You can read the intricacies of Atoll Electronique design to learn how they’re built differently and BETTER, than virtually everything else in their price ranges here.
THIS discussion goes straight to the SOUND and how the construction pays off for you.
The fact is, there are a lot of good speakers out there. We want the best N America and Europe have to offer. We’ve sworn off the Chinese for mediocrity and sleazy business ethics.
We offer fabulous speakers, alphabetically, from:
Atohm: France
Bryston: Canada
Klipsch Heritage: Arkansas
Magnepan: Minnesota
What’s the best way to get marvelous speakers to sound their best at manageable price points? The answer is easy- ATOLL.
Heavy & Warm
Atoll amps are dual mono designs. Starting at IN100, Atoll runs a PAIR of large, heavyweight transformers and a stiff allotment of filter capacitance. This Gibralter-ish power supply is the heart of every Atoll integrated and power amp. It separates the men from the boys.
You simply cannot deliver the horse power and WEIGHT to your speakers by cutting corners. Nobody else in Atoll’s price strata builds commensurately.
Atoll topology is class AB- running about 15% class A on the sliding bias scale. Atoll runs matched MOSFET output transistors to eschew grainy sound. Running AB with a significant tilt to the class A side creates a BIG head start for musicality. Hand matching MOSFET output transistors is a costly step that nobody else does in Atoll’s range.
These expensive choices pay off in more textured and smooth acoustic instruments- as well as a more believable human voice with body.
The Chinese typically run D designs, or lightweight AB. The D designs have their place. They’re cheap, run cool and are almost indestructible. But they just don’t have the heavyweight bass or warmth of Atoll.
The Chinese produce a thinner, drier sound. Think of a TV with a more sterile, than warm color. That’s what you hear through the Chinese mass produced gear.
Atoll’s massive power supplies deliver a HEAVIER, chunkier and more powerful bass response than the well known brands that you’ll find at big box and online. The fullness and WEIGHT in the bass is something you just can’t miss.
Atoll can make speakers sound full and pleasurable, that would likely leave you wanting, with a Chinese amp. Subsequently, Atoll can literally SAVE some modest speakers, giving them character they wouldn’t otherwise have.
With Stand Mount Brystons
If you’re considering a fine stand mount speaker like the Bryston Mini A, it will sound muscular and impactful with Atoll. If you drive it with even the best of the Chinese, say NAD, you just can’t get the warmth or HEFT from the speakers that Atoll delivers.
If you listen to Mini A with the Chinese electronics you will probably like them. But when you have a taste with Atoll, you’ll be shocked at how much more muscular the bass is, and how much warmer and smoother the middle and top are. With Atoll the speakers are quite satisfying. With the Chinese, they’re… OK.
Who would have known that the speakers could have been pleasurable- if you just heard them with a Chinese amp? Atoll brings a new strata of bass and warmth to fine stand mounts like Brystons.
With Magnepans
Maggies are among the most revealing of speakers. They show you the character of everything upstream from them.
Maggies can kick and sound dynamic with Atoll. With Chinese fare, they sound too lean.
Through Atoll, the deep bass is probing and muscular, the mid bass has more MEAT as well. The perfect example of where this pays off is with Magnepan speakers. If you play Pans with any of the garden variety Chinese electronics, they’ll sound thin. You might not even like them, thinking they’re TOO spare. But the Pans are just revealing what’s ahead of them.
When you run Pans with Atoll, you can hear the fullness in the bass that the speakers are capable of. All of a sudden you can see what the Pan loyalty is about.
While all the Atolls are wonderful, the magic steps up with the middle of the line Atoll, IN100. You don’t have to buy the $7k IN400 to get a good taste of what Atoll can do.
With Atohm
Atohms are lovely French speakers. They’re direct competitors of B&W and Kef, whose similarly priced models are contracted to Chinese firms by the way! The Atohm GT1 is a fabulous stand mount that can shock and awe you with its muscle. You simply won’t believe how an averaged sized stand mount speaker can throw medicine balls around your living room- when driven by Atoll. If you run these with mundane amps… guess what they’ll sound like.
