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Air Tight ATM-2001
Monoblock Amplifier
$135,000/pr.
With the arrival of the VAC 450 iQ, the Zanden
Model 9600, and the Constellation Hercules
stereo, this has been an exceptionally good
year in amps for JV. And while he would be
hard put to pick out a single indisputable
winner, this two-chassis monoblock from
Atsushi Miura of Air Tight is mighty impressive.
Almost as powerful as the VAC Signature
450 iQ, it equals or exceeds the VAC amp in
resolution, realism, and sheer timbral beauty. Somewhat fuller in balance (with
KT120s) than Kevin Hayes’ masterpieces, it is also bloomier than the V ACs and at
least as high in speed and detail (which is to say, as high as tube electronics get).
Although it could be argued that the ATM-2001s are inherently a bit “tubier”
than the VACs, what has been retained here of the classic tube sound is no more
nor less than all that is worthy of retaining: the three-dimensional “action” and
illuminated-from-within textural details that bring voices and instruments to
fullest life. Like the VACs, the Air Tights have near-solid-state-like grip in the
bottom octaves and the power range, and are realistically denser in color than
the VACs in both areas. As high-powered, push-pull, Class AB tube amplifiers go,
the ATM-2001 monoblocks are as good as they come—and therefore 2016’s TAS
Amplifier of the Year. JV (review in this issue)
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Air Tight Opus 1
$15,000
Air Tight’s new top-line moving-coil cartridge adds even more resolution,
dimensionality, and energy to the beautiful reproduction
of tone color and superior soundstaging that the PC-1 Supreme
is justly famous for. Though not the non-stop thrill-machine and
sonic vacuum cleaner that the Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement
is, the Opus offers equally attractive (and more sophisticated)
benefits: a smoother, more natural upper midrange and treble, and
(building on one of the strengths of the Supreme) phenomenally
deep-reaching, superbly defined, extraordinarily quick and powerful
bass. Quite neutral in balance (when loaded at about 400–500
ohms), the Opus has the speed and resolution of über-cartridges,
without any trace of the analytic. One of JV’s references and one
of 2016’s worthiest Products of the Year. JV (261)