I have been unsatisfied with the sound of my main stereo for a while now. At higher volume levels it sounded fuzzy and harsh. I had some B&W 703s paired with a Rotel A11 Tribute. I wasn’t sure what to upgrade next. Should I get a better DAC? Should I change the speakers? Do I need a different amp? I suspected the amp was the biggest issue, it seemed to be straining at higher volumes, introducing fuzzy artifacts when listening. I have a 50w amp paired with speakers that have a recommended power range of 30w-200w. Maybe more power would solve my problem, chatGPT seemed to think so, although chatGPT is just parroting whatever was posted on the interwebs. As I learnt later, this is a simplistic way of looking at things but it was my starting point.
I was browsing on the web and saw that the Hegel 190V was being sold for deep discounts. Regular price $4800 on sale for $3400. I talked to the finance department (my wife) and was given permission to make such a large purchase. With girl math I was saving $1400. She said I could buy it as long as she had permission to lord it over me when she wanted to buy something. The 190V is a powerhouse at 150W per channel. However, that is a lot of money to spend on an amp you’ve never previewed.
The reason for such a steep discount was that the Hegel 190V is discontinued. The manufacturer cleared their stock in June and may have a new product to even out their lineup before Christmas. I contacted Brooklyn Audio (Jody) to see if he had any in stock because I prefer to deal with someone local. I didn’t feel comfortable buying from a dealer in Toronto or Winnipeg and having a 3k parcel left on my porch for the pirates. Jody could not get the amplifier as the manufacturer had already flushed their inventory. Of course this is not where the story ends. Jody suggested I try out an Atoll IN80 demo unit for a week. Try before you buy. Atoll is a lesser known amplifier company based out of western France. The In80 is an 80w per channel amp and I was comparing it to my current 50w Rotel A11. All Jody said to me when I picked it up was “The Rotel sound is a bit thin” and “This punches above its weight”.
Unfortunately I did not get a remote when I previewed the amp which made fine tuning the volume a nuisance at times. The first thing I noticed was the increase in power. I was comparing an 80W amp to a 50W amp but I didn’t move the volume knob higher than 1 out of 10. Not only did I not increase the volume higher than 1, I also decreased the line out level of my streamer from 2Vrms to 1Vrms. So I essentially halved the output of my streamer which reduced the overall volume level. I could also choose lower values like 500 mVrms to get the volume even lower. This allowed me to have a very rudimentary volume control, albeit at fixed levels and forgo the need for a remote during my auditioning.
First impressions were two fold. Better stereo presentation and a punchier bass. The punchier bass can be attributed to the higher wattage, also how the amplifier handles volume peaks. The better stereo presentation, and clarity were the defining differences between the Rotel and the Atoll.
I greatly enjoyed the Atoll In80’s sound. After several days I switched back to my old amp to make sure it wasn’t a placebo effect/excitement of a new toy. The difference between the amps was significantly noticeable. In particular the stereo imaging and clarity.
Some amplifiers are less transparent than others. The A11 was designed by Ken Ishiwata and it was designed with less prominent stereo/channel separation. My guess is that crosstalk between the two channels either happens intentionally through design or is a side effect of design constraints. Some people prefer this sound and consider it warmer.
The Atoll In80 has amazing channel separation due to its design. This means thats all the stereo tricks like parallel chorus guitars in each speaker stand out like the original recording. Essentially creating a transparent sound as close to the original recording is the goal. In their more higher power amps they even use a dual toroid configuration, one for each channel. At higher wattages it might be harder to prevent crosstalk, hence complete separation using two power supplies. These are just my theories, I’m no electrical engineer. All I know is that the amps sound different and I prefer the Atoll more.
After listening to the In80 for a week I was confident I wanted an Atoll amplifier. The sound was magnificent. I felt the In80 was a bit too powerful though considering the amount of volume needed before getting to more preferred listening level. The conundrum was thus: should I get the In50 which would give better volume control at lower levels or get the In80, which I got to demo and was 100% sure would sound good? The price difference between the two was marginal ($260). The In80 would be a better choice in case I decide to buy speakers that are harder to drive. But do I need all that power? I should probably buy the amp that best matches my current speakers and not worry about future problems.
