Atoll IN200 Integrated Amp $2800 (120×2)

(3.75h, 17.32w, 12d, 25 lbs)

Made in France!

Priced as Line Stage With Remote, 3 Year Warranty

Optional Boards Available: Phono MM $130, DAC $320, DAC/Bluetooth $500

Atoll’s IN200 is simply an astonishingly fine accomplishment! It does so much, so well, at such a fair price, built with TLC in France, that it deserves a ROSETTE.

Some of you will remember the Penguin Guide, classical music’s reference rating guide. They would discuss many recordings of a given work, say Beethoven’s Waldstein piano sonata. They would ruminate over the pros and cons of various performances and rate them with stars. If a recording absolutely blew them away, they would award a rosette. I am unabashedly stealing their idea and awarding the magnificent IN200 Sig a rosette! Their Waldstein rosette went to Richard Goode, by the way.

IN200 can only be THIS GOOD because of Atoll’s formulaic design. They use a basic platform on which to build its family of integrated amps. Many models share the same chassis, face plate, buttons, jacks and binding post array. Using this efficient architecture allows them to spend more, and wisely, on the internal components than trying to reinvent the wheel from the ground up with each and every model.

With IN200, Atoll hits the sweet spot of parts/performance, to win my rosette for best bang for the buck integrated amp value on the market!

I say this for a plethora of reasons.

First of all, IN200 delivers a big GRIP to control the bottom end of your speakers. Listener after listener who has heard it agrees that the muscle of this model derives bass and dynamics from challenging speakers like Maggies & Big Boy Brystons, that defies what they expected.

Next, IN200 purveys a large image with robust vocal character. Whether you’re listening to a great singer or beautiful cello work, you’ll be impressed by the warmth and weight of the sound.

To put this in perspective… if you hear a dynamite preamp/amp combo from Bryston or a company of that ilk, you know they’re gonna be great. Bryston’s BR20 and 3BCubed amp run almost $13k. They’re GREAT, and should be. No surprise. The bass and clarity Bryston will draw from your speakers will make your eyes widen with awe. We have many customers who have purchased Bryston who say, they had no idea their speakers were capable of so much MORE.

Well, Atoll’s IN200 isn’t as good as the Bryston stack, or its bigger brother IN300, but it IS competitive-and at a fraction of the price built with TLC in France- not sourced from a job house in China. Further, you can add Atoll’s marvelous DAC or phono boards to make IN200 Sig as full featured as you care to.

In200 is a big step above its next brother, IN100. If you’re really parsing the nuts and bolts differences in the family, IN200 offers THE GOODS to take it a higher echelon of performance. IN200 is closer in sound to IN300, than its little brother, IN 100.

Musically, IN200 is more robust, HEAVY and smoother than IN100. My biggest surprise in running IN200 through a wide array of speakers is how much more bunyanesque it is at delivering bass weight, and impact.

Here’s a great example of that. Most stand mount speakers are sissies. They don’t really have any DEEP bass. Some however, specifically Brystons, are capable of shocking you with what’s down there. If you run IN200 with Atohm GT 1.0, Bryston’s Mini A, or Mini T, you won’t believe the bass you’ll hear coming from these stand mounts! You’ll swear there’s a subwoofer hidden somewhere.

Of course this happens with towers too. But it is especially furtive with stand mounts. If your system has to use stand mounts but you’d really prefer tower bass- don’t get divorced over a tower. Sneak an IN200 into the equation.

Now for the HOW they do it fun…

IN200 uses a pair of 340VA transformers, as IN100 does.

Where IN200 exceeds the 100- starts with custom built Atoll power supply caps. IN200 runs eight, 6800uF, metal case, built in Japan, low ESR caps. So not only does IN200 have double the supply caps of IN100- these particular caps are from Atoll’s custom built stash with better build and faster refresh rates.

IN200 features double the array of MATCHED MOSFET output transistors. Hence you get four per channel instead of two per channel. It is imperative that output transistors are scrupulously matched so you don’t incur distortion. Virtually everyone else buys transistors from a vendor and uses them all, incurring distortion/harshness due to component to component variation. Again, Atoll takes the time, expense and toil to hand match its transistors IN HOUSE so you won’t suffer the edgy sound that is typical of affordable electronics.

IN200 is the first integrated to use SHIELDED, MKP Mundorf capacitors. Most companies place whatever parts they’re using on the PCB and call it a day. With IN200 Atoll chooses to shield its Mundorf caps in its own mu metal box, to provide complete isolation from the rest of the parts on the PCB.

The Alps volume control on IN200 uses two attenuators instead of one. It makes the channel tracking a skosh more precise. IN200 also has the ability to adjust balance.

As you’ll see line wide with Atoll, a modest step up in price buys you a good chunk more of hardware. If you can swing $2800, IN200 will have appreciably stronger bass and bigger dynamics than its smaller brothers. The voice of humans and instruments will be larger and a bit more forward, sounding more realistic and making you feel you’ve taken the grill cloths off your speakers. It’s remarkable that IN200 sounds more muscular and warm than the Hegel H190v, which is cooler and leaner, and for much less money.

With Atoll, you always get a nice return on your extra investment.

DAC Boards

I want to add a word or two about the optional Atoll DAC boards.

DA100 ($320) offers two Coax and two OPT inputs

DA200 ($500) offers two Coax, two OPTs, a USB-B input and Bluetooth.

These DAC boards are OUTSTANDING! If you’re running any source with a digital out, most specifically a Bluesound Node, you’ll love the improved RESOLUTION an Atoll DAC will provide.

The reason these boards are so inexpensive is, Atoll has already covered the important foundation of a robust and adroit power supply. Assuming you don’t need a USB input or Bluetooth option, treat yourself to a DA100 with any Atoll integrated amp or preamp. You’d have to buy a Mytek Liberty 2 to be in the same league.

Phono Board

P50 $130: The same story goes for phono. For $130 you get a fine MM phono option- because the power supply has set the table. If you buy a stand alone phono preamp, it will run roughly a grand to get a phono stage that supports MM/MC to this level of dead quite background. It’s a bargain with Atoll because of the infrastructure built into every integrated and preamp.