinese.

Some companies brag about point to point wiring. They run wires all over the inside of the product- which act as antennae, attracting RFI and noise. There is also the challenge of hundreds of hand soldered junctions which you cannot rely on with job house built products from China.

One day they’re making a brand you’ve heard of. The next day they’re making cable TV boxes or circuit boards for appliances. Atoll builds its PCBs from scratch in its own house in France with a higher level of manufacturing, which I’ll describe below.

Atoll chooses parts specifically for sonic merit. Atoll is very proud of its extensive blind listening sessions. Atoll has chosen its parts based listening comparisons, not just price.

EING Over HAL PCBs

Literally all the brand names in Atoll’s price range run HAL (Hot Air Leveling) PCB construction. HAL uses a tin bath which makes uniform surface thickness impossible.

Atoll uses EING (Immersion Gold) technology of its PCBs. Atoll accomplishes uniform thickness of traces with gold/nickel construction. The component interface is superior and sounds better due to this thicker, more consistent process. You can see the difference in the graphic below. Immersion Gold costs more but yields better sonic results and longer life span.

Atoll Matches MOSFET Output Transistors

Atoll has devised its own test procedure to measure the “fingerprints” of every output transistor that comes through their doors. These MOSFET transistors are then used with others of matching fingerprints. The result of MATCHING is that the sound is smoother and more musical than using unmatched transistors.

In mass production the other guys run transistors with mismatched fingerprints, which yields a more grainy, electronic sound. Atoll takes much time, effort and expense to provide you this level of

musical warmth by matching its transistors. The other guys just pull transistors out of boxes and plug them in. This is another reason Atoll sounds more immediate and smoother than mass oriented brands.