Last of the cowboys

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
In this age of "restrictor plates" for NASCAR, mandatory helmets, protection for the quarterback, green certification, bank bailouts, mandatory seatbelt, and airbags its nice to know somebody still does it the old fashioned way.

With so many tubes he has to file an environmental impact statement. It runs in class A and needs its own conditioner. It needs a high impedance speaker to work best. Slew rates to rival solid state amps. I don't have any significant experience with it. But those who do are addicted.

Ralph is definitely a dying breed. Enjoy it while you can. You may not see it again.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I absolutely agree

Class guy and a great company and around for quite a while.

I did manage to get Ralph to join our forum and have also been looking for a moderator for this forum. I am anxious to give this very good product its due.

Any suggestions, please PM me rather than by open post with the names
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
1,591
210
1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
There was a room at the AK-Fest which had Atma-Sphere amps, finally got to hear them.

Pretty good when matched with a horn. This however was not the best tube and horn matching of the day. That honor was for one of the DIY guys spinning some vinyl.

http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/AK-FEST 2010/?start=0
[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/AK-FEST%202010/AK18.jpg[/IMG]
 

Atmasphere

Industry Expert
May 4, 2010
2,336
1,837
1,760
St. Paul, MN
www.atma-sphere.com
In this age of "restrictor plates" for NASCAR, mandatory helmets, protection for the quarterback, green certification, bank bailouts, mandatory seatbelt, and airbags its nice to know somebody still does it the old fashioned way.

With so many tubes he has to file an environmental impact statement. It runs in class A and needs its own conditioner. It needs a high impedance speaker to work best. Slew rates to rival solid state amps. I don't have any significant experience with it. But those who do are addicted.

Ralph is definitely a dying breed. Enjoy it while you can. You may not see it again.

Thanks for the comments! FWIW I don't use any line conditioners in my system. Unless its an unusually high powered unit, we don't recommend them.

The smaller amps are comfortable on 8 ohms. What many people who know about OTLs in general but not about our stuff in particular is that the kind of output section we use (Circlotron) has 1/2 of the output impedance of the prior art (totem pole) and so 8 ohms is practical for a smaller amp. That's how come the M-60 and S-30 exist!
 

rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
Thanks for the comments! FWIW I don't use any line conditioners in my system. Unless its an unusually high powered unit, we don't recommend them.

Do you ever use line conditioners on the preamp end of things? I'm not using them on my MA-2's - straight to the wall but I've always protected the front end.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Kind of redundant don't you think? Fireplace and tube amplifiers in front :)
 

rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
Yup! You found me. You have NO idea how cold it gets up here in winter. This is the second coldest capital in the world. I don't know who the first is...

In the summer my wife likes it "meat locker" cold in here and most of the AC spills into the music room for some reason.

The other thing is that the ten PAR20 bulbs in the ceiling throw as much heat as Ralph's tube amps! Seriously. If I wanted to reduce the heat I would change out the lights!

Ran into this on Agon: http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/s/f/1272073965.jpg

I might add I'm an orphan and available for adoption. :)
 

rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
Actually, it looks like we are only the seventh coldest capital annually. Whew. Thank God!

1) Ulaan-Baatar (Mongolia) 29.7°F/-1.3°C
2) Astana (Kazakhstan) unavailable
3) Moscow (Russia) 39.4°F/4.1°C
4) Helsinki (Finland) 40.1°F/4.5°C
5) Reykjavik (Iceland) 40.3°F/4.6°C
6) Tallin (Estonia) 40.6°F/4.8°C
7) Ottawa (Canada) 41.9°F/5.5°C

From Wikipedia:

Ottawa... a record low of -38.9 °C (-38 °F) recorded on December 29, 1933,[18] the fourth coldest temperature recorded in a capital city (after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Astana, Kazakhstan and Moscow, Russia). This extreme range in temperature allows Ottawa to boast a variety of annual activities—more notable events such as the Winterlude Festival on the Rideau Canal in the winter and the National Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in July—and the requirement of a wide range of clothing. Because of its relatively warm summers, Ottawa is the seventh coldest capital in the world[19] by annual average temperature; however, by mean January temperature, Ottawa ranks third behind Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Astana, Kazakhstan, and has a colder average January temperature than Moscow, which is much farther north than Ottawa.

