JONATHAN VALIN

However, if you can't afford these marvelous hand made things [Lamm Industries ML-2], or need more power, or both, then let me cheat a little here and offer you a worthy alternative, the Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk II.2. I raved about the Mark II version of these OTLs in Fi about a year-and-a-half ago. As good as those earlier iterations were, I should have saved that rave for these latest numbers. The Mark II.2 versions of Ralph Karsten's amplifiers are superb, giving up next to nothing to the Lamm ML 2s in soundstaging, transparency, timbres, and dynamics, and only a smidgeon in inner detail, neutrality, and sheer presence. Indeed, compared to anything but the Lamms, the MA-2 Mk II.2s are the best tube amplifiers I've heard by a considerable margin. At 220 watts per side, they will handle just about anything (and are a marvelous combination with the Soundlab M-1s, the Maggie 20Rs, and the PipeDreams themselves.) Lest you get the impression that Ralph Karsten, Atma-Sphere's designer/CEO, is "cutting corners" in comparison with Vladimir Shushurin, Lamm's designer/CEO, understand the Atma-Spheres are also hand-made devices and, at $24,000 the pair, scarcely bargain-basement material. Although the Lamm ML-2s and the Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk II.2s may be connoisseur products, they are worth every cent the manufacturers are asking, if the sound absolute is what you crave.