So I was very impressed with the Atoll In80 but wasn’t sure if I wanted to get the 50 watt amp or the 80 watt amp. The In80 opened up the sound with a stereo effect that I haven’t been able to experience for 10 years, when I had a dedicated listening room in an apartment using a set of Paradigms and a Denon amp. The In80 was so clear compared to the Rotel that I could turn up louder and louder without effecting the sound. The In80 was a warm blanket of sound, silky smooth.
For part of my evaluation of the Atoll In80 I invited my friend Mike over to listen to the two amps. He’s a big Government Mule fan so we picked a couple of their songs to compare on both amps. To my surprise, he preferred the Rotel A11 over the Atoll. He didn’t like the prominent stereo separation and was used to a stereo mix similar to the A11. He has a Moon amp at home so I can only assume that the Moon has a stereo presentation to the Rotel, it is what he is accustomed to and what he preferred. Not only does Mike have a keen ear but a keen eye too. He noticed my record player wasn’t completely level which can affect the playback and wear. New fear unlocked. Is your record player level?
Getting a new piece of gear is a bit of a manic listening experience. It’s difficult to listen to an album from beginning to end. A couple of songs in and your brain asks the question “If this sounds good what will X sound like?” With the In80 the bass seemed more powerful and the mids (Particular drum toms) popped out of the recording. A good example of this was the drums on Seven by Sunny Day Real Estate.
I had the In80 for a couple of weeks, and a manic couple of listening weeks I did have. I say manic because I couldn’t sit down and listen to a full album, I popped around to different things continuously. I’ve listened to Metallica into the ground and not really into them anymore but when I put on Fight Fire with Fire it was absolutely stunning. To test the stereo separation I put on Under the Pressure by War on Drugs and it performed impeccably. The Microphones album The Glow opened up like I’d never heard before. But what does Duran Duran sound like, I need to hear Playing With Uranium and Hallucinating Elvis, but what about their older stuff, what does Faster Than Light sound like? Oh I should put on some New Order and The Smiths. Which led me to The Cure, Play for Today off Seventeen Seconds was serene. It was one of my tests songs when switching between the amps. But I should test the bass, what can I listen to test the bass? Ah The XX, and some Billie Eilish the first Lorde album and some Depeche Mode. What about older recordings? The album Elvis is Back is amazing, let’s listen to The Ventures. And it went on and on for a week …
My review unit was brushed aluminum. Most amps are in black and aluminum, I started to get used to the idea of an aluminum amp but ordered a black one to be safe. All my other gear is black so I’m pretty locked into the black look, but it was interesting to find out that black is considered more important for home theatre where you want the components to go unnoticed in the dark. This isn’t as important for a stereo setup and audio traditionalists seem to prefer aluminum.
The Atoll amp is a great value for the money and it is interesting to theorizing how they do it. It does one thing and it does it well, it amplifies sound. The Rotel has an option of either A or B speakers. The Atoll only works with one set of speakers. This saves on cost. The Rotel has a small LED display that lets you know what input you have selected and what your volume is at, the Atoll has no LED display just a light indicator and a volume knob. Less components, saves on cost. There are no tone controls on the Atoll, which, you guessed it, saves on cost. The instruction manual is only printed in one language, French, fuck you if you don’t know French. This saves on cost and probably not French people sticking their nose at you. Some more research found that another way they save cost is by using the same chassis for multiple components. So the IN50, IN80, and IN100 all have the same chassis, just the internals are different. Between the IN50 and IN80 only the power supply was changed. Atoll also keeps cost down by using the same box for all their components. Instead of a custom box design per component they have a list of components they produce and check off the component inside from that list, like how McDonalds uses the same wrapper for 4 different burgers and folds it differently depending on the burger. All the cost cutting measures help a small company of 15-20 employees compete with the big dogs where it matters, sound quality.
Pricing. The base price (Canadian) of the unit with a remote (yes you need to order the remote separately), was $1960 (tax inc) for the IN80 and $1698(tax inc) for the IN50. That’s not a lot more money for 30 more watts. Over 50% more power for only $260, but I had the IN80 as my demo unit and it just felt like too much power for my setup. It felt like putting a 500hp engine in a Honda Civic.
Final decision. So my dilemma was to buy the unit that I knew sounded good, but was really loud really quick or buy the unit I hadn’t tried that would give me better control at low volume levels. I decided to get the lower powered IN50. Less power, better low volume control, and a small savings on the budget. It seemed the mature decision. I was also able to sell the A11 to a gentleman that has the matching CD player and was excited to pair the two together.