Snow and ice are dominant during the winter season. Ottawa receives about 235 centimetres (93 inches) of snowfall annually. Its biggest snowfall was recorded on March 3-4, 1947, with 73 cm (2.5 feet) of snow.[20] The average January temperature is -10.8 °C (13 °F), although days well above freezing and nights below -30 °C (-22 °F) both occur in the winter. The snow season is quite variable; in an average winter, a lasting snow cover is on the ground from mid-December until early April, although some years are snow-free until beyond Christmas, particularly in recent years.[citation needed] The 2007–08 winter season snowfall (432.7 cm / 170.3 inches)[21] came within 12 cm (5 inches) of the record snowfall set in 1970-1971 (444.1 cm / 174.8 inches).[22][23] High wind chills are common, with annual averages of 51, 14 and 1 days with wind chills below -20 °C (-4 °F), -30 °C (-22 °F) and -40 °C (-40 °F) respectively. The lowest recorded wind chill was -47.8 °C (-54.0 °F) on January 8, 1968.

Freezing rain is also relatively common, even relative to other parts of the country. One such large storm caused power outages and affected the local economy, and became known as the 1998 Ice Storm.

____

So there! Several very good reasons to have many, many tubes producing absolutely stunning music, ten PAR 20's lighting and heating the room and one lone fireplace which can kick-start the room in winter and make it like Miami beach in the summer! :D
 

soundofvoid

WBF Founding Member
Apr 22, 2010
173
11
365
Athens/Greece
I wish i lived in a colder country, like you...
30 KT90s plus 17 odd tubes is a bit too much for my air conditioning during summer...
Music time starts on September and ends on early June...
 

marty

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,025
4,173
2,520
United States
Maybe its just me, but I thought the title of this thread refers to what will happen today after the Cowboys play the Texans.......
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
Kind of redundant don't you think? Fireplace and tube amplifiers in front :)

Maybe the amps should be placed in the fireplace, for safety reasons. Has anyone consulted OSHA?

P
 

rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
-12 C or 10 F today. Not terribly cold out. Had to turn the fireplace on to kick start the room though.

Thought I'd throw in a comment about Atma-Sphere reliability. I've used Ralph's products for about seven years now. I've had an MP-3 and MP-1 preamps along with MA-1 and MA-2 amps and I have NEVER had a single issue with them. Day in and day out they work dependably and sound wonderful. Aside from occasionally feeding them tubes which are reasonably priced (if not down right cheap... and not exotic) they don't require any real effort to use.

I have friends that use exotic $600 "a pop" tubes in their amps and they cry whenever one goes south because not only do they cost a fair amount but they must be matched pairs... I'd cry too!

I've only ever used his service when he comes out with an update and each update is worth the price of admission. It always gets better.

So that's it.

What can you say really. An outstanding product, excellent advice and service, flawless operation and great music. I think I'll play some Porcupine Tree (perhaps the one with my former client and fellow Canadian playing guitar) and drink to Atma-Sphere.
 
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rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
BTW - This pretty much sums up what it's like to live with Atma-Sphere amps as expressed by my youngest son, Liam.

IMG_4465..jpg IMG_4430..jpg IMG_4455..jpg IMG_4435..jpg IMG_4431..jpg
 
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rhopkins

New Member
Apr 28, 2010
45
2
0
Thanks! : ) He went for about thirty minutes that day. Just dancing his little heart out.

His older brother likes to curl up on my lap on Saturday mornings and just sit and listen. Yesterday he asked what jazz was. "Well, you have come to the right place my young man!"
 

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