The Atohm towers are lean and easy to place. Remember, the French don’t have a living room like yours. When you HIT these towers with Atoll, they sound huge. When you play them with the Chinese… you’ll wonder what the big fuss was about.
Water Pressure
Think of taking a shower with flimsy water pressure. That’s the Chinese amps. Contrast that with double the water pressure. THAT upgrade is what Atoll brings to your music.
Magnepans and Bryston Mini As have tremendous capabilities, even in the bass, if you run them with a heavyweight puncher like Atoll. With Atoll, you’ll hear bass out of the stand mounts and Pans that you assumed they just couldn’t produce.
The Atoll IN100 runs only $2100. You can buy the AM100 power amp for only $1500. It’s hardly a big price to get MUCH MORE fullness and grit out of your speakers compared to a Chinese competitor. Even if you have a sleepy Chinese integrated or receiver now, please consider adding an Atoll power amp to wake up your speakers!
Atoll is more than big transformers and large filter caps-though these are vital components. Atoll takes the time to install through hole parts on its circuit boards- built in house in France. Its competitors use a pile of chips and op amps. All these surface mount DEVICES do a lot of work cheap, but are nowhere near the sound quality or reliability of how Atoll builds.
If you played the above speakers with thinner sounding, mass produced gear, you wouldn’t even think these fine speakers are robust or special. Played with Atoll, you’ll be impressed.
We recently had a customer running a Chinese built Willsenton tube amp with his old speakers. He bought some Bryston A2s. He heard them in the shop with Atoll. Their bass was stupendous! He fired up the A2s with the Willsenton and… was disappointed. He said it was smooth but the bass was BLAH. After an Atoll amp upgrade he loved the Brystons.
The All Important Vocal Region
All of the speakers we handle have outstanding midrange and vocal talents. We wouldn’t carry them if they didn’t. Listening through Atoll, you can maximize the smooth and gutsy “singing” performance with human voices, cellos and grand pianos. The voice of a human or a cello, will have that fullness in the middle and lower middle area that cheap electronics can’t produce.
Take some of my favorite female singers. Sade, Joan Armatrading & Susan Tedeschi are a few that come to mind quickly. They all have that smooth, coffee flavored warmth that comes through much more convincingly with Atoll than the Chinese.
Atoll Pays Off Even At Low Volume
These benefits can be appreciated at low volumes too. We humans don’t hear bass or higher end detail very well until you get SPLs up over 74dB or so. Atoll will deliver more weight, or “water pressure” to your speakers at lower volume OR HIGHER VOLUME levels. Having an engine with a lot of torque pays off with all kinds of music even at modest volume levels.
Shimmering Highs Without Bite
Atoll’s high end is super smooth. Atoll hand matches its output transistors so there’s no grainy bite or sizzle to its sound. Nobody else in this price range does.
Let’s consider Klipsches with horn tweeters. With the Chinese electronics they’ll tend to sound thinner on the bottom and brittle on top. I wouldn’t blame you for thinking Ks are strident with garden variety Chinese electronics. Yet they don’t have to be.
With Atoll, it’s a different picture altogether. The K bass is more robust and the top end is much more mellow. You might well find that your prejudice against horns isn’t justified. Play them through Atoll and you’ll have a much warmer/smoother sonic character.
The Klipsch Cornwall in particular, can be an absolutely FABULOUS speaker. Its dynamics and speed are top of class. We just need an amp to bring the most out of them without sounding crispy in the process. ATOLL.
Are You Ready To Rumble?
Suppose you DO want to hit it hard? Atoll amps are Ferarris for fanny kicking speakers like Brystons or Klipsch Heritage models. These speakers are capable of BIG BASS and hard driving SPLs.
Atoll will ROCK them with robust bass and a palatable top end. The Chinese amps can play them loud- but they’ll HURT while doing so- with a shrill edge. With Atoll, you’ll be happy to ask for even more octane, because the top end won’t spoil the experience as you take it up.