ATI Amplifiers

[Titanium Dome]

I had to chuckle when I read the brochure, in particular, the part describing how the ampifiers are fully ballanced. One side does the positive part of the waveform and the other side does the negative.....really?

Actually that's true.
In a balanced line there's two signals of equal amplitude 180º apart. Usually one is labelled "+" and the other one "-", even if their respective voltage can go from positive to negative against each other.
In a normal amplifier, these two signals are summed and turned into one signal which has it's amplitude related to ground, or neutral, this signal is then amplified and deliverd to the speaker through the red binding post in the back, the black one is the neutral, chassis, or ground.

In those amplifiers, if I understand well, there is one amplifier for each of the signals and these signals are fed to the speaker directly, none of the binding post is grounded and both carry voltage, kind of like a bridged amplifier.

At least that's what I make of it.

I'm not saying it's better either

Even though I have a fully dedicated 20 Amp circuit for the K2 system only, I could always hear a low 60 Hz hum through the speakers at idle. I noticed that when I put balanced amps in the system it diminished. With the ATI "fully balanced" architecture, it disappeared. Since it bothered me A LOT, it was a key factor in choosing the ATI over more expensive brands, along with all the things already mentioned above.

Fortunately, the old Outlaw 990 allows balanced outs to balanced ins on the ATI. It is not a subtle difference in background noise and noise floor.

Now if I could get the damn refrigerator and Radon evacuation system to be silent, I'd be all set. Oh, and those contemptible neighborhood dogs, and the traffic, and the boats in the harbor, and the wind, and...