ATI 3000 Series Amplifier Reviewed
- By: Jerry Del Colliano,
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ATI is the house brand of a Southern California amplifier manufacturer (the one that just bought Theta - hint, hint) that makes many other very high-end companies' power amplifiers for them. Led by Morris Kessler, a person whose has a passion, much like Dan D'agostino at Krell, for building incredibly powerful, real-world amplifiers, ATI is something of an industry secret. On more than one occasion, when you look in the rack of an industry executive's high-performance theater at home, you will see an ATI amp at the bottom of the rack. ATI is like that little winery in Rutherford that you don't want to really tell anybody about, because you are afraid that you might somehow never get any more of their Reserve Chardonnay. But worry not, ATI can make as many amps as the worldwide market can drink up.The ATI 3000 Series amps are modular and start as a two-channel model for a very modest $1.995 and range to up to $3,995 for the ATI 3007 seven-channel amp. You can also add 300-watt cards to an ATI 3000 amp to grow your power system, as demand arises. This is a very smart way to sell an amp, as it gives the client flexibility and cost advantages to buy only what is needed when it is needed.
ATI's amps have a traditional design and are specifically noted for two things: very high power output and quiet operation. While digital amps get all the hype these days, because they are scary-quiet and have spec sheets that look like some Fortune 500 CEO's resume, do not be fooled by the specs alone. A traditional, bad-ass Class-AB amp like an ATI has a different, beefier, weightier, more meaningful sound. Bass has authority. At 300 watts per channel, you never run out of headroom, no matter what the source material. Snare shots have a snap to them that you don't get from a digital amp.
Read Page 2 for The High Points, Low Points and Conclusion
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